Must See Stuff

Floor Burger by Claes Oldenburg 1962

Well, the first thing I’ll do is give you a ticket to board my train of thought. The topic last week for 52 topix was “soup.” Yes, all of you who answered my question Monday about soup may have an anonymous cameo on my scrapbook pages for last week.

After I’d finished the writing part, I wanted to add some fair use photos of Campbell’s Chicken and Stars, my number one comfort food soup since I was a kid and I still eat it today. So I figured that it should be represented on the soup pages. Then I thought soup, I love that Andy Warhol painting of soup, I should get a copy of that! Well, as one thing lead to another in my Google search, I came across Floor Burger, by Claes Oldenburg!

I love Oldenburg! But that love does not mean I’ve seen every sculpture he’s done or seen a photo of every one or even know the names of them all! It means I’m always seeing new photos, even of old works, and there is always something new to me!

The most recent Oldenburg I’ve seen in person was Torn Notebook on the campus of University of Nebraska in Lincoln, Nebraska. David and I went there on our honeymoon in August 2009. I’d wanted to see it since I read about it when it was created in 1996!

Floor Burger came up in an image search for the soup cans and I knew at a glance that it was an Oldenburg! Excited, I showed it to David as he was on the way out this morning. He smiled and asked where it was. I had just “discovered” it and told him I didn’t know. He told me to find out and we’d see if it ever fit into our travels.

Floor Burger was created in 1962 and lives in the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, How cool is that? We could chase some area trains, catch a Blue Jays game during the high light one day and visit the gallery the next! I think it’s part that he knows how much I love Oldenburg’s work, but it’s also probably the only time my steak-loving man has ever seen me so excited about beef!

Around the same time he created Floor Cake

And Floor Cone

But Floor Burger is the one I like the best. Work is being done to conserve or renovate Floor Cake which is a stuffed canvas soft sculpture. To be honest, much as I love Oldenburg and ice cream, I’m less enthusiastic about Floor Cone. Not one of his better works in my opinion. It kinda strikes me more as floor carrot. Maybe if it had been chocolate ice cream…

But for right now, I’m ready to plan a second honeymoon where my hubby indulges my odd art fetish. I just know we’ll be craving hamburgers for lunch that day.


Oh, also fun that I found while surfing:

You Are Chopsticks

People see you as exotic, unusual, and even a bit intimidating. You are a difficult person to figure out. In truth, you try to live a very simple life. But most people are too frenzied to recognize the beauty of your simplicity.

What Utensil Are You?