One of the things we like to do on a cruise is take a self-guided tour of the art on the ship. Each ship has a permanent collection of art that hangs in the public spaces.
The weather has changed dramatically. In the afternoon it was sunny and calm. It was so warm we were able to sit on our balcony in our shirtsleeves. We had a beautiful sunset.
We had dinner at Sabatini's, the Italian specialty restaurant. It was very nice. here are the desserts we had - espresso tiramisu and lemon tart.
Each ship also has an Art Auction department which is unrelated. This department incessantly markets "art" to passengers like it is a commodity. Their marketing strategy is relentless, seductive, and cynical. I think they are separate from Princess and they pay Princess a fee to be able to operate on their ships. The art auction program must have begun over 20 years ago. When it first started I went to one of their presentations to see what it was all about. I naively thought I might learn something about "art." I learned something about marketing. I thought their "art" was schlock and I thought their program was ridiculous and would not last very long. Was I wrong. They now have a gallery on each ship, in addition to their use of one of the lounges for the auctions. They sell art by the likes of Thomas Kinkade, Peter Max, and the guy who paints olives with arms and legs in martini glasses. They have huge pictures of women "getting ready for bed." They have real boxing shorts from famous fighters and real basketball jerseys framed in shadowboxes. They have insipid paintings that look like they were stolen from a room at the Holiday Inn. If I had to choose the ugliest thing from the art auction, I would have a 50-way tie. The art auctions are run by a bunch of self-important supercilious types who remind me of the kind of people who work in high-end jewelry stores. I wonder if this is what happens to art history majors.
Some of the Princess art collection is also painfully ugly. IMHO, anyway. They really go in for collages and paintings that look like they were mass-produced and paintings that look like they were stolen from a Holiday Inn. But they also have some paintings I like.
I really don't know much about art. I don't know what makes something "art." I don't know how to judge a picture's artistic merit. But I do know what I like, and I'd like to think I know when the wool is being pulled over my eyes. I also realize that art is different things to different people and we all don't have to like the same stuff. Touring the ship's art is just a fun thing to do to pass the time and I don't take it very seriously.
Here is an example of something I find really ugly.
Here are some pieces I like. These can all be found in the aft stairwell.
I like pictures that do interesting things with light.
Here is a waitress who saw us photographing the art and wanted us to take her photograph.
Before we went to dinner we watched the champagne waterfall, which had been rescheduled from earlier when the water was rough.
After dinner we went to see a production show called Caribbean Caliente. It had some good parts, and it had some weird parts. In the first set the costumes did not seem to go along with the theme. It looked like they had taken random leftover costumes from a number of other shows and used them in this show. he dancing was kind of like that too. But the music definitely fit in with the theme and was very enjoyable.
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