the art is very wearable today.

Back in September Buddy and I took a trip to go visit the lovely Windy City. It was so much fun! Chicago feels different from other cities like San Francisco (my favorite) or New York (where we were just in June)—a little bit more quiet, maybe a bit older, calm and established, doing its own thing...

While we were there we went to the Art Institute of Chicago (where the lions are!) and there was an exhibition on kimono as art, titled (somewhat anticlimactically) Japanese Kimono, 1915–1940. The collection wasn't that large, but it had some interesting pieces with discussions about changing modes of design (influenced by modernization and the West, of course) and also of production and consumption. It made me think about the various ideas that each kimono piece signifies (ranging from the obvious, like class and marital status, to the perhaps a little less so, like the season or the occasion for which the kimono is being worn). Which reminds me...I need to learn how to wear a kimono so that I can do it by myself.

The exhibition ends this coming Sunday, and I'm really glad that Buddy and I went at the time that we did. There was also an overwhelming Chagall piece there titled America Windows, which left me slightly breathless. It was kind of intense. And very, very blue.

We also saw Cloud Gate at Millennium Park, of course...and the tall fountain that spits out water once in a while. Whee. :D