Today we took a field trip to the Grace
Hudson museum about a 30 minute drive south of us. On the way we had a
geography lesson, "This is our town...", "Now we are driving past the
woods...", "Now we are driving into Ukiah..." etc.
When we go to the museum the woman at the front desk looked slightly taken aback.
She had the kid of look on her face that said, "You want to take two
young kids to see art work at a museum?" I paid my donation, which was
extremely cheap I might add, a dollar for each of us. I then asked Nykki
if he wanted to sign their registry book. The woman behind the desk
looked anxious like she didn't want a little kid scribbling his name in
their book but all she said was, "You can write your name?"
The first room of the museum was dedicated to Huicol art. The Huichol Indians are the native peoples of the Sierra Madre moutians who have preserved much of their pre-Columbian traditions. They are a deeply shamanic peoples who smoke peyote and receive visions. These visions are then the basis of their art work which they fashion from yarn pressed into beeswax on a tac board. The art work is colorful, vibrant, lively, emotional, and breath taking.
We watched a video on how the process is done and how long it takes to make each work of art. Nykki sat through most of the film. When we walked around the art work didn't
hold his attention for as long as it did mine but he liked me to tell him the names of the peices and we talked about the animals, ghosts and Gods featured in them. He especially liked the ones that had deer.
We then walked into the second room which had old antiques from the first white settlers in our area along side a display of the basketry of the native Pomo peoples. Nykki again, wanted to look at everything but was content to look quickly. I was disappointed that I couldn't take pictures.
The last room featured the art work of the woman for whom the museum is named - Grace Hudson. Nykki liked looking at the oil paintings of the Pomo children and he raced quickly around the room quickly regarding each one.
We then visited the gift shop (which was part of the deal of going to the museum) and Nykki picked out a children's book about the local Salmon population. He loves
fish. I wonder if he'll want to study them or eat them when he grows up!LOL
We ended our trip to the museum with a walk around the beautiful gardens and a glance at the Sun House which is where Grace painted her art work over a hundred years ago.
When we were leaving I asked Nykki what his favorite part was and he said he liked the sign on the Sun House. I'm not sure why he liked this best out of all the things we saw but there you have it!
We came home and we looked up some Huichol art online and Nykki drew a picture of his own style of Huichol art.
