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Rookie mom

Museums give kids shades of meaning

By KATHERINE SNOW SMITH
Published March 27, 2005

I recently took my two daughters, 6 and 8, to the Breakfast with Dali tour at the Salvador Dali Museum in downtown St. Petersburg.

Then they got a double dose of great art when their school visited St. Petersburg's Museum of Fine Arts to take in "Monet's London." This collection of a dozen works by the famed French impressionist, as well as 130 other works depicting the Thames River in London, will be at the museum until April 24.

Museum of Fine Arts. Don't promise your kids lily pads or cheery springtime scenes. "Monet's London" is different from the works most of u s picture when we think of the great impressionist. But that in itself is educational and interesting because kids can see the great variety of style, colors and subjects one artist is capable of.

Monet's Thames River scenes make you feel as if you're right there in the midst of the cold, thick London fog. Some paintings he did at different times of day show the same subjects, such as bridges, boats or Parliament, in different blurred shades. Children can see how the sun, or lack of sun, works with the fog to change the colors of the sky and water.

To get a different look at life on the Thames, children can then take in works by Monet's contemporaries such as Tissot, Derain, Pissaro and Homer. We liked seeing a group sailing down the river with two dogs along in The Thames by James Tissot.

My oldest daughter loved Big Ben by Andre Derain. It pictures a vivid, bright blue Parliament under a golden sun with pink reflections on the Thames.

Aside from the London exhibit, the museum features many wonderful works from paintings to glass sculptures and even a "secret" courtyard. My youngest daughter couldn't take her eyes off of Poppy with its bright orange and red petals surrounding the flower's dark, velvet core. She later wrote in her school journal that it was very warm and it made her feel happy. For more information, call the museum at 896-2667 or log on to www.fine-arts.org Every piece of art we discussed at the Breakfast with Dali had a story to tell or begged questions from the children ages 6 to 11 years. The museum's newest acquisition, Gala Contemplating the Mediterranean Sea, is a floor-to-ceiling painting of Dali's wife. But when we looked at it from across the room it was a portrait of Abraham Lincoln.

The Hallucinogenic Toreador includes more than 30 images of Venus de Milo and a hidden Dalmatian. When we looked closer we could also see the giant bullfighter, and in a lower corner there was a tiny woman floating in the ocean under a swarm of gadflies. Our fabulous docent, Jill Henaghen, told us Dali was mad that Club Med had opened down the beach from his once-secluded home and this was his way of expressing it.

The Average Bureaucrat shows a man with no ears and shells in his brain. This is how Dali painted his father when he refused to listen to his son. In Eggs On a Plate Without the Plate we learned the eggs are meant to resemble his beloved Gala's eyes. We then knew to look for images of her in all the rest of his paintings. We also learned to spot grasshoppers in his work because he had a lifelong fear of the creatures and used them to show anxiety.

His sculpture of Venus has drawers with drawer pulls in her face and body. Henaghen encouraged the children to guess what Dali was trying to say by including the drawers. They surmised he wanted us to think about the feelings and love inside of her and not just her outer beauty. They were exactly right.

We also marveled at a sculpture of an American Indian with a Coke bottle for a nose and chairs for ears. Dali said his work, The Discovery of America By Christopher Columbus, included a prediction of things to come. Henaghen then asked the children what the giant sea urchin might represent. They finally guessed it looked kind of like the moon and that meant we would land on the moon just as Columbus had landed on America. Right again.

Call 823-3767 to make reservations for Breakfast with Dali, which costs $10 per person and includes a full spread of food after the tour. The event is scheduled for April 16, May 14, June 18, July 9 and Aug. 13 from 9 to 11 a.m. I recommend it highly, but if you can't make the tour, children will still get a huge kick out of going through this museum on your own.

You can reach Katherine Snow Smith by e-mail at snowsmith@verizon.net or write Rookie Mom, St. Petersburg Times, PO Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731.

[Last modified March 27, 2005, 00:34:19]