Visiting the American Visionary Arts Museum

When I still lived in Baltimore as a teenager with conservative tastes in everything but politics, I didn't think that I would vibe with the American Visionary Arts Museum, but when my family visited over the holidays, it was a pretty conventional museum-going experience. Only the gift shop, Sideshow, with its yard-sale bazaar atmosphere of plastic goo-gahs next to irreligious icons next to crystals next to a bucket of buttons (marijuana leaves, Harry Potter, zodiac symbols, etc.), seems to retain the off-beat character I expected.

Foreground: Andrew Logan, "Black Icarus"

Background: Ingo Swann, "Millenium [sic] Triptych"

A whole gallery is currently given over to the multi-media sculptures of Judith Scott (1943-2005). She lived with her family in Cincinnati, until she was institutionalized at the age of 7 because she was deemed "ineducable" due to Down Syndrome and the fact that no one realized she had lost her hearing from scarlet fever as a baby. In 1986, her twin sister Joyce removed her from the institution and brought her to California. She was put in supportive housing and began attending art classes. Judith developed a unique and thought-provoking style of fiber arts collages with found objects. Imagine the life she could have led without that 36-year exile.

Gallery title: "The Secret Within: The Art of Judith Scott"

Videography stills of Scott at work at the Creative Growth Art Center in Oakland, CA

You may say I'm a dreamer,
But I'm not the only one.
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one.
~John Lennon

"Esther and the Dream of One Loving Human Family" is a long-term exhibit of art by and about people who have suffered violence, such as apartheid in South Africa and the genocide in Rwanda. It was inspired by the 36 large crewel-work pieces of Esther Nisenthal Krinitz (1927-2001) who survived the Holocaust in Poland with one sister, hiding in the countryside while the rest of their village perished in the Majdenek concentration camp. Both married other survivors, and Esther moved to New York and later Maryland, while the sister went to Israel.

Childhood dream that the sky was falling on their barn; she is running away with her mother.

Krinitz included the gas chambers, crematoria, piles of discarded shoes, and fields of cabbages grown in soil mixed with the ashes of murdered Jews.

This is a happier image from life in Brooklyn, when Krinitz climbed a tree to pick cherries for her two daughters waiting in the yard.

Life-sized doll in traditional Polish costume

Apache elder Judy Tallwing (1945-) depicts the desert and the mountains.

Mr. Imagination aka Gregory Warmack (1948-2012),

"Always Remember You Are A Child of the King"

Finally, we scoped out "Good Sports: The Wisdom & Fun of Fair Play," a gallery on sports-inspired art, including Morgan Monceaux's (1945-2017) large portraits of Black pioneers, such as Toni Stone, the first woman to play in the Negro Leagues. In the 1940s and1950s she was on the rosters of the San Francisco Sea Lions, the New Orleans Creoles, the Indianapolis Clowns (a baseball-version of the Harlem Globetrotters), and the Kansas City Monarchs.

Minor-league umpire George Sosnak (1924-1992) was extremely talented with ink. Unfortunately, the photo I took of one of his decorated baseballs was blurry. Here's a letter he wrote and illustrated for Miss Lois Sullivan, who lived on Virginia Avenue on Mt. Washington in Pittsburgh. We looked at a house on Virginia Avenue before buying in Munhall.

David R. Klein, Pez dispensers

We were hungry, so we didn't even visit the museum's second building. Instead, we hopped on over to the Cross Street Market, loud and lively and looking good. Founded as open-air stalls in 1845, a two-story brick Italian Revival hall with shops on the bottom and a meeting space above replaced it in 1871. It burned to the ground in a 12-alarm fire in 1951. The next year, the current one-story brick building opened; it was renovated in 2018 and houses more than 20 vendors. The five of us had poke bowls, Korean fried chicken, a cheeseburger with fries, and/or ice cream from Taharka Brothers.

Recipe: That night for dinner I made a vegetarian feast of stuffed acorn squash, green salad, and rosemary bread. We fed 7 people with a variation of a recipe I found on Facebook.

Ingredients:

1/2 acorn squash per person

2 large sweet potatoes, cubed

2 cups Brussels sprouts, halved

as much dried cranberries and crumbled goat cheese as you want

olive oil, garlic powder, maple syrup, salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C). Wash and chop the vegetables.

• Paint the edges of the acorn squash with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Roast (skin up) for 40-45 minutes.

• Toss the Brussels sprouts and sweet potato with olive oil, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Roast on a baking sheet for 20-25 minutes, stirring halfway through until golden and crispy.

• Fill each acorn squash half with the roasted veggies. Sprinkle dried cranberries and crumbled goat cheese on top. Drizzle with maple syrup if you like a touch of sweetness.