Monday, November 28, 2011

Part 2: What are you passionate about?


Me at The Corcoran Gallery of Art with the photographer
Hank WillisThomas. His exhibit, Strange Fruit is on display,
right now, at The Corcoran, and it is phenomenal!

I am passionate about ARTISTS and their ART!

I was not going to start writing about my passions until later in the week. I was going to give my readers, you, a chance to marinate on Part One, but something happen tonight, and I HAD to write about it right now; my heart is on fire.

Quiet as it is kept, I love the arts! I spend a fair amount of time in museums, reading books, seeing plays, and chasing authors, photographers, painters etc all over the city.

I am extremely grateful that I live ten minutes outside of DC, and I get to do the things that I love to do all of the time. The added bonus is that most of the museums are free and there are always great FREE exhibits. There are also lots and lots of theatres and many opportunities to see many different types of plays at all different prices. I love where I live!!!!!

So, I was watching the news a few weeks back, and they were talking about an exhibit titled 30 Americans at The Corcoran gallery. You know that I got real excited, and went to The Corcoran's website and realized that they had two other exhibits that I wanted to see as well as 30 Americans: Strange Fruit  and some photos from the Gordon Parks collection. I instantly started plotting the ideal time to visit this museum, and there is no better time than a holiday weekend.

Saturday, I went to The Corcoran gallery, and I normally don't publicly admit these type of things, but my heart was beating fast from the time that I got to the museum until right now. (My heart is still glad.) I left the gallery feeling happier and smarter.

At the museum, I read that the artist who is responsible for Strange Fruit, Hank Willis Thomas, was going to give a FREE lecture tonight at The Corcoran. I called the museum and was told that there were no more spaces left to see him, but I could come early and get on the waiting list. So, I left work, had an extremely challenging workout, had a real quick dinner on the run, and went to get on that waiting list, and I got to see and hear Hank Willis Thomas (God favors me!).


Hank with one of his first pictures ever published. The guy in the picture who was
was slain, was his cousin and the inspiration for many of his photographs!

Hank Willis Thomas is a thirty-five year old photographer (Young, Gifted and Talented). Hearing him talk about his photographs and his thoughts about them was completely captivating. Hank took the audience from crying to laughing with his many fascinating stories surrounding photos.

Tonight, I could have easily gone to workout and spent the rest of the night at home, but instead, I decided to follow my passion, and I went to see and hear an artist talk about his art. (My happiness level went up ten notches because of this experience.)

So, whatever it is that you like to do, DO IT. Make no excuses and see how your life will go from ordinary to extraordinary.


Hank talked about how he met the man who took this picture, Ernest Withers.
Guess who else met Ernest and got an autographed copy of this same picture on the walls in
her house? ME, I'm just saying.....
The Ernest Withers' picture inspired Hank to create this exhibit!


Guess who I ran into at The Corcoran tonight?


The author A'Leila Bundles who is the the great-great-granddaughter of the
famed Madam C.J. Walker! What a joy to run into an author!


and my homegirl, Bridgett and her son, from Mobile, Alabama (Small World)!

Really now, go out and do the things that you are passionate about, and you don't have to wait until the weekend! Do it today.

READ PART 1

3 comments:

Tracy Ricks said...

Totally AWESOME!!!!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the encouragement!!!!

Jacqueline said...

Thanks for reading. I really do appreciate it.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...