Bellagio "Art"

Before we came back home we had lunch at the Bellagio and checked out their new living art exhibit.  It was a dutch theme complete with wooden shoes.

 And a windmill.

 Some of the flowers were alive and some were not.

 

This picture looks like a painting but its really a 3D work of art constructed with live flowers.

 

And I can never pass up looking at Chihuly's ceiling glass sculpture.

My Last Trip to Dallas

My last visit to Dallas, Elizabeth and Steve took me to the Nasher Sculpture Garden.  We had fun goofing around this park and their unique sculptures.

Chihuly

Before Christmas my parents came to town and went with Darren and I to see the Chihuly exhibit at the Frist Center.  Dale Chihuly is a glass maker who specializes ornate and intricate pieces of glass and glass compositions. I was a bit disappointed by the size of the exhibit at the Frist and was really expecting much more but what we saw was really neat.

A couple of the pieces we saw.

Photos from here and here.

Nasher Sculpture Garden

In Dallas a couple weekends ago, Elizabeth, Steve and I went to the Nasher Sculpture Garden.  They had quite a few neat pieces but by far this was our favorite.  From the front this piece was very unimpressive but can't tell what it is supposed to look like until you are inside the building.  Once there it was so clear and really neat.

Imitating art.

This one was called "My Curves are Not Mad."

They had this room with all solid white walls and a hole in the ceiling.  There was a little debate as to if the ceiling was the sky or actually painted. It was a really clear blue day with amazing weather!

Elizabeth and I acting like the goof balls we are.

Couple other neat pieces we saw.

 

 

Day 4 - Paris - Louvre

Our first stop on our second day in Paris was at the Louvre, the most visited museum in the world!  The museum is housed in the Louvre Palace which began as a fortress built in the late 12th century and was expanded many times to the 650,000 square feet it is today.

We entered the Louvre through the Carousel du Louvre underground by the inverted pyramid.  I know movies are not the best source of information but, from the Da Vinci Code, I always thought the inverted pyramid was actually in the museum, not outside its entrance!

 

I really found the building far more interesting than the art exhibits.  No one can dispute they have a lot of art but I didn't feel that the quality they had was comparable to the quantity. My non-art-minded opinion.  But the history of the building was really neat.  This picture in particular, the center and the left side of the building is a couple hundred years older than the right side of the building but they look completely seamless together.

However there were a few very cool things in the Louvre... Obviously it is the Louvre! ;) One of my favorite things was Napoleon's Apartment in the Richelieu Wing. Napoleon never actually lived in this apartment.  It was used as a states apartment and different heads of state lived there.

 

 

Here are a few sculptures I found interesting.

 

 

And for the crowd favorites.... Psyche and Cupid

Venus de Milo

And of course the Mona Lisa!