Field Trippin' - Contemporary Art Style

This past week, we headed out with our buddies to The Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art. We'd never been there before so we weren't sure what to expect. We were really going to take a photo for the Sonlight catalog. :)

Imagine our surprise when we saw this totally awesome exhibit by Brian Dettmer.  Here's the down low on Brian.

Brian Dettmer is an internationally renowned sculptor who uses outdated, mass-produced books as the medium for his craft.  The artist carefully slices through books such as old encyclopedias and medical guides, revealing words, patterns and images. Individual ideas and thoughts are separated from their original context and rejoined to allow them new possibilities of meaning. What is left behind is a stunning, visual prose.

Art from books... ha ha ha ha ha!!!  It was amazing. Except for the part where I couldn't take any pictures. Boo, boo, double and triple boo. Good Grief!!! I can take pictures at the Met or of the Declaration of Independence. But not here. I'm not one of those ding bats who uses the flash. Ever. I know how to use a camera.

So we didn't get our shot, and it would've been perfect, and I don't have much to share with you except for this photo I borrowed from the website. If you get a chance to check out some of his stuff, do. It was wonderful.

There was also some bizarro tarot card exhibit. Besides the fact I'm not down with tarot cards or what they represent, it was really complete junk. A few beautiful drawings,  a lot of I'll just throw this down on a 8x10 piece of paper and frame it, and a touch of inappropriate. We rushed through that with a few words on the occult and what the Bible has to say on the matter.

There was a rather neat Art Lab where the kids could make their own art. They had pages of old books for them to create art in the style of the Mr. Dettmer and several other activities. They had a lot of fun creating and then hanging their art in a museum like a real artist. That was pretty cool.

We managed to get some shots for our photo shoot outside. And while we were there we got in a little nature study too. Nothing like multi-tasking while out and about. I didn't get the shots as I'd envisioned though. They were too busy reading the books to pose "properly." Brats! lol

What interesting places have you been to recently?