new york city: moma's material lab thursday

no sooner than landing at jfk in pre-dawn hours last thursday, john, dylan and i found ourselves walking smack-dab through rainy, downtown manhattan with cousins sunny, gabriel and katherine by noontime. our destination: moma and the petting zoo at central park. whew---talk about a whirlwind tour of new york city! our first stop was moma's material lab, a must for kids and parents. moma---quelle musee. browsing its galleries and exhibits, i was moved to tears and could've spent days and weeks browsing each floor filled with early 20th century modern art.

the dramatic view from the fifth floor at moma: new york, rainy and historic. 

i viewed matisses, picassoes, calders, and elbowed my way through the crowds gathered before truly iconic works by modern american and european artists: marcel duchamp, andrew wyeth, andy warhol, etc. moma's modern coffers were satisfying and immense--i'll definitely be back to study the galleries a bit more.




and the kids had a load of fun too. after a dirty-water hot dog and pretzel-cart lunch, the kids dove into the lab's digital painting, collage and sculpture labs. cousin katherine and dylan started composing on-screen and the adults couldn't help but start painting too. the digital painting was hands down, the most impressive computerized painting i've seen anywhere (hint, hint children's museums everywhere: time to update those tired old 90s era computers!). using the latest techno from microsoft, this moma-specific software and interface allowed kids to use a soft stylus brush directly onto the monitor to paint. 

after you pass warhol's cows, you'll be on your way to the material lab. 

katherine and dylan dove right into the digital painting and created these masterpieces...

everyone got into the act, sunny, katherine, dylan and john.

the material lab entices kids to create, as seen here with dylan. totally absorbed!

cousins! they could've painted for hours. 

gabriel, on the other hand, loved manipulating this very cool folding cardboard chair...

pressing it into an accordian/book shape....

then back into a couch. fascinating and architectural.  

dylan's van-gogh inspired painting.  

kids could make dolls and sculpture out of raw material (the view outside is of the famous sculpture garden--but we got rained out and had to skip it). 

each lab was inspired by artists' styles and different mediums. here, a lightbox displays cutouts to create vignettes.  also included were assemblage boxes inspired by the work of artist joseph cornell. 

inside the lab, it was calm and cozy, creating art. but the galleries were mad-house with the tourist rush. so we headed to another tranquil oasis for kids: central park and its zoo.

traipsing around the city was the most fun, according to dyl, kath and cousin sunny. more to come!

...stay tuned for part ii of our new york city trip!


read more about the material lab here on moma's blog.


(and a big thanks go to cousin ken for picking us up, sunny for chauffering us around, and to gabe and kath for the good new york-style fun--thank you!)

spring and summer greatest hits: l.a. edition

weepin' willows! tika and dyl do a little tree huggin' at the huntington library chinese gardens.
 dont' bother us, we're having fun. 

readers of this blog might be asking...what has the crew at dylan mac and cheese been doing? anyone home?  well, we've been busy having fun and exploring the city--our 'salad days' if you will, as dyl's the rose-colored filter for our travails and travels through life. he's also our plus one for the car pool lane on the freeways! thanks dylan, high five!

so this spring we've had visitors, namely cousins and friends, and we like to "hang out," as dylan would say.

beachcombin' with cousin amara looking for anemone and crabs near the pier.  

last one in is a rotten egg! says amara.

anemones at redondo beach

at lacma: that's the biggest balloon animal i've seen, dad. yup. 

a little highbrow: daddy and dylan next to a giant jeff koons egg at lacma. 

lowbrow art: i can paint my tongue to match my shirt, and i can do it all day, says dylan. 

even though the little guy is still very 'green' (see photo above) we've realized dylan has made some big leaps: learning to ride a kids bike with training wheels; bonding with his kitty, deniro; learning with favorite pals at school; browsing exhibits at local museums; meeting cousins for the first time; and as always, learning to say goodbye to cherished friends--all a part of life.

dyl, miss k and mr. t play 'pirates of the caribbean attack the playground in search of treasure' game. arrrgh.
we will miss you miss k!! thanks for being best buds. 

dylan and mr. t get their racing gear on.

ciao, ciao! tika and dylan at the huntington, whoopin' it up in springtime.
tika, see you next year in italy bella! 

cousin gabe gives his best 'it wasn't me, it was dylan' mug for the camera while dylan steals sips from uncle ken's smoothie at gumtree cafe in hermosa.  cousin katherine and dylan audition for 'silly kid' contests before hitting the sand. 

we miss our cousins! 

dylan has these odd habits....if you want to call them that. he likes to tote a toolbox everywhere (like in the photo above); likes to wear rain boots with most outfits; has trouble putting on socks and has us do the job; still loves mac and cheese; and starts every sentence with 'can't even' (ex: i can't even put on my socks! i can't even sing this song right now! i can't even find a tissue for my two boogers, etc.). and loves having cousins and enjoys having extended family all around him.

it's never all fun and games and playtimes, though. sometimes we let friends go, wherever their destinations, and keep them in our hearts.

we miss our friends mars, ina, allan, tika, viviana, chris, kelsey, tatiana and sean and wish them well on their new adventures (good luck in oakland, la bella italia, and the bay area guys!).

scenes of summer 2010

it's a lazy summer so far, filled with lemonade, ice cream, modern american art, first day of preschool, picnics, and going up and down angel's flight downtown! we love downtown l.a.: even those nifty, self-cleaning public toilets right on the street! 

dyl captures the seaweed at redondo beach...

we go CRAZY over ice cream at the park, or anywhere, really.

arriel and dylan hold tight to those fruity helados... but enough fun and games! it's time to head into the city, to peruse  some art. 

Dylan's first visit to moca downtown. I give the little one (dyl) and the big one (John) a lesson about modern, influential American art, namely frank stella's 'cstesiphon 1.' 

Of course, we're here for the cafe culture as well, so we try the cupcakes and lemonade at Lemonade Cafe inside MOCA.

Roy Lichtenstein "Man with Folded Arms"

and Andy Warhol's "Telephone"

Angel's Flight is back! Dylan's favorite 'train ride' so far! We're so happy Angel's Flight is up and running to take us up from Grand Central Market to MOCA and California Plaza downtown. We are such tourists. 

Gotta Go Daddy! We are happy to report that these public toilets that we spotted up in San Francisco, are also up and running Downtown. And after all that lemonade, dylan fancies these automated public-toilets downtown or APTs as they are known.  Dyl liked these so much, he kept wanting to wait in line to use them. Click on the video below to see how these toilets work. And remember to mind your place in line. These toilets draw quite a crowd. 

Also on view at MOCA's permanent exhibit is this work by Barbara Kruger. The untitled work says it all for this tired, worn-out mama... sometime's it's all about a woman's work...hard work...and lots of it! we're absolutely pooped here in dylan-mac-and-cheese-land!

But it's been a happy summer so far!