Art Institute of Chicago

The Art Institute of Chicago is absolutely enormous and has some stunning works of art. Some of its more notable pieces include Van Gogh's Self Portrait, Gustave Caillebotte's Paris Street; Rainy Day and Grant Wood's American Gothic. I did my best to see as many of the notable pieces during the 3 hours of free admission on Thursday evenings, but the place is huge and it seems impossible to get everything in on even a month worth of free nights than on the one that I had to spend there.The exterior of the building is just as breathtaking though. I passed by it several times as I walked around Michigan Avenue and each time I had to stop to take it in.
The Grand Staircase was the first place that I got lost. I guess I misunderstood the layout of the building and I ended up walking around them at least twice before I realized where I was and where the areas I wanted to visit were. I wish I could have spent more time there and been able to take things in better.
Those of you who know me, know how much I love Impressionist art - Monet in particular, so that of course was the first place I tried to get to. I walked slowly through the Renoir room, the Van Gogh room and the various artist room (including Edgar Degas) and then got to a room that made me want to cry - The Monet room. Not only did this collection have the Water Lilies, but it had not one, not two but six haystack paintings. These paintings were created by Monet in the Autumn and Spring of 1890. There are 25 of these paintings and this is the largest number of them I have ever seen at once. As simple as these paintings are, they are my favourite impressionist paintings. One on its own is good but multiple paintings arranged together is so beyond words beautiful.

Peaceful Weekends

Dave and I spent this past weekend as we spend most of our weekends, peacefully enjoying what little time off we get. We usually have grand plans of cleaning the house or doing something active but never really get around to either, which doesn't bother me one bit. We do laundry, watch movies, play video games (mostly PS3 for Dave and computer games for me) and make better food then we do on the weekdays. We do get out of the house at least once every weekend, sometimes this means shopping and other times it is a to visit a museum, walk around the neighbourhood or simply hanging out with friends.
We enjoy our quiet life and low-key activities, unlike most people our age who would find the things we do, or do not do, rather boring and uneventful.

Karsh Festival

This past Wednesday, while driving to Milestones to have dinner, I saw a bus ad for the Karsh Festival at the Science and Technology Museum. I of course wanted to go very badly as Yousuf Karsh is one of my favourite photographers and I find his ability to capture a person's entire character on film absolutely amazing.Today, Dave and I went to the exhibit and it was absolutely wonderful. Firstly, we got in for free as we have the 3 museums, 1 card memberships (we get into the Agricultural, Science and Tech and Aviation museum for free for the next year) and secondly, it was a great exhibit full of breathtaking photos. Alongside his photographs were some of his tools like his floor to ceiling enlarger capable of creating 40" x 50" images. There were also a bunch of brushes, inks, dyes and sharp tipped objects used for editing and retouching negatives that I found really interesting. I was even able to describe the use of most of the tools to Dave as he had never really seen or heard of any of the darkroom techniques Karsh used.
The exhibit had a hands on component as well, like most exhibits in the Science and Tech Museum. There was a 'view camera' and portrait studio set up that could be used to create your own Karsh inspired portraits. I put view camera in quotations as it was really just a digital camera in a view camera setup (with the upside down, mirrored image and similar moving mechanisms). It was particularly fun because no one seemed to be interested in the portrait studio so Dave and I were able to take a couple shots of each other. You could then email them to yourself and I of course then put them in Photoshop and worked on them. There wasn't much that could be done to them as the quality of the images was so low, but I did try to lessen the noise and graininess of the images and adjust the contrast as well.My favourite one of Dave was the above photo. I like the pensive pose and his shadow in the background. Normally I wouldn't like shadows in this type of photo, but I think it works here.Dave did a really good job in the portrait studio as well. I did, however, need my 'security blanket'/prop - my camera. We took another with the typical Stephanie pose of me looking through my camera but I still think I like the above photo better.
Admission to the Science and Tech museum is $5 I believe and it is definitely worth it. The Karsh Festival runs at the museum until the middle of September so there is still lots of time to go and take a look at some of Karsh greatest works, and take a shot at it for yourself in the portrait studio.

Museum Attempt I

Dave and I tried to go to the Agriculture Museum today but apparently we weren't the only ones with this idea. I knew others would be there and I figured it would be rather busy but it was insane. We pulled up in front of the parking lot and it was absolutely packed - ridiculously so. We turned around and decided to try again some other time. The babies will remain in baby form for a couple weeks so it is fine - better than having to deal with copious amounts of people, we all know how little I enjoy large crows.