Catching up with design colleague Catherine Kwong at The Battery in San Francisco. I am inspired by the endless collections of contemporary art Napa Valley offers. Hess Museum and Winery, Napa is a favorite!

THE CROSSROADS OF MEMORY: CARROLL CLOAR AND THE AMERICAN SOUTH 
As I walked in the Arkansas Arts Center reception, I had no idea what I was about to experience.  I heard a local church choir as I was pulled in by the crowd and told the Arkansas renowned artist was the equivalent of Johnny Cash in the art world.  By the end of the night, I found myself once again surprised but not surprised by the talent in our state.

Arkansas Arts Center exhibits Cloar’s paintings and has produced a print catalogue of his work.

Valentine's day at Crystal Bridges Art Museum   
Jeff Koons “Hanging Heart (Gold/Magenta), 1994-2006

“Hanging Heart has a reflective surface because it’s important to me that when the viewer interacts with it that they realize that the art happens inside them,” Koons explained. “Affirmation of the self is really important to me—that, when the viewer comes, they realize that nothing happens without them. If they move to the right, everything shifts. If they move to the left, it’s a different kind of abstraction that occurs in the surface. Everything depends on them.”

The work is a reflective illusion. The heart looks like a light balloon but it actually weighs more than 3,000 pounds and is made of steel.  

MARK ROTHKO IN THE 1940S: THE DECISIVE DECADE October 25, 2013 - February 9, 2014 Arkansas Art Center

As an Interior Designer and a Parsons School of Design graduate, I'm drawn to modern bright art.  Mark Rothko was famous for Abstract Expressionism  and specifically Color Field. The artist's son was present at the exhibit and described his father's faith in the power of art to address the pressing historical problems of the 1940s. 

PRADO
Highlights of the Prado art collection