Why So Stuffy My Love?

A guest post by Melanie Rothschild

I am confused by a lot of the world.

Sometimes I forget just how perplexed I am because in order to be a functional person I have to pretty much pretend (even to myself) that I’m on board with all the things which baffle me. Otherwise, I just couldn’t get through even an hour out and about in life.

High on my list is museums. I love the idea of museums: places where people have set aside space and time to basically say . . . hey, this is really something cool . . . come have a look and groove on this spectacular stuff. Museums are places which I think should remind us of how immensely capable human beings are. Being in a museum can be a chance to spread out in your head; to consider things you may never “muse” about in your regular routine. I suppose you could say they’re, appreciation-centers.

It’s a shame to think that we have to travel long distances in order to be able to see and realize new things. A good museum trip should have the potential to be as stimulating as a trip to some new, far away place. It can be intensely energizing – or not.

Somehow, somewhere along the way, museums have become very serious-minded, staid and well I’ll say it . . . stuffy and uptight spots. Often there’s an unspoken code of behavior which seems to be something along the lines of what I imagine is required during an audience with the queen. It’s hard to feel inspired if you’re minding your p’s and q’s all afternoon.

There doesn’t seem to be much of a precedent for frolick-some museum behavior.

And it often seems like it’s just too late to turn that particular ship around.

But at the base of my “temple of thought” is the precept that artists are supposed to see things in different ways. And, somehow, push their agendas forward. At this moment, floating the notion of full-out museum-time fun is my particular compulsion.

To that end, I like promoting this irreverent plan. A few recent museum trips yielded pictures which I hope will inspire others to re-direct old notions and head to a museum anticipating a high time.

To that end – bon voyage.

Getty Center Museum

Kudos to the Getty Center for providing this fine opportunity.

Legion of Honor Museum

Thank you to the Legion of Honor in San Francisco for not kicking this lovely young woman out the front door.

Melanie Rothschild is a self-taught artist whose elaborate interior accessories have been sold in stores throughout the United States including Neiman-Marcus, the shops at the Smithsonian Institution, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center and hundreds of others for almost two decades. Her work is shown in fine art galleries and has been licensed to Target. She considers moxie, an irreverent nature, and a respect for mistake-making to be the tools of her trade. Melanie has a master’s degree in the Study of Creativity and an undergrad degree in Anthropology. She is from and lives in Los Angeles. “Like” Melanie on Facebook today! Melanie’s first book  The Art of Mistakes will be published by North Light Books in the fall of 2014.

Click here to see more of Melanie’s artwork and a short preview of her documentary, MISTAKE.

Cover_U3804_ArtAbandonment For ideas about sharing art with the world outside of a museum, check out The Art Abandonment Project by Michael deMeng and Andrea Matus deMeng.

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