Happiness is: 1960s Art and Getting New Ideas

Friends, good morning from gloriously sunny Minneapolis, on a perfect late summer day.  Your good friend Sarah woke up feeling….thirsty and inspired.

 
Every part of me is thirsty this morning:  thirsty for intense Clarins moisturizer, thirsty for thick conditioning hair mask, thirsty for gallons of tea, but mostly thirsty for more time to think about all the art we saw last night at The Walker Art Center.  Last night was the pre-opening party for the Claes Oldenburg exhibit.  Those of you in Minneapolis will know him (and his wife, too!) from the cherry and spoon exhibit in the Walker Sculpture Garden.  I did not know much more about him or his work, but I recognized a couple things, and I cannot stop thinking about it.
 
Yesterday, in preparation for this exhibit and the 1960s dance party, I got my hair all done up huge, like 1963, I wore cat eye glasses and white go-go boots and pearls and a swing coat and wrap dress.  I took my patent pink Gucci purse to match my shimmer-pale makeup, to set the whole thing off.  Here are Marisa and I, in front of the event photowall.

I wore patent white go-go boots (which you KNOW I am going to rock all through the winter, they were that much fun!)

Marisa, Tom, Fran, Joe & I met up and toured the exhibit and had a couple of drinks.  Here are Marisa and I at the closing of the party.  I love this picture of us!

 

Here are some pictures of Claes Oldenburg’s collection---which is known as the beginning of Pop Art.  I did not know enough about Pop Art---sure, sure, I knew Warhol and saw the exhibits at MoMa in NYC, but I never studied art before, and sometimes it intimidates me.  Not this.  This fascinated me and made me get quiet, because something about it feels familiar to me.  Well, most of it. Not the cardboard sculptures, though they are interesting in their own way (especially the little flame mounted up on the wall, which was to symbolize a fire out a building window in lowertown NYC.)

 

What I loved best about this exhibit, though, is not just the larger than life sculptures, but the things on display in a mini museum within the museum:  the things that, at first, look like junk, but with a quieting of the mind, show a little look into what inspired all the art.  I loved looking at all of these things and seeing patterns:  masculinity, sexuality, iconic images, and this interesting capturing of the beginning of how food changed in the 1960s and became larger than life.  Notice the fries, which are certainly a global icon, now, thanks to McDonalds.  Notice the pastry case, (Pastry Case I) which captures that diner feeling and the whole shift to eating out.

 



 



 

Notice the little things that might look like a bad garage sale, but to me show me what caught his eye.  It shows me what things he picked up and turned over and over, around and around, and something sparked him, woke him up, pushed him to create.  You should see my little collection sometime…I am no Claes Oldenburg, but I get this, this speaks to me. This makes me feel like a little kid again, and I love that feeling.  Here are pictures of his mini collection, with things the size of toys, and the last one is the exhibit of his "store," which was dubbed the beginning of Pop Art.

 

 

 

 

 

One of my favorite questions to ask people is, of course, “What makes you happy,” but one of my other favorite questions is, “How do you get ideas?”  I love hearing about different things that inspire people.  Sometimes I try those methods on, to see if they inspire me—and sometimes they do—but often it helps me understand how people around me see the world, whether it is the same as me or different.

Today, if you are in Minneapolis, I really think you should look into this exhibit this week, because like it or not, it will be something unforgettable.  This art, that time with Friends, these boots and this outfit were an unforgettable night to me, a night that made me feel full of promise and hope of things to come, and that, to me, is my favorite art of all.  Last night I learned that about myself, and that makes me happy, too.

 

Tonight we will drink boxed wine and eat chili cheese dip out of crockpots as we watch (and judge!) the Emmys Red Carpet while wearing yoga pants and Paris t-shirts, and tomorrow is yet another flight to Washington and almost 3 weeks of travel.  Wishing you a lovely rest of your Sunday, safe flights this week, and time to go look at life in a new way.  Go be inspired, Friends, go see something totally different than you usually see, and let that make you happy.

 

With lots of love from Minneapolis, soon to be DC,

Your Good Friend Sarah