A trip to an art museum

"What We Want, What We Need."
Artist Jeffrey Gibson (born 1972)

at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
in Bentonville, Arkansas

For the first time since our daughter was born, my husband and I went to an art museum earlier this month, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas. It was a trip I've wanted to make ever since the museum opened its doors back in 2011. Though the collection was smaller than I thought it would be, the trip still did not disappoint.

One of my favorite works was a beaded punching bag sculpture titled "What We Want, What We Need" by Choctaw artist Jeffrey Gibson. According to the Crystal Bridges website, "in this work, seemingly contradictory positions are blended equally and harmoniously, demonstrating Gibson’s philosophy that varied cultural influences generate new ideas and creations."

The museum also has on show an exhibit of blown glass by Dale Chihuly, an artist I first learned about while taking a 2-D design class in about 2006. The class had watched a video that showed how the glass art was created. Though I have no interest in personally working with liquid glass, I though the video was fascinating. The exhibit at Crystal Bridges also included three videos of Chihuly's work being created.

Here's a short video (without sound) of some of the Chihuly works we saw at Crystal Bridges. Part of the exhibit was in a gallery; the other was "In the Forest."