art lesson.

[london]
so last night, after work liezel and i headed to the national gallery, since it is open late on wednesday nights. first of all, what an amazing building, certainly a beautiful place to display art. the vag, although a great gallery in its own right, is very small with a contemporary focus but probabaly more significantly is very new so its collection does not boast anything by degas or renoir. As well, its size seems to be prohibitive since none of the very large touring exhibitions that normally visit bigger cities world cities such as san francisco or even toronto make their way to vancouver.

the national gallery does not have this problem.

i truly was overwhelmed by the experience. in my undergrad, i took a lot of art history courses -- actually in hindsight i should have been a fine arts major. but to actually see the pointilism employed by seurat up close and personal, the ability to view the agony of van gogh displayed by his paintings in his later years in this painting almost brought me to tears. that such beauty and such history existed on the walls of the gallery and was so close for me that i could almost feel the artist painting them was amazing. i wondered if londoners took stuff like this for granted. i wondered if i was able to view gaugin paintings at the vag, if i would take it for granted.

at that moment, i realized that i needed to go to paris and visit the louvre.

random thoughts:
- ordering a jacket at a restaurant will get you a baked potato (with skin on) and your choice of toppings
- i think the reason why men dress so well here is because of its strong history of tailoring and saville row
- english people are very polite and courteous
- food is for 'take-away' not 'take-out'
- you don't need to tip in bars or pubs
- when walking i still seem to be in people's way