wordless wednesday

the north carolina museum of art is five minutes away from us, and yet it took us three months to make it there for the renowned m.c. escher exhibit.  i figured we were smart to wait til the end and let the crowds die down, but i should have known better.  the exhibit was so popular that they extended its stay by a week AND opened for special hours on the martin luther king holiday.  so it turned out that we weren't the only ones with this idea on a blustery cold winter day when all of raleigh was off work and school.  we had to sort of move en masse from one piece of art to the next.

as i observed both wailing toddlers straining to get out of their strollers and sullen teenagers glued to their iphones, i was reminded how fortunate we are that our kids are still in that middle "sweet spot" where they actually enjoy doing things like this.  and with liam's mathematical mind and susanna's love of art, they were totally enthralled by all that we saw.   they would study each piece, talk about what they noticed, and pontificate on the meaning of many of them.  they discussed the similarities among his works, kept changing their minds as to which one was their favorite, and discussed some artistic components that i never would have noticed otherwise.  (at one point i found myself googling "vanishing point" after liam mentioned the term to me.)  and twice, different women standing near us caught my eye, pointed to liam and susanna, and gave me a thumbs up. 

alas, no photography was permitted until we exited the exhibit (two hours after we arrived) and found ourselves near several spherical mirrors much like the ones escher used in some of his drawings. 
 

i'm only thinking about this now as i type ... but escher was perhaps the first king of the selfie.  a man truly ahead of his time.  who knew?