I have been such a huge fan of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. Yayoi creates her artwork inspired by her state of mental health. She committed herself to a psychiatric hospital in Japan since 1977. Her art is her release and treatment for her psychological hallucinations. Over the winter it was announced that she would have be having a show at the Seattle Art Museum.
I knew immediately that I needed to get tickets for the whole family! I know what you're thinking. How are a 5 year old and a 2 year old going to handle a art museum? Since my kids are pretty active, I knew that they would be engaged because of the level of intensity of the work. With Yayoi's use of bright colors and strong images, I knew my kids and even Tim would be captivated.
I got tickets right when they went on sale, but it took a good 2 hours. SAM's web servers kept crashing and I don't think they anticipated the popularity of the event. Later I found out the show sold out in a week. SAM does have a certain amount of tickets for people to go the day of but the line is a several hour wait. They also announced that they extended the museum's hours to allow more people to see the show.
Go see this show. It is worth the wait! My kids loved the show and they did amazing. Nora is 5 and this was the first time she really enjoyed the museum. She talked about the paintings and the art. She told me what she saw and she saw lots of treasure maps and animals. She held my hand and I could see her absorbing every moment. It was special.
The show is set up to highlight her different rooms. Only 2 - 4 people for 30 seconds are allowed in a room at a time, and the energy of the rooms sucks you in immediately. You can go into a room as many times as you want, but you have to wait in line, which the wait is generally around 5-10 minutes. Not terrible.
The best part about the show is the feeling the different levels of energy that flow from room to room. They all make sense together but each room has a different vibe. As you walk into the show, there are a collection of her paintings and that are just beautiful. I think what I love most about her work are the joyful colors with the juxtaposition of the dark when you step in and take a closer look.
Tickets are available until September 10! I needed to record this memory.
