I have a confession: I Love Art.

A blog about how art invigorates, inspires, teaches and can share the very best of humanity.

I am just back from a short road trip with stops overnight in Pittsburgh and Baltimore. Lots of driving, some serious rain. I went the other day to the Baltimore Museum of Art. Glass entrance to new a wing, white walls, a city-funded policy of free admission, classes of kids with docents explaining and showing; old art, new art, ancient art, book art, video art, 3D art and, strangely, very little photo art but nevertheless, wonderful, transcendent really.

Hit it right and you can be empowered in the presence of art.  So very much vitality springing off the museum walls, thoughts, passions, ideas, travails and triumphs, history and freshness. Imagine Trump wanting to defund the arts. Clueless. What an asshole. 

Want inspiration? Go look at art. Just the thought that my work is somewhere in this mix, this cauldron of creative expression throughout the ages makes me feel proud, if perhaps humbled too.  You too if you make art, what an esteemed thing to do. 

Back to Baltimore and its museum. Excellent representation of a broad array of art, well displayed and not too teacherly. I took pictures, sorry about no indentifications,

although this one of the columns is by Anne Truitt.

Your day got you down? Are the skies dawning gray and life is hard? Lost your positive outlook, lost that Joie de vivre? Go look at some art.

In yellow, Any Warhol's Last Supper silkscreens.

I want to advocate for MASS MoCA. I was there last week, out in western MA in North Adams. MASS MoCA stands for Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art and it is housed in old warehouse and manufacturing buildings. Lots of  them. In fact the buildings constitute a whole campus of galleries, at different levels and on different scales. The place is a fascinating look at the past, the 19th and early 20th century buildings that house the present day galleries, and the future too. It is both shocking and revelatory. I recommended it highly.

I know many of you that read this blog aren't anywhere close to Massachusetts, let  alone a small city in the Berkshires but MASS MoCA needs to be on your list of things to see if you  come here, along with Dia Beacon in Beacon, NY, Storm King in New Windsor, NY, to say nothing of Boston's Museums.

What did I see? Shows from the sublime

to the ridiculous, a still frame from a video piece:

to the sensory overload

to the incredible

These pieces were drawn and made by

and the only way I have of describing them is they look like they're drawn on the white inside curve of a cut-in-half ping pong ball, but larger. Amazing.

If you do go it is worth a look at what lies outside the art hanging on the walls. I came across a "boiler building" made to house the power generating plant for the mills

North Adams has had a tough time but is showing some sign of a resurgence. A couple of nice restaurants and B & B's too. I stayed at the Holiday Inn in town, which was fine. Of course, North Adams is in the Berkshires and about 10 minutes away from Williamstown with another great museum: The Clark.

If  you've read my piece on the Mountain Work you know I love drive up mountains and North Adams has great one: Mt Greylock. But note that the road up is only open in the warm months.

MASS MoCA. Worth the trip.