As an art minor in college, I went to a lot of Art History classes. I remember my first class freshmen year -- the low-grade, soft purr of the projector fan, it's monotonous 'click...click...click' shuffling through slides, and those dimmed lights right before lunch time were more than my eyelids could normally bear...my mind's true fascination with the subject matter before me was no match for the apparent lead in my lids.

But as time went on in college (and I got a little more sleep at night) I remember getting to the point where I could have skipped lunch to just sit in that room another hour before heading up the hill. We studies thousands of slides...the closer we got to modern paintings, the less I enjoyed them and the more the absurd manifestos of each artist was ridiculed by my classically trained eyes...but there were some painters, at which my heart would swoon despite my head. Hopper's "Chop Suey" became one such of these works of art. When I looked at it, I saw gorgeous, rich, color, evoking the happiest of moods upon me and a friendship among the young women at the table much like the best friendships in my life. Just a cup of tea in the middle of an afternoon filled with hubbub. But take the stairs to the second floor, and the door on the right into this calm restaurant, and you can grab up handfuls of serenity, rest for aching feet, and the best conversation (and the best silence) you'll have all day.

All that from a painting. My art teacher (and she is quite correct, I must hand it to her) said Hopper was actually talking about the lack of personal interaction in our modern world - the people in his paintings are often alone, or if with others, they never/hardly are interacting with each other. There is a loneliness, coldness and melancholy in his paintings.

The interesting differences of opinion on this piece between that 21 year old bright-eyed girl sitting in that dark room and the valiant, heroic art teacher who was battling cancer at the time has always kept the emotions for this piece of art in a special place in my heart. It's become a line on the hypothetical list of "Things to do/see before I die".

And I might just get to check it off.

I've got a whole list of paintings/pieces of artwork I want to see, and have seen. The Rosetta Stone (done.) Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" (done.) The Mona Lisa (check.) Pocahontas' portrait. Seurat. Matisse. Michaelangelo. Degas. Matisse. Whistler. Mondrian. I have been blessed: Many of these I've seen where they will stay: in Europe. But "Chop Suey" has been one where I was never quite sure to find it. In every art museum to claim they have some Hopper paintings, I fly to that exhibit...only to see something else that he has painted. THIS painting has eluded me.


Until NOW. It's in the Art Institute downtown as I speak. Call me a nerd...I'm ok with it. :)


And now to find my next painting which has escaped me... Demuth's "I Saw the Figure Five in Gold." Just where are you...?