Sunday, September 4, 2011

I saw an exhibition of artwork of John Lennon

Never Done: I saw an exhibition of artwork of John Lennon
Never Done: I walked through the Provincetown dunes

When I went for a run in the morning, I noticed a street banner advertising a show called Imagine: Yoko Ono presents the art of John Lennon. I kept going, knowing that I would be coming back that way to look for the address, and locate the gallery. There is something about being up early in a vacation town -- sharing the morning with delivery truck drivers and people with dogs -- that let's you see the actual bones of a place. Town Hall is massive and stunning, as is the library; tide is low; Commercial Street stops being commercial after the Provincetown Antique Market.

Also, I love going out on a discovery mission and bringing back a find -- and what better find than a John Lennon show? It turned out to be 3 days only, in the Unitarian church hall -- a benefit for the church. I told Abigail and Mich about it, and they were both excited to go. We weren't sure if Yoko Ono would be there ("Yoko Ono presents") (which, I have discovered, would be completely possible because people like to come here) (she wasn't.) But we were there. The show was not originals -- it was prints from his drawings and paintings. Much of his work is incredibly moving and personal -- his line drawings that captured whimsy, personality, and sometimes entire socio-political theories. Abigail noticed, having spent significant time working in a print shop, that something that was missing from the show was the presence of the people who worked in the print shop. As soon as she said it I realized she was right; the wasn't a wall panel that explained that these were notebook sketches -- originally quite small -- that had been enlarged and reproduced with incredible care by xxx, xxx, xxx, xxx, and xxx. one. Of the things I love about going to an art show with an artist is exactly this -- the artist's knowledgable perspective. I think it's the first time I got the artist's knowledgeable ethical perspective.

Later in the day we hiked out through the dunes. A gorgeous hike through bog cranberries and juniper, past a couple beach shacks -- barefoot in deep dune sand, all the way to the ocean. When we got there, the water was rough and the waves were breaking so close to the shore that the surf was full of sand and seaweed. Mich had prepared a gorgeous picnic -- curried tuna salad, sesame cabbage slaw, fresh corn salad, two kinds of iced tea -- and we spread it out on a towel, made kiddush, and spent the afternoon eating and talking like we always used to, til we got too cold to stay longer, and we hiked back across the dunes, back to the town where it would not be odd to see Yoko Ono, even though we didn't -- we saw Boy George instead.




1 comment:

  1. this day sounds unbelievable, as in not believable as true. so i had to remind myself i was there and it was!

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