Birthday Challenge: MFA Birthday Hunt

Deb created a special birthday challenge for me to attempt during our visit to the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in Boston. As she knew I enjoyed taking pictures, she thought it would be fun to challenge me to look for and take specific pictures that met various goals during our visit.

This post shows what I came up with.

For most of these photos, I also took a photo of the MFA description plaque, which is shown below, with the associated artwork.

an animal you've never seen before, find out what it is

Oryx

an animal you've never taken a picture of before

Baboon

a plant you don't know, find out what it is

While I did realize this was a plant, I hadn't realized these were cabbages until I read the plaque

Cabbages

something from the last three centuries (one each)

1768:

Paul Revere

circa 1893:

Parakeets and Gold Fish Bowl

something you'd like to try to do, never done before (then try to find it to do it within the next year)

sail in a big ship?!

Gloucester Mackerel Fleet at Sunset

food you have never eaten (then try to find it to eat it within the next month, year max)

Slight cheat on this one: After not seeing any works of art containing food I'd never eaten, took this shot of our post MFA visit meal at HoneyGrow. Even with this, I've eaten pomegranate seeds before, just never on a stir fry:)

Since this is a photo of an object "in the real world", not a photo of a photo in a dark environment, it's considerably more vibrant than most of the rest of the photos in this post, and is therefore one of my favorites in the bunch.

Pomegranate Seeds on Top of Stir Fry at HoneyGrow

something made of metal

Paul Revere Teapot

(No plaque description photographed, but see Copley/Revere description above.)

something made of rock

Female Statue - Ancient Nubia

No details recorded for this piece.

something you'd like to try to make/build (then try to build it within the next year)

Chessboard furniture

No details recorded for this piece.

Will I ever really make something like this? Probably not, though I did make a wooden chessboard in high school which I still have. Perhaps I can make some other, less complex, type of furniture...?

someone who looks the most like you, tell us in what ways they look like you

"Your Dog" by Yoshitomo Nara (2003)

A bit of a cheat here as well: this "looks like me" because it has reflections of me and Deb. In fact, it has at least five reflections of us. Since five is impressive, I've decided this offsets the cheat:)

This is an extremely large (over 600 pounds) very shiny piece of fiberglass art. Here's another view from above with someone in the background for scale:

Something that's ironic

Museum Epiphany III

To "get" this you need to see it in the context of the room in which it hangs. The image depicts the very same room.

someone who looks the most unlike you, tell us in what ways they look different from you, five ways different

Details not captured. Part of ancient Nubia exhibit.

Five ways different: No hair, no glasses, more muscular, different clothes, no feet

a large thing in whole, and a favorite detail of it up close

"Untitled (2019)" by Katharina Grosse; also "Mural" by Jackson Pollock in background

Alternate view of Katharina Grosse work

Favorite Detail of Katherina Grosse work

a non-traditional way to depict time

Deer's Skull

Or, second alternative:

Blue Niagara

an inspiring photo

Bugle Blowing

Details not recorded.

something that looks unreal (supernatural?), or the way you take the picture makes it looks that way

Option 1:

Untitled #468 (2015), by Hellen van Meene

Option 2:

Dali Atomicus

something that represents love in a non-traditional way

Fire Hydrant Spray

No details recorded.

something Wolf would like

Three options.

Option 1:

So the man gave him a pair of snow-shoes

Option 2:

Unborn Selves of the Invisible Pleasure Plane (close up of portion of installation)

Option 3:

"Corpse of Man" by Hyman Bloom

Deb took a picture of me photographing the painting above:

Contrary to the above piece - which I did not like, here is another work by Hyman Bloom that I did like:

The Stone (1947), Oil on Canvas, by Hyman Bloom

something that reminds you of your parents

My mom made a replica of this Homer work. It was hung over our living room fireplace during all my years living at home from 6 months old through age 18. It always makes me tear up a bit when I see it because it is so powerfully embedded in my life experience.

The Fog Warning

something you won't forget from today

Butterfly Boy

a selfie with Deb and Myrna in front of something Myrna likes

Here is the piece Myrna liked. She liked it because it was "closest to a domestic worker".

Baseball Umpire

a photo you like

This next photo really brought me back to my earliest visits as a young child to New York with my parents when I actually ate at "Horn & Hardart", a place just like in the photo.