Sunday, 11-Dec-2022


Man… Something I miss about Boston is the museums. I grew up more spoiled than I realized until recently… I’d always taken it as gospel that any museum needs at least a few hours to visit, and that every museum would have some cool hidden rooms to discover if you spent enough time searching.

Man.

The Portland Art Museum is amazing, don’t get me wrong! It’s got amazing exhibits, great native artwork, and excellent local craft. But… it doesn’t have much of any of them. That, or maybe I’m quicker to walk through these days? Either way, I was surprised at just how quickly I finished up at the art museum. Even with my walking speed cut down by the recent surgery (yay wisdom teeth being hauled out of my head), I was done in about an hour… and even then, I’d stretched it pretty far.

If I may taint this post with a bit of art criticism, though… Which I obviously may, since this is my blog and I do what I want…

This following piece bothers me. I find its existence questionable enough, but the fact that it’s featured in a city-scale museum is a… creative decision. Hear me out. I love the original piece. It’s a landmark photograph capturing a historic moment in time, beautifully capturing the raw hypocrisy of hatred . Obviously – it won a Pulitzer price!

But the update to it… Okay. The glass beads are neat. Highlighting details is… interesting. But the author isn’t highlighting some missed side piece. The author’s “highlighting” the literally centerpiece of the photo. It’s like if I posted a photo of the sailor kissing the woman in times square, and drew a big red circle around the couple.

I mean… yeah. Congrats, Ben, you get the intent of the original piece. That’s the whole point, isn’t it?

Anyways. Rant Off.