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Dear Diary… ... Today was fun. I got to hang out with cool people and talk about art and build eye muscles. When we discuss what we see, what an artist might be trying to say and consider the techniques they're using, we become better tour guides, docents and art professionals for YOU. Below are pictures from our travel log.     Today Trish Nixon and I headed over to the Mulvane Art Museum with Volunteer Coordinator Kari Zimmerman and some of the Gallery's volunteers, Bob, Margaret and Annie. We wanted to see and talk about the second half of our current exhibit, Printed Image 2, as the Mulvane is both co-host and partner in this national, biennial event. When we discuss what we see, what an artist might be trying to say and consider the techniques they're using, we become better tour guides, docents and art professionals for YOU. Below are pictures from our travel log. Here we are (left to right): Heather (in thumbnail), Trish, Margaret, Annie and Bob. Sidenote 1: You can see Bob's metalwork figures on display in the Library Rotunda right now. Sidenote 2: I don't generally participate in the Hi-5 but did so today for some reason.   Here Trish asks volunteers to consider the title of Lawrence KS artist Lisa Grossman's piece, Five Bends of the Kaw, and what role a work's title might play in the interpretation process when looking at an abstract work. Note: The Kaw (aka the Kansas River) was named by the Kanza (Kaw) people who once inhabited this area. It runs 170 miles eastward and joins the Mississippi River. The state of Kansas got its name from the Kanza people.    Volunteer Margaret discusses Family Quilt, a work by Newton KS artist, Rachel Epp Buller, which consists of stitched-together linocuts of enlarged fingerprints. It made me think about the quilt as a traditional family hand-me-down and amalgam of clothing scraps often used to depict family history and the significance of using individual fingerprints, both completely unique and simultaneously anonymous, as family "portraits". Volunteer Bob makes a good point. Unfortunately I have spaced out this point. Annie, fellow Library employee and temporary Gallery fill-in, notes that in Massachussettes artist Dwight Pogue's Andean Light, there is a lot of motion and swirling that leads one's eye right to the center of the work. Exhibit title wall at the Mulvane Art Museum. Trish Nixon asks everyone what they believe is happening in Austin TX artist, Tim High's After Ensor/Great Tug of War. In it, two skulls pull a bone fragment between them while borrowed image of photographer John Filo's Pulitzer Prize-winning photo from the Kent State University masssacre on May 14, 1970 is used as the backdrop. Bob noted that those most often affected by political decisions to go to war are innocent civilians. I wondered about the "red" and "green" skulls. If interpreted for their complimentary use of opposing color, might this point to the futility of war: complimentary colors having equal value (black and white ratio) will be indistinguishable from each other when photographed in black and white. Volunteer Bob notes the hat as possibly Russian or Prussian. Volunteer Margaret notes the gradual shifts in value in Ohio artist Art Werger's Requiem. It is impossible to see here, but in the next image, I took a close-up of this piece because within the rock face are remarkable Classical nude figures integrated into the stone. It took seeing the artwork in person to see that detail (as it was lost in the small digital version) and provided an opportunity to point out that seeing art LIVE will make all the difference in most cases. Why figures in the rock? Perhaps as an homage to uncut marble, limestone and other materials in which sculptors for centuries have "seen" the human form before the carving starts? Do you see them? So cool! This is New Mexico artist Anthony Lazorko's Gone South. When asked how people responded to this, all but Bob agreed it looked like a run-down abandoned building in need of a good lawn cutting. Bob saw crisp, clean lines and didn't feel the image felt abandoned. Based on the title, I asked if everyone was familiar with the expression, "gone south"—that the title could be a play on words for the building's deterioration, or perhaps the artist literally travelled to the South and found the buildings in the area in disrepair. Annie's not convinced and still thinks Gone South looks abandoned. As our partner and co-host for the Printed Image 2, The Mulvane was a must-see for Sabatini Gallery volunteers. Half the exhibit is here, and half is at the Library. Here, volunteer Margaret answers a question from me about why some more traditional printmakers might contest this as an entry accepted into competition traditionally geared toward a 2-dimensional medium, and to consider it as representative of both traditional and breakaway printmaking concepts. Anyway, that was part of our afternoon. If you make a trip to either venue, we'd love to hear your comments.   http://www.tscpl.org/gallery/comments/dear_diary/