The Bluest Muse: Goofballs' day out: Visiting the Crocker Art Museum

The postcard portrayed a scantily clad pin-up. Kinda vintage. A little campy. I'm not sure why this prompted me to invite my mother to the exhibition. I just know the lady likes art.

So, to art we went.

I felt almost guilty during this first visit to the Crocker Art Museum on a sunny summer afternoon. As a Sacramento native, I wondered how I'd never been there before.

After grabbing lunch and traipsing around a few exhibits in the modern side of the museum (modern being architecture, not style of art), we went in search of the naked lady exhibit that inspired the visit.

Buried in the depths of the third flood, indeed we had to ask a security guard for directions, we found "Mel Ramos: 50 years of Superheroes, Nudes and Other Pop Delights." Heavier on the nudes than the superheroes, and probably not fit for younger audiences, I enjoyed the collection very much. If you are so inclined, the exhibit runs until October.

So Eric John likes his art close up. (Do note that we kept him further away from the pieces after this shot was taken.)

Art-tensity.

Something about this piece seemed so alive. Vibrant colors and detailed expressions, I expected the horses to run right out of the frame.

Mom used the visit to practice her portrait photography with her favorite (unhappy but mostly compliant) subject, her brother Eric John.

This is my kind of art.

Charming! (And in case you wonder what face I make when I'm really concentrating...)

Cool shot by Ann Poffenberger (aka Marm).

The superhero side of the Mel Ramos exhibit.

Yeah, there's a naked lady on a cheeseburger over there.

I took this photo for my donut soul sister Geeta (we used to have donut dates, no judgment please). Me, I'd rather be eating the treats than lying in them.

Much of the exhibit is naked ladies popping out of various candies--M&Ms, Lifesavers, etc. Strangely (to me, anyway), they all resembled famous starlets including Angelina Jolie, Scarlett Johansen and Uma Thurman.

My lovely Marm.

A feat of physics, really.

Some days, I just don't feel like smiling.

"I'm a little coffee pot" robot?

Eric and I have this tradition of funny face making. I think it started on a trip to visit family in Oregon and Idaho when I was 10. On the way back, we stopped in Reno for a couple days and I remember being in the CalNeva eating lunch in a restaurant with a mirrored ceiling. I caught Eric making faces at himself, so I joined in and this tradition was born. The sequence starts with this face: Lips pursed.