39 Years

Time really does fly. Wayne and I have been married for 39 years. We decided to go to Salt Lake to see the University of Utah Fine arts museum and eat lunch for our anniversary. The exhibit was pretty amazing. There were paintings of Van Gogh, Matisse, Pisarro, Renoir, Monet, Picasso and many others. We learned about cubism, and although I'm not a lover of modern art, I now have a new appreciation for some of it. I do like impressionism and there were examples of that art form as well as western art, realism and sculpture. There was one statue that I could have sworn Wayne posed for. From the back, it looked just like his little behind, and that's one of the reasons I keep him around. I almost pinched it.

I was trying to take our picture at arm's length but kept cutting off part of our heads. A passer-by offered to help and clicked this picture

for us.

I thought this fountain was interesting. It's tucked between old, classic buildings but has a very modern feel. Water splashes down from the upper steps into the pool below. It actually looks like something that should be in the cage of the polar bear at the zoo.

Architectural details are my favorite thing to look for on old buildings. This lion is great. It is one of many around the perimeter of the Joseph Smith Memorial building.

The flower gardens are just amazing. I have noticed that zinnias, which seemed to be out of favor for a while are coming back into style. These old fashioned flowers really give a pop of color. I am adding them to my yard next year.

Who doesn't love water falls? The water from this one just falls from the pool and recirculates. It's very hypnotic.

One of the statues and flowers gardens on the grounds of Temple Square.

This painting is amazing and since you are allowed to take pictures if your flash is off, I tried to capture the real colors but...woops...my flash went off. I would think I had it off so I would take a picture and it would flash again. After about the 5th time, security came running up from the security room and pretty much cussed me out. I asked her if she knew how to turn it off. She tried but couldn't get it off and then a lady standing next to me showed me how so I took another picture and it flashed again. The rest of the time we were there, the security officer followed us around.

This is a lovely still life at the art museum. I have a little bit of a perfectionist personality though and it bugs me that the glass and the pitcher are leaning to the left. I couldn't hang it in my house because of this. That and the fact that it's not for sale and even if it was I couldn't afford it.

I can't remember for sure but I think this bust was carved around 2000 B.C.

The deceased is depicted on this sarcophagus, or coffin, at the moment of his entrance into eternal life. He is the highly individualized central figure carved inside a ring shape, as if he were immortalized on a coin. The scroll in the deceased's left hand suggests that he was a scholar, and two theater masks below imply an interest in the arts. The four amorini (cupids), one pair winged and one not, represent the Four Seasons and thus the inevitable passage of time. The peacocks feeding from baskets are symbolic for immortality because ancients believed that the peacocks' flesh never decayed. The symbols of this sarcophagus are similar to those on a coffin in the Villa Doria-Pamphili in Rome made between A.D. 260 and 280

These vessels were formed about 1200 years before Christ. It's hard to wrap my mind around that. I felt like I should whisper out of respect.