Diamonds in the Dust

I spent a recent afternoon at the Chrysler Museum across the harbor in Norfolk.  It was so warm in the bright afternoon sun that the heat felt like a blow as I got out of the car.  The Chrysler was cool, elegant, and inviting in the midst of all that.

I love the Degas, Renoir, and Dali paintings which are part of the permanent collection.  However, I also like to catch up on the new exhibits.  Two different photography collections were being shown.  One was called City of Light in which black and white photographs from back in the day were shown, many of them depicting various spots in New York City.  The other collection were photographs taken by Baldwin Lee of lower income African Americans from the deep South, full of pathos, suffering, and one that made me laugh out loud.

The star of this exhibit for me, however, was in a space which occupies a long hall directly across from the lovely little restaurant.  The installations change season to season.  The current work was created by  New York artist Judith Braun who used only charcoal dust and her fingers to create this amazing mural..  The notes regarding her work shared that she was fascinated to think that the human body is composed mainly of carbon, as was the dust she used to create.

I sat there a long time in the midst of a chaotic week absorbing the peace of this mural.

Learn more about this work here:

http://www.chrysler.org/exhibitions/diamond-dust/