Early Morning Light

From my desk through the window to imagination

what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east,

“A Magical Garden in the Sky”

Those who know me well know that my favorite city is New York. It is truly a city like no other. I love the vitality of the city, but every urban space needs an oasis. The other night, a segment on the Charlie Rose Show was a feature on The High Line, NYC’s new oasis in the sky that combines a gathering place and nature in a urban environment, making use of an old industrial rail line.

Watch this: Charlie Rose – High Line Nov 2011

I had the opportunity in August to spend some time near sunset walking the 1.5 mile High Line. I was enchanted by the park. It will be a place that I will return to often when in NYC. Maybe in the Spring, with my camera, in daylight.

Billboard and City Vista from the High Line

Recently, I came across this list of the top 100 public spaces in the US. The High Line is #12 on this list. I’ve been to 15 of the places on this list. I thought at first that perhaps that was because I am drawn to gathering places, as I didn’t search out any of these because they were a public space. But, I think that is what a great public space is: a space where people naturally gather because it is inviting, open, accessible, and, to some degree, exists not because of itself, but because of its purpose, its functionality.

You never know what you might find

Roy

rOy

roY

G

BIV

Roy G Biv

Falling

Fallen

Leaf Rainbow

Leaf Rainbow: Deconstructed

Leaf Rainbow Reconstructed

One of a Different Color

One leaf, many raindrops

Photo Friday: One

Murmuration (A Collection of Starlings)

This is beautiful. That it can be described my mathematics is mind-boggling. To witness it must be awe-inspiring. To be sitting under it? Probably a bit creepy.

Read about the science & mathematics used to describe the synchronized movements of starling flocks in flight here.

A list to refer to from time to time….

Seven Deadly Social Sins

• Politics without principle
• Wealth without work
• Commerce without morality
• Pleasure without conscience
• Education without character
• Science without humanity
• Worship without sacrifice

  — Gandhi

Untitled Photograph

I'm not one to anthropomorphize plants, but....

Photo Friday: Public Space

Protected from the public

This week’s Photo Friday submission. Assignment: Public Space

Thinking about Art

I spent some time with a family member who is an artist and art teacher over the weekend. We had a lengthy discussion about his AP Art History class. He showed me the book — the kids should get PE credit just for having to carry the 20 lb book. (He said that he doesn’t have them bring it to school.) I would love to have this book, with its beautiful selection of photographs of art from around the globe and across the centuries.

I took two of his tests and scored well on them. I have obvious gaps in my art knowledge, but where the questions were concerning artists that I was familiar with, I rocked!

One of the questions was about Brancusi, so I had to tell about going to Brancusi’s studio, which has been recreated in a special building at the Centre Pompidou. I am fascinated by the studio: that the artist spent so much time arranging his pieces so that he could display them; that he lived in such a small area of the studio; that his bequest specified that the studio be recreated in its entirety; by the sculptures themselves, their clean, smooth surfaces that I just want to touch. Unfortunately, they are behind glass.

I took the pictures below two years ago when I was in Paris. Fortunately, I don’t have to go to Paris to see some of his sculptures. There is a set of them at MOMA that I may stop by to visit when I’m in NYC in a few weeks.

One of my favorites

I love this reclining head, and the red & blue artwork in the background

Some of the sculptures in their natural habitat

The part of the studio where Brancusi slept, ate and worked.

≈

My Favorite Mile

It seems a bit silly to think that one has a favorite mile of roadway. I know of certain sections of roadway that are designated in ways to make them seem grand, such as the Magnificent Mile, in Chicago, or Museum Mile in NYC. While both of those are places I’ve been — and I do enjoy some of the offerings along those roads — they are not my favorites.

There is a road on the island where we vacation frequently. I’ve been there enough times that it doesn’t take me long once I cross the causeway to get my bearings. I had to adapt a bit a few years ago after a hurricane took out to sea pieces of some landmarks, leaving the rest for the wrecking ball and the inland dump, but I still have those places where I know I’ll get my first glimpse of Gulf blue waters. But it is not my favorite piece of road either.

Central Indiana won’t register on anyone’s list of scenic places. It is mostly characterized by its sameness, the flatness of the land and the fields of corn and soybeans that stretch onward towards more fields in all directions. Sometimes the land is broken up by housing developments, grain elevators, the occasional picturesque barn, though most barns are highly efficient metal pole barns these days. The only way to tell the difference, sometimes, between one section of highway and another is by the billboards. Travel a particular highway often and you’ll become more familiar with the billboards and the barns than with the mile markers.

Flatness, all around

Manufactured farm buildings

a "new" read barn

What becomes of used farm land: subdivisions

But, it is in the middle of this flat sameness that I have a mile of road that warms my heart; it is my favorite: Interstate 65, Mile 164.

I-65, 164

The asphalt divider of farm fields stretches on for about 20 miles without much change between Lebanon and Lafayette, Indiana. But, at mile 164 the road curves to the northeast and heads up hill. It is a slight hill — not at all like the gently rolling hills in Southern Indiana as you approach the great Ohio River — unlikely, an unexpected half-smile greeting.

I’ve traveled this section of road several times in the last five years. In each season, it has a beauty that seems to differ from the rest of the area. At the beginning of the year, with a hillside full of empty branches, the land seems to glisten from the snow and the ice more here than elsewhere. In Spring, the red-wing blackbirds find the trees early and you can pick them out in the treetops from their characteristic perches, their necks and beaks angling skyward. The flowering wild plums and the redbud trees burst purple across the hill in April, before turning the greens of summer. In Autumn, the reds and yellows of the leaves take over, giving the traveler a break from the browns of the harvested fields.

Autumn leaves just starting to hint at their hidden colors

But, more than the seasonal beauty, I like this mile because it is a marker. As I see the gently curving hill I know that I am only 20 minutes from my son’s college home. Just past the curve, where the road straightens out again, where the earth flattens out and forgets the little hilly amusement, is the welcome sign for Purdue, college of engineer and astronaut makers (because, you know, who is a boilermaker anymore, or even knows what one is?). If I am headed south, I know that I am 59 minutes from my doorstep. Either way, it marks the distance to my heart’s home.

Boiler Up!

Common Sight: Nothing runs like a Deere!