snow is falling outside of my window again this morning.  is winter ever going to end? with february almost over and march quickly approaching, i think it's safe to assume that most people are daydreaming of a warm, tropical beach somewhere.

in the midst of the snow, polar vortex temperatures, and dark, windy days, i found a reprieve that transported me, at least for a little bit, to the warm, sunny tropics i've been dreaming of.  and i wanted to share it with any other dc peeps out there needing a break from the cold.

the butterfly pavilion.

since my office happens to be a block from my favorite dc museum, the museum of natural history, i frequently use lunch breaks to walk through a new exhibit or wander around the hall of oceans.  one tuesday (the day it's free), i finally made it upstairs to the butterfly pavilion and loved it.

the first few minutes, there were excited kids oooing and ahhing over the hundreds of colorful butterflies flying around and landing on heads, arms, and cameras.  but all of the kids and their parents got bored pretty quickly and left me alone with an older couple and a guy taking pictures for the rest of our 30 minute session. 

the pavilion is peaceful, quiet, and humid.  and it's easy to get up close to study each butterfly.

the best part is that it's bright and warm.  you forget where you are and it's the perfect mini escape from winter.  even if only for half an hour.

it was sad to hear that 5 pointz was whitewashed a couple of days ago.  i know there are many new yorkers more upset than i am, but after seeing it for the first time in 2010, it was instantly a favorite nyc spot so it's really too bad that it won't be around anymore. 

5 pointz is/was a huge graffiti art center.  the outsides of the buildings served as exhibit spaces and the insides were studio spaces.  sad to see that it's being replaced with residential buildings. i think art like this be covered under historic preservation acts or something!  at least the new building will have dedicated sections featuring graffiti art.

some favorite details are below.

on the bright side, i'm glad i've gotten to see it before it was gone? :)

i started working at the national endowment for the arts a couple of weeks ago, and so far i've learned a ton and am really enjoying my work.  aside from the job itself, it's been very novel to be working downtown.  during lunch one day of my first week, i walked to the natural history museum to check out a photography exhibit, oh you know, natural history museum, just during my lunch break :)  i can see the capitol from my building and everyhing is literally a 5 minute walk away.  if you're going to move to dc, you may as well work for the government right in the middle of everything, right?!

this past week we had a very cool field trip to the national gallery of art's east building (modern art).  they have an exhibit going on until october 6th called Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes, 1909–1929: When Art Danced with Music.  the show tells the story of the original russian ballet under the leadership of Serge Diaghilev.  i knew of the russian ballet and their performance of stravinsky's rite of spring, and i knew they were known for using contemporary music in their shows.  i had absolutely no idea how inclusive they were of music and art contemporaries in their performances, and that they were so forward thinking in all of thier costuming and dance techniques.

just look at the artists that collaborated with diaghilev and the ballet over only ten years: stravinsky, prokofiev, erik satie, debussy, rimsky-korsakov, picasso, matisse, coco chanel (ha!)

^^original rite of spring costumes!^^ (via)

 ^^costumes for the blue train by chanel^^ (via)

^^costume for the song of the nightingale by matisse^^ (via)

a co-worker in my division is friends with one of the curators of this exibit and she met up with us to give us a behind the scenes guided tour.  i loved hearing about everything from the preservation of the original costumes to who decided to paint a big blue wave on the wall of the space.  overall, i have to say they did a beautiful job with the presentation.  if you have any interest at all in the history of dance, ballet, music, theatre, or visual arts (or history in general), i would make sure to check out this exhibit. it's so well done and so entertaining that you don't even realize how much you've learned until you leave.

my favorite video installations were of baryshnikov dancing (i could watch him dance all day long) and rudolph nureyev playing the faun in the afternoon of a faun. (video here)

^^original costume design for the faun by bakst^^ (via)

^^because yes^^

the museum has set up a small, temporary shop right as you exit the exhibit.  i die for museum shops and couldn't resist this little hand-painted turkish bowl. 

loved this exhibit and highly recommend it!

note: any views or opinions represented in this blog are personal and belong solely to the blog owner and do not represent those of people, institutions or organizations that the owner may or may not be associated with in professional or personal capacity.

while my dad was in town for thanksgiving, we visited my favorite museum in dc: the national gallery.

it's really cool to live in a place that you can just keep going back to a museum and visit the same old paintings.  for free.  it feels like you own them and get to have some intimate relationship with them that other people don't have.

i've gotten into the smaller details of paintings lately, so i took some close ups of ones that i particularly love. it's almost as if you're seeing a whole new painting by zooming in.  kind of cool.

not paintings, but too pretty not to post:

love this one so much:

the lichtenstein exhibit will be there through jan. 13.  this is a funny one.

one of the last museums in town has been checked off the list.

the museum of crime and punishment takes you through the detailed graphic history of crime (and its associated punishment) from the middle ages to the present.  there are also interactive exhibits including a simulated shoot out where you're the cop shooting suspects with an actual altered glock 17.  the last floor is the set for america's most wanted!

it's marketed as a family museum and there were lots of kids there.  don't know that i would take my kids there, but it was an interesting and well done museum space.

John Wayne Gacy's clown costumes

self portrait in the gas chamber

NOAA had a crimes against marine mammals exhibit!

america's most wanted with John Walsh set