Sometimes you just fall in love...

With a painting.
(I feel like I've been doing a lot of lead in titles; guess it's my way of drawing you in!)

But I seriously did fall in love with a painting. Kathy met us at the hotel and we ventured to Museum Mile on the Upper East Side to visit the National Academy. It's both a museum and a school. Located in the Archer M. Huntington Townhouse, this museum shared characteristics with the Frick Collection. Both collections were housed in gorgeous spaces and because they once used to be places of residency, are not necessarily built for museum go-ers. The National Academy was compact and the building is built up, not out.

The goal of the National Academy is to feature artists, of all ages, and induct artists every year into their "family." There is also a focus on architect, which is a favorite of mine. Our focus was two exhibits and the art in both was out of this world.

I spent a good twenty minutes watching a digital piece where a crowd of people were sprayed down with water. The artist's name is Bill Viola and this piece is entitled Tempest (Study for the Raft). The movie is also down in slow motion so the expressions and actions are drawn out (and why it takes so much patience and time to watch it from beginning to end). It reminded me how incredible human emotions are and how stunning they can look, especially in slow motion.

But the piece that is the title of this post is Concert by Walter Hatke. It was created in 2011 (get this, Hatke was born in 1948). It was on the forth floor. I was by myself, notebook in hand and I turned the corner and saw it and audibly gasped.

Photo from National Academy website

I probably sat and looked at this painting for at least 20 minutes. It was probably the longest amount of time I have spent looking at a painting this entire term and maybe even in my whole life.

I just think it's stunning. It's a relatively empty room but it's also full. It's a room that could easily be transformed into something else but is perfect just the way it is. I also filled up about three notebook pages of thoughts and description, so Kathy will have a lengthy reflection of this photo in this week's response.

We had a little break before heading to Carnegie Hall for our second opera of the term. We saw an adaptation of Tennessee William's A Streetcar Named Desire. Murray was able to get us seats in a booth, which put us a little closer to the stage than we were in the same space to see Dianne Reeves. The only unfortunate part was that based on my seat, most of my view of the stage was obstructed.

But never fear! At the first intermission, Ashley, Whitney, and I moved down a tier to empty seats dead center (Murray encouraged us). With a better seat, I was able to see all that an opera adaptation had to offer. It was not my favorite event, and there were some questionable changes that were made. Nevertheless, when we were leaving, we ran into Murray and he told us, "It's important to remember that this production was not a failure; there were people who enjoy this performance. The question you have to ask yourself is why?" It was such a good question to wrap my head around and it helped me to be critical yet complimentary of the things the opera did well. The music was definitely out of this world, especially the clarinet playing. The clarinet was heavily featured and their tone was so wonderful; full, rich, and expressive. Makes me miss my own clarinet back in Wisconsin!

I'm glad I saw this opera, but I was able to realize that I have learned so much here. I don't think I could write that message articulately at the beginning of the semester, so I'm grateful to my professors and our previous events that have helped me reach this level!

And speaking of responses, I should probably go write some. Night!