Tuesday, May 10, 2022
Weather - Sunny, with a high of 82F
Steps - Shaun: 6,292, Shannon: 5,761
Today was a travel day, so we checked out of our hotel and went back into town to have a lovely breakfast at Ruby Sunshine because Shannon had a hankering for homemade biscuits. She ended up getting peaches and cream pancakes and a biscuit that was delicious. Shaun had some very tasty potatoes and veggies, and then we headed off to the Knoxville Art Museum.
Despite its relatively small size, the museum was actually quite interesting. The highlight was a monumental artwork called Cycle of Life: Within the Power of Dreams and the Wonder of Infinity. It was created by a Knoxville glass artist named Richard Jolley and depicts the cycle of life for humans and the cosmos. It's incredible, made completely of glass and steel and filling an entire wing of one of the floors. The total size on one wall was 105 feet long, 12 feet high and weighed 8 tons. Hanging from the ceiling was another section that was made up of glass balls that was 90 feet long and 9 feet tall. They had a video that showed what was involved in not only designing and creating the incredible piece, but also the craziness of transporting the sections on trucks and then figuring out how to suspend that much weight off the walls of the museum. Pictures don't do it justice, but above are a few to give you can idea of the scale of it.
On either side of the atrium with the Jolley sculpture were sculpture gardens, one that had a great view of the World's Fair Park and Sunsphere and the other with a fountain and lawn for events and relaxing.
A small darkened room off the atrium held nine dioramas made in the 1930s and 40s by Narcissa Niblack Thorne, who used them to show the evolution of architecture and interior design. Most of her dioramas are at the Art Institute of Chicago, but these ones found their way to the Knoxville Art Museum, and they were super cool. Every little detail was perfect, from the wall and floor covers, to the decorations and creepy little dolls propped up in the miniature chairs.
The other major exhibit was a tribute to women artists, and it was cool because Shannon knew (or knew of) a few of them through her work. There was everything from paintings to mixed media to sculpture and textiles. It was quite interesting, and we're really glad we took the time to visit.
After the museum, we went grocery shopping and headed towards Townsend. We stopped at a lovely soup shop called The Soup Kitchen and then made it to our cabin for the next ten days. We didn't take any pictures of it yet, but we'll post more tomorrow.
We spent the rest of the day working out our Smokey Mountains plan of attack. Afterwards, we ate leftovers and watched Willow on Disney+. I know, we really know how to have a good time, don't we?
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