I had a great time today.  My wife, Rose, and I visited the Mary Cassatt exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  Cassatt has become one of my favorite artists, largely through Rose's influence.  The image to the left here shows a batik Rose did many years ago. The color is a bit off because of the lighting when I took the photo, but it is my favorite one of all the batiks she has done over the years.  The crinkling in Rose's version is an intentional effect of the process she uses when creating a batik.  The image to the right is the original print on which Rose's batik is based.  Today I saw the original Cassatt at the museum.  It was every bit as amazing as I thought it would be.  But I have to say, I like Rose's reinterpretation of it just as much.

One of the things Rose and I both appreciate about Cassatt is that she was every bit a woman of her time, but at the same time, she was forward thinking about the role of women and their influence on society.  Yet she didn't let that interfere with her appreciation of the role women play in the family and in the lives of children.  Her art, while in some ways very progressive, always celebrated woman's femininity and unique role in the family.