Taught a fun fall tables class at William Sonoma today. My friend John was a gracious WS host.

Head down South to the LRFF. I'm looking forward to the Arkansas Shorts and Point & Shoot. 

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. 

AL HAMBRA AND GENERALIFE GARDENS
An architectural highlight in Spain is Alhambra with its astonishing arrangement of courtyards with cool fountains and refreshing pools; through the landscaped gardens of the Generalife to the summer palace of the Muslim rulers of Granada, particularly enjoyable for it's cool green, terraced water gardens.

Toledo is set on a hill above the plains of Castilla-La Mancha in central Spain. It’s known for the medieval Arab, Jewish and Christian monuments in its walled old city, and as the former home of the artist El Greco. The Moorish Bisagra Gate and the Sol Gate, in Mudéjar style, open into the old quarter, where the Plaza de Zocodover is a lively central meeting place.

Montserrat is a spectacularly beautiful Benedictine monk mountain retreat about one hour North West from Barcelona. Not only is Montserrat Monastery of significant religious importance but the natural beauty surrounding the monastery is simply breathtaking. You can take a ride to the top of the mountain and from there you can choose a number of different walks, all with amazing views of the Catalonian countryside. 

PRADO
Highlights of the Prado art collection

Getting there was part of the experience. We took a ferry ride from Spain across the Strait of Gibraltar to Tangier and then a train to Fes El Bali (Fez).  Apart from electricity Fez seems to belong to another century and has been Morocco's intellectual, cultural, and religious center for 1,200 years.  It's 9,500 streets and 180 miles of alleys filled with every kind of shop, market, and restaurant are centered around a walled medina.  It is a delirious assault on sights, sounds, and smells with dye pits, tanneries, butcher shops, tiled fountains, palaces, mosques, spice markets, and persistent rug merchants.  It’s fantastically overwhelming.