Wheel

One Word Sunday: wheel

Thursday Doors…under the sea

There’s a lot of street art in Redondo Beach and Hermosa Beach, which is great. This underwater sea-ne adorned the side a building not far from our B&B. And yes, of course, there were doors. 🙂 Much better than looking at the blank side of a boring building, right?

Thursday Doors 3.16.23

Parking garage art

Our daughter and son-in-law enjoy coffee and I enjoy street art so our interests coincided one morning in a parking garage where we made a stop for a caffeine fix. Question. Is it street art when it’s not actually along the street? No matter. It was fun to see whatever you call it.

Naturally I had to get out of the car for photos but as it was under the building, not only was whatever sunlight came in a factor but those pesky cars that insist in parking in parking garages caused me to have to squeeze in front of several of them, hence the angle and light in some of the shots. I like them all but the dolphins are my favorite.

As far as the coffee shop and its caffeine-seeking clients are concerned, the best art is probably this one (which apparently wants you to have your coffee in Joshua Tree National Park.) All in all, it was a good way to start the day.

Thursday Doors…surfin’ USA

Our California vacation didn’t turn out exactly as planned (understatement!) but I did manage to find two more power-full doors that I thought you might like. After deciding to use the slider, I had a moment of panic when I couldn’t find it, only to realize it’s called “image compare.” 🙂 As we were in southern California, our son-in-law surfs (not pictured on this first box!), and maybe because these boxes featured surfboards, a reference to the Beach Boys seemed apropos.

You get a bonus skateboard in this second set. A side note: one of the locations mentioned in “Surfin’ USA” is Redondo Beach, home of these boxes and our family.

If everybody had an ocean
Across the U.S.A
Then everybody’d be surfin’
Like Californi-a
You’d see them wearing their baggies
Huarache sandals too
A bushy bushy blond hairdo
Surfin’ U.S.A

Thursday Doors 3.9.23

The White Dove…details

I thought you might enjoy a few details of the insides of The White Dove, Mission San Xavier del Baca, that I highlighted in yesterday’s post. So without further ado, let’s start looking a bit closer.

I like the brightly colored border that you can see beneath the well-worn carving. It adds a feeling of brightness and joy. Church should be a place filled with joy and light. In the Southwest, where we have lots of sunshine and many interiors have lots of white, the color is a perfect contrast and keeps the whiteness from being overwhelming. Outside it doesn’t matter. The blue sky makes the white building stand out.

More border and an attractively shaped border surrounding this statue, which has it’s own niche. The depth creates interest.

I really enjoyed the designs on the ceiling. At first glance, they appear almost childish but after looking more closely, some at least reminded me of some Grecian designs.

Again, there’s a colorful border with interesting shapes and lovely details but not an over-abundance. I like the simplicity. it’s not too busy.

Finally, I imagine you don’t normally imagine angels wearing this sort of outfit but after all, you’re in the Southwest United States. I think the decorations and designs should reflect the area where you find them.

Thanks for spending a bit more time enjoying the treasure that is The White Dove and I hope you’re also having a wonderful day!

C’mon everyone! We’re going for coffee.

Six-Word Saturday 1.14.22

End of a lovely day

The one sculpture Sue hadn’t found on her first visit to the Arboretum was tricky, as it was off the main road. We ran it down, though, and as we were walking toward it, I said it looked like a giant mushroom. I was right on target. 🙂 This is Mycelia.

Named for the filigreed, thread-like fungus, Mycelia extends reflections on the interconnectedness of humans and the natural world.

Mushrooms offer themselves as metaphor and image; the strange blooms of an otherwise invisible organism that runs beneath the forest floor. 

It was the end of a lovely day but we did get a good laugh from this quite suggestive fungus. 🙂

One last look at autumn colors before Sue dropped me off at the parking area, then headed home. I spent a bit of time (and money) in the gift shop before heading back to our friends’ house.

I’m glad you could walk along with me. The next days will be hit or miss as we’re making a flying trip back to Illinois to pick up a Toyota SUV. Why so far? Dealers in our part of Arizona are adding $7,000 on top of the manufacturer’s suggested retail price, an attempt I’ve heard at gaining back a portion of the money they’re losing by not having any stock. We went through the Costco program, which was a God-send: less than MSRP, the dealer has to add on a number of items, and Costco

Monday walk…into the heart of the wood

Must preface this by apologizing for getting behind yesterday and not visiting many posts. Sometimes life happens.Nothing bad, just busy.

We have three more Popper sculptures to view before we leave Morton Arboretum, two today, the last tomorrow. Although this first might seem like “Split Personality” or “Two-Faced”, it is in reality nothing like either of those. According to the artist:

Recalling the inner rings at the centre of a tree trunk, Heartwood offers a lyrical meditation on the interconnectedness of humans and nature. While the work’s image might first appear fractured – with the bust of a woman cleaved in two – on closer looking, a resonant parallel becomes apparent. The heartwood of a tree marks its earliest growth and becomes, with the accumulation of annual ring, the plant’s spine; the wood dense and resistant to decay. 

The outer details are lovely too.

There were still a few flowers in bloom to go along with the autumn leaves.

You may or may not see the same meaning in “Basilica” as the artist did but even if not, it’s fine. Art is in the eye and heart and in the interpretation of the beholder.

Its title borrowed from the Greek word given first to places of gathering and later to those of worship, the work is an invocation to community and communion. While it may be without walls, with no ceiling but the sky, the artist lends Basilica’s two outstretched arms and the space they enclose the sacred resonance of a temple. 

On a very different artistic note, my husband and I have been watching lots and lots of rugby and one of the odd, funny things is that during or at the end of (or sometimes both) English matches and at least some of the 7’s tournaments, Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” is played. It’s not just at rugby matches but the “good times never seemed so good” and the opportunity to belt out “So good, so good, so good” and “ba, ba, ba” has made it a favorite of a number of sporting events. That’s what I thought of when seeing this sculpture as it’s certainly reaching out. 🙂 My husband and I sing right along when whenever we hear it but I did not sing out loud this day. 🙂

Jo’s Monday Walk 12.12.22

Rebellious leaves and some daffodils

The sun shone brightly, highlighting the gold of the leaves. We had to stop, get out, and just wonder at the quintessential beauty of autumn before moving on to the next sculpture. After several years in Arizona, the sight brought back memories of raking leaves, the girls jumping in piles of leaves, the crisp sound of leaves crunching underfoot.

“Rebellious leaves
going out
in a blaze of glory,
setting trees aflame
in riotous color.
Reluctant surrender
to rumors
of coming winter.”
― John Mark Green, Taste the Wild Wonder: Poems

“The leaves are changing; I feel poetry in the air.”
― Laura Jaworski

I do know the name of this sculpture: Ephemera. Beyond that, you’re on your own once again. 🙂 There are several chairs if you want to sit and contemplate for a bit.

More exploration at the Arboretum

Although we didn’t see flowers, we did spot what my plant app says is some sort of snowberry (or maybe an American beautyberry?) Whatever it is, the pop of color was vibrant.

I missed the best leaf color but trees like this made up for it. I should have saturated this photo to give more of a true sense of the brightness of the yellow.

I’d love to give you the name of this sculpture and I tried to figure it out from the map but to no avail. Just enjoy it for what it is and what you think it represents. I like to think of it as a wood sprite.

To give you a sense of size, here I am.

A bit more autumn color and inviting path waiting to take us farther in our explorations.