Sometimes when we travel, the experiences we have are just a matter of being in the right place at the right time.  Take, for example, something unique that happened while we were at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts yesterday.

As several children, mine included, were working on a project, a group of men from China asked if it would be all right to photograph them.  The English speaker of the group mentioned that they were from Beijing, and the couple across the table replied that they had been there last winter.  Striking up a conversation, the man said that one of his group was an artist; apparently a group of artists were visiting MIA for the day.

The English-speaking man said that the artist, Zhu Ming De, would demonstrate his skill, so an open place at the table was found for him to sit down and work.  He happened to be seated across from my children, and when he glanced around looking for a subject, he focused first on my three-year-old daughter, who was very intent on her work.

Soon, he was drawing furiously, and in the matter of a few minutes, he had drawn three of my children as they worked on their projects.  He wrote something in Chinese at the bottom of the picture, then posed with the subjects of his drawing before presenting the artwork to museum staff.

It was an experience that we couldn’t have planned, and something that added just a little more interest to our day at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

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