![Cloudgate Cloudgate Sculpture](http://www.lauriemackie.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/cloudgate-300x248.jpg)
The only clouds in the sky during my recent trip to Chicago reflected in this stunning piece at Millennium Park. How could something so heavy appear so light?
![Sky Above Clouds IV - Georgia O'Keefe Sky Above Clouds IV - Georgia O'Keefe](http://www.lauriemackie.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/images-300x99.jpg)
This is the largest piece in her series, measuring 96″ x 288″, and dramatically hung above a huge staircase at the Art Institute of Chicago. The paintings, completed between 1963 and 1965, followed a series of long round the world flights she took in 1960. Like Cloud Gate, the piece is imbued with light, and deeply spiritual.
![Farnsworth House - Mies van der Rohe Farnsworth House - Mies van der Rohe](http://www.lauriemackie.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Farnsworth-house-300x152.jpg)
Mies and Musings
The Architecture Institute is a Chicago treasure. It’s a model for architecture institutes world wide. I took a day long Farnsworth House Plus tour with one of their knowledgeable volunteer guides. She had an in depth grasp of Chicago architecture, as well as many amusing anecdotes. I loved hearing her phrase ‘…drank the Kool-aide of Mies.’ I thought, simultaneously, that she was referring to Ken Kesey and The Electric Kool-Aide Acid Test, or, to the Jones Town mass suicides. This then reminded me the first time a younger colleague and friend sent me an email with the closing – lol. He couldn’t possible mean lots of love. My daughter said “You know that means laugh out loud…?”