Indianapolis Museum of Art Blog

Ray Pawulich

The following post was written by Ray Pawulich. Ray currently lives in Indianapolis. He went to film school for a couple years, so he thinks he knows what he’s talking about. Here’s part one of his series on Summer Nights here at the IMA.

Growing up in a relatively insulated Indianapolis suburb, many of the defining experiences of my youth were lived vicariously though film characters who came of age in the 1970s. The fact that early 90s suburban kids like myself were hungry for this kind of entertainment was not lost on the filmmakers of the day; for awhile there, it seemed all you had to do to get your movie on video store shelves was to pack it with drug references and give it a retro soundtrack. And while some of these films have endearing qualities (The Stoned Age remains a personal favorite), none can match the subtlety or artistry of Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused.

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A few weeks ago I followed through on a pact with myself to visit the Indiana Museum of Art solo.  The grounds in late spring are glorious and I spent as much time watching bold squirrels nibble on berries as I did experiencing the art inside the building.  It’s been a while for me since I visited what rates highly as a sunny afternoon destination in Indy.

From Flickr user SillyFrog

I went upstairs to see the Adaptation installation, and was immediately drawn to the unassuming Herrera exhibit, “Les Noces”.  It presents itself from outside as a placard and a pitch dark walkway leading into the unknown from which emanates the intense singing and occasional screaming of a Stravinsky scored ballet. Read the rest of this entry »

While I am in Saint Louis prostituting myself for plants at the Perennial Plant Symposium Horticulturist Geoff VonBurg is filling in for me. One of Geoff’s gardens here is the recently restored Orchard. But I have no idea what he is blogging about. Thanks Geoff.

Irvin Etienne, Aesthetic Czar, whose garden trowel I am not worthy to clean, is away this week.  He said something about a professional conference in St Louis, but I hear Dolly Parton is performing in Branson, so I’m not sure…

Anyway, he left me keys to the blog-o-graph and said, “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

More and more this season, I have been enraptured with wonder at what nature does.  For the blog’s title, I turned to Jens Jensen, one of the great evangelists for the church of mother earth.   In the first chapter of Siftings (1939) he said that the “[natural world] about us has within it all the joy and happiness that we need.”  Amen.  As much as my life is enriched by the amazing work I see in our galleries, more nourishing for my soul is the beauty and humility of plants.  I want to offer three little samples.

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Ever since Indiana Jones began his pulpy adventure series into far-flung and exotic locations, the discovery of artifacts has gone from a virtually unheard of profession to a glamorous one, seemingly designed for a dichotomous group of swashbuckling rogues and charming intellectuals.  Archaeology has evolved (much like its subjects) from the cavalier work of aristocratic colonialists like Lord Elgin and Captain Cook to a field far more accessible to the public.  Some of said discoveries may even take place in, wonder of wonders, Indiana.  Mine was free of cannibalism and international conflict, but not, I promise, free of intrigue.

Now, Dear Reader, you can by a mere flick of the clicking finger discover what we’ve discovered at the IMA, which, I think, is pretty rad in the stealthy world of museum administration.  Most recently, what we’ve unearthed is not from Jaipur or Nimrud, but from an apparently long-forgotten box on a shelf.  But sometimes it happens that real life discoveries are just as romantic as those of Dr. Jones’s folklore.

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Social Media brings the visitors to our virtual door. What have we gotten ourselves into?

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