A trip to the museum- Chapter 5, sculpture and spiral stairway

Magical, mysterious spiralling stairways and breathtaking sculpture ...Yet another chapter of our trip to the Detroit Institutes of Art (DIA). I have broken the story down into chapter chunks to feature things and not make it all seem so long and overwhelming...and something you would look at and say, "That's wayyyy too much to read today, I'll just skip it." I want you to really see things. That's the way a museum should be seen. I think so, anyway.

There are many sculptures of every shape, size and type throughout the massive museum in Detroit.

We (my 3 kids, E.'s friend and me) even had conversation about how so many old and ancient statues and sculptures loose their heads and hands. We were tempted to keep a tally of how many heads were missing and which hand was most frequently absent, left or right. But back to this sculpture, which I think is my favorite of them all.

Please, PLEASE! click on the pictures to see more detail.

I was memorized by this one, such exquisite attention to details to the point that you wished you could touch it to see if it really felt like the texture your brain was conveying to you.

(Don't touch though, this is a museum, remember!)

How could something so hard, and so hard to carve really make you "think" tendrils of hair, creases of skin, folds of draped fabric, supple fur and wood of a chair? I stood (probably much too long) pondering this beautiful art . Do you ever see a piece of art and it just speaks to you yet you can't put into words why?

I am blessed that my kids think it is FUN going to museums. I began taking them as new babies so it was just always a part of their lives. At our own museum, closer to home, I have been taking my kids throughout their whole lives to see their favorite painting/art item that "speaks" to them. They are respectful of giving each other time to simply stand and ponder the wonder of their own favorite piece. Each of my 3 kids has their own absolute favorites.

I think I may have to find this sculpture again when ever we return to Detroit.

So now on to another area. This is the top of a spiral stairway. I like the iron work of the railing worn by many years of hands gliding along the surface. (You may remember another post from one of our many frequent trips to Ann Arbor, and the photos of another majestic railing stairway which holds fascination for me.)

Spiral stairways just "do it" for me in general. It is something about the mystery of what lies beyond the visual scope. The anticipation. See the bottle glass window barely discernible at the right of this photo (below)? There were several on the way twirling downward. Look at the one in the next photo after this one....

The bottle glass window is like magic with the warm light glowing through it. The one above the archway doesn't hope to have the same effect on your senses. Am I right?

Now you will have to wait 'till the next chapter and I will show you what is beyond the archway at the bottom of this spiral stairway!

Magnificent.