Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Warhol's Silver Clouds

Well look at that - I'm writing on ye olde blog. I'm in Pittsburgh to present a paper on novel and film design at an academic conference.

I flew in this morning and had the day to wander around Pittsburgh, which really, doesn't take very long. I've never been to an industrial US city - and one that the recession has obviously hit pretty hard. Lots of boarded up shops and restaurants and near deserted streets.

But Pittsburgh is the birthplace of one Andy Warhol and subsequently houses the Andy Warhol Museum. I'm not a huge Warhol fan but was really impressed with the seven floor museum and its collection. I hadn't realized that Warhol was such an accomplished photographer and his commercial design work from the 1950s before he entered his own rather extended 15 minutes was cool.

But the best piece was Warhol's Silver Clouds - iPhone snap above. I stood in that room by myself for a really long time and was amazed that the clouds seemed to magically avoid me. I think I carry a strong energy field...or I am surrounded by evil.