rajafacesbothways

Farm Life

Here is produce from a farm in Sturgeon Bay, WI:

And here is the produce from the rooftop garbage can filled with compost. Incredibly delicious potatoes. In farming as in life you work with what you have.
 

Chicago- Road Trip Windup

Finished my trip with a few days in Chicago, spending time with Karen, Grandson Jesse and friends, eating excellent food and absorbing the magnificence of the city's museums and architecture.

At the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) we saw Take Your Time, an exhibition filled with installations by Danish-Icelandic  artist, Olafur Eliasson (b. 1967) He incorporates light, color, mist, wind, photos, a prism arch and a huge reindeer moss wall into "devises for the experience of reality", merging them with nature and stimulating the viewer's senses to be a part of each of the installations. Impossible to describe--you had to be there. Outstanding work.

The next day visited the new wing of the Art Institute, an awesome  designed by Italian architect,  Renzo Piano. Extending the museum to allow an increase of 35 per cent of exhibition space, it moves easily from the old to the new; I loved the openness and the bridge connection to Millennium Park. There is now space for stored works by familiar artists; I was so filled with the energy of the building and the art I felt as though I was electrically charged. I sense the artist's energy going from the work into my senses and at some point I can take no more!

Chicago puts on a great front, despite the graft and corruption. It's strange to realize I went from exciting Chicago to folksy Georgetown, KY.  Isn't it supposed to happen the other way around?

One last look at the sky's aluminum sheen over Northern Lake Michigan. Nature trumps art every time.

Taking Time to Smell the --Foxglove?

Along with visiting some galleries on the Peninsula we discovered the Garden Door, created and maintained by the Door County Master Gardeners Association in cooperation with the Univ Wisconsin research station. Actually it was several gardens combined--water, herb, grasses, faerie, etc.--flowing effortlessly from one to another.

The variety of plants was amazing.  And the gardens flowed easily from one type to another. Notice the playful blue bottle tree.

A very creative fence of branches separated the flowers and grasses from the vegetable gardens.

A delight was the faerie miniature garden, filled with dwarf plants, tiny ornaments and treasures where faeries choose to hide from human eyes.

I saw one of them asleep in a foxglove plant and two other faeries wearing the blooms for caps. I didn't mention it to the other artists--they are often confused when I create my own reality.

Door County

Four  working artists who became friends many years ago, drove from Chicago to join another who has a beautiful home and separate studio along Lake Michigan on the Door County Peninsula, WI.  It's difficult to not spend most of the time being mesmerized by the ever-changing lake.

 Despite rising early every morning, this was the only sunrise I saw. Mostly the days were cloudy.
That made for outstanding cloud scenes.
The days were spent exchanging ideas, exploring the area, making art and eating good food, much of it supplied by hostess, Anita, who turns every table setting into a work of art.
We worked mostly on making cards and altered books. I partially completed one of the Norse Horse, converting it from a child's pop-up book.

Succesful Return

Art, architecture, friends and foods is a quick summary of the trip to Door County, WI and Chicago. Learned new art and cooking techniques, discovered the function of various knobs and flippers on the car, enjoyed the beauty of nature and the new spectacular wing of the Chicago Art Institute and spent time with close friends and Karen, with the added bonus of grandson Jesse about to start freshman year at Loyola.

More photos and ideas to follow. Now I'm off to dance workshop and Archeology of North America class at UnivKY.

Art Workshop

In beautiful Door County, WI overlooking Lake Michigan with four other artists creating books--and exchanging ideas on creative projects. It was a strange feeling driving to Chicago without the Norse Horse.

Felt as though I was traveling in a stolen car.

On the Road Again

Plan to leave Saturday about 8:30 for Chicago, then up to Door County, WI on Monday with artist friends. Will visit Karen on return to the city and be back here in time for my first UKY class on Anthropology of Native Americans on the 27th.

Have mastered the CD player, learned where to check the oil and will enjoy the luxury of AC and a cup holder! My first experience with luxury road trippin' in years!

Entertainment Tonight

After making preparations for trip north, dance class and working with an accountant, bank, and insurance employees to get clear title to Uma Caruma it was soothing relief to have a beer on my deck and to listen to a sax musician's jazz wafting from the court house square.

Added entertainment was observing a butterfly slurping nectar from some flowers, the hummingbird tanking up at the feeder for her pending trip south, an outlaw squirrel stealing a tomato and having to figure out how to get out of the cage. And of course the nightly air show by the daredevil chimney swifts.

All for the price of a Corona and a twist of lime. I feel sorry for those who stay focused on rectangles--computers, kindles, i-phones, television, the microwave window, etc. However they may think I'm the one who should get a life!

Getting it Together

Have 27 photos framed and the announcements printed; the groundwork is prepared for the Sept-Oct exhibition "Unequivocally Kentucky" of my infrared photographs along with graphite drawings by artist Joseph Kinsey. Now I can concentrate on ideas for the "Art Camp" in Door County, WI next week with five artists who once worked together in Chicago, pursuing many different media.
The projects I began last year will return unfinished but that's okay. It's all about getting together, firing up enthusiasm, sharing ideas and laughing a lot.

Plus drinking wine. There always has to be wine.

Julie and Julia--A Film

Julie and Julia (2009) directed by Nora Ephron is a delicious movie. Before attending we had a brunch of:
fruit nectar with rosemary and lavender
homemade rolls and butter
crispy organic fried green tomatoes with a tangy mayonnaise sauce
a mixed green salad
fresh blueberry and peach cobbler with almond flavoring

Great preparation to focus on the story and not suffer from food envy throughout the film. I suggest you do the same.

Julie (Amy Adams) and Julia Child never meet but they both have supportive husbands who encourage them to direct their lack of fulfillment (Julie in Queens, NY and Julia in Paris, France) into something they love--food and cooking. Julia Child changed cooking in America with her book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and Julie Powell who blogs her experience of cooking every single recipe from that book in one year, turns her experience into her own book, Cooking With Julia.

This is a delightful film; Meryl Streep and Paul Tucci capture the character of the Child's lives in Paris after WW2. Streep is Julia, but doesn't overshadow the excellent cast surrounding her.

And what food! We should all live so long and eat so well.