Each Little World

Left on the cutting room floor

When Mark and I were in Cleveland earlier this summer, we spent the better part of a day at the Cleveland Museum of Art. This is such a fabulous museum that we've made it our stop when drive out East to see my family. We even stay at a lovely boutique hotel that's only a block away so can walk over. CMA has stunning old and new buildings, an extraordinary art collection, two restaurants, an excellent shop and admission is free. What more could you want?

On our visit we were thrilled when we walked into the gallery of African art to discover two new large sculptures given pride of place in the center of the gallery. While we were discussing them and Mark was snapping photos, a photo crew and CMA staff members came into the museum. They were shooting a PR video and asked us to be in it. They told Mark to keep taking photos and for both of us to continue our lively discussion about the art.

When they finished shooting us, we signed releases from CMA and laughed because we were actually referred to as "the talent." Yesterday the museum sent us an email with a link to the finished video. Alas we were left on the cutting rom floor in this great one-minute movie. They said they have a longer three-minute version running at the museum. Maybe we made that one; we'll probably never know.

 

If you go to YouTube and search for the Cleveland Museum of Art you will find a number of terrific little videos about the museum that show off the buildings and their stunning collection.

 

Shadowlands

After a number of hot and sunny days, the temps are supposed to drop back into the 70s with some clouds. Nothing nicer than working in the garden when you can labor in cool shadowy spots. I think this shot is of the big dramatic handle of a medieval era sword. Mark thinks it is actually a cross. Too bad we didn't snap a photo of the label.

A fanciful railing on the Notre Dame campus.

If you plant it . . .

they will come and they did. Visit our garden, I mean. On Saturday we had back-to-back busloads of American Conifer Society members in town for the weekend at a gathering that included meetings/tours/speakers/and a conifer auction sponsored by the Central Region. Mark managed to snap a few photos while they were at our garden, but most of the time we were answering questions and socializing. We did have a few minutes to sit by the front door, have a cup of coffee and admire the pristine driveway while waiting for the first bus to arrive.

And suddenly, there it was — looking quite out of place on our street.

We had a chance to exchange names with the first folks off the bus . . .

But soon the trickle of visitors turned into a stream. Serious gardeners know how to properly treat a garden and where to walk and where not to go, which makes a group visit like this easy to handle. 

Luckily they dispersed all over the garden which helped with crowd control. In fact, I noted lots of folks went around the garden more than once looking at things. We had iced tea, a bowl of almonds and lots of before pictures and construction photos on the deck — all of which were a big hit. 

i managed to remember the names of most plants I was asked about, even running indoors a few times to check my records for specifics. With serious and knowledgeable gardeners like this group, I am always interested to see what plant or feature catches people's interest. Patterned foliage elicited lots of questions from Hepatica 'Silver Leaf' to Podophyllum 'Spotty Dotty.' 

Mark mentioned to one of our visitors that we are not members of the Conifer Society nor even what we would call conifer collectors. The gentleman touring our garden said the group was more interested in how people incorporate conifers into their overall garden. That is how we think about conifers and evergreens, so it was nice to think that our garden offered them what they were hoping to see.  

Dizzying dots

I have been aware of artist Yayoi Kusama for a number of years, though I've  never seen any of her work in person. And this month I missed another chance to see what promises to be an amazing exhibit of her work at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Artists recognized the playful potential of dots as early as the 1960s, when painters like  Kusama, "begin embracing the abstract pattern as a visual object in its own right," according to an Artsy essay about the history of polka dots by Katy Kelleher. 

"For Kusama, the polka dot became a potent symbol and a reoccuring decorative motif, and while she does use figurative elements in her work, some of her most striking installations rely solely on outsized spots to create a sense of joyful displacement."

These first two images show how the Cleveland Museum of Art announced Kusama's exhibit in the area surrounding their building.

Inside the museum, the staff was just beginning to install Kusama's work so we got a sense of what visitors would see. 

Part of the museum was blocked off while the crew was working. 

But no matter where we went, we found ourselves engaging with Kusama's big polka-dotted spheres. 

The color and scale were dramatic . . . 

making those huge globes absolutely mesmerizing. 

Again and again we met up with them. 

In the Atrium or in the galleries, we could not stop staring at them. 

We weren't the only ones.  

A pattern language: Man-made

Earlier this week I posted a group of images Mark took on our recent vacation that suggested patterns in nature. Here are the man-made patterns; or at least man-made patterns to me.

This is the seating area for the Provenance Cafe in the atrium of the Cleveland Museum of Art. A great space, a great museum. 

An exterior detail of the Peter B. Lewis Building at Case Western Reserve University around the corner from the hotel where we stayed in Cleveland.

The bottom of a painted Egyptian mummy case at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

"Building Elements" was an installation of sculpture by Marlon de Azambuja using building materials from around Cleveland. It is part of a larger exhibit, "An American City," on display in a CMA gallery known as the glass box and elsewhere.

On the wall in the above gallery were a related series of photographs by Luisa Lambri of CMA's Marcel Breuer-designed addition. The horizontal bands of that structure have become an iconic symbol of the museum, as well as a marketing motif as seen on my bag — purchased on our last CMA visit in 2015.

Brilliant yellow bollards keep drivers from crashing into the building.

The tracks for a train spanning a valley in New York State.

This is part of the structure that supports the RR trestle pictured above. 

A pattern language: Natural motifs

As expected Mark took lots of photos on our trips. We traveled a little over 1,400 miles and Mark took more than 1,000 pictures. As I looked through them I noticed a number of images that suggested patterns, both man-made creations and natural wonders. Here are the natural motifs that caught Mark's eye and then mine.

Home again, home again jigitty-jog

We got home Tuesday afternoon after eight days out East visiting with my sisters and extended family. Once upon a time I used to drive by myself from Madison to my parents' home in Buffalo — all in one day (approx. 700 miles). These days Mark and I usually stop overnight on the way out to our destination of my sister's place on Chautauqua Lake in NY state. This time we also decided to stop on the say home as well.

We drove almost seven hours before stopping at the Morris Inn in the middle of the Notre Dame University campus. Unlike UW-Madison which is in the midst of the city, Notre Dame is self-contained. You drive in to a spot that is filled with great grassy fields criss-crossed with sidewalks for walking since there are no vehicles allowed. The Inn and campus buildings are mostly pale brick and surround what is virtually an arboretum. I had Mark snap this photo of me next to a gorgeously mature weeping Beech. 

This is a London plane tree with pale gray exfoliating bark at the top that reveals an almost white trunk. To really get a good shot of this extremely old and tall tree, I think one really needed to lay flat on the ground.

We both love evergreens so we were very taken with the pines with multiple trunks, twisting branches that swooped up and, in this case, down almost to the ground.

I would not want to stay on campus on a football weekend as I know what those are like after 40+ years living in Madison. But in summer — with as many tourists as students wandering around the campus — it was a lovely place to spend some time. 

A perfect weekend: Part 1

Yesterday Mark and I were on the road by 9 a.m. in order to be among the early birds on the 12th Annual Mt. Horeb Arts Association annual spring art tour. It was a perfect day and our first stop was as enjoyable as we anticipated. The tour continues today and tomorrow from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. Details and directions are here. The group has a good website and we found directional signs all along the route.

We began at  Chuck Bauer and Chuck Beckwith's Blanchardville farm, a spot that would be reason enough for a drive in the country. An old farmhouse with barns and outbuilding used as studios are surrounded by flowers, lots of spots to sit and enjoy their art and garden objects. 

This piece is called "The Bat" and is made of copper. 

This garden was the first place we ever saw art made out of bowling balls; in particular a pair of huge pyramids composed entirely of bowling balls. If you leave them out in the elements to weather they lose their shine and many of them develop lichens like this ball perched on a fence post.

Chuck and Chuck always had inspiring bouquets of flowers from their gardens at their shop on State St. in Madison. I was introduced to many a flower via those arrangements. Yesterday at the farm, I spent quite a lot of time walking around and sticking my nose in massive rose bushes covered with blooms and clumps of big old Peonies drooping under the weight of the fat flowers. This is one of Roy Klehm's famed coral peonies, a color break through he developed. Even more stunning in person that this picture conveys, but alas it does not have any fragrance to match its dramatic coloring.

Since we own an oil painting by Chuck Bauer and a watercolor done by his late mother, he sent us a message in advance of the weekend's tour with pictures of what he'd be selling. That was enough for us to make the trip and to bring a checkbook. We came home with another painting — a different seasonal view of the same part of their garden as the painting we already own. Mark succumbed to a little house made out of lead that he's long admired. He put it out in our garden this morning. We hung the painting yesterday as soon as we got home. 

. . .

We spent the afternoon with a fellow garden blogger, her husband and daughter. Cindy Goodson blogs at enclos*ure take refuge and Mark and I had met her and her husband, Don, on prior visits to Madison to see their daughter. This time they were on their way back to the U.S. after three years in Stuttgart, Germany. Don is a member of the U.S. Diplomatic Service so they've lived in many countries.

It's always lovely to spend time with them and talk gardens, politics, food and travel. If you haven't been to Cindy's blog, do take a look. She writes about gardens wherever she is, but she also focuses on historic and ethnic gardens here, there and everywhere. I never know what I am going to find when I visit her blog, but I always know it will capture my interest and attention.

Wednesday vignette

On our way up to Stout's Island Lodge in July, we stopped in Eau Claire at Caradori Pottery. We first discovered David Caradori at the old Cambridge Pottery Festival. We bought our first pieces of his work at the festival and later made stops at his shop in Eau Claire and also visited his home to see his personal pottery collection. 

Caradori's a fan of Japanese tea bowls and has worked with the esteemed Japanese potter, M. Kusakabe, so he and Mark immediately hit it off. These are sake containers made by Caradori which we brought home from our stop at his shop. Their lids turn into little cups for drinking. Perfect for an autumn afternoon in our Tea House.

We usually sit on cushions on the floor when we're in the Tea House. The Yanagi butterfly stool is as much a sculpture as seat and we rarely actually use it. Mostly just enjoy its crisp lines contrasted with the rough stucco walls.

In a vase on Monday: Teahouse flowers

We've been reminding ourselves to take advantage of the cooler fall weather to sit in the Tea House with our afternoon coffee. We hadn't been inside for a while so Mark vacuumed the interior and replaced the wilted bouquet.  

He opted for a sprig of Kirengeshoma palmata flowers with very wabi-sabi leaves. I think being in charge of the bouquet was his way of using his new hanging vase by potter David Caradori of Eau Claire who we visited on our mini-vacation in July.

To see what kinds of bouquets other gardeners have put together this morning, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden who hosts this great meme.