Anne Trapped in a Donald Judd

This untitled Donald Judd art work sits on the floor at the center of its gallery, in the new wing of the Saint Louis Art Museum. It is composed of four open boxes, think square tubes, made of aluminum and lined with blue Plexiglas that sit evenly apart. Anne is seen crouching at one end as I snap her picture from the other. Her image and its reflections and those of the artwork make for a neat visual effect. That’s how we spent our afternoon. The morning had been a rain out, but things have cleared off now, cooled down and most importantly, the humidity has dropped to a more reasonable level. I must say that a most helpful art policeman clued us into this shot. I thank him for his curation services. 

We went out to dinner tonight at the Libertine. The occasion was the celebration of our 36th wedding anniversary, which technically isn’t for a month and a day, but we won’t be together next month on the 5th and the Libertine isn’t open for dinner on Sundays. We started out with an appetizer, their Chicago steakhouse prawns, whole peeled shrimp blanketed in soft, garlicky, sherry-laced bread crumbs. For the entrée, we split the aged Santa Maria steak frites, tender beef, with foie gras butter, French fries and haricot vert (green beans). Dessert was their fabulous 1989 Science Fair Chocolate Volcano, featuring a bedrock of cooled ‘lava’ chocolate cake. The free-flowing stuff was Choco-dine truffle vanilla-black pepper crème Anglaise. The hard candy shell that became the on table shattered dome was composed of espresso butter cream, chocolate fudge and rock candy. The evening was so delightful that when we got home, we sat out on the front porch and watched the fireflies dance for a while.