Menil Collection~~~~~~~
My first real non-profit job after grad school was at the Menil. What a life changing position it was. I learned so much ~ about art and about myself. It's such a beautiful place ~ one of the most beautiful in Houston - hell, one of the most beautiful places in the world. It's my favorite museum after the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice - and that's because the Peggy Guggenheim Collection is in, well, Venice.
It was 1995. I met so many wonderful people while working at the Menil ~ my first husband, John, a poet, one of the smartest and darkest men I've had the pleasure to be married to - Miss Winfrey, the dry, witty, hilarious, grey-haired lady/retired teacher who worked the front reception desk at the museum for many years and who was often mistaken for Mrs. de Menil - Susan, my boss, my dear friend and the loveliest lady I've ever known - Mrs. de Menil, whom I remember visiting with Susan one afternoon and just marveling over the paintings she had hanging over her little daybed at her house, they went almost all the way up to the ceiling, hung like you would display postcards on your dorm room wall, amazing.
My time at the Menil was precious. I learned about Surrealism and 20th Century art. I developed an honest appreciation for works that before I would have walked right by ~ I fell in love with Joseph Cornell's boxes and Robert Rauschenberg's assemblages of found items ~ and I would never ever be the same again. I remember getting to go through the art that was in storage upstairs at the museum - I was looking for a painting to hang over my desk ~ I finally chose a small Max Ernst - it was a landscape of water and sand ~ unbelievable - an experience of a lifetime - and one that I will never forget.
I miss the Menil - and the greenspace and lovely grey bungalows that surround it. What a peaceful, mesmerizing place to be. I long to show it to my Lyle ~ to share with him a piece of my soul, of my past, of what I hope to become.
1515 Sul Ross Street ~ Houston, TX 77006 ~ 713-525-9400 Hours: 11:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday
http://www.menil.org/
It was 1995. I met so many wonderful people while working at the Menil ~ my first husband, John, a poet, one of the smartest and darkest men I've had the pleasure to be married to - Miss Winfrey, the dry, witty, hilarious, grey-haired lady/retired teacher who worked the front reception desk at the museum for many years and who was often mistaken for Mrs. de Menil - Susan, my boss, my dear friend and the loveliest lady I've ever known - Mrs. de Menil, whom I remember visiting with Susan one afternoon and just marveling over the paintings she had hanging over her little daybed at her house, they went almost all the way up to the ceiling, hung like you would display postcards on your dorm room wall, amazing.
My time at the Menil was precious. I learned about Surrealism and 20th Century art. I developed an honest appreciation for works that before I would have walked right by ~ I fell in love with Joseph Cornell's boxes and Robert Rauschenberg's assemblages of found items ~ and I would never ever be the same again. I remember getting to go through the art that was in storage upstairs at the museum - I was looking for a painting to hang over my desk ~ I finally chose a small Max Ernst - it was a landscape of water and sand ~ unbelievable - an experience of a lifetime - and one that I will never forget.
I miss the Menil - and the greenspace and lovely grey bungalows that surround it. What a peaceful, mesmerizing place to be. I long to show it to my Lyle ~ to share with him a piece of my soul, of my past, of what I hope to become.
1515 Sul Ross Street ~ Houston, TX 77006 ~ 713-525-9400 Hours: 11:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday
http://www.menil.org/
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