Creativity takes courage

Magnet #744 - Creativity, Matisse

Indeed, it does.

Yesterday on our Tampa Museum of Art break, we dropped by the Gasparilla Festival of Arts Festival, where at least a hundred artists were exhibits and perhaps selling their wares. From blown glass to metal to paintings and jewelry. It was fun trying to fly through there to get to the museum, where I eventually bought this Pomegranate magnet.

But, Matisse was right. Being creative does take courage to execute. It's taking what's in your heart and soul and putting it out there in some sort of canvas for all the world to see.

Whether it's brainstorming ideas for a golf event, concepting advertising on TV to sell something to people who don't want it, a painting for a gallery or just drawing with crayons, it's art without a safety net.

My friend says sometimes the courage is in taking something you've created and calling it art.

I think it doesn't matter how good or bad it is. Share it. Get it out on the canvas, because if it stays in your heart and soul, what's the point?

With open galleries

Magnet #743 - Alexander Calder, National Gallery

We've established over and over that I love art, and art museums. That it's not even like I'm particularly well-versed in any genre or any artist, that I just love looking at the stuff in whatever museum I visit.

With as many as 15 grueling days ahead of us, we took a bit of a break and went to the new Tampa Museum of Art. A very cool building of pierced aluminum (900,000 holes!!!) nestled along the waterfront park, and designed by Stanley Saitowitz, an SF-based architect with several structures to his name.

So then we walk in - free, by the way, because of the Gasparilla Festival of Arts - and have lunch at the still getting its bearings in a big way Sono Cafe, and take a gander at some art.

The funny thing was that you walk into this giant open space, and you see this staircase that leads you up to the collections. Then, you turn around, and as you start to go up the stairs, you look up, and bam!, you see a giant multistory Calder mobile, much like the one in this magnet from DC's National Gallery. And while I'd seen the pictures of the Calder on their site, I was still awed by it as I looked up into the atrium of a zillion holes. Very cool.

The whole visit (save for Sono) was very cool. Very small. I think we may have missed a few collections, because we did only see one floor full of galleries that intentionally flow into each other to show the openness of art.

But that's the thing now...instead of having wings devoted to one particularly course of art, the rooms and exhibitions all just flow into each other. While on the one hand, this openness explores how art is interrelated, and pushes you to figure out how they are connected, it also doesn't visually define what you're looking at.

In other words, one minute, you're looking at a nude Matisse, you cross an entryway, and all of a sudden, you're looking at a Greek Black-Figure Amphora, circa 510 B.C., and then into a set of black and white Garry Winogrand Women are Beautiful photographs. And left to draw conclusions as to how they're brought together under one roof.

In the end, we did the Matisse side and the Winogrand side, and I'll give it to the TMA curator, that was a good job of tying the two exhibitions together. The sketches, drawings and paintings of various women by Matisse during the early 1900s was a great juxtaposition and comparison against the black and white photography of the women that Winogrand captured in the later 1900s.

It's kind of what the curator of the Accademia in Florence was going for, when he combo'd an exhibition of Mapplethorpe imagery of the human form and...Michelangelo sculptures. Mind you...that one blew my mind completely. Mostly because I couldn't believe it had been done.

Yeah, that's a whole nother magnet.

eta:
After being open a month, their little gallery was stocked full of the easily orderable Matisse magnets from Pomegranate (my faves, as you know), but low on the actual museum logo magnets themselves. Probably good because besides the Sono beef, my other issue with them is their logo. But, I can't wait to come back and see how that museum magnet collection grows. I'm hoping they do an atrium shot like this one here.

Hope floats

Magnet #742 - Seahorse

Day three. Done.

I'm thinking in the next day or so, I'll likely be regretting that I did this seahorse magnet from the NC Aquarium. Apparently, my boss while I'm here is trying to set up a kayaking experience for the three of us who've been working long into the night and day.

I fear it. Right now. I'm happy because it's the end of a rather long work week, and I'm just hoping to stay afloat from now to the end of the tournament.

We've got so much planned, it's going to be awesome. Now. We just have to execute against the workplan.

Today, we released 33 banners. For serious. Two designers, two PMs, two clients, one brand sponsor, just trying to get one tent going.

Two tents down. Six to go.

Woot.

Weights and Measures

Magnet #741 - Kitchen Collection Food Conversion Chart

Day two of twenty gone by. Tonight's dinner, homemade meatloaf, asparagus, potatoes, salad, and cookies. Seriously good.

We're trying to make good use of our gastronomic time here before the actual event starts, because once it does, we'll be living on whatever's on hand, whenever it's on hand.

Don't get me wrong - we're at a world-class resort, the food's aplenty here. But, last year, I pretty much decided that the best diet was working an event like this - where you go from early morning to late night eating where you can find time, and even then, you're too tired to eat. By the end of our two weeks, the girls and I noticed that the jeans that were snug one week were able to come off without unbuttoning at the end of the second week. See? Awesome.

Anyway, I have this magnet up on my fridge, because I can't convert measurements for crap. So on the very, very, oh so very rare occasion I try to follow a recipe, I generally need this little magnet to help me out.

I blame my dyscalculia.

What? Just because it hasn't been officially diagnosed, doesn't mean it doesn't exist!

Shake this

Magnet #740 - Hershey's Syrup

I learned something last night when ordering dinner for the team. Vanilla milkshakes. Apparently, they're way more popular than chocolate. Or my favorite (right now), strawberry.

Huh. That's what we forgot at the grocery store tonight. Ice cream!

Sigh. Ice cream or milk would have been good with Hershey's syrup...which I saw in the grocery - they've totally refreshed their bottle design. I almost didn't recognize my old friend!

What's bugging joy?

Magnet #739 - Derian Bug #25

As the bossy eldest daughter of a bossy eldest daughter...I tend to get annoyed at unsolicited advice, even offered with the best intentions.

No. I'm not talking about you.

Funnily enough, I have no qualms about doling it out.

You?

Kids do the darndest things

Magnet #738 - Hot Dogs

This magnet is one of the first I bought from @KristinaMyers' Etsy store, part of a set I picked cuz I liked the whimsy of the junk food magnets. Heh.

I wanted to start this week on a good note, so here's something that someone told me a couple weeks ago. His wife called him at work and all I heard was laughter. On his end.

For some inexplicable reason, their four-year-old daughter went into the fridge and took one bite of all the hot dog buns.

Then put them back.

Hahahaa. I know I'm still laughing about it.