Pomfretite

Last weekend was “Long Weekend,” a break from Friday/Monday classes. I went home. I went to Victoria Station and the Bean. I raked leaves and put my garden to bed. I found my digital camera. I discussed the amazing Sherri Vogt.

Saturday was my most productive day. I woke up early and drove to Providence. I parked just outside of the Brown campus and walked to the RISD Museum. I didn’t have to pay for admission, as I am a member of the American Association of Museums. If you are a student it costs $35 to be a member and you get free admission to museums across the country including MFA Boston, Brooklyn Museum, ICP and the Guggenheim. I think some museums allow a guest to have free admission too.

I saw RISD’s new Chase Center for the first time. The museum seems so much larger and…museum-like with the addition. The South and Central Galleries are now filled with art and design from the 20th Century. The museum also now has a photo gallery, which seems painfully small for being part of the school that began to consider photography “art.” Both “special exhibition” spaces paid homage to Dale Chihuly. About one third of the space was given to the work of students who were instructed by him while the other two thirds was fully devoted to Chihuly himself. The RISD Buddha is sitting too comfortably; Chihuly has control of the museum.

I also visited Symposium Books and Books on the Square. I purchased a nifty field guide by May Theilgaard Watts and Tom Watts “for identifying deciduous trees in Winter.” The book closes in on the tree you wish to identify, by asking you questions about a single twig. You identify trees by process of elimination. As the illustration above shows, the book includes two pages of “conspicuous features” that can help you identify a tree based on where it stands in the landscape.

On the way home from Providence I pigged out on spinach artichoke dip and pita chips. YUM