MIA at the MIA

Dave and I took advantage of a beautiful fall day by what else? Finding something to do inside....at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, called MIA by the locals. It's near downtown Minneapolis, and houses Rembrandt, Van Gogh, and several impressive pieces that seem vaguely familiar to me from art class. The museum is huge, and it's a testament to this city's love of art. The MIA is funded through donations, making it completely free to get in. Both times I've visited, I've seen large crowds taking advantage of this... and why not?

I've been before and only gone through one small wing of European exhibits, so Dave and I used great decision making skills when choosing to go in the first wing we found and check it out. After two hours, we'd journeyed through Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Indian, African, Southeast Asian exhibits, Pacific Islander, and some American and modern exhibits.

Since I've become more interested in tea and Victorian teas through my work out at the Landing, I found the Japanese tea rooms and tea ceremony exhibits very interesting. I think putting a Japanese tea room on the back of our house would be ideal to decompress from our stressful careers, but I seriously doubt the peace and serenity would flow freely in subzero temperatures. The heating element would probably detract from the simplistic decor. Plus, it would probably interfere with Dave's hockey rink plans.

Dave seemed intrigued by the early South American artwork and the masks... and of course, he couldn't resist sending his sister text pictures of the masks that reminded him of her. It's part of the teasing back-and-forth the two have.

Of course, one can only appreciate so much art at one dose.... but we did have to stop and admire someone's love with "Jaws" that was parked right outside: