Category Archives: Art

Spending the Afternoon at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, France

June 12, 2017

Musée d'Orsay
You guys, I’m SO excited because I FINALLY got an external hard drive (I know, took me long enough!). In case you couldn’t tell, I take a lot of pictures, especially when I’m traveling. In fact, I have so many photos and different memory cards from different trips that I’ve run out of storage space on my Macbook Air so I’ve been having to upload all my photos to my iMac and its been one big crazy mess (first world problems I know!). Luckily with the external hard drive I finally have one place to store all my photos and organize all of my photos from past trips that I’ve yet to blog out. Speaking of past trips, I know I’ve blogged a little bit about my two trips to Paris last spring and winter (like my visit(s) to Disneyland Paris, exploring the Louvre and Catacombs of Paris, one of my favorite spots to view the Eiffel Tower from and my stay at the Dream Castle Hotel) but I still have a few more Paris posts to share with you all. Today I wanted to share some of my favorite photos from my afternoon at the Musée d’Orsay! In case you couldn’t tell from my various art museums and art exhibits posts, I LOVE a good art museum so obviously visiting the Musée d’Orsay was high on my Paris bucket list! Continue reading →

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A Visit To The Saint Louis Art Museum | St. Louis, MO

August 10, 2016

Greetings! Sorry again for the radio silence here on the blog this past week. If you follow me on Snapchat (simplysinova) or Instagram (shameless plug) then you may already know that I decided to take an impromptu road trip to St. Louis on Sunday. As many of you know, I LOVE traveling and even though I’m heading to Disney World this Sunday (woot woot), I thought it would be fun to go on a little mini trip before my two week Florida vacation.

I was laying in bed last Friday and a random thought popped into my head, “I really want to go to St. Louis, like ASAP.” Since St. Louis is only about a four hour drive from Chicago, I thought “why not just go NOW?”

So I packed up the car, booked a hotel (since I booked the hotel literally a day before my arrival, I got an AWESOME last-minute deal on a great hotel in the center of downtown St. Louis) and hit the road!

Continue reading →

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Exploring The Louvre Museum in Paris

May 11, 2016

Musée du Louvre
Since I’m such a HUGE art lover (if you couldn’t already tell by my weekly visits to the Art Institute of Chicago or by all the art exhibits I’ve posted about in the past), I knew that visiting The Louvre was one of my TOP priorities while I was in Paris (it was basically tied with Disneyland Paris as a MUST DO while on my trip). During my ten days in Paris, I decided to dedicate one whole day to exploring The Louvre. Even though I spent six straight hours at The Louvre (I actually spent a total of seven hours there but after the first hour I decided to make a quick trip to the Notre-Dame Cathedral, since they are so close to each other, before spending the rest of the day at The Louvre), I still felt like it wasn’t enough time. The Louvre is HUGE and even six (technically seven) hours there isn’t enough to cover every hall and exhibit. Strategy wise, I decided to pick out a few paintings and sculptures I knew I really wanted to see (like the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo) and after I made sure I saw them all, I just roamed the museum freely. Continue reading →

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A Visit To Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens

October 21, 2015

While I was in New York City earlier this month (for New York Comic Con), I decided to take a spontaneous day trip to Philadelphia (because as some of you may already know, I LOVE spontaneous trips!) While I’ve been to Philly (quite a few times) before, I’ve never really “seen” the city (if that makes any sense.) Since I was only going to be in the city for about six hours and didn’t have a lot of time to do in-depth exploring or visit any museums, I decided to do the next best thing and make a trip to Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens.

I’d learned about Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens, which is a non-profit organization, folk art environment, and gallery space, a little under three years ago and had been itching to visit! To date, it’s the largest work created by mosaic artist Isaiah Zagar (how cool is that?).

Since I’m such a HUGE art lover (if you couldn’t already tell by my weekly visits to the Art Institute of Chicago or by all the art exhibits I’ve posted about in the past), I knew that visiting Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens was my top priority during my quick trip to Philly. Continue reading →

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Scott Listfield ‘Astronaut’ Exhibit at Rotofugi Gallery

July 6, 2015

Rotofugi Designer Toy Store & Gallery is easily one of my favorite places here in Chicago (in fact, I visit weekly!) Although I’ve blogged about Rotofugi in the past, I’ve realized that I’ve never actually talked about (or shown) the art gallery side of it! Basically, Rotofugi is a (designer) toy store and an art gallery rolled into one (which is why it’s my FAVORITE place because it mixes two of my loves: toy collecting & art!) Each month (or so), the gallery gets a new exhibit (usually with a visit from the actual artist on opening day!) Rotofugi Gallery’s newest exhibit: Astronaut by Scott Listfield might be one of my favorites so far! Here are a few of my favorite paintings: