Michelangelo Exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum

Today, my wife and I went to the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) to check out the Alexander Calder and Michelangelo Exhibits.

SAM website:

http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/

I must admit I've never heard of Alexander Calder until now. According to Wikipedia, he invented the mobile. You know, those things parents hang over a baby's crib to keep it mesmerized:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Calder

While Calder made small, toy-like pieces, including jewelry, most of his work is "industrial strength" sheet-metal and steel wire, which are unsuitable for any nursery room.

After watching some of Calder's pieces maintain their precarious balance, we proceeded to the Michelangelo Exhibit. One of the first things I learned was that Michelangelo, unlike some of today's pop stars, actually had a surname. The great artist's full name was: Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelangelo

The exhibit here consisted of some of Michelangelo's surviving sketches. Near the end of his life, Michelangelo burned most of his sketches and rough drafts, because he didn't want people to see how "crappy" they were.

I guess the phrase: "One man's junk is another man's treasure," was coined after the Renaissance.