Day 3: Minneapolis to Chicago, Day 4: Chicago

Day 3: Minneapolis to Chicago

I was born in Philadelphia and currently live in Minneapolis. I write for both children and adults. Kate DiCamillo

Pics: Aloft fitness center, Kiff’s studio building and work area

No fitness center today, we breakfast in the room on day-old Rustica pastry; not as good as fresh, still damn good. Ease on out to the airport, another full flight on Southwest, arrive in Chicago in time to meet up with Kiff Slemmons, a jewelry artist well represented in DB’s collection and a very nice person. She lives in the West End and takes us to lunch around the corner from her apartment (in a converted former printing business building) to a Mexican café. Hey, this is the alternative to the Frontera Grill: we have great tamales, chicken enchiladas verde, a very authentic soup, and free samples of chocolate cake with coconut icing, total $40 for three. They also sell bakery items, make good looking tortas (sandwiches) and are extremely friendly.

Kiff has been working for years with women in Oaxaca building up a jewelry business based on pieces made with paper elements. She knows here Mexican cooking…and, the same people own and run a taqueria down the street: La Lagartija. If you going to be doing the art gallery tour thing in this part of town, here are your restaurant choices!

After lunch, we visit Kiff’s studio (apart from her in-loft work area) in an old building on Michigan Avenue across the street and below the Art Institute, and DB manages to pick up a few more pieces.

Walk back to the Palomar Hotel where we’ll be staying for the next four nights, It’s meet and greet time with the other members of the Oakland Museum art tour, a few of whom we’ve been on other OMCA tours with before.

Oh, the weather! Oh, the weather! Cool in Minneapolis (they had snow flurries during the game their tonight), and in Chicago cold and drizzly. Ahhhhhhhh, spring is here….


Day 4: Chicago

The last time the Chicago Cubs won a World Series was in 1908. The last time they were in one was 1945. Hey, any team can have a bad century - Tom Trebelhorn

Pics: Around Chicago’s skyline from the planetarium, Soldier Field (from the moving bus), sculpture nearby (south of Millenium Park), art near and in Museum of Contemporary Art

THB gets up early and walks 7 blocks east to the Fox and Obel grocery market to snack the freshly baked sourdough, a mini-baguette that looks more like an overgrown sandwich roll, and a crumbly raisin scone. The sourdough was worth a 70 block walk (though not east, that would’ve put THB under quite a bit of Lake Michigan water). Two coffees from downstairs at the Palomar, $6.50 (yes, three different sized items for only $6.50…who says prices are inflating?).


Then THB also goes to the fitness center…can this be true? For about 30 minutes of riding the elliptical it is true.

First part of the tour today is taking an architectural tour of the lakefront, with a local guide on the microphone. Great views from out by the planetarium (and the recently deconstructed small airport that Daley had destroyed as one of his last acts as mayor). Then a stop to view an installation by Magdalena Aakanowicz, of 93 half-shell figures missing heads and hands (shades of season two of The Wire…skip season two, go straight to season three).

Next, we get visit the Museum of Contemporary Art where one of the main curators leads us through a show of work (mostly from the late 80s to current days) by Jim Nutt, an artist that started in the 60s, was part of a wacky (funk?) group based in the bay area for a few years way back then, and has been Chicago-based for the last 35 years or so. In his early work, Nutt painted acrylic on the back of plexiglass, so the images are the reverse of what he actually painted. Almost all the works in the show are portraits of women. THB would say that it has tinges of surrealism and cubism, and the long arc of the work is fascinating. After our tour, Jim Nutt arrives and he and the main curator of the Oakland Museum (who is along on the tour), and an old friend of Jim’s, have a conversation about the good old days when Jim was teaching at Sacramento State.

Afterwards, we get a chance to tour the museum where we catch another Oppenheim puppet (with a “liberty” bell that bangs the stationary puppet loudly every few minutes), Serra, Flavin wall sconces, and work that the Museum has selected from its collection that was influenced by Nutt. Much better than we’ve seen here in the past.

Lunch at Puck’s, the Museum’s café. Green salads with dressing on the side, a very mediocre pizza (how can that be at a Wolfgang restaurant?), chicken with purple mashed potatoes (pretty good), and so-so mini cookies (included).

Now it’s raining lightly, back to the bus for a short ride to the Merchandise Mart and the first of three visits to the Art Fair, a large group of galleries presenting a mix of contemporary and upcoming artists (with a few throwbacks like Mapplethorpe and Motherwell). This thing is huge, so the first visit is almost like the appetizer course, with nobody else in the restaurant.

After our return to the hotel and rest-up, we’re back to have “dinner” at the Art Fair, meaning this is more like being at a restaurant with lots of patrons, every table full, and nobody waiting. Dinner is a cheese plate with a two year supply of cheese, a hummus platter, a couple of extra rolls, wine and ice tea, total of $35 for three of us share above. Three hours of more art this evening and back to the hotel, in a slight drizzle.