Gracie Enters a Choice Playground

A Guardian of the Art Institute of Chicago

Not everyone thinks of an art museum as a playground but Gracie does.  This started decades ago when her Aunt “Gracie” took her to openings, special exhibits and the fun things associated with them.

They had special tickets to the Hirshhorn’s opening as Auntie was an artist and had connections.  It wasn’t crowded and she and her aunt were able to pose with the sculptures.  In one room they discovered a highly polished headless golden statue, with a ball in its lap.  Gracie and her aunt saw hinges on the ball and wondered what was inside it.  The guard noted their curiosity and invited Gracie to open it.  Really?!?!!? Oh, what a privilege; she thought as she ventured forward and placed her hands on the ball. As she opened it, an enormous penis appeared!  Both her aunt  and the guard found this highly amusing.  Gracie suspected that the guard knew all along.  Although Gracie was not a city girl, neither was she a country bumpkin.  She was shocked  both by the ball’s contents and its mechanical ascension, and the reactions of the other people in the room.  Eventually, however, she laughed too as the joke was on her.  She and her aunt moved on to other exhibits.

Gracie's Turn with a Daumier

Experiences like this taught Gracie to delight in art museums, so it is with pleasurable anticipation that that she goes into the Art Institute of Chicago.  She sees one of Honoré Daumier’s sculptured heads from his political satire period and remembers her aunt’s coiffed French twist as she bent forward, her nose almost touching a sculpture.  That memory inspires Gracie to get her picture taken.

She came to the museum equipped with a magnifying glass, which she uses to examine the myriad of brushstrokes in the Impressionist paintings.  Going from really close in and slowly backing way to see the entire picture still gives her a thrill. She employs this approach for Georges Seurat’s A Sunday on La Grande Jatte (1884), Monet’s Stacks of Wheat (1890), and then with other paintings including Picasso’s The Old Guitarist, (1903 – 1904), Grant Wood’s American Gothic, (1930) and Henri Matisse’s Bathers by a River (1910). There are so many framed visual feasts that she joyfully recalls an invaluable lesson she learned at the Metropolitan Museum of Art - turn off the camera flash and you can click to your heart’s delight, so you may rejoin your favorite paintings whenever you want.

She asks a guard to take a picture of her as she pretends to stroll with one of Alberto Giacometti’s creations.  His style was easy to mimic in art class, which seems so very long ago. She loved to sculpt but couldn't paint or draw very well.   She remembers her aunt pronouncing over her sketch book: "Thank God you can sing!"

 She delights in the childhood sweet treat in the cafeteria.  Gobs, as they are

called in Western Pennsylvania, were smaller and always wrapped in wax paper and were doled out to her and her friends as they played throughout the neighborhood.  Now that Gracie is older and weight is harder to loose, she opts for roasted veggies though she never wants to be as thin as a Giacometti sculpture.

Time is running away from her and she still has a fair distance to walk to catch her ride back to the Chicago suburbs, but she can’t resist the tree. She was surprised when she turned into a room to find a bare tree – mostly a trunk and a branch - laying on the floor.  So surprised in fact, that she didn't note the artist’s name which is rude to some extent.  Granted, Gracie loves trees in all their varieties and this looks like a photo op for sure.  She hands her camera to the guard and asks him to take her picture.  He seems a bit confused though he agrees. To his surprise Gracie drops to her knees, poses and says “Take the picture.”  He responds, “The alarm is going off move back!” Gracie asks again, “Please just take the picture, and I promise I’ll move and the alarm will turn itself off.” He gives in, and Gracie is sure that neither of them will forget this little incident.  In spite of setting off an alarm, though, Gracie leaves the museum unescorted.

Gracie Narrowly Escapes

Copyright © 2015 Martina Sabo

Another State and More Adventures

The next stop is under two hours away - Chicago.   Her GPS is set, and she leaves after lunch.  Gracie’s Road Trip Counselor has made sleeping arrangements for her with some of his friends.  Gracie feels that such a helpful person deserves a title with capital letters.

Gracie has found that there are two things that are difficult to enjoy on the road:  service for others and exercise.  She is just hoping that a gym might be in her future and so it is, because when she arrives at her host’s home, his wife is  ready to head to the gym and invites her along.  Gracie grabs her gloves and formulates a workout in her mind.  What a treat!  Who says instant gratification isn't rewarding and fun?

They take the couple’s child to his baseball practice where he will be picked up by friends so that the couple and Gracie will have time to do the gym, take a French bath (yes, that’s a few spritzes of body cologne) and go to dinner at a Thai restaurant.  The night continues and they pick up the young baseball player to go to their favorite desert place:  Portillos which has cake in a shake.  This concept is not new to Gracie.  Ever since she was a child, the family tradition was to put a slice of cake in a bowl and then pour milk over it.  If she indulges in cake to this day, she eats it in the same way but only around family and close friends.

Throughout the evening they have a wonderful time sharing memories of the friends they have in

Ride, Gracie, Ride

common.  Gracie is a bit taken aback, however, when they remind her of the time that they stayed in her home and toured the surrounding sites. Gracie rumbles through her mind trying to find that memory but it is nowhere to be found.  She is a bit embarrassed and decides there’s no faking this one, confesses that she doesn't remember and hopes they forgive her because there have been a lot of visitors in and out of her home and it was over a decade ago. They acknowledge that it was a big deal for them and that it is OK Gracie doesn't remember. Home they go. Gracie happily shares her hosts's commute  into Chicago the next morning. She can’t resist an animal photo op with a metal cow, which may or may not be part of the Cow Parade which was an exhibit of mostly fiberglass painted cow sculptures from years before.

There are fun things to do and lots of walking, no aimless meandering for this tourist.  She starts off by visiting a former colleague previously encountered only through work-related emails and phone conversations. They recognize one another from photos they exchanged and have a delightful visit.  Hopefully, come retirement, her friend will visit Gracie.

Afterwards Gracie heads out on foot to see “the Bean” which is the local nickname of a sculpture by Anish Kapoor.  Gracie   has no idea what to expect, since everyone who talks about it talks as if it is

something everyone should know.   This sculpture's real name is the Cloud Gate and it weighs in at over 110 tons.   It is 66 feet long and 33 feet high, yet it’s most striking feature is how it shines.  Although Composed of thousands of highly polished  stainless steel plates,no seams are visible. What can be seen are distorted people giggling over the fun house mirror effects once enjoyed by Gracie when  traveling carnivals came through places where she lived. Shutterbugs are clicking left and right and it is almost comical that in 2005 the City of Chicago tried to require permits to photograph the sculpture.  Gracie and probably millions of others are happy the city came to its senses.

Next stop, The Art Institute of Chicago....

Copyright © 2015 Martina Sabo