Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge this week has the subject flowers – real or fake, an artist’s vision, a mural, a garden or a field of flowers: from a Van Gogh immersion to a castle in Germany.
L-APC: Spots and Dots
Spots and Dots is the creative topic for Leya’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge.
flowers (2 orchids at Chicago Botanic Gardens, sunflower at Cantigny Park-Robert McCormick estate, Wheaton, Illinois)
animals (Tanzania)
genets, Ndutu Safari Lodge 
hyena, Serengeti 
cheetah mother & cub, Serengeti 
leopard, Serengeti National Park 
D’Arnaud’s barbet birds, Serengeti National Park 
giraffes, Arusha National Park
art: sculpture (dalmations in Sao Paulo, Brazil; abstract sculpture in St. Charles, Illinois; giant pumpkin somewhere in Japan – this photo was a screenshot; Chinese lion at Cantigny Park, Wheaton, Illinois)
museum art (tapestry, light display)
public art
mural on a wall in a Sao Paulo neighborhood 
in an alley painted with murals, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA 
Clock, city center Cologne, Germany
Lightscape light show installations for the holiday season, (Chicago Botanic Gardens, Dec. 2019 and Dec. 2020)
Thursday Doors: Amsterdam
Norm and others have posted colorful and creative doors for Thursday Doors this week. Here are some colorful doors mostly from the De Pijp neighborhood of Amsterdam, which I don’t think I’ve posted before. If I have, so be it – they’re worth having another look!
Square Perspectives: 2-Dimensions Meet 3-Dimensions
For Day 6 of Becky’s July Square Perspectives challenge, I look at the artistic angle of perspective: Art – the method by which solid objects drawn or painted on a flat surface are given the appearance of depth and distance.
A few years ago, we took a cruise from Boston to Montreal, and one of our stops was the lovely Quebec City. Wandering around, I saw a mural, which took up an entire wall and, next to it, another one of (famous) people in the windows of a building. These murals were so realistic and blended so well with the surroundings, that it would be easy to mistake them (fortunately I didn’t, because I would have walked into the wall!).
I can’t square the second photo because you need to see the entire wall to get the proper effect.
CFFC: Painting of Many Kinds, Times & Places
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge this week is anything painted.
Thursday Doors: Door Art
Norm’s Thursday Doors is a weekly opportunity to share photos of doors with other door lovers! This week, I’m dipping back into my archives to present doors that are part of, or surrounded by, street art. (Check out my earlier post for Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Murals.)
Black Cat Alley, Milwaukee, Wisconsin: This alley near downtown Milwaukee has become a place for street artists to share their art. This mural includes a door to a formerly industrial building.
A converted warehouse complex in Lincoln, Nebraska has become an artists’ co-op, its outside walls decorated by local artists.
Cuba, Missouri is located on the famous Route 66 and a popular stop along the historic road. There are many murals throughout the town, depicting historical events (including the Civil War) and scenes of daily life.
Pontiac, Illinois is one of the first, or last, stops on Route 66 (depending on whether you are taking the historic road west or east), and as such caters to Route 66 tourists. Besides murals, there is a museum/shop containing all kinds of Route 66 memorabilia and you can visit the bus-converted-to-home of possibly Pontiac’s most well-known native son, Bob Waldmire, who traveled the Mother Road and lived in his bus-home for several years in the Arizona desert.
Whether real or painted, a door is still a door!
For mural/graffiti/street art connoisseurs, Beco do Batman (Batman’s Alley) in São Paulo, Brazil is a must-see. “Graffiti artists” have covered this residential neighborhood – walls, streets, doors, windows, anything paintable – with art!
Street artists in São Paulo find “canvases” for their artwork in many other places as well. These are found in the vicinity of Ibirapuera Park, a large park with museums, bike paths and other amusements.
CFFC: Murals
For Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge with the topic Murals and Graffiti, I have a wealth of photos in my archives, because I love photographing public artwork! I include here a sampling of each location. Note that I have blogged about most of these places before, so there will be some duplicates.
Tucumcari, New Mexico: A town I had never heard of before has apparently achieved renown due to at least two songs about the town, and a novel set there. It’s a stop on Route 66.
Cuba, Missouri: This small town on Route 66 is famous for its murals, depicting historical scenes and events, and scenes of daily life. Many are scenes of the Civil War, but I have not included any of those here. Cuba is a “must-see” for any Route 66 trip!
Pontiac, Illinois: one of the last (or first, depending on which way you go) along Route 66. In Pontiac also is a good-sized museum and store selling all types of Route 66 memorabilia.
Black Cat Alley in Milwaukee, Wisconsin is an alley flanked by old industrial buildings, which has been converted into a “canvas” for local mural painters! Located in the downtown area, it is easy to get to and I would recommend it for anyone visiting Milwaukee that has an interest in mural art.
Lincoln, Nebraska is a surprisingly interesting city. I had never been to Nebraska before our 2018 road trip and since we like to visit capital cities, we spent a day there. There is a section of town we discovered by accident while finding our way to a restaurant recommended online. Across the street was an old warehouse converted into an artists’ co-op workshop with interesting art on the outside walls.
Denver, Colorado: We stayed at a fantastic Airbnb in the artsy part of town. On Tennyson St. (where the first of these photos were taken), they have weekly art fairs during the summer season.
Dubuque, Iowa – near the Mississippi River Museum
Des Moines, Iowa
In Amsterdam, Holland we took a private boat tour on the canals and harbor. We discovered several trailers painted in vivid colors.
Brazil is very rich in culture and teeming with artists of all kinds. The more famous ones display their art in galleries and museums. However, the street art is amazing, painted by very talented “graffiti artists.” In the city of São Paulo, there was literally art everywhere – you could barely walk one block without seeing street art.
For connoisseurs of “graffiti art” (although most of it is much more beautiful than graffiti), there is a neighborhood in São Paulo called Beco do Batman (Batman’s Alley) – wander its cobblestone streets to see an explosion of beautiful and/or humorous murals and sometimes political statements. The first two photos were taken outside Beco do Batman proper, which is residential – and we needed lunch so these were our view from the small café where we ate.
April Squares 29: Iowa State Capitol
The Iowa state capitol in Des Moines is atop a hill and offers a panoramic view of the city’s downtown. The exterior is entirely of stone with elaborate columns, cornices and capitals.
Looking up inside toward the top of the dome
Posted for Becky’s April Squares with the topic TOP.
The Iowa state capitol building is one of the prettiest I have seen, so I am including more photos highlighting the decorative tile floors and ceilings. The interior is constructed with several types of Iowan wood as well as 29 types of imported marble.
The House of Representatives, looking down:
and above, elaborate decor.
Colorful designs mark the floors, stairways and ceilings.
Mosaic murals
Looking toward the center of the building, the rotunda below
The library is a real gem!
If you are ever in Des Moines, the state capitol is worth a visit – bring your camera!
Source:
Wikipedia: Iowa State Capitol
CFFC: Vintage Cars, Covered Bridges, Flowers & Murals
Cee posted this picture and her Fun Foto Challenge this week is to use the picture to find subjects for this week’s challenge.
Some of her suggestions are: Mural, covered bridge, car, green, grass, vintage car, people, trees, road, flowers, landscape, sidewalk, or come up with your own topic.
Covered bridge (Madison County, Iowa)
Red & yellow flowers (Des Plaines, Illinois)
Mural (Cuba, Missouri)
Vintage car (Kingman, Arizona)
Lens-Artists #82: Capitals & Capitols
The Lens–Artists photo challenge this week has a guest host, Viveka, whose topic is capitals.
On our road trips around the United States, we try to visit as many capitals as possible – not just the capital cities, but also their capitol buildings. I have a series of posts featuring some of the capitols we’ve visited lately. (Check them out in my archives – that’s why I’ve put the dates in below.) These are the ones that we have seen in the last 3 years.
ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA (May 2017)
Capitol exterior and its dome from inside
KODAK Digital Still Camera
Some of the memorials and statues on the capitol grounds
KODAK Digital Still Camera
BISMARCK, NORTH DAKOTA (May 2017)
Capitol building exterior (no, it doesn’t have a dome) and view of grounds from the top floor viewing area
Some famous North Dakotans
LINCOLN, NEBRASKA (May 2018)
Capitol exterior (the dome is at the top of this multistoried building), floor of the rotunda, visiting school group
Artwork viewed from the rotunda, including a colorful door
DENVER, COLORADO (June 2018)
Exterior and view from the dome
Stained glass portraits
SONY DSC
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH (June 2018)
Exterior and staircase
SONY DSC
Slideshow of some of the sights inside
SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO (June 2018)
The capitol building in Santa Fe is shaped like the Zuni sun symbol, which is also depicted in the rotunda and on the state flag. The first two photos are a partial view of the exterior and one of the curved hallways.
The New Mexico capitol building has a lot of artwork by New Mexican artists. The slideshow shows some of them.
OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA (June 2018)
The Oklahoma state capitol has the distinction of being the only capitol in the U.S. that has an oil rig visible at every cardinal direction. Two of these can be seen below. The middle photo is the dome from the rotunda, and the photo at right is a commemoration of Oklahoma’s native tribes, each of which has its own flag.
Sculpture, artwork, and artifacts in the capitol
DES MOINES, IOWA (Sept. 2018)
Capitol exterior and chamber of the legislature
Iowa’s capitol has colorful designs and patterns on its floors.
On the capitol grounds, there is a Holocaust memorial.
Interestingly, this post does not contain photos from my home state capital (Springfield, IL – I was last there in 2012) nor the capital of the state north of here, the state where I was born and I grew up (Madison, WI – I can’t remember the last time I visited the capitol).
I have also visited several foreign capitals in recent years (2017-2019), but not their government buildings – can you figure out which cities these are? One is a provincial capital, the others are national capitals.
