Thursday Doors: Door Art

June 4, 2020 / amoralegria / Leave a comment

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!

A restaurant entrance near Batman’s Alley

This is more graffiti than mural art – the entrance in particular is covered in pure graffiti.

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

June 4, 2020June 4, 2020 / amoralegria / 2 Comments

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.

Because of its prominence on Route 66, there are miniature cars all over downtown Lexington, each with a different artist’s painting.

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.

Sidewalk art/graffiti in downtown Denver

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.

Ibirapuera Park is a large park in Sao Paulo containing small art museums, walking paths, and refreshment stands. This mural was on the wall outside a public restroom.

On another wall outside the same restrooms

Under a bridge near Ibirapuera Park – graffiti art and a homeless person’s possessions

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 Square Tops: Optical Illusion

April 22, 2020 / amoralegria / 3 Comments

For Becky’s April Square Tops challenge, these are pictures of the Nebraska state capitol dome:

INSIDE the top of the building – this is one of the most beautiful capitol domes I’ve seen.
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OUTSIDE – the dome at the top of the state capitol, Lincoln, Nebraska. Notice the statue at the top. Then look at the next picture of that same statue…
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Is this the same statue?? It has to be the same one, but I have trouble seeing how it could be … I guess it’s an optical illusion, a different perspective.

Lens-Artists #82: Capitals & Capitols

February 8, 2020February 8, 2020 / amoralegria / 2 Comments

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

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Some of the memorials and statues on the capitol grounds

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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

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SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH (June 2018)
Exterior and staircase

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Slideshow of some of the sights inside

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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.

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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.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Creativity

April 24, 2019 / amoralegria / 7 Comments

Lens-Artists’ Photo Challenge #42 is the topic Creativity.

I love to visit cities where I get a surprise free art show! In Lincoln, Nebraska last May, after visiting tourist attractions such as the Capitol and the Sunken Gardens, I Googled restaurants and found Lazlos, in the old part of downtown. After lunch, we walked around and across from the restaurant was an alley that local artists had decorated with murals, whimsical sculptures, and more. It reminded me of Black Cat Alley in Milwaukee, which we had visited the previous November. There were a variety of styles and media.
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The face sculptures were done by Mary Kolar and the stars by Ann S.
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This family was created by Julie McCullough out of discarded miscellaneous objects.
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Andy Peters created a sculpture (at right) using the theme of the painting at left.

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I think these are boats?
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This 1960s-style mural took up a large section of wall.
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I like the way this artist used the contours of the windows when painting this mural.
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Jen Gay was the creator of this piece.
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And here’s a warning!
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A few days later, we spent 3 nights at an Airbnb in Denver hosted by artist Marlene Feinholz. Most of her paintings have local themes, but there are some unusual pieces too.
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This space, essentially a “garden apartment” below her residence, used to be her studio, but she decided to move her studio upstairs and rent out the apartment to visitors to Denver. Most of the artwork (with the exception of a couple of Picassos she apparently picked up in Spain) was her own.
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Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Patterns

August 13, 2018 / amoralegria / 4 Comments

There are patterns wherever we go. Some are man-made, while others are in nature. Still others are a combination: humans manipulating natural phenomena to create patterns. Anne-Christine of Lens-Artists’ Photo Challenge this week has chosen the theme of patterns.

This fountain at Ravinia (outdoor summer music venue north of Chicago) was created by harnessing the properties of water and gravity to make a moving pattern of columns of water which appear and disappear in a sort of wavelike pattern – it’s mesmerizing to watch!
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Sometimes a fountain doesn’t have to be spectacular to create an interesting effect. The bubbling water in this fountain at Chicago Botanic Gardens disturbs the surface of the pond just enough to create concentric circles.

Speaking of ponds, this pond is crowded with lily pads that are very similar in shape and form a sort of pattern (also at Chicago Botanic Gardens).
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Nature’s creations often form beautiful patterns, such as these leaves…

cornflowers…

a yucca plant with its fan of spiky leaves…

and these cacti with their tiny flowers that look like rubies dotting their prickly surfaces.

Animals, too, have natural patterns which are often used as camouflage. Butterflies have a symmetrical pattern formed by their wings. There are two seemingly identical butterflies on this leaf.
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Giraffes, cheetahs and leopards have patterns on their fur for camouflage. This leopard, though, was in plain sight as she walked by our safari vehicle in Tanzania. Soon she would disappear into the brush of the Serengeti.

Man-made patterns are everywhere humans live. Lincoln, Nebraska has some very talented street artists! An alley in downtown Lincoln had been beautified by the imagination of several different artists.
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When we build buildings, patterns are created consciously or subconsciously in the architecture. Look up at Denver’s state capitol dome to see patterns such as the ribs of the dome at the very top and the circles of round stained glass panels of famous Coloradoans. SONY DSC
At Union Station in downtown Denver, these identical windows make patterns too, as do the light fixtures! How many patterns can you find in this photo?
Whether natural or man-made, patterns are everywhere and pleasing to the eye. Using patterns, our brains make sense of the world.