Wake Up

This morning our class went to the Olympic Sculpture Park to draw. The first time I saw Richard Serra's Wake in photographs while it was being installed, I wasn't impressed. When I saw it in person for the first time from afar (and above, really) I still wasn't impressed. But this year I've visited it a few times and really gone up to examine it more closely. It's grown on me. A lot. For me, waslking around inside the various steel constructions is like swimming with a pod of whales, or being trapped in a harbor amongst a fleet of gigantic ocean transport vessels. My art history classes have also helped me understand more about how to view modern and contemporary art. Without that backstory a lot of things just look ridiculous, when really, there are a lot of complex ideas and techniques that can go into an otherwise simple-seeming piece.