For one brief shining day the sun was out, the temps were in the low 40s and everyone came out of their winter caves to inhale the glory yesterday. The laser beam of the sun was so acid bright that it was difficult for my eyes to adjust to the glare. ART + SUN = FUN! Unfortunately it’s raining today, and I’m hunkered down in front of the fireplace (ok so it’s gas).  Retrace our  fun-in-the-sun day with me…

I  manipulated this photo to make the brown remnants of last summer’s plants green!  Truly though, the snow was melting and we did see new green sprouts.

Chicago’s Millennium Park is featuring contemporary sculptures from China. This one by Chen Wenling was entitled “Valiant Struggle No.11.” The pig motif is one of his signature images. He turns this local symbol of wealth (the pig) into an icon of contemporary Chinese society: fantastic, ironic, satiric and comical. Holding on to the dangling pig are a man and woman.

From Millennium Park we took the walkway to the sensational Modern Wing of the Art Institute.

One of the rooms featured wallpaper with repetitive images of a black man hanging from a tree and a white man sleeping.  Cat litter bags are lined up against the wall, and the unfilled wedding gown stood in the middle of the room. The next picture offers the artist’s explanation.

This struck me because I was just speaking with a dear friend about the plight of gay marriage in our country.


It was fun to see people out walking dogs, pushing baby carriages and enjoying, hopefully, one of the last weekends of ice skating.

We grabbed a cup of coffee and walked over to the Gehry band shell. It wasn’t too hard to imagine spreading a blanket on a warm summer night to listen to the music.

Looking UP…the patterns of surrounding buildings.

Looking DOWN, it was fun to see the art in a worn sidewalk.

We stoppd to pick up a falafel to eat in a sunny spot by the river.

The falafel shop had this funny, strange shelf of figurines.

Fun in the sun. A hopeful sign that summer is on its way!