1992~ Saturday, December 12, Trip to the Art Museum Huntsville, Alabama

At the art museum, they were giving lectures to several small groups of school children.

They were divided into three groups and each group was being told the stories about the art in the area where they were.

I overheard one lady telling about a girl in one of the pictures, how life must have been in the early 1800s. 

As I ventured into different areas of the museum I came across a painting by John Kutzik called, Man and his toys.

It was watercolor on paper and was 21 3/4” x 1/2”.

It was my favorite piece. 

Why did I like this piece? Because it represented man and his machine from youth until manhood, or if you please, the man who never grows up.

The picture of the man and his toy contained a small pudgy man wearing a blue suit and a small blue cap, with a ball of twine around his hands and feet.

All around him is a clutter of toys, as you looked into the picture you can see how Kutzik depicted different areas of his life. There were circus clowns, trapeze artists, acrobats, monkeys, kites, small cars, dolls, and wind-up toys.
Then as he grows older he has a leg of a woman a half-dressed woman, tools and all sorts of gadgets.

The picture has varied shapes, rhythmic patterns, using colors of green red, blue, orange, yellow and neutral colors.

Kutzik has balance, first, you see the man and then he makes you go further into the painting to9 see all the pieces that represent all the clutter of his life.

Each area is a scene yet it interwinds together.

To me, it represents the man who has nor or will he ever grow up.

In the next area of the museum was the Space Works, a synthesis of Science of Art. A room of our future and our past, about space our final frontier.

These pieces were very impressive to me.

There were two very large pieces that were 12 X 20 feet that I enjoyed

One was the Symbiont Manned Autonomous Workstations (MAWS) 1987 by Paul Hudson,

and the other was the New Pioneer Lunar Utility Vehicle LUV 1989 by Paul Hudson, brainstorming or glory days of the open cockpit.

My favorite piece was the Discovery Sunrise Command Controlled Suit Pressure 48 X 96 inches 1992 by Paul Hudson.

Why I liked this piece was his usage of the colors of orange and red, how they represented sunrise on the moon. The hot colors were not inviting and even the rocks looked hot.

The clouds swirled around as the two astronauts worked to set up a satellite communication to earth.

What I liked least was the silver from London, which was okay but I am not into silver.

There was a room of Expression and Discovery which held a painting I liked called The Sacred Spring, by Robert Lewis. It was 21 1/4 x 25 1/2 inches made in 1975.
The painting has a soft yet rustic, outdoor texture.

The colors were muted and the people were small and distorted. There was a tree that appeared to be growing out from under a rock bank, which overlooked a spring.

It also gave a shadow covering the small spring.

The picture had depth, yet it held a mystery to it. 

I thought it was very interesting.

There were a few Japanese Netsuke figures made of ivory and bronze.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netsuke

The trip was very interesting but I had expected more for a city as big as Huntsville.