Last Thursday - since it was the first Thursday of the month - the Pulitzer was open from 6-9pm so visitors could view the Flavin works at night.  My parents and grandmother came out for dinner (at Hodaks! Another St. Louis must-visit, if you’re unfamiliar) and to see the exhibition.

It was really nice outside, so we went out on the watercourt patio to enjoy it for a little bit.  The colors bouncing off the water were so incredible, I had to run to my office and grab the camera and take a picture.  As with most photographs of Flavin, the picture doesn’t do it justice - but I wanted to post it anyway:

In connection to Maria’s post today about Google Earth, I also have a weakness for looking up places.  You can really get sucked in, exploring areas, finding your childhood home, etc.  Also on Google Maps (speaking of, something I only recently tried out because it’s not up and running in St. Louis - have you used the Street View option yet? It’s crazy! Click here and try it on the Art Institute of Chicago).

I’m glad to see Google Earth is updated with our current buildings at the Contemporary and the Pulitzer - I think the last time I checked us out on Google maps, it showed the Contemporary still under construction! It’s fun to look at Joe from that view….awhile ago, I wrote a post about Twain downtown too, which is pretty interesting to view from that angle as well. Take a look here.

A view of the back of the Pulitzer building, with trees in bloom:

Yesterday we got blasted (again) with a huge snow storm in St. Louis.  Which meant a shortened work day for a lot of us around here.  But before heading out, Lisa and Camran trekked out to the courtyard to check out Joe in the snow.  They got some amazing pics - I thought I’d share a few of these with you today:

With the close of Water fast approaching, thoughts have turned towards the opening of our next exhibition - Dan Flavin: Constructed Light - and what that means for our respective jobs here.  For me, that means lots of press, marketing, and new website sections.  We’re meeting with our design company soon to discuss concepts.  Something I’ve been drawn to lately is non-traditional advertising - not just the typical ads in the typical magazines.  But what exactly does it include?  I’m trying to learn more.  Any suggestions for good sites to research?  Interesting ad campaigns that have really struck you? I’ll keep you posted on anything I find too.

When you walk in the back door of the Pulitzer building (which is the way we enter and exit when the galleries are closed), you come up a stairway along side the watercourt. Sometimes this can offer a variety of surprises first thing in the morning — we’ve had swirling steam in the winter, and massive grasshoppers on the window in the summer. However, this morning we encountered the biggest surprise yet — a falcon sitting at the end of the watercourt taking a bath. I took a bunch of photos for the blog (of course) and saved them in a folder called “PFA wildlife” where I also put photos of our local cat, Untitled.

Here you can see where he was sitting in the relation to the rest of the watercourt…

And here he is up-close:

We called him our Thanksgiving Falcon. Not really sure what that means, but it seemed appropriate right before we closed up for the holidays.  We’ll be taking a mini-hiatus on the blog too.  Our galleries will still be open, however, on Wednesday and Saturday — so come by and see if he’s still hanging around. Now we just need to come up with a name for him….

What does it mean to really love a work of art?  Perhaps nothing less than to infuse your life with its image for all time with a tattoo.  I used to a know a guy who had Michelangelo’s famous hands of God and Adam tattooed across his shoulder blades.  I thought that was devotion.  But today I have discovered a tattoo that puts those hands in perspective.  Look at this tatoo of Max Beckmann’s “Fisherwomen” on the arm of Sal, one of the guys who helped install the Pulitzer’s current exhibition (which includes “Fisherwomen”). Not only is it huge, it’s personalized: the two figures on the right have been made to look like him and his girlfriend!  That is some serious devotion.  Wow.

For the 4th, our blog will be taking a mini-hiatus. We’ll be back to business as usual tomorrow. Have a great holiday!

Tyler Green wrote a post today about the Nelson-Atkin’s new addition and the announcement that it will open on June 9th. I recently wrote about how much I enjoy their blog, and especially the header featuring an image with both the old building and new. I can’t WAIT to see it in person. Follow the progress on their blog here. There was also a really great article recently in Metropolis about the new building — check it out here.

In other news, the Pultizer has a lot of events coming up, which are now featured on our website. Our programming and events always relate to the exhibition we currently have on view. With the Portrait exhibition, there are tons of connections to be made. So coming up soon we have…

–A student event and panel discussion called “People Watching at the Pulitzer” (get it?).
–A night of poetry and discussion with the writers Mary Jo Bang, Peter Campion, Geoff Dyer, & Rapahel Rubinstein
–An outdoor screening of Andy Warhol’s film Chelsea Girls

…and that’s just through the beginning of May.

A few months ago, I wrote about our friendly neighborhood cat (and unofficial Pulitzer mascot) Untitled. We haven’t seen him for awhile, but we are always getting little clues that he’s still hanging around (clues that our facilities manager, Steve G., is less than excited about finding in our courtyard….). Yesterday, we looked out the windows in the library and found another kind of evidence that Untitled is still around and that Joe continues to be his favorite place to hang out. Take a look:

It’s a little hard to see, but here’s a pic of his paw prints leading into the opening.

Here are more prints inside. He must be a pretty big expert on the sculpture by now. Wonder if he gives tours?