Today, for the low cost of $5 for parking, I received 2 hrs and 45 minutes of exercise, 7 Activity Points, a lot of relaxation, and tons of wonder.

One of my favorite places in Kansas City is the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.  I’ve enjoyed going to it for years.  Unfortunately, it’s been a long time since I’ve been there (probably 8 years or more) - don’t ask me why.  I’d forgotten how much I love it.

They have everything from Monet to Photographs, statues that are from about 3000 B.C. to modern sculptures.  It’s fantastic.

It was fun reacquainting myself with objects of art that I remembered from my last visit, as well as getting introduced to new ones.  As soon as I would decide that one style of painting was my favorite, I would move on to the next set of rooms, and change my mind.  I do think the Impressionists are my favorite, though.  I think my favorite painting from the entire museum is this one (click on the thumbnail for a larger size) by Monet:

Of course, the photograph doesn’t do anything for the actual painting.  The painting itself is so bright and vivid.  I did quite enjoy this one, too, for obvious reasons:

And not to get too political, but this was my favorite piece of modern art:

I did take a bunch of pictures today, so if you’re interested, click on the link to Photos on the menu bar above and choose the folder entitled “Nelson-Atkins 6-08″ or click here.

They have a new building that they’ve added for contemporary and modern art, and I really enjoyed going through it.  However, my favorite sculptures have to be the shuttlecocks.  In fact, when I was in high school I took a black and white photo of one of them for my photography class that ended up being shown at a festival.  Here’s one basic photo I took today (others are in the photo gallery in the previous link):

I was amazed at the wide variety of people there.  People of every age and every walk of life seemed to have been drawn there today (or maybe they just wanted to get out of the heat!).  It was fun seeing the parents instilling a love of art in their kids.  I enjoyed watching one woman show her little girl a pointillist painting by first having her walk up close to it and then back away.  The little girl was amazed.  It was great hearing things like, “Mommy, look at this one!”

Overall, I had a wonderful time.  It was a chance to let go of the outside world for a while (and get some exercise in the process).  The smartest thing I did all day, though, was wait to explore the outdoor sculpture park until I was done with the inside of the museum.  It was hotter than Hades out!

My biggest, and really only, disappointment of the day was that my favorite room, the Native American art gallery, was closed for construction.  It’s supposed to open back up in 2009.

If you like art and are ever in the KC area, I highly recommend you check the museum out.