>>some of these articles are a couple days old... =) I haven't been keeping up that closely.. -__-;;

1. Oh Italy...
"Italian Cultural Paradox: Love it, Live in it, Leave it to the Creaky Bureaucracy"


2. I.M. Pei has done it again...
"For I.M. Pei, History is Still Happening"

Now here is an incredible (incredibly old, too, might I add) man who has worked with other great men such as Walter Gropius. Time and age does not prevent him from pouring his entire heart into this project. "Mr. Pei spent months traveling across Europe and North Africa before earnestly beginning work on the final design of the glass pyramids that now anchor the museum’s central court." That was written in the article about his efforts towards the Louvre Pyramid. The article goes in-depth about how he successfully fuses the Islamic tradition of ancient times and of today's. How could he have executed this without having studied the Islamic art & architecture, lived in the country, and experienced the people? That's what an artist is about: expressing one's identity. Just as art in Imperial Rome was used for propaganda, art must make a statement. It really frustrates me when the artist is deliberately ambiguous because I'm just not comfortable with that. But when a structure like this so clearly states what it's about, I love it. Now I must go to Qatar and see this wonderful structure floating on a man-made island. =)


[aerial view of the museum]


3. Japanese Woodblock Prints!!!
I CANNOT believe I'm missing this!!!!! AND it's free!!! AHHHHH

Cleveland Verne's Collection exhibition features Japanese Woodblock prints



[Courtesy of the Verne Collection
Ito Shinsui's woodblock print "Snowstorm" (1932) is a 20th-century update on a classic Japanese theme of beauty and nature.]

If you're in Cleveland GO HERE and tell me all about it. =D

>>note to self: spring break.. visit as many art museums and galleries in Cleveland as I can. There can't be that many... can there? hehe.

That's it for today. I seriously cannot believe I'm missing the Japanese woodblock prints exhibit. GAHH. Next time I suppose. O well.

My brother's coming home tomorrow! How wonderful. You know we hardly have any pictures together? How sad is that? Maybe I'll snag some this winter break.

Ta-ta.