Better Update: Amarillo, Texas

So, I am currently sitting in a Motel 6 in Amarillo, Texas. It's not exactly like all the country songs but its hot and desert-like with all the wonderful accents. Yesterday/last night we drove from our campsite in Radford, Virginia all the way through Tennessee (and a wicked 50 mph thunderstorm equipped with hail and green skys to boot), Arkansas, and Oklahoma to arrive here in Amarillo around 7:30am. Long night, but got our hotel, and oil change and have been resting for the day since the forecasted highs were 108 degrees for the next three days. Hence the nix on the camping sites.

I need to go back through and cover all the highlights of the week, but I think I will start with some museum pictures from NYC last thursday. Remember my camera died halfway through so there are only a few but the MoMA was pretty amazing in itself.

 This one is Jennifer Bartlett, named "Rhapsody" who was an American minimalist artist of the 70's.  As you view the small panels from left to right they tell a story of seven different themes using color and shape.  We studied her in Contemporary so she caught my eye.

 This is a close up of another of her pieces using color and line to create patterns and a narrative.

 This one was done by Bruce Nauman called "Punch and Judy II Birth & Life & Sex & Death."  He was obviously a slightly more controversial american artist of the 80's displaying his strong viewpoints on homosexuality and the AIDS movement.

 This piece was done by the Guerilla Girls who made art displaying their viewpoints on feminism in the art world.  They wanted to get the message out there that females in the art world were under-represented and under-appreciated.  The pieces are pretty identifiable and quite straight forward.

 This piece is by Alexander Calder, an American artist called "Lobster Trap and Fish Tail." I am always fascinated with sculpture and although the picture doesn't do it justice it is quite large hanging over one of the museum staircases.

Shanna, this one is for you.  I saw it and immediately thought of you and your passion for art.  It is done by artists Gilbert and George, british artists of the 70's.  The first line says it all.

 Well, I had to get a picture by the famous Elvis right?
 This piece is of course done by the famous Andy Warhol.  An american artist of the 60's well known for many of his pieces including Gold Marilyn Monroe (which I saw and have a picture) as well as the Campbell's soup can prints.

I have more pics from the MoMA you can all look at later.  It just takes forever for these things to upload.











 These are the few I salvaged the battery on my camera at the Met.  They are part of the Oceanic and Pacific Islands Era.  The art in the those rooms were amazing, large, elongated sculptures carved from wood.  Some were 20 feet longs with sharp, elongated figures striking different poses representing different aspects of their cultures and practices.  I definitely can see myself looking into their style and practices more.  The shapes and negative space of their work was really intriguing and somewhat similar to some of my design aspects of my jewelry??

 

Well, onward from New York. Monday we went to Baltimore and walked around Inner Harbor, where the National Aquarium is located.  Checked out all the sites there and the Aquarium as well.  There were tons of neat exhibits and we got to see seat turtles, sea horses, urchins, jellies, sharks, and any other kind of fish they find in the ocean! Along with a really cool jungle with all kinds of pretty birdies.

Stephie, enjoy the birds and please show Damian the fishes. I know he will be incredibly jealous.

OOOO. Very exotic. Ok, just threw in the sturgeon for fun. It made me think of the boys and Rainy River.

 

Just some of the cool species we came across!

And now for my favorite: the birdies!  Denny thinks it nuts I like birds but they were just so darn cute. The one even yawned for the camera!

After that, Denny's cousin Michael met us down there and took us to a little dessert diner in Little Italy called Vacarro's.  Apparently Monday nights are all you can eat for about 15 bucks, so Denny and Michael opted for that.  They definitely got their moneys worth and I am not sure how impressed the waitress was, but I thought it was crazy and went with a nice piece of italian cheesecake. The boys did some damage.

Michael then graciously let us stay at his apartment so we could take the train down to DC the next day.  We got up bright and early, hoped on a shuttle, then a train, then one of those nifty little "hop on, hop off" buses that tour all the major hot spots.  We saw everything (and visited most) from the Washington monument, Jefferson Memorial, WWII Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Capitol, White House, Pentagon, and much much more.  We even made it into a few museums including the National Gallery of Art.  I will not put all my pics up, but a just a few so you can get a little taste.  

 

 

As you can see, unfortunately the reflecting pool (the thing Denny and I wanted to see the most) was under renovation.  Not as pretty as I imagined.

 

After DC, we jetted towards Front Royal, Virginia which is the beginning of Shenandoah National Park and Skyline Drive.  Stayed overnight, then got up grabbed some groceries and made our way through the park.  The Appalachian Mountains are quite beautiful as well as the park, but it reminded us a lot of MN except with large overlooks and mountains.  We hiked down Dark Hollow Falls Trail and got to see the parks lovely waterfalls. 

  

 

During this we also stopped at Luray Caverns, which was an awesome one hour tour full of cheesy jokes and sweet cave structures.  I really loved this part and I am not really sure why.  I think caves are wonderfully mysterious and beautiful and there is something artistic about the natural configurations of caves and stalagmites and such.  My favorite kind of landscape.  

There is water in this picture. Its call the "Dream Pool" and it was amazing.  It only like 20 inches deep but reflects so perfectly you can't even tell.  I could have stayed there a long time, but the lights go out after awhile behind you on the tour so we couldn't linger too long.  

 

I have so many pictues of these caves and I could see myself doing something artistic with them in the future.  The repeated lines and natural patterns are too intriguing to forget about...

So, after the caverns and the drive we hopped on Interstate 81 and started heading south towards Tennessee.  We ended up camping at a state park near Radford, Virginia called Claytor Lake.  It was a nice little campground and we were pretty pumped it had showers.  We also had quite a few visits from all kinds of critters that night.  The first was a lovely little raccoon that Denny wanted nothing to do with.  I think it was all the Rabies Alerts in Maine that got him all excited.  After that two little kitties wandered through.  And THEN, even a little later we had another critter rustling about.  I went to go check it out and found out it was a furry little spotted skunk.  Needless to say, I didn't stick around to make friends with it.  

So that was our experience in the wild of Virginia.  We ended up taking off around noon that day (because we both needed to sleep in a little bit) and started driving to Tennessee.  About two hours from Nashville, Denny brought up the idea of driving through the night (which we agreed not to do again) and well that was that.  Flew through TN, taking on a rager of a storm around Memphis, and that was that. Amarillo, TX here we are.  

Hope this was an alright update. Like I said before, I have a ton more pictures as well as Denny because he finally picked up a camera when we were in Baltimore.  Still trying to work on the art aspect, but I got my major museums in.  Now for the crazy southwest art stuff I am going to dig up.  And then off to Vegas on Wednesday. Yay.  100 degree camping until then; here we come.  I will leave you all with the lucky picture I managed after an hour of driving through lightning in Arkansas.

Love all.  Miss you more.