Class trips for grown ups

A long times ago  had a job in facilities management. My official title was evening coordinator of the student union building at the college I went to. The focus of my job was chaperoning all the big parties. Carrying around all the keys and calling first responders. But I didn't only work in the evenings and I had a lot of free time during the day. One of my favorite little jobs that I picked up on to keep myself busy was painting the art gallery between exhibits.After the artist would pack their stuff up, I would go into the art gallery with a big can of flat white paint and a container of spackle and make the room look brand new again. Sometimes I had to paint the whole room but usually not so much. Then I would get to attend the art opening that happened next. Wine and cheese and yada yada. But people would stand around and look at the new artwork. A little piece of me believed that they were standing around and looking at my paint job. I always manage to introduce myself to the artist and tell him how good they were work looked against my paint. The history of my connection to art started with this

Today some of my friends that I usually go running with decided to get together and get some culture. We took Metro North up to DIA Beacon, an enormous modern art museum located in an old Nabisco box factory. I enjoy an art museum by wandering without looking at the brochures. I like to take the art as it presents itself to me. Then I read about it.

To be honest a lot of the art in the museum went over my head. But I walked into one room and I got it. This first piece by Stanley Brouwn really resonated with me. 

The room was empty. But I knew it wasn't empty. I knew there was a plan there. And the caption reads 

"How empty is space? All the planets, thus including planet Earth, are in a constant "shower" of cosmic rays. In this space, just as in every building on Earth, it is also a case of "raining cosmic rays".walking consciously through the invisible cosmic rays in this space confirms, intensifies the presence of this space.

Stanley Brouwn 1970 / 2009

i instantly like this guy. For me it was about the paint on the walls. For him it was about the invisible stuff that was in the air. I got it

the piece in the next room was also wonderful. And it was the second piece by Stanley Brouwn.

The title of the piece describes it in its entirety. Each little card on the floor tells you how far you could walk in the direction of a certain place...

stanley brouwn

[walk 5m in the direction of belém

walk 5m in the direction of calcutta

walk 6m in the direction of chicago

walk 5m in the direction of khartoum

walk 3m in the direction of marrakech

walk 3m in the direction of oslo

walk 2m in the direction of shanghai

walk 2m in the direction of warsaw], 

it brought me joy to be in that room. Knowing that I can take three or four or five steps and be going in the direction of some place. It reminded me of my favorite inspirational quote by Author Ash. Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can. It's my mantra when I run marathons, now. And it was my mantra when I couldn't stand.