Tara Donovan

One of my favorite things to do in San Diego is visit the museums. Its actually one of my favorite things to do in any city, but I am more familiar with San Diego's of course since I live here. 2/3 of my family moved to Maryland a couple of years ago, giving me the excuse to visit our country's capitol, where ALL the museums are free to the public. Amazing. Although our city here on the west coast does have admission fees, which are usually the same price of a movie ticket, there are a couple loopholes once in a while. Every Tuesday of the month there is a group of different museums that are free in Balboa Park, and then of course there is TNT, or Thursday Night Thing at the Museum of Contemporary Art which used to be every month, now is every few months, always advertised on the Museum's website TNT used to be free, but now they do charge $10.00 for the general public, $7.00 for students, and free to members. Still worth it, in my humble opinion.

Right now, at the MCASD downtown, they have an exhibit on Tara Donovan's works, the largest survey of her pieces since she started the projects. For those of you who are 25 years old or younger, the exhibit is FREE!! Otherwise I believe it is $10.00 for general public, $7.00 for students, free for members. Tara Donovan is an artist who for over a decade now has been taking man-made objects that we use in everyday life, and allowing them to speak to her in an artistic way. Let me explain that... She will take an object like a toothpick,tempered glass, or paper plates, notice how it's physical properties work naturally and what the object's capability or potential is. Then she will produce a sculptural piece made from thousands of that object that reflects not only this capability and natural physical property of the object, but also morphe or tweak it to reflect geological properties that we see around us in nature. It is incredible, and if you haven't already, you need to go see this exhibit... I love her. I've seen the exhibit twice now, the first time with a friend, the second by myself while listening to the audio tour that has Tara's commentary on it. I think I enjoyed it more the second time, with the solitude to soak in what the objects were saying to me, as any type of art will speak to you differently each time you see it, one of my favorite qualities and a main reason why I am so addicted to the art culture.

Here is an example of one of her pieces made out of styrofoam cups and hot glue.

So go see the exhibit, and then let me know what you think, what it made you feel like, how her work penetrated you. It's on exhibit until February 28th. If you don't live in SD... check her out online at the link I posted on this post.