Edward Hopper

Ok, I thought I was going to get back into blogging...but seems like I haven't. Plus my computer has been out of service for the last two weeks. But the friendly and generous IT guy from work is taking his free time to try to revive it. On Friday he told me it looks like it is going to pull through. So, next time maybe I'll have some pictures!

Yesterday my friend Juliana and I made a kind of spontaneous trip to DC. This weekend was the last weekend of the Edward Hopper exhibit at the National Gallery of Art. After a couple of hours of driving, trying to find parking, and a lot of walking, we finally made it to the gallery. Then, with about a million other people, we got to enjoy the works of Hopper. I don't know if you are familiar with him, but Edward Hopper was an American artist in the first half of the 20th century. I love his work. While his contemporaries were moving toward abstraction, Hopper continued to paint realistic scenes from everyday life. He captured snapshots of ordinary things and people, but with a stillness and quiet that almost makes the viewer feel uneasy as he or she studies the paintings. I love it. He uses rich color and makes the ordinary interesting. His paintings are devoid of movement and seem to have no noise at all. It's amazing to me how he captures such a feeling and how he can create such a stillness in a scene that should be full of movement. Nighthawks is one of his more famous, but I really like Chop Suey.If you haven't seen an Edward Hopper painting, I would recommend it!

After that we were trying to rush off to a tour of the Capitol (while downing a Coke and meat loaf sandwich in record time...wouldn't it have been a great story if I threw up in the Capitol?) when I got momentarily side tracked by the Modern Art exhibit. The collection is amazing. The gallery is so big. I'm ready for another trip back to spend a whole day soaking in the rooms of art.

In other news, I learned that old windshield wipers don't work any better in the snow than they do in the rain. So, my next goal for 2008 (besides living in the same city for a whole year) is to learn how to put on new wiper blades. Isn't that exciting?