Wednesday, August 13, 2008

snippet 2008 - Hanging Artwork

I don't know a think about art expect for what I like. I best like narrative art. But I did notice this trip some of the paintings and decorations and speculate on how they came to be.
The Colorado Belle was the most confusing.
If you have seen photos of this casino, it is shaped like a large paddleboat from the Mississippi. The upscale restaurant is named after Mark Twain. Inside you walk from on floor to others up a wide staircase like those you might imagine in a paddle boat this size. The bannisters fit the decor.
However, when you arrive at the landing from either wide stairwell you are greeted with Parisian prints of French style. Where does this come from? Is is a desire to somehow touch base with all the cultures, or are they there because new Orleans had paddleboats?
I can tell you that Mark Twain hated the French, so it clashes with any references to his Mississippi.

Now in the cafe there were more appropriate prints, including one of Winslow Homer's "Crack the Whip" which in my mind always fits well with Mark Twain's America.

In the Colorado Belle buffet is a tiled wall with a painting of an Italian wine bottle, cheeze, garlic. This is not at an Italian station, but at the main section. What is this about? What does Italy have to do with paddleboats?

In the River Palms ( where there are some references in the drawings at least to Palms) the rooms are decorated with paintings that are cold geometric designs representing a room that lack narrative or in my opinion anything approaching beauty. They are as dull as the mathematics they represent. Where is the river in this art?

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