The Great US Road Trip: The American Visionary Art Museum and a Visitor from the West Coast

Thursday, September 29, 2022

The American Visionary Art Museum and a Visitor from the West Coast

Baltimore, MD

I drove across the country to get away from this guy and he shows up in Baltimore for work!

Future Planning

Today we spent the morning thinking about our next stops after Austin in January. We came up with a few destinations that made sense and Donna waded through property postings looking for that perfect next spot. Well perfect is a bit optimistic. Nothing is perfect. There is always something that you kinda just have to live with because the rest of it just works. Things like a TV that is too high, a queen size bed that is rounded on the edges that makes it feel like a double bed, a couch that isn't comfortable, or a kitchen table that you bang your knee on and the whole thing tries to collapse in on itself. These are the things you just can't really figure out by looking at a few photos of a house. Donna made a list and then sent the winners to me and I took a look. Sometimes it works the other way. Like I have said in another post, there are a few key things we look for and then hope the rest works out. Anyway, enough with the preamble, our next stay after Austin is...

Memphis doesn't have particularly good transit but we booked a hipster neighborhood that should entertain us during the times we aren't headed downtown. We are really excited about this next stay. We haven't explored that area at all.

American Visionary Art Museum

Later in the afternoon we walked back to the American Visionary Art Museum on Federal Hill. We passed by it the other day and said we would return so we did. It's described as the nation’s museum for self-taught, intuitive artistry. Ernesto, one of our friends from when we lived in San Francisco, said we should go there and he was right. It was a really fun space filled with fabulous art and the gift shop is awesome too. John Waters says this about The Sideshow Museum Store, “the best museum gift shop you’ve ever been to in your life.” We spent a lot of our time in the gift shop trying not to buy everything.

Adam Kurtzman Gold Hand

Even the outside of the building is a sight to see!

This display of artwork gave me Tim Burton vibes.

Johanna Burke's 2016 New York Holiday Window Display was moved here and is a permanent part of the collection.

There was a whole wall of art devoted to farts. Bob Benson Flatulence Post

I didn't see an artist to credit for this piece but I liked it a lot.

The 2nd floor is closed for an installation. The stairwell going up looks awesome.

Art for sale in Sideshow

It's like Archie McPhees but way cooler.

"We mus do somthing!" New old stock Queen Amidala cups and lids for sale.

I almost bought Playboar to give to a friend when we hit Disney World together.

These matchbook images were awesome too. I saw one I wanted to buy for another friend but restrained.

"Just because we're bereaved doesn't make us saps!"

The rug really tied the elevator together

Everyone turns into a kid when they are in front of a fun house mirror.

A nice take on the optimist / pessimist quote

So Divine!

Baltimore has a Kinetic Sculpture Race and they have a few of the sculptures on display.

Edith Massey was an American Actress in a few of John Waters' films.

An image of Salvation Mountain in Niland California

There is a "Bird's Nest" on the 3rd floor balcony that you can go out onto to get great views.

They had a lot of art by Matt Sesow that I liked. A Simple Game of Spud His story is interesting and you can get a glimpse of it here in this short video.

Screen Painting is a thing here in Baltimore. They had a few on display here. Painted screens allowed people to look out during the day without people on the street being able to see in. They mostly focused on houses set in nature to add views of nature to row houses which didn't have much greenery. You can see a video about them here.

There was a whole area devoted to Mechanical Sculptures. You can push a button and watch them animate. I spent some time making gifs of my favorites.


		Paul Spooner How To Live No. 17 Spaghetti, of the Cabaret Mechanical Theatre

A Visitor Comes to Town

About a month ago Tony, a good friend of ours, who I met working at Disneyland and then later worked with a 2 game companies, contacted me and asked when we would be in Baltimore. I let him know and it turned out his work trip overlapped with our stay here. Tonight I met Tony at the Stadium / Federal Hill Light Raillink Station and we spent a fun evening in Federal Hill catching up and exploring a bit of Baltimore together.

We started at Game On for some pinball and beer.

Things got silly quickly like they normally do when we get together. Here I am enjoying a Natty Boh which is the local lager here in Baltimore and has been for years and years.

The bar had some great art painted on the walls

And some neon

There was an upstairs bar that wasn't serving on a Wednesday night so Tony set up shop there to finish some work he had to do. He had a few calls to take and there was a chance he was going to have to hop a Lyft to go to dinner with the team he was working with. I played pinball while he wrapped up work. It all turned out fine and the dinner meeting in Sparks, MD was called off so he was able to hang out the rest of the evening.

We hopped a Lyft to a brewery I had been wanting to go to. I looked online and there were photos of food but when we got there it turned out the food was from food trucks that weren't there on a Wednesday night. We had a beer there and then walked to late dinner (for me, normal time for him).