ALONG COMES MARY

I love museums! I am lucky that I have gotten to quite afew over the years. Since moving to SoCal, I find myself often hitting up The LA County Museum of Art (LACMA) on the famous Miracle Mile mid-town of LA on Wilshire Blvd, minutes from Fairfax & 3rd. Hollywood & loads of other fun is to be had not too far from The Mile, either. On Museum Row, you will also find The La Brea Tar Pits, Petersen Automotive Museum (I nerded out on my visit there last year when I saw The Batmobile, The Love Bug & a car from Grease)& The Folk Art Museum.

LACMA is an absolutely gorgeous museum consisting of 7 buildings, most of which are multi-levels, on 20 acres….it is HUGE! While you can probably see most of their art in 1 visit, I highly recommend visiting frequently if you can. What, between their permanent collections, temporary exhibits (I am looking forward to their Stanley Kubrick gallery arriving in the fall for Halloween) & never ending film & music programs, you seriously can do something different on every visit.

2 of my favorite artists are among the permanent collections; Pablo Picasso & Claude Monet. As well as Andy Warhol. I love & appreciate their vast & diverse paintings from Picasso as I have found many seem to think his cubism & abstract were all he specialized in, while in truth, he was a very gifted, versatile artist; many of his paintings (sketches, too) are not at all what many think of when Picasso comes to mind.

On this visit, I was most excited to see Chris Burden’s Metropolis; an overwhelming replica sculpture of a modern frantic city….in the height of rush hour, so to speak! Dozens of Hot Wheels toy cars travel up, down, around, criss & cross at about 240 miles per hour. The constant flow & noise of cars & buses speeding through a 6 lane freeway yet ending up to nowhere can lead to great pondering & discussions, as my friend & I found ourselves in this hypnotic state, we began seeing how relevent this could be to each of our own lives; it can represent feeling on the road to nowhere, speeding through your life yet ending up back where you began, seeing yourself within that maze in your own little world on your commute, or maybe even seeing yourself on that road, yet plotting how to get off it all. Staring down at the maze really reminded me of hardcore LA…traffic, freeways, & everybody driving somewhere on this journey called LIFE:)

Out front at the entrance, LACMA also has their amazing row of streetpost lights! You never fail to see a large group of tourists surrounding the lamps for a fun photo-op….

(*All photography copyrighted & taken by Along Comes Mary. Please contact her for permission BEFORE using in your own media. Thank you!)