Strawb & Jago - The Great Art Review

Well it was that time of the month again last Friday.  No, not THAT time of the month, the time when Strawb and Jago hit the streets of Perth for a fun day out.  It was my turn to pick and organise and I was really excited about this one as I had this jaunt in mind the very first time we started this little project, in January! But I was scared it would be like when you have a plan all mapped out and you have imagined in your head how you think it should go (complete with misty mood lighting, skinny jeans and a handsome waiter), then things don’t quite go to that plan and you have two choices :

1. get all spoilt brat like and pout and whine and make people and places be how you want them to be or
2. say, hang it all, go with the flow and find the nearest bar to have a whine wine in.

We chose #2.  But first lets set the scene of what I had in mind ...

He was just a waiter, but those intense grey eyes and handcuffs hanging from his jeans told a different story .... oh. Hang on, sorry, that was my dream last night after the 50 Shades re-cap yesterday. (Read Here) Damn.  Ok.  Here is the Art Gallery fantasy.  He was just the art curator, but those intense grey ... tricked ya! 

Her

Me

 


Art Gallery.  Take 3.  We would be all Bohemian and wear flowing skirts and leather sandals.  The start of the day would be chai latte and some witty banter, soft laughter, dusty sunlight.  Our wooden jewellery would rattle as we motioned languidly to make a point.  We would smile knowingly at each other, like we knew it all and the others in the art gallery coffee shop didn't.  We would take the Picasso to Warhol tour, and stand back at seven different angles and 3 different planes and nod and go ah ah like we 'got' what the artists were saying.  Then a nod and a wan smile to each other, as we got what each other got.  A lot of gotting, getting done?

No words needed to be spoken, the art was a conversation all its own.  Afterwards we would have lunch, duck salad with crisp SSB.  We would say artistic things to each other like 'I think Warhol set out to challenge the idealist visions and personal emotions conveyed by abstraction" or something to that effect.  We would air kiss at the end of the day and she would jump on the back of her boyfriends Triumph and I would walk to my inner city apartment to have dinner with my ten cats.

Whoa Betsy.  Hold on there.  Got a bit carried away in art fantasy land.

So how did it really go?

Strawb got lost.  Which was entirely expected.  By both of us.  I must say however, this poor direction lark of hers may be a ruse ... she ended up at the Moon and Sixpence when she should have been at the city train station.  Me thinks she knows EXACTLY where she is going :-)  I had to bring her in to land via phone and directions past the Green Cactus.  We were both in need of what the Moon and Sixpence specialises in by this time, but it was only 10am.  Coffee would have to do. It was good coffee but crap bruscetta. 

The 'Green Cactus' - a million dollar folley

I presented Strawb with a few surprises.  One was we could go and check out the touring Picasso to Warhol : 14 Modern Masters exhibition.  She liked that idea.  The second was when I pulled out two cartridge books, and two pencil cases with a 2B pencil, rubber and sharpener and to sweeten the deal, musk lifesavers.  The idea was to get all inspired after looking at the art and go and do some sketches ourselves. She didn't like that idea so much. Tough titties - I had bought the stuff and we were going to use it.

The review of the actual art warrants a whole blog post of its own.  Which I will do shortly - stay tuned.  All you need to know for now is this - getting the silly girl giggles in a very posh art gallery is not good form.  Especially when there is a tag team of security guards watching you breathe.  Especially when you are the wrong side of 45 and should know better.   It took us all of 30 minutes to see the entire collection and we really did try to look at the paintings in seven different angles and on three different planes and it still looked ridiculous (as did we).  We tried to be Boho and Ahhh and Ohhh and smile wanly, but hey, who the hell were we kidding?

We were art frauds.

So we went and had lunch.  Authentic Thai. Urbanspoon rated this place 4.5 spoons but we were a tad disappointed.  Especially when we found out it wasn't licenced and the nearest bottle shop was the Brass Monkey.  So we ate up quick and headed there. 

True to our word, we did do some art.  We bought takeaway coffee (loved the little coffee box) and sat on the steps outside the Alexander Library and created (what we consider) better art than any Picasso (without the use of LSD) and Warhol (we actually got out our pencils and DREW something).

Strawb reckons she has got an appointment with the Art Gallery curator next week to take her sketch of the arches in.  That's why I cant share her masterpiece here.  You will see it soon enough on the walls of the gallery.

My masterpiece? ... see for yourself.

For further installments of the monthly Strawb/Jago days check these out:

Day # 2
 
Day # 3