Yves Klein & Turtles

So i feel this blog post is most appropriate if written in the CLOSEST (yves klein would cry) color to YK bleu available on blogger. I am sitting in my studio kind of thinking about what the next 14 days will be like. Hectic. Let's go back to last Tuesday, rewind. On Tuesday we had our semester field trip for Life Drawing to the Walker & then for nice drawing session at the Bell Museum. The Walker is always a pleasure for a contemporary art geek like me. The main exhibit was "With the Void Full Powers" by french neo-dada artist Yves Klein. I have seen his work many times in textbooks and on the Internet, but there was something so incredibly beautiful about seeing his Yves Klein Blue in person. It was breathtaking. And I know a lot of people would be skeptical of such a thing. "Just blue on a canvas? I could do that." Ah yes, but you didn't. As soon as even the most skeptical person of contemporary art sees the blue, I am sure they would find themselves mesmerized. Aside from just the blue on canvas, his most famous work, the imprints of women's bodies rolled across the canvas in his yves klein blue was fascinating to see in person. My roommate actually had done something similar for Sculpture I last semester in which I had to lay naked in covered in Vaseline and press myself up against plexiglass leaving an imprint. The shape made was the same, the beautiful butterfly silhouette. It was interesting ti view this piece after being part of that. Alisha and I were captivated and surprised by Klein's fire work. Gorgeous. It evoked feelings of passion, but subtlety. There was also a really impactful show by Alec Soth called From Here to There-- Alec Soth's America, showcasing photographs of the ever surprising, sometimes scary--contemporary American landscape.


We ventured over to the Bell Museum, which I didn't quite know what to expect. Taxidermy kind of freaks me out a lot, I have also been hearing whisperings of the Museum closing due to lack of funding. After visiting I surely hope this is not the case. Although my opinions of taxidermy did not change, their bone collection was impressive to say the least. I ended up in the "bone room" while Alisha drew a whale pelvis, Annie found a bea utiful horse-show crab (dead) to draw. The tortoises (living) immediately caught my eye. I will post soon, the drawing I drew of my beloved Turtle. I also touched a snake, something I really would have never done had someone not been holding it and acting like it was pretty tame. Overall it was a really good experience. I will be posting a series of my tortoise drawings later in the day. I became very fond of him.