The Philadelphia trip was both exciting and stressful. The first thing I remember thinking is “what’s the best plan of attack?” Considering we were left off the bus in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, that was going to be the starting point. When you walked inside, the first thing you see is a big open space with a desk in the center and lots and lots of steps. (All of the steps reminded me of Old Science Hall…) After Rachel and I signed in, we set out to look at the wonders that were hidden down the corridors.
Up the steps we go. When we get the top, we head down a hallway where we soon see some lady dressed like she’s Australian, speed walking down the hall loudly complaining that there should be port-o-potties at the base of the steps because she didn’t want walk three miles to find a bathroom. Soon after that incident, we came to the first exhibit, which was not all that exciting. The exhibit consisted of various furniture pieces and tableware. I did however enjoy the display of silver spoons and the really cool couches.
From there we wondered this way and that. Making our way through the American wing; we browse the Pennsylvania Dutch collection then slowly found our way back to the stairs. In our travels, I spotted an oil painting by Dorothea Tanning titled Birthday. This piece was both disturbing and intriguing at the same time. What caught my eye was the weird black furry winged creature in the foreground. Soon we gravitated to the modern and contemporary art exhibits. For me this was the best part of the museum. I love modern art and all the different concepts that arise from the different pieces.
Many of the pieces included in this exhibition involved the use of neon lights, Earthy elements, and mirrors. One of the pieces I found kind of interesting was in a corner. It consisted of red soil and rocks piled on three mirrors. I think the piece was call Earthy Corner Piece or something along those lines. Another piece that was in the same room consisted of a row of neon zeros mounted on the wall with a music box repeatedly saying zero. This I thought was cool because it went along with what we learned in psychology the day before about phantom words. From this room we wondered around looking at various other art forms from cubism to abstraction to impressionism to surrealism until our stomachs decided it was time to get some grub.
After hunting down some delicious food and a quick debate on what we were going to do next, we head up to the lobby where we ran into Frenchy who was desperately trying to find the shuttle bus location. After getting directions from the doorman we were soon outside waiting for the next shuttle to arrive. Little did we know, the driver of the bus was the obnoxious woman from that morning who was complaining about the restroom situation. The short bus ride to the ESP proved our suspicions that she was insane (in a good way that is). After spending a few hours exploring the cells of notorious criminals and various artist installations, we headed back into town to the Franklin Institute for awhile.
As time was quickly running out, we begin the trek across town to the bus. Along the way we stopped at the Moore Gallery. But we had little time to fully enjoy the exhibits that were currently set up. The gallery closed at 5pm, which gave us about 10 or so minutes to look around the space.
The first thing that caught my eye was a row of 6 brightly colored boots lining the one hallway. This display instantly reminded me of my little sister who is a shoe fanatic. The boots were apart of 12 different boots that were dedicated to the 160th anniversary of Moore College of Art and Design. The boots were constructed in various methods and materials ranging from polyurethane plastic, wood, enamel paint, and found objects.
The Moore Gallery also had a display of black and white photography. The photographs ranged in subjects from cultural issues to childhood memories. The gallery also had a display with handbags and a corner display of these floating trees which were pretty cool looking. But sadly the gallery was closing and we needed to leave.
As we headed down the street we passed the Museum of Natural Sciences and I felt the need to take a photo of the raptor statue near the door. As the time was quickly dwindling, we go off in search of the bus. This was the stressful part of the whole adventure. After some debate over the map, we stop at Quiznos to grab refreshments and get directions. The directions given by the Quiznos guy were misleading. We ended up needing to go a lot farther than where we were directed to taking us through Chinatown where we got pistachios thrown at us. But luckily we didn’t have much farther to go when a quick call to Professor Salvator confirmed we were in the general location of the bus. And a few minutes later we were on the bus and headed back to Bloomsburg.
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