American Visionary Art Museum

On Sunday my parents and I went to the American Visionary Art Museum conveniently located in the Federal Hill Neighborhood and across the street from the Ritz Carlton apartment complex.

Three buildings compromise the museum, but unfortunately photos can only be taken in one. On the ceiling of that building were the Seven Days of creation, on the floor a game of chess pitting angles and demons as if some sort of final judgement.

On the left are the angles in silver (hence the halos) and on the right in bronze are the devils.

There was a corky little playground too,

and it of course came with its own graffiti.Although I missed it, this definitely looks like something that I'll keep on my radar for next year. The event is the Kinetic Sculpture Race where allegedly the most coveted awards are those for mediocre performance and next-to-last place. The sculptures are powered by humans (i.e. they sit on top of a bike) and travel a fifteen miles race course around the Inner Harbor that is composed of land, sand, mud, and the Chesapeake Bay. Check out the website http://www.kineticbaltimore.com/ it looks like tons of fun.
One of the featured artists at the museum who I thought was cool is Kenny Irwin Jr. He claims to have visions of a futuristic Pakistan, but the only place you can really find information about him is his my space page http://www.myspace.com/kennyirwin which is perhaps telling of not only his popularity but legitimacy as well.