Coolest Conference Room Ever? Morgan Hill, CA

I now have a half-dozen or so former co-workers and friends that work at the large, global bike brand known as Specialized. Turns out one of their conference rooms is an homage to a famous Italian professional cyclist, Mario Cipollini. If you ever followed cycling, then you (should) know this name. They've decked out the whole thing in his memorabilia, top-secret spy shots below...

Chazen Museum of Art, #4 - The Art, "Other", Madison, WI

There were some pieces during my visit that were interesting enough for me to take pics of, but did not fit into the contemporary or modern category, at least in my mind they didn't. So, with this last post from the Chazen, you get a bit of a hodgepodge of artwork, enjoy...

This one sits somewhat forbiddingly out front of the museum... perhaps it does get people to stop and even stop in to the museum though... I liked it. Where's Johnny Depp?

In the area of older works, the one below caught my eye for the use of the color white, and the color in general. I find many older paintings, from the 1500-1800s to be very dark. I believe this happened to have to be that way as the pigments for white paint are relatively new. So, you don't see much white on older works.

This lady caught my attention, well, because she's nude... but not just because she's nude, please. She's nude, carrying a bow, and walking a really big dog! I thought all of that together was kind of an odd pairing, but what do I know? Maybe you had to walk your dog naked back in ancient times... or maybe it's really fun to do do even today. Try it.

And after seeing one odd nude thing... the brain can't not see another. Who would have ever thought it using a strung, taught bow weapon while naked? Seems like an especially bad pose and angle to me too. Ouch! You didn't see the samurai falling for that s@#t.

And finally, to book end this "odd" section, I'll finish with another skull. I liked this one as well, and to be clear, both of them are at least 5-feet tall and pretty dang hard to miss.

I'm going to have to keep my eye on this place, for the next temporary/special exhibit and to go see anything else I missed during my initial trip.

Chazen Museum of Art, #3 - The Art, Contemporary/Modern, Madison, WI

Whenever I find myself in an art museum, I tend to gravitate toward modern and contemporary pieces, I think due in large part to the general use of bright colors, shapes, and concepts. That's what I take the most pics of and what you'll see below.

HUGE sculpture made out of carbon fiber and aluminum!
I hope my picture didn't disturb that group of people over there... wait, that's an exhibit too.

Isn't this stuff awe-inspiring and awesome?! I loved all the bright, interesting pieces, installations, and sculptures. It made the trip very worthwhile and I was very happy to have made this trip.

One more post on the Chazen coming up... stay tuned for #4.

Chazen Museum of Art, #2 - The Samurai, Madison, WI

I didn't know it going into the museum, or as I made my plans that week, but I stumbled into a very well-done exhibit on the Samuari. I would encourage anyone to go see this exhibit, it's not terribly big and wouldn't take much time to view. You could then go on to the rest of the museum, or save it for another day.

The exhibit sorted it out pretty well, with history, dress, weapons, and even the daily life. Here's some of the info and images below, but it's certainly not all.

Don't forget to come back soon for Parts #3 and #4, with much more of the normal art being exhibited in the museum.