Love for Philadelphia

Goober tourist finds color in the city.

Mutter Museum (it's MOOter)

Phila, not Philly.  That's what my friend Nancy Blum, an amazing artist currently calling said city her home, calls it...and I think it's charming yet hardcore...just like the city itself.  This past weekend I found myself in Philadee (um, that's my addition...not so hardcore anymore) for the opening of my exhibition at the Philadelphia Art Alliance.  We are talking about large-scale weavings today, not scarves.  My work was one of three new shows opening there Thursday night.  The PAA is actually a mansion-turned-gallery, so my space, though high-ceilinged and open, had the domestic touches you would expect to see in a ridiculously huge home (two small crystal chandeliers high up by a sculpted ceiling and a vast dark wood mantle and fireplace covering an entire 20-foot wall).  Happily, my work looked perfectly comfortable (in fact, it looked great) among these luxurious trappings.  Know what else was great?  Philadelphia.  I walked all over the city in the three days I was there.  I ate a lot of good food, had some highly artistic cocktails, and saw some amazing art and architecture.  I stopped longest at the Mutter Museum (gawking, cringing, and staring in wonder at their collection of wax models of human ailments and the wall-sized cabinet of human skulls) and the Fabric Workshop and Museum (lots of gawking here, too...Nick Cave's exhibition and the video of his performance there absolutely blew me away).  I did notice, while out and about in the 40-degree weather, that everyone seemed to be dressed in shades of black and grey.  Maybe it's got something to do with those tall buildings and the lack of sunshine in the heart of the city, but I was an anomaly in my yellow coat and green Lf scarf.  The locals seemed to approve, however.  My scarf was noticed both at the PAA and the Fabric Workshop (business cards left behind at both places, of course).  Maybe Little Fool can provide big Phila with a pop (or many pops) of color some day?