Philadelphia and the Academy's Gems: Their Alumni

I was able to get up to Philadelphia this past week, on Thursday I drove up from DC and spent the day looking at the alumni show at the Hamilton Building and also the Bank of America's permanent collection which cost a little bit. The alumni show was free and it also showed more class than the Bank of America's collection did in my opinion. They wouldn't let me photograph it but what my eyes saw was astonishing. There was excellent control of paint shown by one painting in particular. "Smoke Dreams" was a painting about opium smokers, and it wasn't a dark foreboding painting as one might picture, it was more of a light colored and also lighthearted view of smoking such a drug. The background has a couple of Japanese people engaged in a sexual maneuver but it's painted in a newer, more western manner and it wasn't at all distasteful nor did it make me feel uncomfortable while looking at it. In the foreground stands a woman who is certainly under the influence but she is attractive and her features are painted very smoothly and with subtle features lending themselves to bringing out the details. And that in turn, brings out the overall excellence of this painting which is open to be seen for no cost at all. This was only one of many well painted canvases which outclassed what I call the "throw it on the canvas and see what it does" paintings that were upstairs in the Bank of America collection. I was really proud to call myself an Alumni of the Academy myself after seeing who else is in that group and what they have been making of late.
I also enjoyed all the good food around town, plus meeting up with another alumni and going to a show at the Lombard Street Gallery on 20th Street. There I met some more alumni who only recently found out I was still alive. I enjoyed the looks on their faces when they were introduced to me during the opening that night. It was a loving and happy expression and I was thankful for them welcoming me back even though it was only a brief stay.
Most of all I found out that one of them is doing murals for a living using a mosaic style of creating the image on a wall surface. I can also say that all of my friends I met at the gallery who were alumni are still painting and very active in it. I can only look forward to interacting with them in the coming future.
What a good visit it was to "the city of brotherly love". Even the people I didn't know seemed to be a lot less acoustic in there manners to me just walking down the street or sitting alone in Rittenhouse Square for an hour or so. It seemed to be a better place to me and I also loved seeing so many people (young and old alike) on bicycles riding around town. There were an awful lot of them making there way around that city without putting any pollution into the air and keeping themselves in good shape as a side-benefit.
But I'm glad to be back home again too. There is nothing that can match the rolling hills of Central Virginia for a welcoming site to see in my windsheld once again.