California Dreamin'

The sun came out for a couple of hours this afternoon, but otherwise it has been overcast or rainy most of the time.  Actually, rain is not that bad, and I can deal with overcast skies to some degree, but humidity is a bummer.  The high humidity seemed to abate yesterday, but it returned today, so that I felt damp just standing at a bus stop downtown!  In addition, our bath towels never dry.  More than sunny California skies, I miss the low humidity of the Sacramento valley.

Yesterday was another unproductive day for me.  I had walked around downtown so much the previous day that my pelvis was quite sore.  This is a leftover medical condition from my pregnancy with Matthew.  (He still hopes that someday I will forgive him!)  Medically speaking, what happened at the end of the third month of that pregnancy is that my hormones caused the cartilaginous joint that  joins the right and left pubic bones to become relaxed.  Walking more than a short distance for the last six months of pregnancy was painful, and the condition never completely went away, although I only notice it when I walk or run for miles.  So, I rested most of the day yesterday.  I walked to the post office in Fell's Point to mail a letter and helped Peter traced a couple of electrical wires.  That was the extent of my accomplishments for Tuesday.  In the evening, Peter and I walked along the waterfront in Canton and had delicious meals at the Boathouse Restaurant.  This was just a respite for Peter; he continued to work when we returned to the boat.

mobile in the entrance to the Baltimore Museum of Art

Today, I went to the Baltimore Museum of Art, which includes one of the largest collections of Henri Matisse paintings and sculptures in the world.  The museum has benefited from the philanthropy of many prominent Baltimore citizens, which explains why it possesses such an impressive number of pieces by Matisse and his contemporaries.  This part of the museum's collection was donated by the Cone sisters.  These two sisters, Dr. Claribel and Etta Cone, who came from a wealthy family, began their collection in the late 1800s while visiting Paris.  For the rest of their lives, they acquired works of art at home and during their world travels.  They became friends and visited the studios of many of the artists they collected, including Picasso and Matisse.  They amassed approximately 3000 objects, including 500 works by Matisse (who was Etta's favorite) and paintings by Degas, Gaughin, Renoir, Corot, Picasso, Cassatt, Pissarro and many others.  They apparently only purchased items which delighted them and used them in their apartments as if they were everyday objects.  The museum had a replica of one of the rooms in their apartments as well as an interactive video installation which provided a tour of their entire apartments (they had adjoining ones) showing how they displayed their acquisitions, including furniture, textiles, silver, pottery and jewelry as well as paintings, prints and sculptures.

The museum, through generous donors, also has works by Franz Hals, Rembrandt van Rijn, Titian and other European masters.  There is a large courtyard with the four walls surrounding it displaying beautiful mosaics from Antioch, which was destroyed by earthquakes in 526 and 528 A.D.  These pieces were recovered by archeologists sponsored by the Baltimore Museum of Art and three other institutions from 1932 to 1939.

Mosaics from Antioch

Mosaics from Antioch

Detail of a mosaic from Antioch

In the American wing, there are wonderful examples of the work of Louis Comfort Tiffany, beautiful silver pieces and entire rooms removed from 19th century homes and placed in the museum.  Apparently, it was a fairly common practice for patrons to donate whole rooms to museums in the early 20th century.

Oval room from a Baltimore home

There were a couple of special exhibitions as well as a wonderful collection of west African art.  Outside, there are two beautifully landscaped sculpture gardens with pieces representative of such artists as Calder, Noguchi, Lipchitz, Rodin and Henry Moore.  I explored the sculpture garden after the inside of the museum, delighted by the blue skies that had replaced the gray while I was indoors.

Part of the sculpture garden 

I rode the public buses today to and from the museum.  Previously, I had ridden the No. 65 bus, which was clean and went through nice neighborhoods near the waterfront.  On the buses I rode today, I was the only white person, and people only sat by me if no other seats were available.  Some of the neighborhoods we went through were dirty and derelict.  Most disconcerting, however, was that many of the passengers were grungy, drunk, high on drugs or all of the above.  At one point, there was a shouting match between two passengers.  The rides were not scary and I don't think I was in any danger, but it was not pleasant being on the bus or looking out the windows.  The waterfront is lovely, but a few blocks back from the harbor, things start to fall apart.

Peter is ready for dinner, and I am actually going to prepare somthing on the boat this evening!  Going out to eat most evenings is a break from the boat (particularly for Peter) but dinner in will be nice also.

Peter has had a relatively productive day.  The wires behind the electrical panel are all organized and tidy now.

Another work of art