Monday, May 03, 2010

Rise Early. Work Hard. Strike Oil.

Rise early. Work Hard. Strike Oil. That was J. Paul Getty's formula for success. And if you consider he was worth more than two billion dollars upon his death in 1976, I'd say that formula paid off.

On Saturday night, Ed and I got to see a little bit of what that money bought when we visited
The Getty Center in Los Angeles. We got there late in the day, after five, but were able to spend about three hours there. Admission to the museum is always free but on Saturday nights, the $15.00 parking fee is waived, which was a pleasant surprise. We figured we'd hit a few galleries and then check out the city lights from the fantastic hilltop where the museum is perched.
I like what is written on this page about the architecture and loved the juxtaposition of the modern curves and lines of the building and the Italian travertine (1.2 million square feet of it) that came from Bagni di Tivoli in Italy.We didn't have a lot of time to tour the grounds because we really wanted to get inside, but we did see several sculptures before we went into the building, and this is one of them I thought was kinda cool:

We saw three photography exhibitions; In Focus: Tasteful Pictures, A Record of Emotion: The Photographs of Frederick H. Evans and Urban Panoramas: Opie, Liao, Kim. Other than the Frederick H. Evans exhibition being interesting to us because of the age of the photographs and the equipment that was used at that time, we weren't really blown away by anything we saw there. Because we're not knowledgable in what makes a good photograph remarkable, we kind of shook our heads and thought, "Why is this work in a museum?"

My favorite area were the galleries of paintings. There was this beautiful portrait of Princess Leonilla of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn by Franz Xaver Winterhalter done in 1843 which measures 56" high by 83.5" wide. It was gorgeous. And can you imagine her pose was considered
daring?There were paintings by Degas, Pissarro, Sargent (one of my favorites), Monet, Rembrandt and Cézanne, we also saw the very famous Irises, by Vincent VanGogh:There was so much to see and we tried to get in as much as we could but it's impossible to do in three hours. We didn't make it to the museum gift shop but we did see some of Leonardo da Vinci’s handwritten notes and drawings.

Many of the pieces were on loan from other collections and we were not allowed to photograph them, like these "three larger-than-life-size bronze figures by Giovan Francesco Rustici, recently restored in Florence and never before seen outside Italy." They were amazing. Next time we'll definitely carve out more of our day to have time to see everything.

One of the last photos I took, and which temporarily graces my desktop, is this shot.
I just love those city lights!



~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
1 YEAR AGO:
It’s All Connected To The Pigskin
2 YEARS AGO:
The Sorriest Team Drivers You’ve Ever Seen
3 YEARS AGO:
Ooooooo, A Contest!
4 YEARS AGO:
Modern Convenience

4 comments:

june in florida said...

That last photo should be in the museum,beautiful.

all things bradbury said...

this is one of the places we have been wanting to go. and now i really wanna go!....lol....and yes, i agree with june in florida, that last shot should be in there too....great shot!

scott said...

what's up with the truck?

Anonymous said...

Scott,
Every once in awhile it is necessary to catch up on all of the odds and ends of owning a truck. If you read earlier Salena said how we are waiting for: tires to be ordered, inverter to be ordered, switches to be ordered, and an alignment tech to come back from training. Fortunately we have had the opportunity to take some off time for ourselves and tour the area. In the trucking business, you have to do this whenever the truck and your business demands it. Sometimes we break down in an area where there is a high demand for trucks, but we have to turn down all offers of work to maintain our business. This is such a time.
-Ed