From the National Gallery of Art

While I was in Washington, D.C., I visited two of my favorite art galleries These photos are from the National Gallery of Art, which was hosting an exhibit called "The Life of Animals in Japanese Art." There were lots of really wonderful pieces on display. Here are some photos of my favorites.

When I emerged from the elevator on the level with the exhibit, the first thing I saw was a collection of designs by Issey Miyake being modeled by mannequins. I have lots of positive associations with Miyake thanks to my co-workers at IntelliCorp some 30 years ago. Many of them were seriously into sewing and other crafts, and they introduced me to the origami-inspired clothing of Issey Miyake. All of the looks on display are supposedly inspired by animals. The first one is easy -- some of the other photos are harder for me to read as animal-inspired.












The walls of the room were covered with a mural inspired by the 2011 tsunami. Here are a few segments that I photographed. A description of the artist is at the bottom.












I also took photos of the art depicting some of my favorite small animals, rats and bats.













I will close with a link to a short video I took of a cheerful animated mural: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ipV_jQhvLU and some colorful dogs from the 20th century:





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