Dearest Talkinggrid Readers,
Travel, to the nation’s capital is a monumental experience. It is very impressive, to say the least. This was our children’s first visit. It mirrored a pilgrimage I made to the capital with my family as a child. Both times, we saw so much. The nation’s rich history and power are amply displayed and unequivocally palpable in this vital core of the American Nation’s judiciary and administrative branches. It is awe inspiring, the wealth, and might, expressed in thunderous scale in buildings designed to remind visitors just how venerable the nation is and will always be… Timeless beauty assaults the eye with its unwavering reminder that Justice, and Order are the goal of all our political systems. The LAW and its righteous advocates, seem to reach out and demand correct behavior, moral rectitude from the insignificant masses, among which we scampered.
Today, we share with you the highlights of the utmost pleasure that is visiting The Smithsonian Gallery of Art and the National Portrait Gallery, there we had the privilege of viewing the newly unveiled “The Four Justices,” by artist Nelson Shanks. The children admired the painting spending time taking in the implications that it is only recently that women have attained the degree of respect required in posts of significant power.
The idealized portrait of George Washington got the children’s full attention.
Afterward the children had a moment of deep chat, consultation, and meditation with the portrait of Abraham Lincoln.
Machines and quirky inventions of another age also were found to be extremely intriguing.
I got a kick out of Chuck Close’s painting of former President Bill Clinton.
Yet, for me of the political portraits, Alice Neel’s intimate and intense, fierce portraits of Civil Rights activists which worked to make needed changes during her lifetime were especially touching.
Nov 12, 2013, 7:01 AM
Real brain power on dipslay. Thanks for that answer!