Merry Holiday Art Show!

By

 



We enjoyed seeing folks-that-celebrate show off their Christmas decor or community's holiday decor! So much creativity in our group -- from lights & bright ornaments, to cow-covered conifer to porcelain loaded branches, to a spindly Grinch inspired hand-painted tree with little escaping bugs -- we oohed, awed, & chortled! We also took a quick look at some Trail or Wayfinder Trees based on some of our earlier discussions.  

Top of the Day is a recommendation from one of our gaggle, Niki de Saint Phalle’s Queen Califia's Magical Circle Garden. This lively park in Escondido, California is a master work of mosaic, sculpture, totems, and curvy walls complete with a maze! This homage to the Spirit of California, the goddess Califia, is set in the Iris Sankey Arboretum in Kit Carson Park & begs a visit! Niki was an imaginative artist & we will explore many pieces of her work in future shows.

We follow a great crawling dragon up and around the 17 stories of a Buddhist Temple in Amphoe Sam Phran. Located about 25 miles from Bangkok, this temple includes a more traditional place for Buddhists to meditate and chant. But next to that is a wild, ornate dragon winding his way around housing for the monks who study & tend to the temple. The multi-colored dragon is a national treasure for Thailand & quite a destination for visitors. You can even crawl up into the dragon (though the stairs are perilous so few are allowed these days!)

Speaking of Wild, Ornate & Imaginative, we got to review Antoni Gaudí’s cathedral, Sagrada Família in Barcelona. Its exploration was also a request from one of our own! Several of our denizens have been to Barcelona to see this, some of us actually were able to go up into the cathedral spires and even traverse bridges between the towers. Some were also allowed to go inside and see parts of the unfinished interior. 

Sagrada Família is the internationally prized magnum opus of Gaudi and is scheduled to be finished in 2032. As with so many of these wonderful visionary artists, we will explore many more works of his in the future.

A group member sweetly said she’d remember this Christmas for the rest of her life because of the marvelous discussion as well as the creativity of everyone who showed their homes & the ways they celebrate. Hear, hear! 

Niki de Saint Phalle’s Queen Califia's Magical Circle Garden
Winding Dragon of the Temple in Sam Phran
Antoni Gaudí’s Sagrada Família

Here are the links to todays art:

  • Trail Tree Christmas! -- link --
  • Queen Califia's Magical Circle Garden -- link --
  • Queen Califia's Magical Circle Garden 1 -- link --
  • Queen Califia's Magical Circle Garden 1.5 -- link --
  • Queen Califia's Magical Circle Garden 2 -- link --
  • Queen Califia's Magical Circle Garden 3 -- link --
  • Queen Califia's Magical Circle Garden 4 -- link --
  • Queen Califia's Magical Circle Garden 5 -- link --
  • Queen Califia's Magical Circle Garden 6 -- link --
  • Queen Califia's Magical Circle Garden 7 -- link --
  • Queen Califia's Magical Circle Garden 8 -- link --
  • Dragon Temple in Samphran -- link --
  • Dragon Temple in Samphran 1 -- link --
  • Dragon Temple in Samphran 2 -- link --
  • Dragon Temple in Samphran 3 -- link --
  • Dragon Temple in Samphran 4 -- link --
  • Sagrada Familia, Placa de Gaudi -- link --
  • Sagrada Familia Model Version -- link --
  • Stonework -- link --
  • 1905 -- link --
  • 1915 -- link --
  • Upclose scenes -- link --
  • Upclose scenes 1 -- link --
  • Upclose scenes 2 -- link --
  • Interior Glory Facade from Inside -- link --
  • Interior Altar -- link --
  • Detail of the Roof, Gaudi intended this to look like trees -- link --
  • Columns -- link --

Here is the Chat from today:
09:25:07 From Vera Campbell to Everyone : Merry Christmas in Purgatory!
09:25:23 From Jerry Gable to Everyone : https://artdetectives.blogspot.com/
09:37:09 From Kiki in Canada to Everyone : "wayfinder" tree
09:37:31 From Kiki in Canada to Everyone : especially to find water sources :)
09:46:50 From Ruth Stewart to Everyone : Naples lights https://youtu.be/vPu4uAcbCUc
09:48:19 From Kiki in Canada to Everyone : Thanks Ruth!  I am going to show Mumsy later today :)
09:48:54 From Ruth Stewart to Everyone : It’s long so use fast forward.
09:56:22 From Ruth Stewart to Everyone : Nikki de Saint Phalle
09:59:01 From Kiki in Canada to Everyone : are there Viking horns on the top of the totem pole in the background? :)
09:59:04 From Vera Campbell to Everyone : California is named for Calafia - a pagan warrior queen who ruled over a kingdom of black women! Little known factoid
10:00:56 From Kiki in Canada to Everyone : the mosaic lizard we saw before the totem poles reminds me of a park in Barcelona I went to with Gaudi's mosaic sculptures
10:01:43 From Vera Campbell to Everyone : Yes!!
10:04:18 From Ruth Stewart to Everyone : Queen Califa’s Magic Circle, or just Califa’s Garden.
10:05:01 From Vera Campbell to Everyone : $22 million for Neverland just bought by a billionaire of course
10:05:58 From Vera Campbell to Everyone : How did I miss Escondido??
10:06:44 From Ruth Stewart to Everyone : I don’t know!  Field trip after covid!
10:06:45 From Johannah Purdon to Everyone : The mosaics were FAB!!
10:07:20 From Kiki in Canada to Everyone : I want to slide down the inside of the dragon :) how fun!
10:09:13 From Vera Campbell to Everyone : Hacienda Heights has a huge temple
10:11:56 From Kiki in Canada to Everyone : It looks like Thai characters representing their language/words
10:17:14 From Kiki in Canada to Everyone : It's still unfinished inside :)  or was in 2010 when I visited. Had anyone been more recently?
10:18:25 From Vera Campbell to Everyone : 2032 I was calculating how old I would be if I wanted to go visit when it was finished.
10:18:38 From Ruth Stewart to Everyone : I was there earlier and climbed all around the outside but couldn’t go in.  The interior is open now.
10:19:01 From Vera Campbell to Everyone : It was open when I went
10:19:19 From Kiki in Canada to Everyone : I was fortunate to be in&outside
10:19:38 From Kay to Everyone : me too
10:27:02 From Vera Campbell to Everyone : That rose window!
10:28:04 From Vera Campbell to Everyone : He got hit by a car and died - I believe
10:32:18 From Ruth Stewart to Everyone : I think he got hit by a trolley car leaving the construction site.


Comments

  1. RuthlessDecember 25, 2020 at 3:01 PM

    Greg, this is a fantastic summary- I love it. here is the link to the upside down model of Sagrada Familia, which I explained poorly- it really is fascinating.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parametric_design

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

CLOTHING AS ART!

By
Image
  Top of the Day is the Alexander McQueen & Damian Hirst Scarves collaboration, butterflies & skulls. Alexander was an avant-garde fashion designer & Damian an artist who pushes the boundary of what art can be. This collaboration is such a delicate beauty & so surprising if you know they work. Please check out the YouTube video below that shows the movement of the fabric on actual people! We saw Yves St. Laurent's tribute to Piet Mondrian's colorful forms & artwork from 1965. Mondrian's original painting and the inspiration for the dress is Composition with Large Red Plane, Yellow, Black, Grey and Blue from 1921 and is included in the links. Mondrian painted so many similar works, but this is the one that Yves St. Laurent said he used primarily.  Next we forayed into another Guerra de la Paz piece called Oasis. They created an Eden in found clothing. Whether you saw socks, large scarves or Star Trek tribbles as one of our group mused -- to many a chuckle...
Read more

Bears, Cows & Manatees, Oh My!

By
Image
Today was a celebration of Public Art in the form of the Buddy Bears, Cow Parade & Manatee Mailboxes because we needed some JOY!!!!  Carmen Miranda Manatee! (so many choices below for Top of the Days ... but, come onnnnnnnnn!!!!! The Berlin Buddy Bears have traveled all around the globe to bring joy & unity wherever they go. Here's a brief history -- link --  Buddy Bear acrobats -- link --  United Buddy Bears, Berlin -- link --  Buddy Bears in Latvia -- link --  United Buddy Bears, Jerusalem -- link --  United Buddy Bears, Sofia Bulgaria -- link --  A public art celebration from all over the world -- in the unlikeliest of forms: Cow Parade -- link --  More on the Cow Parade -- link --  Cow Bookends, Denver -- link --  DoubleCow in Lima, Peru -- link --  Manatee Costumes in one neighborhood -- link --  Manatee Mailboxes! (This is technically an ad for the mailboxes, but you can click through the wonderful cost...
Read more

Random stuff with Beth

By
Image
Top of the Day: A Gentleman on a Managed Horse Riding Out With a Lady - James Seymour, 1702–1752, British, undated Today's Artwork: Reapers - Alexei Venetsianov, Late 1820s -- link -- A Gentleman on a Managed Horse Riding Out With a Lady - James Seymour, 1702–1752, British, undated -- link -- Spring Evening at Ula - Ludvig Karsten, 1905 -- link -- Apaches and Angels - Vyal, Thomas Breeze Marcus, Renelle White Buffalo & Douglas Miles, 2013 -- link -- Portrait of Joseph Roulin - Vincent van Gogh, 1889 -- link -- Pair of Woman's Shoes - Unknown, circa 1760-1765 -- link -- Girl's head - Stanisław Wyspiański, 1893 -- link -- ​We started with a picture of pie in honor of PI day (3/14):   https://whitney.org/collection/works/3042 Then we took a look at a link Vera sent us about Piet Mondrian:   https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/paintingsmondrian-you-wouldnt-believe-were-his/ Then we went over to The Sand Museum in Japan:   http...
Read more