So we went to see the Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera exhibit at the Detroit Institute of Arts last night with my nephew, Ben, and my niece Emily.

It was unsurprisingly amazing.

They came to Detroit as husband and wife so that Rivera could paint his famous mural.

It was especially fun for me to see Kahlo paintings in real life that I have been looking at in reproductions for so long.

But it was surprising to me to come away with much more appreciation of Rivera’s work.

The exhibit had many of preliminary sketches for the mural. They are, themselves, amazing works of art. For the most part, they were full size and sketched with charcoal on brown paper.

At the end, we walked over to the courtyard and looked at the mural with renewed respect. While I lived in Detroit I saw it many times. But after looking at the exhibit, it was fun to look at it once more.

This mongoloid Jesus has always fascinated me.

Later in the evening, my nephew Ben showed Eileen and me this photography collection for which he was the graphic designer.

Ben revealed that his dream is design cook books. Here’s a design that he loves and is representative of something he would like to do.

Cardiovista has some amazing pics in it, wonderfully presented.

I asked Ben this morning where I could get a copy of his book for myself. It didn’t come up on Amazon. He gave me a copy.

When I asked him to sign it, he was charmingly flustered.

I told him to get used to it. Talented dude.