While slogging away at our computers the other day, Tom asked me out of the blue if I wanted to go with him to the BMA for a couple of hours. Sure, I love art and even better, there's no entrance fee! Even the main exhibit, Print by Print: Series from Dürer to Lichtenstein, is free! For those who've never been to this local gem in Charles Village right next to Johns Hopkins University

"...the Baltimore Museum of Art is home to an internationally renowned collection of 19th-century, modern, and contemporary art. Founded in 1914 with a single painting, the BMA today has 90,000 works of art—including the largest holding of works by Henri Matisse in the world."  Under the watchful eyes of the guards, we meandered through the print exhibit. Having sliced my fingers a few times creating my primitive woodcuts in printmaking class, I was excited to see Albrecht Durer's amazing Apocalypse

series. Did he even have any fingers left after wards? A less heavy series of prints I really liked were created by an incredibly patient Japanese artist named Yukinori Yanagi. During a self-imposed 14 day imprisonment 

at Alcatraz Prison, he spent hours tracing the path of an ant in red pen! The squiggly crazy criss cross of lines reminds me of the gray mesh filters we use in our furnace! Another mind-blowing series of prints were portraits of ex-prisoners of Abu Ghraib created by Daniel Heyman entitled The Amman Project. The artist spent time interviewing them via a translator and was so inspired by their intense experiences he inscribed their stories around their images. Being etchings, he needed to quickly write every word backwards. Can you imagine?

Thanks to the eccentric and wealthy Cone sisters (circa 1900) - who were probably OCD hoarders - the museum has an amazing display of Matisse's paintings - a personal favorite. The museum has recreated their living room with original pieces of furniture and paintings. A large cabinet has slide-out drawers filled with collections of objects like gorgeous jeweled purses. On the wall is a large touch screen with a 

computer generated interior of their Druid Hill apartment. You can manuever your way around, and for more detail, touch the objects and paintings (even the nudes!).
Another temporary exhibit, Interior Worlds, features Candida Höfer's amazingly large and detailed photos of some of the worlds coolest spaces, including Baltimore's own George Peabody Library (marvelous!) and The 

Walter's Art Museum (wonderful!). Shown along side French and Italian interiors, our city's architecture is just as impressive! Ok, so not to be too serious, besides the visually stimulating art, the BMA is the home of John Shield's restaurant, Gertrude's. It's elegant and fun. The outside wall is all glass and overlooks the sculpture gardens and has a long privately-cozy bar. Finally, there's

the BMA Shop filled with objects to die for including a large children's gift section (disclaimer: do not bring your kids in here if you do not intend to buy them something!). I think the museum is worth the visit, just for the store alone! Well, maybe not, but kinda......
Here's a tip: There's Pay to Park on the street, but if you go during a week day, you can nab 2 free hours by parking on a side street.