art night 2011

another art night has come and gone.  i took the baby out in the stroller and we walked around to several of the venues.  clockwise from the upper left: paintings at armory center for the arts, pond gazing at pacific asia museum, accordion player at alliance francaise de pasadena, and alphabet prints on display at pasadena museum of california art.

this is a busy weekend - bike week is winding down, art night happened, and the tour of california hits southern california today.  i've got a whirlwind of various weekend photos coming up!

additionally, a local blogger recently posted his list of favorite pasadena area daily photoblogs.  you can check out the full listing right here.

lunar new year festival

i noticed the pacific asia museum was holding a large family festival yesterday in celebration of the lunar new year - and best of all it was free.  i bundled the baby into the stroller and headed down to check it out.  much of the festival was winding down by the time we got there, but it was still fun to wander around and check out the merriment. 

pacific asia museum sky

a little museum silhouette for your skywatching pleasure.

i hope you have a happy friday!  more skywatch friday found right here.

sand mandala

 a hearty thank you needs to go out to my fellow pasadena daily photo blogger petrea, for passing on the news that tibetian monks were creating sand mandalas right here in pasadena - and that you could go see them FOR FREE!  so i abandoned plans for a skywatch friday photo, and grabbed my camera.
 
i packed up the family and made the short walk down to the pacific asia museum.  it was spellbinding watching these four men create visual works of detailed art with nothing but colored sand and some simple tools.  as you can see below, they worked in a small space, but created beautiful images!

if you are interested in going, they will be there for a few more days.  you can find details right here.

we finally made it inside

this earlier post mentioned that we live on the same street as the pacific asia museum and yet have never ventured inside. the last friday of every month is the free day at the museum, a good enough reason to change all that. although we aren't really asian art aficionados, we did enjoy our time there. lots of little curious surprises lurking around every bend - like these horsemen which i was able to sneak a picture of.

back to pasadena

i'm ashamed to admit i've never been to the pacific asia museum. someday i will go, but for now i admire it from a distance (actually not much of a distance as it's only a few blocks from our home).