Close Meditations of a Visual Kind

Or is that often running?

Unofficial start last night, the Open House at Headquarters. AORN (the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses) maintains our Headquarters in Denver. We own the building. And I don't mean, the bank and AORN own the building, I mean we own the building. The mortgage is paid off. It's kinda cool being a partial owner of an office building in Denver.

And every year for the past five now the first evening of the Leadership Conference (which is held in Denver) there's been an Open House on Friday evening. For probably about half the attendees this is the first time they've been to Denver, and also then to their Headquarters. It's a great time! Wander through the two floors of the building where we maintain our offices (the other floors are rented out to other business concerns, though some of them are business' which we make use of as well). Meet the people who are our employees, and who help us in our mission to provide quality, safe patient care to people undergoing surgery (starting to be called 'invasive procedures' in the Modern Healthcare World, and even those classified as 'minimally invasive' such as laparoscopic and endoscopic surgery are invasive; we haven't quite gotten to the level of Bones McCoy and Nurse Chapel of Star Trek fame).

This year, the Denver Chapter is also hosting some hosptitality functions. They're practicing for 2010, when AORN Congress will be held here. Most of those functions will be this evening, but last night a group of us went to the Denver Art Museum.

Oh. My. Gawd.

Some photographs which are not processed yet, and most of which are truly 'sketchbook' to nudge ideas and such, and some notes about different items seen. In no way did I even try to see the whole place, for a couple of reasons. One, we had 2 hours before closing. Two, I don't try to do that usually. I'm quite fully in tune with Jubal Harshaw's art lessons to Ben Caxton in Stranger in a Strange Land, that there is a limit to what one can see and process when observing art.

So. A few notes from DAM:

Sean Landers, Pater Noster
1999 oil paint on linen
Words - up close and read, the artist's thoughts; back off observe visually, patterns & shapes like either a map or other visual representation.

Claes Oldenburg
Clothespin bronze & steel (this could almost be an 'artist's model' for the Worlds Biggest Clothespin in Philadelphia, PA.).

Wilson Hurley
Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone
about 1981 oil on canvas
He Nailed the light. I've been to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, a much younger me and the camera I used at the time couldn't handle it; this was when my Dad was teaching me.

Charles Marion Russell 1864-1926
In the Enemy's Country
oil canvas 1921
Just a fabulous command of the colours of the Great Plains; there was a quote from the artist on the information card that boils down to no matter how hard an artist tries, there are not enough colours in the tubes to match those in the scene. He's referring to tubes of oil paint.

And now, off to get edimacated.