So today we played hooky from work and went to the Art Institute of Chicago.  (If it's good enough for Ferris and Cameron…)

Holy crow but Van Gogh's self portrait
[link]
is *way* more vibrant in person than it ever looks in print.  For a dude who was possibly protanopically colorblind, dude knew his color theory.

I am also developing artist dude-crushes on
John Singer Sargent
Jusepe de Ribera
Pieter Claesz
Jean Baptiste Oudry
and
John Phillip Simpson.

I also am fascinated with the sculpture of Francois Rude and Charles Cordier.

I was going to spam you all with photos, but really, [link] has better ones already.  (Except for the sculptures.  Not nearly enough angles are taken to fully appreciate those, and my camera phone came out blurry.)

Saw American Gothic in person, and oddly enough found myself ignoring it in favor of a painting over in the corner of the room:  "Hogs Killing a Snake" by John Steuart Curry.



*This* is the kind of composition to which I can only aspire.

(Y'know what's really sad?  From the very depths of my nerd core I am *dying* to mylittleponify this.  I just can't figure out what the heck the Mane Six would be doing with a rattlesnake.)