Art
On the road from Leon to San Miguel, there are all sorts of roadside stands, selling everything from auto parts to fried chicken. Nothing really sparked my interest, until herds of reindeer appeared along the roaside- creatures both large and small made from woven twigs and many with Christmas lights. Laplands comes to Central Mexico. And then on my first stroll about town with my camra, I found this version of frosty the snow man.
I am not one for Christmas Pageantry, but this morning, the creche in front of Amicable Congregational Church in Tiverton, RI, stopped me in my tracks. There, gathered around a 55 gallon drum, were wooden figures whose chiseled tears and black eyes told volumes about hard times. The shopping cart in this tableau was not one filled with Christmas gifts and gaudy packages. It’s emptiness tells a story about homelessness, loss and the deprivation of human dignity - a powerful message in this season of consumerism excess.
Hurricane Irene didn’t destroy our roads as it did in Vermont, but it took with it all the fall color. But a return trip to Storm King gave me a chance to revel in the autumn art show that makes the vagaries of this climate bearable. The entire landscape at Storm King is part of the display. Carefully planted fields of grass turn shades of grey, muted purple and oranges adding texture and color to the scene.
Andy Goldsworthy's wall of arching curves.
Fall Photo School - For one hour photograph only diagonal lines. Despite the muted light, Charles River reflections made a great canvas...
Late summer greenery around Andy Goldsworthy's gracefully arching wall at Storm King Art Center.
Nestled among the gentle hills along the Hudson River, the 1995 Americas Cup contender has found a gentle spot for retirement.... This boat was one of Ray Lichtenstein's last paintings and it resides now on its own little island in a pond at Storm King Art Center
All over Turkey, one sees these blue eyes - Anatolian talismans, made of glass to ward off evil influences and bring luck.
Well I had a momentary flashback yesterday. I came out of a parking garage into the Cambridge Galleria, smack into a kiosk filled with these. For a minute I thought I was in Twighlight Zone travel warp. But, when I looked more closely I realized I was in America, where some enterprising soul combined a good luck horse shoe with blue evil eyes.
There was much discussion of the looting of antiquities from Turkey by the Crusaders, Venetians, English and the Germans. An interesting tidbit for those of you who have visited Venice and been awed by the bronze horses atop St Mark’s Basilica. They were boosted from the Hippodrome in Constantinople in 1204 by maurading crusaders who has sacked Jerusalem clean.