But When Museums are Free...

So Thursday, after doing laundry, i decided to walk around. It was a super beautiful day out and Nick wasn't getting home till 6. I hadn't gone down to the Seattle Center to see the Space Needle so i decided it would be an okay place to check out. I basically just walked around and took photos of the buildings.

Coming up on the Seattle center, you can see the Space Needle from pretty far away

The Seattle Center has a lot of museums and gardens as well as sculptures throughout the grounds. This is a picture of the towers of the Pacific Science Center. 

The Seattle Key Arena has a skate park right outside of it

It made me think of my brother (he skateboards a lot) 

There was a nice grassy area up and to the right of that sculpture, and an even bigger one to the left of this patio area. It overlooked a park with the International Fountain, which is pictured below. 

There were plenty of little kids running around in the water, having so much fun, and a lot of people just sitting around enjoying the sun. 

I know, i took so many pictures of the Space Needle, but in my defense it is a pretty interesting building 

Kreielsheimer Promenade and Marion Oliver McCaw Hall:

There was mesh hanging above, and a fountain that was basically a bench with water, coming out of it's base, that ran along the tiled ground and went into a drain. I walked across it bare foot. 

This was a little courtyard outside of the Cornell Theatre. 

I loved this little courtyard. The walls were really tall, and there were vines growing all over everything

There was a lot of these little white flowers growing along the walkways. I am in love with how green and lush everything is here. 

Okay, last one of the Space Needle. Though this one also has a corner of the Experience Music Project building and the Monorail tracks in it. 

Right below the Space Needle is this tiny area of trees and a big Totem Pole. The Natives from this area have some truly amazing woodcarving skills and the patterns they use are so unique.

The bottom of the Space Needle is pretty lame, it's a crowded, circular gift shop with some of the corniest "Seattle" souvenirs. I did like this pens though.  

One of the many Sculptures in the area

 So after walking around the Seattle Center, i get a call from Nick asking me where i was because he was home and we were supposed to go the the Seattle Art Museum that night because it's free (to everyone on the first Thursday of the month) and open till 8pm. I had completely lost track of time and had to rush back the hotel, WHOOPS! We decide we could eat dinner afterwards, so we went down to the Museum together with no delay. We got to the SAM, grabbed out tickets, and headed upstairs.

Outside the SAM with the view of Puget Sound in the background

The first installation you see when you walk into the lobby is Cai Guo-Qiang's "Exploding Cars"

The first thing we saw, which is what everyone sees, was the "Exploding Cars" installation by Cai Guo-Qiang. He is this AMAZING contemporary artist. I definitely recommend looking up some of his work. After getting my eyes off of the cars, we looked at all the glasswork. There were a lot of really wonderful pieces, but i particularly liked the pair with yellow orbs in them. They reminded me of the yolks of eggs in different positions. Also the quilted pattern on the teapot piece was really amazing. There was also glassware made by Julius Alexander in 3rd century Rome, which was some really spectacular work, and also just amazing to see glass that has lasted that long without breaking! There was a lot of art on display at the SAM but i just went through and photographed some of my favorites, though there were a lot i really loved but didn't get a picture of, like the Rothko, and the Miro. The museum had a pretty good sized collection of Squamish and Duwamish art. The Squamish and Duwamish were two of the many tribes from this area, and they called Puget Sound home long before we ever did. I have always had a fascination with their art work because their wood carving and pattern design is so different and so precise. They are most famous for their totem poles. I particularly liked the masks and there were some paintings of the designs they would use that were really incredible. I'd like to learn more about their lifestyle and their history.

Glassware by Julius Alexander from 3rd century Rome

Mann und Maus, Katharina Fritsch 

I cannot remember the title or the artist of this piece but it was one of my favorites.

Again, cannot remember or find the artist or title

"Untitled" 2009, Digital Chromatic Print, Rock, Unique Print,

Marlo Pascual

I fell in love with this piece. It's called "The Crane Ornament", 1889, painted by George de Forest Brush

"Woman on a Bed" 1963, George Segal 

The Native art

Ka-Ka-Win-Chealth, 1977, Joe David

Various carvings and head dresses

"Marrapinti Rockhole" Doreen Reid Nakamarra

Leaves, Gloria Tamerr Peyarr

I didn't particularly like the painting but it had my favorite title of any piece of art, possibly ever.

There was a large exhibit on Japanese art but we realized we were short for time so we kind of rushed through that section. We headed over to the opposite end of the floor where there were some more well known pieces, like Jason Pollock. That's where the Gorky painting was. After that we made our way upstairs. There was a collection of African masks. There was a section full of Islam and Egyptian artifacts including a really beautiful rug, (my favorite was the Egyptian eyes). Then there was a lot of Catholic art, but i have seen so much of that in my life that they all lost their luster in my eyes so i kind of just blew past it. I really liked the porcelain room though. I spent a good amount of time in there. The lighting was brilliant, and the pieces were all very ornate and very well crafted. After we looked at everything we realized how hungry we were and headed back to the hotel. It's not too far of a walk, but i had been walking around all day, hauling laundry to and around Capitol Hill, walking around the Seattle Center, basically running to the hotel, and walking to and then all around the SAM, so by the time we were heading back "home" i was basically crawling.  I had clam linguini for dinner which was super delicious. I definitely slept well that night. 

The Egyptian eyes

The Porcelain Room

One of my favorite Pieces 

Sorry little clam but you taste so good

Okay, so clams are super fun to play with and i kind of pocketed one from dinner and brought it up to  the room and pretended it was a puppet. It was really entertaining though! I even gave it eyes.