Category Archives: Sculpture

Poems and Promises by Rosalind Cook in Honor of EG Camera Girl and Birdman

Friday at lunch I hauled the Nikon over to Tulsa’s Woodward Park to take some pics of stuff. You know Spring type stuff, daffodils and such. I got those pics and I got this one. Actually, this sculpture is hard to photograph decently because it is dark and the shadows and all that so I bracketed it with three photos in succession each about 2 fstops different; under exposed, right exposed, and over exposed. I then combined the three pics with some software I had and I got something halfway decent.

At least we can see her face and the background isn’t blown out. If I were a photographer instead of picture taker I could monkey around a little more but this what I get. This sculpture is named Poems and Promises and it was gifted to the City of Tulsa back in 2010 by the Sculptor, Rosalind Cook, and her husband. I think it is incredibly beautiful!!

I got to thinking that I had posted this art before and sure enough I posted some film photos back in 2012 so I went back and checked it out and and what stunned me were the first two commenters: EG CameraGirl and Birdman. EG CameraGirl was a Canadian blogger whopassed away at the end of February as a result of car accident where her husband died and Birdman was from Maine and died of a heart attack just after retiring from a long career as a high school teacher.

They were both full of life and had unique blogs and were lively, interesting, and humorous comments and both very encouraging. I never met either one in real life but I feel that I knew them. I know that I miss them both. So this post is dedicated to them.

Serendipity – “Games Along the Way”

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.

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.

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.”

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.

Our World Tuesday – Pioneer Plaza in downtown Dallas

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.

Look at those ribs.

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.

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

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

Our World – Oral Roberts University Praying Hands

The 60 feet tall, 30 ton bronze Praying Hands sculpture at Oral Roberts University is by sculptor Leonard McMurry and was cast in Ciudad Juarez Mexico in 1980. Originally they were placed in front of ORU’s City of Faith Medical Center but were moved to their present place on campus in 1991 well after the medical school became defunct.

Although they are popularly called Praying Hands, the official name of the piece is “Healing Hands.” Supposedly it is the largest bronze sculpture in the world.

It has a lot of visitors and one of the “must see” things if you visit Tulsa. The university has a small free parking lot next door. While there you can walk around the campus and see the some of the space age buildings that it is famous for.

Our World Tuesday

Woodward Park Sculpture and Lomography with the Diana Mini Camera

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

This is a closeup.

So do you still use film cameras?

Wordless Wednesday – Double Exposure

Wordless Wednesday

Signs – Mickey Mantle’s

One of the most famous Yankees is Mickey Mantle who grew up in Oklahoma. The Bricktown area of Oklahoma honors his memory with a restaurant and a sculpture near the AAA Bricktown Ballpark

Signs, Signs

Ruby Tuesday 2 – Big Red Lens

“Big Red Lens” by Frederick Eversly
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
Bentonville, Arkansas

Ruby Tuesday 2

Our World – Road Trip to see Ed Galloway’s Totem Pole Park

Sunday, SuperPizzaBoy and I loaded up and headed up Route 66 northeast from Tulsa to the little town of Foyil, Oklahoma to check out the world’s largest concrete totem pole.

The totem pole is 90 feet tall and is made of concrete over a metal and sandstone base. He started working on it in 1937 and finished in 1948.

The exterior has many bas relief native American inspired designs.

Apparently when asked why he built it he just said that he needed something to do when he retired.

The base of the tower is a turtle. He fashioned it from a sandstone outcropping that was already in place.

There is a small room inside that contains more artwork and an informative sign. If you start googling you will see find that there are lots of totem poles taller than ninety feet. So maybe this is the tallest concrete totem pole.

(SPB photo)

SPB brought his camera. Of course a self portrait was in order.

(SPB photo)

Hmm, this is also a pic of his, That is the scariest face on the Totem.

(SPB photo)

SPB also captured images of some Galloway’s other pieces. I love the arrowhead below.

(SPB photo)

I’m guessing this is a tree trunk.

The park has a gift store inside the “Fiddle House” that includes a variety of fiddles carved by Mr. Galloway.

This was my favorite

The park has a short nature trail which of course we tried.

Galloway died in 1961 and the park fell into disrepair until rescued in the late 1980’s by the Rogers County Historical Society who runs the facility today.

We’ll post the second half of our road trip next week, unless of course we decide to do something else.

National Park Service Article on the Totem Park

Roadside America Link on the Totem Park

TravelOK.Com article on the Totem Park

Our World