There I was clearing off the windshield while the radio filled the interior: the mayor of Boston asking people to stay home. I would have stayed home, I love staying home on days like this, but it was the final day of the Carrie Mae Weems show in Harvard Square and I had a plan with a friend.
The last two Louvre photos feature stacked chairs that were at the ready for a closing presentation. The peony prints were art in and of themselves but were also tribute specimens that the artist collaborated to develop in honor of W.E.B. DuBois. She also created a garden.
The garden is in Amherst and already on my summer wish list of day trips.
It would have been nice to meet the artist but it was also nice to have a fairly urgent reason other than my own impatience not to stay.
I will spend part of the afternoon curled up with Finn and the heating pad listening to her speak on YouTube.
If I weren’t posting on my phone I’d insert more links. She is easy to find. Really worth finding. So are some of the reviews of her work.
Thank you for introducing me to Carrie Mae Weems. With temps still sub zero here at almost 10:30, it is a good stay-at-home, stitch, knit and watch great YouTube videos kind of day. She is new to me, and wow! A big thank you for bringing her to me today.
Kristin
Enjoy. She has a large body of work. The Obama video at the gallery was heartbreaking. It would have been three months ago. Way more so now. Stay warm!!! I don’t envy your kind of winters!
Yes, thanks, Dee. I too was unfamiliar. I just looked at a bunch of her work at http://carriemaeweems.net/galleries. Can’t look at too much at once because wow its powerful work. Powerfully honest. And what is art if not truth?
And what good is it if it doesn’t push us. I don’t mind decorative art (obviously) but I much prefer to have the top of my head blown off. Her work does that.
her kitchen table series…….
http://carriemaeweems.net/galleries/kitchen-table.html
Thanks for mentioning. Just found them online. The architecture series today was compelling in a “big world not intimate way” whereas the table shots are intimate. Revealing. The write up at the gallery called her “an inquisitive protagonist”. Love that. She is Definitely playing with point of view.
Really good reason to brave the storm…….From the video “A Requiem to Mark the Moment,” 2008–https://youtu.be/PoRrnEwBDJg
Next Summer if I’m headed for Westfield I’ll email you and maybe you can swing by and whick me off the Amherst for her Garden. Meanwhile thanks for this…I’m now listening to more on you tube with gratitude
I thought about you with the Amherst idea. Maybe in June? I think that’s when peonies bloom. Thanks for link.
I came back because this is such a great video–(the Harvard Story is a stitch)…and the personal history moving–https://youtu.be/aY9t12WzYag
I’m in tears https://youtu.be/j4VevU2LpQo