William Glackens, The Wisteria Vine, 1919

It was a big day, and oh the places I went! My husband wanted to go out for breakfast, so we took the newest car and drove to the Altoona Eat 'n Park, where we had a fabulous meal (which was especially appreciated since we have eaten out hardly at all in the past few months, out of an abundance of caution). We shopped at Big Lots, bought a bunch of great snacks, and returned home.

After that, I packed a few things in my Mazda and drove to town: the first I've done so myself since probably late November! (No, I never even got to see the Christmas decorations at the Arboretum; not a one, and that's a big fat first for me.) And my soul, kept tamped down in winter, was so hungry; just SO hungry for art. . . .

I parked off-campus and walked over to the Palmer Museum, visited the Arboretum briefly, and finally picked up my last half-gallon of ice cream (grilled stickies, of course), using up the Berkey Creamery gift card I was given upon retirement in December 2020. 14 months to use $99 worth of ice cream; not bad.

I saw lots of things, and I walked a lot, and I made a big mistake: I'd picked the wrong shoes, and the conditions were extra-gloppy. The ice and snow is melting and there were plenty of places - parking lots, the Arboretum - where the black Reebok princess (they might call them "lifestyle" now, but they were called "princess" in the 80s, believe you me) high-tops I was wearing just weren't enough. What can I say? I expected to find more civilized conditions in town. I suspect I might not be the first person to have had that expectation thwarted!

The Tiger and I had received stern warnings from my husband to behave ourselves and not get arrested at the art museum. And we also received a warning from the greeter at the Palmer Museum: wear your mask, stay 6 feet from the other people, and by gosh and by golly, NO TIGER BUTTS ON THE ART, LADY! Sheesh, they know how to squash every bit of fun out of things!

In all seriousness, the people at the Palmer were fabulous. The greeter was friendly and cheerful. The one guard came up and offered me a new perspective on one of their best pieces of blown glass. And at the conclusion of my visit, when I tried to buy some mints, they would not sell them to me, but in the end they just gave them away for free!

It went like this. There I was in the galleries, and there was a woman with three beautifully behaved little boys, so well behaved that I marveled. One boy had headphones, one boy had a paper he was writing on, and the third simply sat quietly, minding his mom. Wow!

I checked out the American art exhibit - the above image is one of those, from the An American Place exhibit, which features pieces from the James and Barbara Palmer collection. It is quite a large exhibit, located in the main gallery on the second floor, and it is just so good.

William Glackens was an admirer of Auguste Renoir, and you can tell by the short, wispy strokes that he was copying his techniques in The Wisteria Vine, from 1919. The subjects of the painting are the artist's five-year-old daughter with the family nurse and housekeeper, in front of their house in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Don't those sweet blues and greens make you think of summer?

And then I visited the Printmaking in the Age of Dürer exhibit, in a tiny little gallery on the second floor. It was exquisite, very detailed, with some of the pieces being very, very tiny. In the extras, I've included the middle panel of one of the larger pieces: Hans Schäufelein, The Siege of Bethulia, woodcut, ca 1530. This guy was an apprentice to Dürer, and the panels present the biblical story of Judith, who disguised herself as a harem girl, dined with the general whose army was besieging her city, and then cut his head off!

I visited the little museum gift shop both first and last, and there were some cute mint tins I was eyeing up. I promised myself when I was done ogling the art, I'd go to back the lockers/cloak room, get my daysack and jacket and credit card, and come back to the shop to buy some of them. And so I did.

When I got to the counter of the museum gift shop to check out, there was a sign stating that no cash or checks were accepted and there would be no returns. The only way to pay was by credit card. Except that the credit card reader was not working. In fact, I got the sense that it rarely works!

First, the lady running the museum shop tried to run my card through. It didn't work. Then she went and got the guy from the front office who was the greeter. He couldn't get it to work. Then she finally went and got some kind of main manager lady, who eyed up my two tins of mints for $3 each, and sweetly offered to just GIVE Them to me, since they couldn't get the machine to work. So just this once, my Palmer Museum visit was topped off with two tins of (cute) free mints! Huzzah!

I wanted my song to be about a painter, and so here is one: Joshua Kadison, with Jessie. Let's give you the second song off that album as well, since it is also painterly in topic: Painted Desert Serenade, from the album of the same name.