Category Archives: Art

2022 Dia de Los Muertos Art Festival at Living Arts Tulsa

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Living Arts hosts normally hosts at Dia de los Muertos Arts Festival during or close to the holiday of November 1 and 2. Of course, nothing since 2020 has been normal. This year I wasn’t able to attend the festival which includes art and performances and food because of the weather but I did make it to the gallery to see the Ofrendas or altars to the dead.

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I love the ofrendas. They are made to honor the dead. They have a lot of symbolism in terms of the colors and decorations used. Here is a great article about the symbolism. Many of the altars adhere to the pattern others do not so much.

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I look at them as stories of a person’s life as told by the loved ones. Religious faith, professions, hobbies, loved ones, favorite foods, sports teams, and other facets of a person’s life is displayed. Obviously almost all of these people were much loved when they were alive.

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So I try to never miss these. They are wonderful works of art with meaning.

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This ofrenda was finished off by sand on the floor below with a beach scene. That could be mine, or a small trail in the woods.

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Some ofrendas were communal such as this one offered up students at a local school or who made painted rocks in memory of a loved one of theirs that they had lost.

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Dallas Cowboys merchandise was displayed on three of the altars. If somebody makes me an altar, they could add that.

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Outside, there are murals in honor of deceased people.

RIP Frida Kahlo, what an amazing artist.

Have you thought about an altar for somebody. I have. I think it would be interesting and emotional coming up with a design and gathering the various elements and then putting it together. I think it is good to remember people. I am not one who wants to get rid of reminders of people. Yes, sure that can be sad, but what about all the happy memories?

I am linking with My Corner of the World. Go check it out.

Kehinde Wiley’s new Painting at Philbrook

Equestrian Portrait of King Philip IV, 2016-2017 by Kehinde Wiley

I was running around at lunch Thursday and decided to pop in to the Philbrook Museum to check out their new acquisition of Kehinde Wiley’s “Equestrian Portrait of King Philip IV.” I’ve seen several photographs of it but you know, with paintings you really have to be be there.

The painting is huge. It takes up a whole wall. It shows a black man in a modern urban camo outfit atop a horse in a classic pose, complete with a sword. The rest of the painting could have come from a few hundred years ago. It is obvious that the painter is skilled and I didn’t have the “Are you kidding me” reaction I get sometimes with modern art. Wiley has been chosen to paint President Obama’s portrait to be unveiled this year.

The subject in the painting is very engaging. He is kind of half glancing at the room and that has changes the tone from your usual painting. And the painting’s colors are vivid and the paint seems so fresh it sparkles.  It is a striking work.  And yet I worry about how this work will age. Will it still be on display in 50 years or will it be stuck in storage somewhere. I know it is modern art, and nobody knows how modern art is going to “age.” So I am glad that they went got this instead of something “safer.”

I highly recommend that you check this painting out for yourself. Like I said it is a very striking work of art.

Serendipity – “Games Along the Way”

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Note the doll on the little girl’s back and the baby on the mother’s back.

I had lunch with a friend Friday. I stopped at Centennial Park on the way back to the office to snap some photographs of the park. On my way back to my car I passed a set of bronze sculptures installed on a traffic island. I found it totally charming. The artist is John Gooden of Kingfisher, Oklahoma. It turns out that the traffic island is a park called Medicine Wheel Park.

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The installation is called “Games on the Way” and it shows a mother carrying a baby walking on a path accompanied by a little girl carrying her own baby and a boy playing “Shoot the Hoop.” Everybody is smiling and they seem in total harmony with each other.

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The sculptures are sponsored by the Indian Health Care Center of Tulsa and it is meant to outline their approach to care as nurture: “An embracing approach to care to strengthen physical, emotional, mental and spiritual wellness within a family.”

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All photos are HDR processed. Without it the sculptures are just big dark colored blobs. With it you can see the details.

And who can argue with that?

I love coming on unexpected finds like this.

Have you come upon something great lately? Tell us about it.

Graffiti Friday – Cool Cat in the Permission Zone

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I was in east Tulsa yesterday for Logan’s school awards assembly (more on that later, he scooped up nine awards!) and I stopped by Mad Mike’s Liquor store on 11th street to see what was new in their graffiti. This cool guy with the shades was my favorite. 

Mad Mike’s has created a “Permission Zone” where graffiti art is encouraged. It changes quite a bit and is quite the place. 

Do you have any permission zones where you live?

Our World Tuesday – Pioneer Plaza in downtown Dallas

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I am in Dallas the first part of this week on a cattle drive in Pioneer Plaza downtown. Get along you bony ,skinny, long-horned cows.

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Look at those ribs.

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Is this the Rio Grande? I don’t know but that is my hotel in the background. Very high tech and green. That is a code word for they don’t want to change out your towels. That is the type service you get for a couple hundred bucks a night. They also turn off the power to your room when you leave your room. It makes it kind of hard to charge up a depleted cell phone. Besides that why do they call it green when it is blue? I’m just behind the times I guess.

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This guy tried to horn me! I’m calling him Wendy. We’ll see who comes out on top of that.

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And this my new friend. I call him “Touchdown Texas” cuz of his horns. Not that the actual University of Texas Longhorns scored very many touchdowns this past year. Just saying.

And hey, this installation has its own virtual geocache! Can’t beat that can you?

Our World Tuesday

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Our World – Spring Break Side Trip – Crystal Bridges Museum, Bentonville, Arkansas

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We have been on Spring Break in Branson, Missouri. On our way back Sunday we made a little side trip to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. They had a special exhibition, “William S. Paley Collection: A Taste for Modernism” from the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

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We love the Crystal Bridges Museum and we loved this show. I went overboard again and took photographs of almost everything in it. My favorites were:

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Two Dancers by Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas. Who doesn’t love Degas dancers?

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Iris by Auguste Rodin. I loved the gracefulness of the small work. I guess I had a dance theme going on.

Odalisque with a Tambourine by Henri Matisse

Odalisque with a Tambourine by Henri Matisse. I loved the lush colors of this work.

Au Cafe' (Synchrony) by Stanton McDonald-Wright

Au Cafe (Synchrony) by Stanton McDonald-Wright. I loved the colors in this one. McDonald-Wright was a pioneer of Synchromism where paintings are freed from anything related to the real world. I’m sure I am butchering the concept. Check out wikipedia

Crystal Bridges was a great way to close out our Spring Break. Back to the grindstone now!

Our World Tuesday

Woodward Park Sculpture and Lomography with the Diana Mini Camera

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Saturday I had a little time to myself while Logan was at his Improv Comedy class so I went to Woodward Park for a little geocaching and photography. My camera was the Lomography Diana Mini. It is a 35 mm film camera that has two modes. One of the modes is split frame where you can put two photographs on the same frame. Above are two sculptures side by side at the park.

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The park has a network of trails that run through the azalea beds. I took pics of the trails ahead and behind me.

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This is also a split frame mode photograph showing the mysterious funky little art deco memorial to Shakespeare. It was designed by Adah Robinson back in the 1930’s. She was an architect who is credit by some with the design of the art deco landmark, Boston Avenue Church.

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The Diana Mini also has a full frame mode that is not quite full frame. It make square photographs. Did I say that the processing the camera’s film drives my Walgreens film guys either crazy or they love it? This sculpture is by Rosalind Cook of Carl Linnaeus at the entrance to the Linnaeus Teaching Gardens.

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This is another sculpture by Rosalind Cook called Poems and Promises. She donated it to the city in 2010. It sits in the Anne Hathaway Herb Garden. I just love this work.

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This is a closeup.

So do you still use film cameras?

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Exhausted by Art and Earning Refreshment

Today we “did” the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art here in Kanas City during our Fall Break. Or maybe it did us?

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“Hollywood” by Thomas Hart Benton

We were overwhelmed by all the works in the place. Hundreds and hundreds of pieces, or it seemed like to me, in endless rooms. And it was all magnificent, and by gum we were going to see it all. I’m not sure we saw it all but we looked at it all. We were in there for about four hours and were plum exhausted by it all.

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I did get a selfie in though, and I got Heather and Logan in it as well.

#ipa #rootbeer #stout at #mccoyspublichouse #kansascity #roadfood #roadtrip #fallbreak

We earned our refreshments I tell you!

Did you earn your refreshments today? Tell me about it.