Things I Am Thankful For #5

I am by no means an artist. But I do, I like to think, have an eye for aesthetics. Many of us bloggers share this interest. After all, isn’t arranging your plate by colors and textures (and then photographing it!) driven by pure aesthetics?

I spend hours in art museums, examining paintings my friends have long since abandoned. I love creating collages, and used many of my designs as binder covers in school. I love fashion and examining the pages of Vogue, though I have yet to truly cultivate a personal style. I often look at design and photography blogs, and post anything I find interesting on my Tumblr page I guess at the end of the day, I love surrounding myself with beautiful things.

So today, I am thankful for art. Sometimes I’m in the mood for something thought provoking, or something that has a powerful impact on me. But at other times, I just want to look at something pretty. I am grateful that there is art in the world.

Today I went to First Friday in Honolulu. In Chinatown, downtown, the art studios stay open after hours on the first Friday of every month. There’s music in the streets, beautiful local art, and lots of great restaurants.

Here are a few of my favorite paintings that I saw in the various galleries and the Honolulu State Art Museum.

Sidney T.K. Yee--'Bridge, Bridge'

The description of the painting read: “The title of the work refers to two types of bridges: “the literal bridge in the painting and the symbolic bridge linking human spirit, past and present. The duality of this painting symbolizes the idea that our present is part of our past and that our lives transcend visual reality.” Love that.

I loved these cutouts by Satoru Abe.

Jean Charlot--'Ko Ke Kumulipo (The Drummer)'

Juliette May Fraser--'Kana Wrestling the Turtle'

It was so cool to see Polynesian inspired art.

And today’s Thankful topic coincides with Flashback Friday! So we are flashing back to December 2006, when I went to New York City to visit colleges with Claudia, the Bolivian exchange student staying with us at the time. She was a couple of years older than me, and we were best friends/sisters.

Check out Maya via three years ago! Excuse the windblown hair from being on the boat.

One day it rained heavily, so we sought shelter at MOMA. Here are a few of my favorites!

Claudia mirroring the painting worked out so perfectly.

One of my favorite Monets.

Christina’s World, by Andrew Wyeth. Such a powerful painting. Quote from the description: “The woman crawling through the tawny grass was the artist’s neighbor in Maine, who, crippled by polio ‘was limited physically but by no means spiritually,’ Wyeth further explained.”

While I appreciate the theories behind many contemporary art pieces, I’m sorry, but some things are just a little too elementary. For example, this electric blue canvas. I understand the statement being made, but really, this artist was paid a lot of money for just blue paint.

Claudia’s work! She earned worldwide acclaim as an artist for this one!

I wish I had some artistically arranged food pics for you blogettes. What I love about this Thankful series is that it truly causes me to reflect and gets my creative juices flowing on a daily basis, but unfortunately, I didn’t think of this topic until later in the day, so I didn’t take a picture of a meal that would be suitable. But just for kicks, I found this photo in my library that I like quite a bit.

Blanched swiss chard leaves with a veggie filling and spicy peanut dipping sauce. Love the colors of the swiss chard. I miss biking to our friend’s nearby farm, where swiss chard abounded. This photo was taken with my phone, not bad quality, eh?

UPDATED TO ADD: I found some pictures of some of the best falafel I’ve ever had, taken in NYC after the MOMA visit. If you’re every in the village, please, please, go to Taim. They also have many delicious vegetable and grain salads.