I don’t want to paint my childhood as one where I spent all my time learning. I had a rocky relationship with my dad. While he wasn’t the bed father figure, he did encourage me to learn. And to this day, I still feel that need to visit bones on display.

Sander and I paid a visit to the Maastricht Natural History Museum while we were in Belgium. All the information was in Dutch but I had Sander to translate what I couldn’t read for myself.

What sparked our interest in visiting this particular museum was our trip to the caves. We learned that Maastricht was named after the Mosasaurus (according to our tour guide). She mentioned that a copy of the fossil could be found at the Natural History Museum. The original had been stolen by the French decades ago. What we learned from our tour really sparked our interest in what the museum contained.

Our curiosity got the better of us and we make the trek to the center of Maastricht to visit the fossil. Of course we saw tons of other things but the highlight was the Mosasaurus. We took a trip through time from the very beginning to the present during our journey. While the museum is pretty small, we did have a good time. On top of dinosaur bones and interesting facts about the fossils from around Maastricht, we got to see native fish, animals and birds on display. There was even information on what animals were on the edge of extinction and the efforts taken today to keep them safe. The entire museum took us around an hour and a half to complete so we had plenty of time left over.

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The exhibits and inspiration
During the last few years of his life, Van Gogh collected pieces of a large number of Japanese prints. He traveled with them and allowed them to influence his style. Van Gogh drew inspiration from the color contrasts, thin lines and incredible detail paired well with the closeness of nature depicted in the prints. He recreated three pieces with his own hands, The Courtesan (from a magazine cover), Plum Park in Kameido (by Hiroshige), and Sudden Shower over Shin-Ōhashi bridge and Atake (by Hiroshige). He did so to learn the technique of the masters and to learn these new skills, he observed and imitated.

What resulted was a new breath of life into his work. His paintings changed in a very dramatic way and it was easy to see why he loved Ukiyo-e so much. The exhibits covered this passion for the genre and what resulted of his study of it. The Van Gogh Museum has a wonderful and brief history on the events.

The pieces
Pieces on display were both of Van Gogh’s paintings and of the various Ukiyo-e that inspired him. We saw beautiful Japonism from that period and exactly how Van Gogh found his muse in a country he had never been to. Enamored with what Japan had to offer, Van Gogh pictured himself there. He went to the south of France where he envisioned his own idyllic version of Japan. There he painted famous pieces like The Bedroom and Almond Blossom.

Van Gogh & Japan is a temporary exhibition. This spring, tickets are only available online. A limited number of tickets are available for each starting time. Those who book in advance have plenty of choice.

Do keep in mind that this is a limited engagement and tickets are limited. Check the online store to see which dates are available. It doesn’t look like you can buy tickets on site so order them before you go. If you don’t have a printer, you can save the email and have it scanned in.

Take a look at the books I got:

Van Gogh and Japan

Hiroshige. One Hundred Famous Views of Edo

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Banksy’s origin story is one of an anonymous graffiti artist from Britain. His message promotes strong and mindful social and political commentary. Many of his pieces are either w   all face art or large canvas style pieces but he has expanded to other media. His antics include creating fake British pounds featuring the image of Princess Diana and even an amusement park.

Banksy’s become quite a large name in the art community for his eclectic artistic voice. There is something about his message that not only promotes self realization. It opens a window into darker corners.

In my eyes, there’s a delicate and not so delicate symbolism behind each piece. There’s the obvious story that jumps out at you. There’s are unspoken messages behind each piece. It’s hard to pinpoint what that message is sometimes. But I like to believe that each piece speaks to each person in a different way.

Even if you don’t enjoy his art, they make you think and feel. That’s the core of art. If a piece evokes emotion in the viewer then that piece has done its job. I will say it again and again because it to be true. I had a professor who taught Basic Design and those were her words. Her message was, if it makes you feel, then it’s working.

It’s been a while since we attended the show and the dates keep changing. If you want more information, feel free to visit the website here. You can also check out Artsy.net for more information on Banksy and his various works of art.

Banksy’s art is thought provoking but also controversial. How do you feel about artists with a strong stance on humanity?

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Most of these pieces I’ve only seen in my textbooks. Finally getting to see them in person was a surreal experience. I’m an art major, Graphic Design so art is very important to me. Art is apart of our culture. Long before we could take photographs, we painted. They were a way of capturing the moment and keeping it forever.

We spent our time in the wing of 1650 to 1700 pieces. It was Golden Age for The Netherlands but not every piece was about wealth. Some showcased life as a struggle. The wealthy were the richest in the land while the poor remained that way.

It’s also important to understand that the people in the portraits and the painters, were human. It’s so easy to look at a painting and judge it as good, bad, a masterpiece or a piece of garbage. Each piece, no matter how you feel about it, meant something to the creator and the commissioner. It might have been a wedding portrait to immortalize a nobleman and his wife on their special day. It may have been a winter morning outside the artist’s front door.

Some pieces immortalized a part of history, like a war ship going down among enemy ships. Another one we saw held the surrendering of a town during war. These paintings are results of the daily times. As history buffs revel in their facts, art history buffs can swim in the stories smeared on canvas.

It is important to take note that the museum is monstrous in size. Usually Sander and I can do about 2-3 hours tops before we start to get restless. That’s how we are, both mindful of the history and we respect it enough to know when we’ve had enough. We’re going to look into getting a membership so that we can wander in when we’re in the area, which is actually more often than I thought.

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Franz Hals had talent in portrait making but his work also included a bit of still life. His focus on dynamic movement allowed his art to stand out from the rest.

He painted one on one portraits of lords and ladies but he also specialized in social gathers. It’s important to note that he didn’t beautify his subjects and that they are true to life. Sometimes its the flaws of the human body that make or break a masterpiece.

Also within the museum was a large scale dollhouse filled with tiny trinkets so detailed that it made my head spin! After we wandered the halls, we took a small break in the courtyard. Outside was a beautiful garden set up. Many people sat in the sun and allowed the warmth of it to chase away the shivers. It had been cold that morning but now it was perfect weather.

After that we wandered around the small streets, over canals and through the shopping district. I would love to visit again as they are always adding new exhibits. That’s the refreshing thing about museums, visit one again in a month and there’s always something new to see.

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