This past weekend I took a day trip with my girlfriend (thebostonrose.com) to Atlanta to just get out of town. As usual, the camera came along. I wanted to take as many pictures as possible, but at the same time wanted to try and not let work get in the way of pleasure. Needless to say, at least in my opinion, all my shooting was strictly recreational.
We first ended up going to the High Museum of Art (www.high.org) to see the current exhibit of Jean-Michel Basquiat's work entitled "The Unknown Notebooks". On a trip there for Valentine's weekend we had seen promotional material for it and decided we had to go. It was totally worth the price of admission. The notebooks gave an interesting look into the thought process that went into his work. I found it to be quite similar to my own notebooks in the randomness of his entries, but they were very different to my own at the same time. It did, however, really help clarify, if possible, the sometimes erratic nature of his paintings. Many of the pages had just one phrase on them, phone numbers, and random thoughts all in his amazingly controlled handwriting. We did note, however, that some of it seemed as though he might have been hearing not just voices around him, but maybe in his own head. I feel like that's normal, though, in a creative mind.
In the same gallery was an exhibit of work by Vik Muniz. Muniz's work was something I was admittedly not very familiar with, but really enjoyed. His work is very large and most of it is recreations of images familiar to most audiences. Many of the pieces were recreations of photographs using different materials such as caviar, jelly, and junk. He also produces plays off of three demential works by other artists and random physical objects like Matchbox Cars. It was nice to learn about an artist I was unfamiliar with and I actually was more interested in it than the exhibit we initially went to see.
After the museum we headed over to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens (atlantabg.org). The trip there was to see a rose show going on that day along with Chihuly in the Garden. The gardens were nice, as always, but the addition of works by Dale Chihuly (chihuly.com) made for a very interesting trip. I had seen some of Chihuly's blown glass work for the first time on a trip to the art gallery at Gonzaga University ten years ago. The organic nature and movement of his pieces definitely lent themselves to the gardens around them, and with the sun shining brightly, the colors of the glass popped! Our favorite pieces, though, ended up being relegated to the back end of the gardens. They were large spires of black and white glass that, obviously, didn't have the stunning color of the other works, but worked very well as a contrast not only to the greenery around it, but to the rest of the glass work on the grounds. I have to admit, I really enjoyed the gardens this time a lot more than when we went in February. I have to thank Emily for introducing me to the joy of plants!
After we finished at the gardens and had a late lunch/early dinner, we ran off to Jeju Sauna (jejusauna.com). This was another place I was introduced to by Emily on our February weekend and I was, again, pleasantly surprised. A very relaxing place with about six large, varied saunas, Jeju is a place I highly advise to anyone looking to relax if they are in the greater Atlanta area.
After a few hours of sweating it out, we headed back to the Augusta area. I'll admit, I probably didn't shoot as much as I feel I should have, but hey, it was time to get away and enjoy. All three places we went are wonderful in their own right and I highly advise them all if you are ever in the Atlanta area.