Tidbits Adventures: Dallas

You know, I've lived in Dallas my entire life (well, in the D/FW metroplex or whatever, if you wanna be technical), but I've never taken a decidedly decisive decision to explore it. Well, there was that one time back in high school, when I went downtown with my high-school-love (and now good friend) James and walked around for hours carrying a bunch of grapefruits and eating corn in a cup, and so much other good stuff. But ever since then, Dallas had remained a magical mystery to me.

On the road to discover myself, I suggested to my younger sister that we should explore Dallas. We narrowed our exploration to just the Dallas Museum of Art, since, if you really think about it, Dallas is quite large and it is kind of an overwhelming task to do everything there is to do in a single day. I had been to the museum one and a half times before, the first as some nerd-field trip, and the half when my uncle, sisters, and I walked around the premises at some random hour of the day. From nerd-field trip to last Thursday (which is when I went), nearly a decade had spanned in which I had lived without a museum visit. Can you believe that: a DECADE!?!?!?

Anyway, my sister and I started our tiny trip by driving to Mockingbird Station, and from there, randomly chose the Red Line on DART (since all lines lead downtown), and rode along without knowing really where to stop or what to do once we got where we got. It's thrilling, actually, getting on a train (even if it is just DART) without knowing where to stop.

We stopped though, right by the Plaza of the Americas. We roamed around aimlessly, until I decided, let's go toward the Cathedral, it can be our sanctuary if we don't know where to start or go. So we got there. The Cathedral Santuario de Guadalupe, by the way, is at once comforting and humbling, so large and secure, adding a feeling of serene safety in the otherwise busy and loud microcosm that is downtown Dallas.

The DMA:

So we made our way to the museum, crossing the street with so many people, so many strangers. We went inside. Wow, the museum looked a lot bigger than before. Perhaps because last time, I hadn't truly looked at the many works of art that the DMA had to offer. Anyway, my sister and I went inside and decided to start with Henri Matisse's Ivy in Flower. (Its story, by the way, is kind of sad, but nevertheless impressive and a wonderful way to start exploring the museum.)

Here are some of my favorite works:

Banquete Chair with Pandas, Campana.

Santa Gertrudis, Miguel Cabrera.

Mixed Doubles, George L.K. Morris (sorry it's sideways!)

Persian Letters, Rene Magritte.

Tau Tau, (funerary figure), Indonesia.

I was kind of sad that I didn't get to see all of the Impressionist works of art up close like I wanted to, but I certainly enjoyed myself with what there was. We ended up spending about four hours, and even then we still had a few things that we wanted to analyze and admire. It's just amazing, really, how all the artists contained in the DMA left their marks on the world. Did they know they would be a part of history? Did they know that hundreds and even thousands of years later, so many strangers would be analyzing their works?

That was the tiny trip to Dallas. Oh so much more left to explore, and I intend on venturing again in the near future.