Yesterday (Saturday 10/20/2012) we took a bus trip from the Tiffin Art Guild to the Cleveland Museum of Art, one of the three or four best art museums in the nation. In my book it comes in at number 3, after the Met and the National. When I lived in the Cleveland area the museum was already huge, but in recent years it has expanded with new construction to four times its previous size. The skylighted atrium alone could house many other museums!

But size alone does not make a museum great. The CMA has one of the best collections ever. They have more than 56 thousand paintings and drawings alone. Although I am interested in more than painting, I spent most of my visit looking at the art hung on the walls.

Their collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts is also famous. There are many reliefs and monuments from the Amarna Period, too (Akhenaten and Nefertiti.)

One of the paintings that knocked my hat in the creek is Joseph O'Sickey's INTERIOR WITH ORIENTAL FURNISHINGS (1966-67.) Joe liked the same colors and hues as me.He painted huge canvases. I wish I had the courage. Nobody buys huge canvases, unless they are NYC art collectors and great museums like Cleveland. Here is that painting.



I painted like Joe when I was in college. I was always fascinated with his eye and his muse. I considered going to New York and knocking on his studio door just to ask him what he had for lunch. A great unsung American artist.