Museum Visit: Sioux City Art Center, May 2022

 

I may have casually mentioned in a previous blog post that I have discovered a passion for LEGO bricks as an adult.  So, when I heard there was a LEGO exhibit coming to the Sioux City Art Center (a mere hour and a half drive one way from home) I was determined to see it as soon as possible. I packed my girls up for the day and we went on a Saturday art gallery adventure!

This was my first time visiting the Sioux City Art Center. They have three levels you can access via the largest spiral staircase I’ve ever seen (or if you’re like me and you have a stroller in tow, there’s also an elevator.) Because I had a two- and four-year-old with me, within the first 30 minutes of our arrival we had been to the restroom three times. It’s a nice facility, not much for art in there though.

Would’ve hit my 10,000 steps if not for the elevator!

The “Towers of Tomorrow with LEGO Bricks” touring exhibition consists of 20 real-life, iconic skyscrapers from countries across the world – shrunken down to 1/200^th size and built out of little plastic LEGO bricks. The master builder behind the exhibit? Ryan McNaught, of Australia. He and his team spent over 2,400 hours and used over 500,000 bricks to build the structures in the exhibit.

I think the word “impressive” sums it up nicely.

My favorite, standing at 125” tall, is the Tokyo Skytree. It took 191 hours to build, and consists of over 19,000 bricks! What caught my eye right off the bat was the number of diagonal pieces on the exoskeleton of the building. McNaught designed the structure using hinges to give the building the crisscross look.

“Truth or Consequences” by Meghan Flynn, egg tempera on watercolor paper

On one of our short trips between bathroom breaks, we made our way through the Briar Cliff Review exhibition. It features artwork by regional artists who were featured in The Briar Cliff Review, the annual award-winning literature and art journal produced by Briar Cliff University.

I was blown away by this piece – which is NOT, as I initially thought, a beautiful photograph but is in fact a beautiful PAINTING. It was painted with egg tempera and a massive amount of attention to detail on watercolor paper. I could have spent hours just admiring this piece by Meghan Flynn.

“Scarlet Tango” by Jacqueline Kluver, acrylic on canvas

I’m not usually one to lean towards abstract art – I really struggle in creating it, I’ve found that I need to be making something. That said, I love this red geometric piece by Jacqueline Kluver. It caught my attention and held it. There’s so much energy in it, despite a lack of quick brush strokes! It has its own dark “frame” around the edge, with small pops of green, blue, gold, and white throughout.

“There are Places on the Map that Don’t Exist” by Bart Vargas, keyboard keys, plastic bottles, foam, cardboard, paint, adhesive, hardware

It wasn’t a part of the Briar Cliff exhibit, but how cool is this piece by Bart Vargas? While I’d love to see the skeleton inside, the end result is just stunning! From across the gallery, I had thought it was another piece made of LEGOs, and was elated to discover upon approach that the exterior of the globe is composed of individual computer keyboard keys in varying shades of white, tan, gray, and black – with a few special accents like the red “PANIC” key at the north pole. The texture on this suspended sculpture are fantastic, adding such a depth to the surface. It almost feels like the oceans have waves, and the continents have mountain ridges and valleys.

“Emerging Brights” by Jeanette Beck, acrylic paint on canvas

Another abstract piece that really caught my eye is this lovely painting by Jeanette Beck. Although “Emerging Brights” is only a medium sized acrylic painting, it instills a peaceful calm with its gentle gradient in violet, orange, and blue. The textures are subtle and require closer inspection, and the light yellow splatters are a pleasant addition.

“Friday Night, 1993” by Mark Barone, oil paint on panel

Just before we left the gallery, this piece caught my eye. If ever there was a piece that described a mood, this is it! Painted in oils by Mark Barone, “Friday Night, 1993” could easily be turned into a fine art meme portraying the realities of married life!

My husband and stepsons aren’t artists (although Connor has been drawing some anime style fanart lately that is really great) so they only occasionally oblige me in my desire for family trips to art galleries. My girls, however, are still young and impressionable (and have to go where I take them anyway) and this was an EXCELLENT introduction to the world of fine art museums for them. It helped that we read a kid’s book about visiting an art museum on repeat the week before our trip.

Artistic Guilty Pleasure: Crafts and LEGOs

I have a number of guilty pleasures like vampire romance novels, really crappy movies, and eating way too much chocolate. I’ve also discovered I have what some may describe as an obsession with LEGO sets.

Growing up, my brother had THOUSANDS of LEGO bricks. I had zero (but I did have hundreds of stuffed animals.) And, as he was my older brother, I also had zero chance of getting my hands on his LEGOs. Instead, I played outside with what I could find in nature: rocks, sticks, dirt, etc. It’s really no wonder I fell in love with the Redwall book series at a young age (a medieval fantasy type world in which the characters are all animals, and they create food and drink, tools and weapons out of supplies found in nature.) To this day, I have a small collection of the paperbacks, lovingly on display in my art studio – and last year I made my first successful batch of dandelion wine!

I'll never throw this card away!

My very first LEGO set was gifted to me by my husband, Jon. It was Mother’s Day 2021, and he said “Your gift is that you get to put it together without children.” How could I not love this man? The set was #5005878, the buildable Mother’s Day card. He had found the set, which was a mere 47 pieces, on EBay. It is a cherished possession now, and permanently lives on my dresser next to the stuffed Ninja Turtle I got for Christmas when I was three. Once I put that little plastic card together, I was hooked.

Jon is also the one who introduced me to the Harry Potter series (I’m a Ravenclaw, if you were wondering) after we got together. He and my stepsons would listen to the audiobooks on long drives, and the boys had a number of the Harry Potter LEGO sets. When we started dating, Jon only had a lonely Hogwarts castle and broken down Hagrid’s Hut. We set it up on display on our kitchen shelf when we moved to Denison, and since have been adding little by little to our collection.

Our lighting is still in the trial-and-error stage.

I gave Jon a few sets as gifts; the Potions class that folds up into a book, and the Knight Bus. We also have a 20”x20” framed plastic brick family portrait hanging on our wall in the basement that I put together around the same time. My gifts for Christmas 2021 were Honeyduke’s and the Three Broomsticks, and the Flying Lessons set. At age 35, I was finally able to sit down at the dining room table with my dad (he came to visit for the holiday) and put together LEGO sets. He applied the stickers to the pieces as I assembled (hands down, the building is my favorite part.)

For Mother’s Day 2022, I was given more EBay LEGO sets – a massive bundle of bricks that formed five more Harry Potter buildings (and a Ninjago mech). Our collection is becoming obsessive – I mean - impressive, and by now I’m sure you can tell there’s a bit of passion in our family behind the hobby (and for the Harry Potter series.)

No glue! Can you believe it?

It wasn’t exactly LEGOs, but when we were on vacation in Florida this spring I picked up a wooden puzzle kit that formed a 3D angelfish. My stepson Connor helped me put it together one Saturday morning. I have a few crafty, wood sets that I have put together, and I adore them all!

What exactly is it that I enjoy so much about crafting and building? I find that I get lost in the assembling, much like I get lost in the process of creating my art. I treasure the memories from working on these sets, building them with people I love. I enjoy working with my hands, creating with a new (to me) medium. 

This begs the question – is assembling Lego or craft sets an art form? I’d argue yes. The design that goes into these sets is amazing, how it all fits together just so to create something new. There’s no denying that the designers of the sets are artists (and definitely engineers.) It’s a way for everyone, even those without artistic tendencies, to create. And really, when you think about it, there isn’t much difference between following the steps in the LEGO instruction booklet and listening to the step-by-step instructions given by the great Bob Ross (who whole-heartedly believed that everyone could be an artist) in his educational painting shows.

So much potential in one little brick.

At the time I’m writing this post, we are taking a break from acquiring more LEGOs. We will probably pick it up again in the future, but realistically we have run out of space in our kitchen. When I admitted that I have “the LEGO bug,” Jon made the joke that when I die he will fill my coffin with LEGO bricks so if I try to escape I will step on them and won’t be able to get out. I’ll admit I’m impressed with his creativity sometimes, considering he isn’t an artist.