It's All in the Details

My mind wanders all the time. But I don't see this as a bad thing. I never really realized that other's minds don't tend to wander near as much. My mind wanders in a good way, I don't think it is a bad thing. I think it is just my strange brain's way of keeping the creative juices flowing. (Note to self: give Scott a break about having 29 things in his head at once!) And this is probably the reason I rarely get bored.

Here is one fine example of how it works. Yesterday, I had gone out on a Field Trip with the purpose of going to my favorite Basel museum, SAM, or Schweizerisches Architekturmuseum (www.sam-basel.org ). I only had a short time and I needed to be out of the apartment for that entire time. But I had a friend coming over for dinner, so I couldn't linger. This was sort of an unplanned, badly-timed Field Trip. Some days, strange things happen that are beyond the control of a Hausfrau, and one must just deal with things as they arrive. Just like my life at work.

First, I walked through the Kunsthalle Basel, which is attached to SAM. Wasn't really into that exhibit. Something about parallel universes.... Way too esoteric for me. Then I headed over to the two SAM exhibits. One was on MetroBasel, a book I have already read and loved. Basically, it is a cartoon version of one urban planning class's projects on how to improve the City of Basel. The studio is called ETH and the concept is by Herzog, De Meuron (Bejing Olympics Bird's Nest, anyone?) and Herz, whose offices happen to be across the street from our apartment. Very entertaining, great graphic presentation and a good history/geography/economic/sociology lesson about the area to me, the newcomer, for the small price of 12 Swiss Francs. So that went pretty quickly, been there, done that, loved it.

Upstairs I went, to the art exhibit. A mixture of super-crazy precise, geometric pencil and ink line drawings and some photographs taken by the artist, later in her career. I liked the photos. Then I headed into a small room way in the back of the exhibit where a slide projector was showing photos of the artist throughout her life. From childhood in India to her various studios, etc. It was pretty interesting so I stayed and watched for a bit. But here is when the mind wandering started.

The floor of the room was a sort of herringbone parquet. The wood was well used, deserved a little polish and maybe some poly, but was still in really good shape. As my mind was slowing slipping from the artist and headed to the floor, it just snowballed. Next, I am checking out how they did the edge treatment, trying to figure out if they started the pattern in the center or on the edge, and looking to see if it continued beyond the 4 walls. Maybe the room was originally bigger and for the purpose of the gallery, they put a wall up, which covered the beautiful floor pattern. This was not the case.

Next, I am cursing myself for not bringing my camera. I hate carrying it, but I hate it more when I forget it. I glanced back at the slide show for a minute, then the mind goes back to the floor. Maybe I could use the pattern to create a deck or patio someday. It would look really cool in irregular, reclaimed stone. Sort of a juxtaposition of order and disorder. I am also very fascinated by the idea of modular decking, so then my mind wanders there...

On it went. As it does most days, all day and probably in my dreams, too. Welcome to my world. It's all in the details.