wednesday, fourteen july: the world
Yesterday’s expedition was the New York Botanical Garden. It was my first time at the NYBG, but as Declan reminded me several times, it wasn’t his first time–his grandparents have taken him to the train show there, and he did a school field trip in the beginning of second grade. He couldn’t remember where in the garden his field trip went, but we have a piece of graph paper tacked to our dining-room wall with his sketch of an orchid and a lily pad, so I’m assuming they were in the conservatory that has the lily pads. Anyway it was fabulous–it’s not a cheap admission, especially if you go for the “gardens and galleries” pass that has full access to the Kusama exhibition, but worth it.
I love art but lack knowledge–I hadn’t heard of Yayoi Kusama before the NYBG started advertising the heck out of this special exhibition, and having seen the exhibition I don’t have the vocabulary to explain why it’s so cool. But seriously, it’s so cool. Exuberant and creepy and beautiful, playful and thoughtful at the same time. There’s one piece (titled “Pumpkins Screaming About Love Beyond Infinity”) that you see in a darkened room, and a field of wild-looking spotted pumpkins start to light up, one by one, creating a mirrored infinite field of glowing pumpkins. It’s beautiful and strange and perfect.
I’ve talked before about Summer Mom versus Normal Mom; yesterday’s attempt to get lunch at the Botanical Garden perfectly demonstrated the difference, in that Normal Mom would never say that a fruit cup and some strawberry Pocky constitutes an acceptable lunch as long as you round it out with a bag of potato chips. (Cultural institutions have no particular obligation to provide kid-friendly lunches, sure, but my kid was not going to eat a fancy sandwich on a crusty baguette, or a bowl of lentil soup, or a custom-tossed salad. I tried to sell him on the expensive wood-fired personal pizzas but he wasn’t interested, so our options were down to fruit cups and chips. Next time we’ll bring our own lunch.)
Today’s tarot card is The World. The illustrations in this deck are pen-and-ink, mostly black and white, and when color is used it ends up being pretty striking. The World is drawn as a ball of light, ringed with flowers and drifting in a field of stars, with a delicate rainbow halo. It’s luminous. It’s a card that signifies wholeness, completion. Having what you need. I need to think about this one.