Maria and I went to one of our favorite museums today, MassMOCA, in North Adams, Mass.

The museum is a vast, restored, massive old brick mill from America’s peak and lost Industrial days. It must be one of the largest museums in the world and one of the most riveting.

You need to do a lot of walking; anyone there needs good walking shoes and lots of time and stamina. It’s an artistic funhouse; we joined several years ago and love to come and see the restoration work on the mill grow and expand.

The main exhibit hall is far bigger and taller than any football field, and artists can go wild with their installations.

It is a beautiful museum; I love going there for the building alone; the exhibits are almost always surprising, original, and quite often hypnotic.

I love to see the exhibits, but as much as more, I love to see Maria loving the exhibits. She is rarely happier than when she is in a museum; the artist in her shines and glows.

Sometimes, if I get tired, I find a bench, meditate, and leave her free to wander, which she can do for hours. Seeing her in a museum like this, a playground of the imagination, is a real joy for me.

Her soul practically shines.

I bring my camera – in this case, my Leica 2 – and take some images of the energy that passes between her and the art in a wonderful museum like this.

I’ll post them here with little comment. They speak for themselves.

(Above is an exhibit called “head in the clouds.” Her head was. She got me to walk through this one.)

This was one of Maria’s favorite exhibits, a foam sculpture. She circled around and around it.

I was mesmerized by the sunlight silhouetting this kind security guard, an older man who was helpful like all of the guards at the museum and gave us tips on finding the many exhibits. When I asked if I could take his photo, he laughed and said if the camera could handle it, he could. The guards are always nice there.

If you look through that tube, you will see an artistic recreation of a meteor. Then,  you can turn a corner and walk inside it.

We go to MassMOCA just about every other month. There are always a lot of new things to see.

Perspective