Buffalo Girls

At the invitation of a Buffalo rug hooker, Cindy,  a group of J.J. Ruggers and myself are staying in Buffalo for a couple of days. In a house rented through Airbnb we have 2 apartments with 3 bedrooms in each, 2 kitchens, and 2 living rooms. Lots of room for the sewing, crocheting, knitting, lace making and weaving that we bought with us. It was determined that there wasn't enough room in the "hooking can" (Peter's van) for us all to bring our hooking paraphernalia.

Breakfast at Bertha's on Herkel.

It  met the criteria for an authentic American diner. I posted in December 2013 about what made an authentic diner (according to George and I) and I went through that for the group: formica counter with metal trim, stools at the counter with metal rims and vinyl seats, glass cabinets for the deserts, cake pedestal too, open for breakfast and lunch,  mirrors, full of locals, no liquor license and local food specialties (waffles here). Bertha's also had black and white tiles on the floor and red plastic water glasses.

Across the road was a used book store that we all perused and all found intriguing purchases.

It was a lovely store, wooden floors and shelves, well organized and piles of unpacked boxes everywhere.

Next stop Albright-Knox Art Gallery.

One of the sculptures at the entrance, of aluminum canoes and boats, was by Nancy Rubins, who also created the similar, colourful one that Chris and I saw in Vegas.

Heather had been told by a docent that the artist was "an elderly woman who is still alive!". The plaque indicated that she was actually younger than most of us.

We started by touring the gallery, which specializes in contemporary art, and then joined a guided tour.

The staircase to upstairs is an installation called Wall Drawing, by Sol LeWitt

The 3 walls were created with graphite pencil scribbles.

The first gallery I went into had some interactive contemporary works and works from the 60s. The one in the video above, Grass by Len Lye, rocked and the wires swayed and brushed, looking like the grass at the beach and sounding like the waves. Music could also be turned on to accompany the motion.

Computer Nude, Studies in Perception created on  a computer from binary code by Ken Knowlton.

Four quart-er-es by Mary Bauermeister.

Head - red and yellow by Roy Lichtenstein.

Hand painted dots in red and yellow make up the image.

100 cans by Andy Warhol

So interesting to get up close and see the use of stencils and that each can is slightly different.

There were some older paintings in the collection - A Claude Monet

La Maison de la Crau  by Vincent Van Gogh

Dinamismo de un cane al guinzaglio by Giacomo Balla was a favorite of Pam's.

The last splatter painting by Jackson Pollock, Convergence.

To be continued in the next post.