Museum Day Inspiration and More in OKC

Last Sunday my daughter, her friend, and I had the best day in Oklahoma City where we went to the art museum, stopped in at Tamashii Ramen for lunch, and paid a visit to Pancakes the hairless cat and all of the other kitties at don’t stress meowt cat cafe. One thing that stood out about the trip is how much we were all struck with inspiration after the museum visit.

Between Tulsa and OKC, I prefer Tulsa by far: the vibe is cooler and it’s a prettier city in my opinion, but OKC has the best art museum that I’ve been to in the state, it has our favorite ramen at Tamashii, as well as some nice venues and shops, so it’s definitely worth the near two hour road trip now and then.

Oklahoma City Museum of Art

We started the museum tour on the third floor which held the exhibition of Color Field artist Paul Reed. Reed was born in Washington, DC on March 28, 1919, and became a part of the Washington Color School which consisted of 1960s artists from the area. A couple of highlights for me are the first, “2 31 76 3” (1976) because it’s an oil pastel and I always like to see what other people do with oil pastels, and I like the smokiness of this work. The second, “Alpha XII” (1995) is captivating because I like the color combinations and striking contrast. You can read more about the Paul Reed exhibit on the OKCMOA website.

We wound our way down from the top floor to the bottom, through the rest of the museum, and saved the grand finale for last, the Dale Chihuly glass wing on the first floor. Chihuly was born in Tacoma, Washington on September 20, 1941, and at the age of twenty he learned how to melt and fuse glass. There began his illustrious journey into the world of glass art. Oklahoma City Museum of Art currently holds Chihuly’s largest permanent exhibit in the world, and with full scale boats of glass, luminous baskets, glass gardens, and a backlit glass art ceiling, it is a feast for the eyes. Here are some of my favorites.

After this, we went for lunch, had coffees at the cat cafe, and finally did some shopping.

Tamashii Ramen

don’t stress meowt cat cafe 🩶

All in a day in OKC. After all of the fun, we all chatted about how we were so inspired from our road trip, and especially the museum, that we were ready to go home and create something. This just goes to show that sometimes a shift in mood or perception can be just around the corner, or down the road for us.