During 2012, I was in Washington DC for a week-long Impressionism and post-Impressionism Teacher Institute at the National Gallery of Art by myself. However, five years before that I was once in Washington DC to study Dutch painting at the National Gallery of Art, and I brought my teenage son along with me.
While I was in the NGA, my son would venture out to the city on his own, with his skateboard. We stayed in the youth hostel and both would skip lunch to save money. By the time we met up after the conference, we were famished. We would find a nice but not very expensive place to eat dinner ( we have discovered the Whole Food Market!) and afterwards it was usually me asking about his day. That was my “Curious Case of Benjamin Button” moment with my son.
The mother and son’s connection became closer during a road trip we took to Colorado for a college visit in 2010. We truly enjoyed the gorgeous mountain views and a promising future lay ahead for both of us. Only later did I realize the mother and son relationship is far from perfection or fulfillment. In 2012, my daughter came down from New York City to Washington DC to spent one evening with me during my NGA workshop. Mother and daughter moment is precious. Atop the list of things we shared that evening, she accepted a job offer through a phone call. We both screamed in the Smithsonian Museum for American Art and pondered what would her new life be like.
1801, oil on canvas, 28 1/4 x 24 in.
On the last day at the Institute, I revisited the Painting “Rubens Peal with a Geranium” since last time my son took a picture with the Painting after I had mentioned the gentleman in the picture looks like his father. That evening without my son and daughter or my sweetheart, I decided to treat myself a great dinner to celebrate the end of a busy week and reflect on a cross road of growing up and growing old in the Country’s Capital.
I stepped into a local Salvadoran restaurant, had the best Fajita chicken and taco I have ever tasted. With impressions of Manet’s Bar at the Folies-Bergere still strongly present in my head, I ordered a glass of Margarita served by a warmhearted lady behind the bar. I enjoyed every bit of the food on my plate. 