http://www.moma.org/collection/works/101541

http://www.moma.org/collection/works/101542

Today we started a bit later than usual, so let me fill you in on what I did in the meantime before we met up for the bus to the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey. First, I woke up a bit later (yes!), then I had breakfast, went to the studio for a bit to do some work, did some yoga, and then had lunch before I hopped on the bus. No offense to the days when we’re in the city all day, but I felt much more accomplished this day than on the others because I felt like I got a lot of things done during the time that I might be on the train. When we went to the Visual Arts Center, I was immediately drawn to the staircase in the middle that has river rocks around it (I didn’t take a picture, I don’t know why) but I just felt so relaxed by it and it almost felt like something that would be at a museum at home in Vermont, so I felt really comfortable in the space. The Julia Jacquette show that we saw was also very interesting to me, as well as being beautiful. I was very drawn to this one image of desserts with text pointing to them that read “your every word a perfect jewel and knife in my own heart”. I think that I was both drawn to it for the colors (I’m really calmed by that millennial pink color that is everywhere recently, and that was prominent in the piece) and the words, which would be rather disconcerting if they didn’t perfectly describe my feelings about my ex from a recent relationship, which made me have a stronger connection to that image. The other set of work that Julia Jacquette included in the show (which originated at Hamilton College which, fun fact, is my brother’s alma mater), was about advertising and the way that we portray men and women in media. Looking back, I also saw it as closely related to the show that we saw at the International Center of photography the following week because both shows depicted wealth, glamour, and luxury, but with a slightly satiric twist, using positioning and color to show that these attributes are not always as positive as we feel like they are. Both of these shows play with the human desire to obtain material items, through showing idealized human forms, jewelry, pools, and general excess through the depiction of whisky and other alcohol. However, I do feel like the Julia Jacquette show was more reverential than the other one, since every element seemed perfect; the pools were full rather than empty as in some images in the photography exhibit. One of the elements that I found most interesting about the Visual Arts Center itself was their art therapy program. I am personally thinking about going to grad school for art therapy, probably outside of the US, and being in that environment and hearing about the good work that they do, made me even more inspired to do just that.