We all know Basil likes art.
In Chicago he visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art. While in Washington, DC between Chicago and Savannah, Basil stopped at the Smithsonian to see an art exhibit about pretty women.
But what most people don’t know is that Basil’s a collector. Well, at least in his mind he is. Basil likes to collect art that he finds in people’s trash. It’s a weird habit he picked up when he was much younger. He won’t tell me why, but he’s hooked on trashy art. So a section of my house is littered with velvet Elvis paintings, dogs playing poker and other assorted masterpieces. Thank you, Basil.
Now that Basil’s in Mesa, Arizona he spent the weekend touring the Mesa Arts Center which was constructed in 2005. From the sounds of it, the place is massive — some 200,000 square feet.
The first exhibit he went to see was called neither MAN nor BEAST. Seems appropriate for the donkey. The Mesa Arts Center says, “this exhibition explores the beasts that reside within an artist’s imagination.”
Basil then went to check out Sandow Birk’s Divine Comedy. I’m assuming Basil thought this would all be pictures of clowns and people with pie in their faces, cause he told me, “I thought it would be pictures of clowns and people with pie in their faces.” Of course that’s not the case at all.
As per the Mesa Arts Center website, “
This exhibition features Sandow Birk’s most recent series of prints and paintings, which are based on his contemporary re-translation of Dante Alighieri’s 14th century epic poem The Divine Comedy—a classic work of Western literature that invites readers to tour the Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso with Dante as their guide.”
Still, I think Basil enjoyed himself all around.
He was hoping to catch a few concerts — the Mesa Arts Center has at least 4 state-of-the-art theatres — but there was nothing playing of significant interest over the weekend. Upcoming events piqued Basil’s interest, like Jungle Jack Hanna (the guy that’s always on late night TV with the animals) and Kenny Rogers, but the donkey will be long gone by then on new adventures.
(Related Tags: mesa arts center, arizona, travel, basil, tourism)
You know, I it was a little strange that Basil seemed to spend so much time out by the curb that Thursday he was here in Savannah. I had no idea he was looking for “treasures” in our trash!
Wouldn’t surprise me if he was Chris. I actually received a very large package from Basil post marked from Freeport, Bahamas, where he was after visiting you in Savannah. I haven’t looked at it yet, but it makes me wonder what DID he find in your trash? Hhmmm…
It is strange. Gorgeous is a rummage sale Queen who doesn’t throw away anything of value that she could use to feed some junker’s fix. If he found it in our trash you probably should give it a very careful sniff test before you open it!