ART

Those of you who know me well, know I have an affinity for art. Most definitely not creating it (that would be scary), but of desiring to appreciate it. MI has allowed me many opportunities to indulge this love.

1) Royal Oak Art Fair: It was a small event with about 100 contributors at one of Royal Oak's many parks. Aaron and I enjoyed walking around to see pottery, paintings, photographs, and iron work. Michigan seems to have much more iron, steel, and metal than Arkansas, which I assume is due to MI's iron-rich resources.

2) Detroit Institute of Arts: AMAZING. I cannot brag on it enough. I am definitely not done exploring it. As an Oakland County resident, I was allowed free admission and was able to attend a free guided tour. I saw three Van Gough's, a Monet, Medici family heirlooms, and the famous (and controversial) Diego Rivera's "Detroit Industry" fresco mural.

The museum contains three floors of artwork, objects, and pottery dating from B.C. to modern-day. It possesses 60,000 pieces, with only 6,000 on display (rotated regularly). Check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpz_IyNUJg4 to see more on how they manage the collection.

You probably have heard about the proposed selling of this collection to help with Detroit's bankruptcy. Let's hope that does NOT happen! It would be a real loss.

3) Ann Arbor Art Street Fair: Over 200 artists with mediums including blacksmith, glass, wood-work, metal-work, jewelry, clothes, etc. (I'll be honest-I was feeling a little bit sensory overloaded after two hours walking through a sea of booths with no end in sight).
We attended with one of Aaron's old medical school friends who stayed with us this weekend, Mark Miedema, and met up with our MI family (Meredith and Dave). (Mark's cousins run Green Things Farm, and his sister is a personal chef in MI who occasionally helps with Farm to Table dinners-which we hope to attend at some point).

Mark and I at A2 Art Street Fair

Part of the fair winded through the University of Michigan's campus (which is beautiful). Here is the Law School library/Hogwarts look-alike.