Sunday, April 9, 2017

Pumpkins

Last Fall, I was invited to meet a friend and former coworker at the Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence, Rhode Island. He was there to scope out a Halloween exhibit that the zoo puts on every year, to see if it's scaleable for the zoo where works.

He told me it was a Halloween event, and I knew it involved pumpkins, but wow. Just...wow. What a thing to behold. The exhibit itself was one thing. About a half mile trail, lined with pumpkins. Big pumpkins. Little pumpkins. Teeny tiny pumpkins. Pumpkins that are several times bigger than I am. Pumpkins up in trees. Pumpkins on the ground. All were detailed in their carvings. All were real. All were hand carved. There were thousands upon thousands of pumpkins, grouped into themes. There was an alien theme. A move theme. A political theme. Some were just nifty jack o lanterns.

The pumpkins themselves were amazing, but the real impressive part, for me, were the two men who showed us around. They are the contractors who bring this exhibit to the zoo every year. They commission the artists. They choose the music. They direct placement of the pumpkins. They know where each and every pumpkin is placed and how it should be presented. As we walked through the exhibit, if a guest had shifted a pumpkin even the slightest bit, these guys knew.

They knew about the artistry, about the sound, about the wiring, about where to acquire the requisite pumpkins. They were so proud of their work, and it showed. These men are true artists. This show was a thing to behold.

It's always a gift to meet people who are doing exactly what they should be doing in life.


Sunday, April 2, 2017

Travel plans - 2017

Travel for this year thus far is as follows:

January:
Started the year in Florida
Ended the month heading to San Francisco and Sonoma/Napa.

February:
Quick trip to Maryland for Oscar weekend

March:
Florida

April"
San Diego

May:
Spokane, WA
Maryland

June:
Houston
Dallas
NYC

July:
Pittsburgh

August:
TBD (Woodstock, NY?)

September:
Heading to Italy

October:
Florence and Venice!

I have been working on honing my packing skills so that I can advance to expert level. I await compression cubes and a packing folder to see how those help me cram as much as possible into a small carry-on bag. I am also experimenting with toiletry bags, actual cloth vs plastic (for liquids).

I'm not sure what it is about this point in my life that is inspiring me to travel so damn much when I only took maybe 2-3 trips a year in the past, but I like it and hope I keep it going.

Saturday, April 1, 2017

I [heart] art museums


Robert Indiana
One of my favorite things to do, especially when I travel, is visit the local art museums. There are always new exhibits to see, and as a former visitor services professional, I enjoy details that others tend to take for granted. For example, I notice where the trash cans are placed, and how accessible the space is. I really take note of the staff and volunteers and how they interact with guests.

Today, I went to the Baker Museum, in Naples, Florida. It’s a small museum with a very nice Robert Indiana exhibit. He’s the artist who designed the iconic “LOVE” sculpture that’s now associated with Philadelphia. Off to a good start, we were excited to head upstairs to join the tour in progress.

Art is all around us.
My background is in literature, not art, but I spent many years as an educational interpreter and I appreciate good educational zoo or museum experiences. This was not a good educational experience. This poor lady seemed so out of her element. She did not know the artworks at all, and would stop to read the card next to each piece, reading the name of the artist to us. She pointed to one painting, saying only “the broad brush strokes evoke the movement for which the impressionist period is known.” The piece was not an impressionist painting. And the brush strokes aren’t the hallmark of impressionism. And also … that’s it? The brush strokes? That’s all she had to say about this painting before moving on to a portrait. She read the name of the subject off the card, and then said, “And this is a very nice portrait of [subject’s name.]” And moved on. We didn’t follow.

Sometimes I do not get
modern art. 
What a contrast to a recent private tour I was lucky enough to receive when I met with the volunteer coordinator at the Currier Museum in Manchester, New Hampshire. This is a lady who not only knows the art in her museum, she loves the art in her museum. She took me around that museum, showing me all of her favorite pieces, telling me the stories behind them, and comparing one piece to another. It was fascinating. After we were done, I looked at my watch and was stunned to see I had been there for nearly two hours. It felt like minutes, that’s how interesting her tour had been. She also shared knowledge not just about the art, but also about the building itself, and the founders of the museum. I love that stuff.

Also terrific was the tour guide/educator at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. She had several specific pieces of a modern art exhibit chosen ahead of time, and walked us through each one, asking leading questions, and encouraging us to come to our own conclusions
about the pieces before telling us more about the history of them. She had chosen pieces that were drastically different from one another deliberately to highlight the different elements that can go into creating a work of art. My absolute favorite was Chuck Close. He made the most incredible large format portraits. They look so realistic that even up close, I would have bet money it was a photograph. My eyes said, “photograph” even after my brain read “portrait with oils” on the info card. Chuck became paralyzed and couldn’t paint the same way anymore. The educator took us around the corner to look at a large portrait done mosaic style. It was huge, and gorgeous, and impressive. And it was done by the same artist. After his paralysis, he found a way to create within and around his physically limitations. Thanks to that educator, my eyes were opened in a way they would not have been without her information and enthusiasm. Thanks to her, I saw more than two styles of portraiture, more than two lovely if slightly different ways of depicting a person. I saw the will of the spirit. I saw perseverance and beauty. I saw the way that art will find a way.
Rock Paper Scissors

Want to know the best part? At the Baker, I saw some abstract paintings by Willem de Kooning. When I looked up Chuck Close’s name to make sure I was getting it right, I learned that he was influenced by de Kooning. (I need to learn more about this, as Close made exceptionally realistic portraits, but de Kooning is known for abstract works).


Art and the spirit and humanity – it’s all connected, even across time and geography.

Peabody Mill - An Afternoon Hike

I live an hour to an hour and a half away from points in the White Mountains. There is some great hiking up there, but I am inexperienced and not a fool so I do not hike there alone. Since I don't yet have a network where I have hiking buddies, I continuously look for ways to get outside on the weekends without risking my life.

Not too far from where I live is a wildlife preserve type area called Peabody Mill. There is an education center, plus lots of hiking (and snowshoeing, if you do that sort of thing) trails. There are also hunters in the fall, prompting lots of signs at the education center reminding hikers to wear their orange. That gave me pause.

There are enough different trails to keep every trip a little different, and the place is close enough that I can go on a weekend and enjoy being outside. Here are a few pictures of an outing from last fall.





Can you guess what made the holes?