A Personal Amateur Photography Blog
The Tucson Museum of Art is a 73,000 square foot facility in downtown Tucson built in what can only be described as a brutalist style.
From the street the building does not look that large, as the exhibits are in multiple below ground levels.
Much of the focus is on native and southwest cultures.
The final stop was in a courtyard where there is a small sculpture garden.
The Utah State Capitol sits on the aptly named Capitol Hill above downtown Salt Lake City. Completed in 1916 it’s style is similar to most of the state capitol buildings in the U.S.
As always this posting is not meant to document all the features of the building, rather to reflect on some of the more photogenic views.
The lions guarding the side of the building were originally made out of concrete, but were replaced during a 4 year overall capitol restoration project ending in 2008. They are now made out of Italian marble, and were completed by Nick Fairplay.
This glass window features the ubiquitous Utah beehive. The beehive symbolizes the belief that the community works together as a whole to improve life for all.
One of the two grand marble staircases. Each staircase has a massive mural depicting the mormon settlement of Utah.
The rotunda ceiling. When the building was first completed the rotunda remained unfinished for 20 years until the cyclorama was completed in 1934.
The artwork around the rotunda was completed at the same time.
This bust is of the native Ute hunter and fur trader Unca Sam.
Nearby is a bust of Ute leader John Duncan.
Noted Utah inventor Philo T Farnsworth is also featured on the 4th floor gallery. Among his many discoveries Farnsworth is credited with inventing the first complete television.
Also from the 4th floor many of the details visible.
The Art Museum of Tigre, Argentina is located in a fantastic building known as the Tigre Club. This club, completed in 1912 as a casino, was located next to a hotel that was torn down decades ago. It was for many years the meeting place for the movers and shakers of the area.
The casino was forced to close in the 1930s, and the building functioned as a restaurant for many years. Finally in the late 1970s it was identified as a National Historic Monument.
In 2006 it was restored and opened as the Tigre Art Museum. The building is magnificent.
The art collection focuses on life on the delta and the Rio De La Plata.
One of the newer museums in Buenos Aires is the Latin American Art Museum, in Spanish Museo de Arte Latinoamericao Buenos Aires – hence it’s acronym MALBA.
It has an extensive collection of 19th and 20th century avant garde art.
There were a number of works from Ernesto Neto, a contemporary sculpturist.
One of the main galleries had a large collection of mid century Latin American art.
Easily the most interesting was the work called La Pileta by Leandro Erlich. This piece looked like a swimming pool, both above it as well as being ‘in’ it.
Another piece by Erlich were these boats, which appeared to be floating.
The MALBA is a very nice museum, well worth the visit in the city on a hot Saturday afternoon.
This is Marino Santa Maria. He is an artist that has decorated his street in Buenos Aires for many years, bringing an amazing amount of color and character to the neighborhood.
His talent has gone much further than his street though, he has decorated, among other things, some Buenos Aires subway stations.
Words are not required – the street is amazing!
Once a year many of the embassies located in Washington have an open house, officially known as The Around the World Embassy Tour.
This was the event we went to Washington for, and it didn’t disappoint. On this busy Saturday the embassies were open from 10-4. We had selected 14 from over 50 that were open. In the end we visited 17, but only 6 that were on our original list – regardless it was a great time.
Easily the best part was meeting the people from around the world. Each embassy had a variety of people – artists, musicians, delegates, and just regular folks from their home country. In the Peru embassy we met the artist Mario Arcevedo Torero.
Our morning continued down the street at the Embassy of Trinidad and Tobago, A recurring theme soon began that the smaller countries had the most lively groups.
At the Iraqi embassy we met this artist and his traditional (yet electrified) guitar.
India’s was so popular they took over the nearby street and had a concert, with the traditional dancers, as well as a drum circle.
The visit to Albania was great as well – really tasty free food, traditionally costumed people, and a free shot of alcohol at the end!
There were numerous people in their traditional dress.
Despite tasting our way through 7 countries we had lunch in Costa Rica. As with the others it was nice to taste the local foods.
While many had small tastes of food and drink, some had food lines set up for a nominal fee – it was well worth it.
The Dominican Republic was a lively place as well.
In addition to the dancers there were a number of craftsmen, including this chain saw artist who makes amazingly small items using a chain saw (and seemingly still has all his fingers).
The Korean Cultural Center featured dancers as well.
The second act we saw was a drum line. It is interesting that the cultures from around the world tend to use similar items for their entertainment – dance and drums.
The Haitian embassy featured an artist doing paintings on site.
Meanwhile over at Cote d’Ivoire the greeters wore traditional headdresses.
They also had a display of costumes.
This artist was proudly displaying her work – it was beautiful.
Ah Belize…. What a party….
Before you even entered the grounds you couldn’t help but feel the energy of the party.
People were dancing in front – people were dancing in back.
People from very different cultures were jamming out to the Belize party. Ironically they were next door to the Muslim Center, which we visited in what I would expect should be quiet respect, but you could still hear the party next door – hopefully they get along ok.
We went through a very quiet and strangely austere Brazilian embassy, then headed on up the street to see these two colorful ladies….
Coming from Bolivia! They had a number of dancers performing their traditional dances.
And posed for a group photo at the end of their act.
This older guy was very active in his dance.
And with that we ended our amazing day at the Embassy Open House. This is one you need to put on your list!
The Ohio History Center in Columbus is sort of Ohio’s attic, if an attic is a brutalist style concrete building with a number of galleries with extremely diverse displays.
Still, a good way to spend a few hours on a cold, rainy Saturday.
First up – African American Art
A long time Columbus TV legend, Flippo (or more appropriately Flippo’s outfit)
A small engine.
Silver Bracelet from the 1800s.
Ohio has always been known for it’s many glass makers.
Coverlets
A display on World War I had a gas mask. Interestingly the precursor to the gas mask was invented by Garrett Morgan in Cleveland. An African American, Garrett had a long and distinguished life as an inventor.
An exhibit on Ohio artists. This display honors Paul Henri Bourguignon, a Belgian born artist who settled in Columbus in 1950 after his wife joined the faculty of Ohio State University.
Flywheel for a steam engine. I just like the symmetry and color.
Early fire engine.
Horse drawn streetcar.
Model Train set.
Miss America 1953’s gown and portrait.
Etch a Sketch – from ‘Ohio Art’
A 1957 Chevy and an Airstream Trailer. The camper has been built in Ohio for a long time.
The Soap Box derby is synonymous with Ohio.
Lustron Homes were prefabricated, metal houses made in the 1940s and 1950s.
This display is all set for Christmas 1955.
Native American pipe.
And effigy.
Flints.
A display of Civil War era Ohio Companies flags.
Dinosaur skull.
Fossils.
Taxidermy of animals that once, or still, are present in Ohio.
An airplane, because we need an airplane.
And cars. We need cars to. And the state has long produced both.
An early tire mold from Firestone.
Finally we are hungry, so we stopped by White Castle (at least the exhibit – we found better food for lunch afterwards).
Each September IngenuityFest occurs in Cleveland. It is tough to explain exactly what IngenuityFest is, but their website describes it as ‘sparking creativity among artists, entrepreneurs and innovators of all types, through job and collaboration, in service to civic progress.
What that means is you will find music, lots of music….
Interesting art….
Unique performances like a belly dancer will lit candles on her head….
A lampshade that looks like a cloud….
A lamp made out of an old drill….
Really cool art….
More music….
A room that you stand in front of a projector and it turns you into a stick person that moves as you move….(a selfie)
More music….
The musicians we heard were all quite good.
The octopus that ate the Terminal Tower.
These guys were demonstrating their robot that can paint lines on roads, but for this they were making a large painting on the parking lot.
Held in a hundred year old former factory (where Fuel Cleveland was held a few months ago), even the venue was re-purposed.
IngenuityFest is one unique event.
The Monongahela Valley of Pennsylvania was once the center of steel production for not only the U.S., but the entire world. At one point 25% of all steel production in the world came from the Pittsburgh area. For a number of reasons though that industry has all but left the area.
Today many of them have been completely torn down and converted into a variety of uses including office parks and shopping areas.
A portion of one remains: The Carrie Furnaces. The first blast furnaces were built in this area in 1884, closing down in 1982.
Today it serves as a National Historic Site, open for tours of the remaining furnaces (#6 and #7). Interestingly it is also used for weddings, as evidenced by the left over high heel shoe (left side of the sign).
It should be noted the facility is not restored at all, so whomever is wearing these heels to a wedding held here clearly planned poorly.
The tallest of the furnaces rise to a height of 92′.
The shop building is used to check people in to the tour, as well as the aforementioned weddings.
The site is also used for various metal based artists. The pile of automobile rotors have nothing to do with the mill, although it is likely the steel for the rotors was produced in the Mon Valley.
The rotors are used to teach high school students how to weld and make metal based art.
As we progressed through we found a number of pieces of ‘Rust Belt Art’.
One of the first buildings we went in is the railroad car offloading facility. The large arms in the photo would pick up railroad cars full of coal or coke and tip them over the side into the holding bin.
Deer were a recurring themes in the artwork. This painting is on the bottom of the railroad car offloading building.
A large steam shovel bucket was brought in to add to the atmosphere.
The area sat vacant for many years so the park has adopted a ‘controlled’ urban art approach, since much of it had been covered in graffiti anyway.
A large retaining wall was covered in various paintings, including this one as a tribute to the steel workers.
Another way back in the corner of the property was very impressive with the integration of the deer with images of the mill.
I was warned of significant poison ivy in the grass and weeds that went to this far corner, but came home no worse for wear, and with a great shot.
This far corner also provided a nice overview of the remaining furnaces. The buildings that are left are just a fraction of what would’ve been there when the mill was running.
The tour continued underneath where the coal and coke would moved into the mill from the holding building seen previously. On this day it was quiet and comfortable. For the mill workers this was a loud, dusty, dangerous place.
Our tour guide Doug pointed out that the average steel worker in the early 1900s lived only to their mid 40s, dying of accidents, black lung, or just over worked.
The tours final stops were in the furnace itself (or rather the buildings that house the main blast furnaces). Outside is another large sculpture.
While inside is an amazing collection of massive old steel components that kept the blast furnaces running.
For the workers this again was a hot, dirty, dangerous place to work. In the early 1900s most were recent immigrants from Italy, Slovakia, Poland and elsewhere in eastern Europe.
To me the remains provide an awesome setting for photography.
While virtually the entire place is as it was left, for some reason this crank is recently painted yellow.
The tour ended in front of Carrie herself. An impressive structure, she was a critical component in the building of America and the World. The steel that came out of her built such impressive structures as the Empire State Building and the Golden Gate Bridge.
Our tour guide Doug did a great job mixing history, steel making process and personal anecdotes making the 2 hour tour quickly pass by.
The town of Worthington, Ohio was settled in 1803 by settlers from Connecticut. As a result the center of town resembles a New England town, complete with the village green. Long an affluent Columbus suburb, Worthington has a year round farmers market, with the summer season held in the village green area.
This farmers market is nice, with an interesting selection of produce (when in season), meats and a collection of hipster booths like artistic chocolate and little bags of pasta from Cleveland. Still we enjoy going down to buy local honey and other items.
This week though we had a surprise in that the annual Worthington Arts Festival was being held.
Over 100 artists had booths set up offer a variety of mediums including ceramics, paintings, photography, fiber, glass, jewelry, metalwork, leather work, and sculptures.
A local art teacher makes Bruce the Garden Shark – whose role is in theory to be like a scarecrow. We brought one home to ward off the groundhogs and skunks.
While the much larger Columbus Arts Festival attracts artists from all over the country this one was mostly local artists, including this one who did a mixed media sculpture.
There were a number of wood carvers making sure we know we are in Ohio.
A clay ceramics artist had great skill in his use of paints and approaches to his firings to make interesting pieces.
Interested in the steam punk look?
A husband and wife team had a wood/glass mix.
Finally a basket of funky little characters.
RDZ Photography 