Tag Archives: Arkansas

My Corner of the World – Bentonville, Arkansas

Early in April, Heather and I ventured over to Bentonville, Arkansas for a little weekend getaway. Bentonville is of course the headquarters of Walmart. A gigantic company by anybody’s standard. It is also home to the amazing Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, founded by a Walmart heir. Bentonville is also in an area of incredible natural beauty, woods, hills, lakes, ravines, streams. It is gorgeous.

High rises are going up in once sleepy little Bentonville

You couple that with Walmart’s reported insistence that companies that do business with them have a local presence.

Hunger by Walter Ufer
A painting from the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa at Crystal Springs as the Gilcrease is being rebuilt.

So out of this mish mash stew, an amazing city has sprouted up. Great restaurants, coffee bars, brew pubs. As people all over the country have converged on the city and transformed it.

Johnny by Susie J. Lee
A high definition video of an oilfield worker, on display.

The art museum has ballooned all over town and is building an addition that will add 60% more space to the main museum.

Bachman Wilson House by Frank Lloyd Wright
A Frank Lloyd Wright designed house bought by the museum and reassembled on the museum grounds. – No interior photos allowed.

Talk about a fun place to visit. Just a couple hours from Tulsa.

Pecos Escarpment - by Walter Hogue
An oilfield paintingl

And the main part is all walkable. We rented a condo just a couple blocks off downtown. We were able to walk to the museum over some beautiful trails. We walked to restaurants, coffee places, and bars and went for long walks in the woods.

Talk about edgy, pink here there and everywhere.

We saw some incredible edgy art that I don’t quite understand. I think art should take you to your limits. That is where growth happens.

A night time installation of flowing letters that assemble into words and sentences.

The dividing line between art, museums, town, and nature are very blurred in Bentonville.

Seen on the trail from the town square to the museum

We had a great time. We celebrated my birthday. Another trip around the sun.

Another seen on the trail to the museum

It is a rejuvenating place. It almost has a Santa Fe vibe about it.

Ok, just one more.

We’ll be back.

Another nightime outdoor installation
Alright last one.
My patient bride.

I’m linking up with My Corner of the World.

The Mildred B. Cooper Memorial Chapel

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My wife and I made a weekend trip to Bentonville, Arkansas for a short getaway. On our last day we ventured up to nearby Bella Vista and checked out the “Mildred B. Cooper Memorial Chapel.” A non-denominational wedding chapel. Hit the link above for more information. Check here for historical information on who Mildred B. Cooper was.

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It was designed by E. Fay Jones along with his partner Maurice Jennings. Jones also designed the Thorncrown Chapel in Eureka Springs and the Marjorie Powell Allen Chapel near Kansas City, Missouri. I’ve been fortunate enough to see both chapels. Hit the links for my blog posts on those structures. Jones was an apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright and the architecture school at the University of Arkansas bears his name, the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design.

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The Cooper Chapel is like the others. It is light, airy, and appears to float in the air. There are fifteen main arches, each 50 feet tall. In all 31 tons of steel were used and support 4640 square feet of glass.

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It is open to the public every day unless it is booked for an event.

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My wife inside the main entrance

It sits on a wooded knoll high above a lake. It is an incredible structure.

I’m linking with Our World Tuesday

Skywatch Friday – Stormy Weather on the Drive Home

We drove home last Saturday from our vacation on the Gulf Coast. My wife and I shared the driving duties and so she drove the middle third of the distance, much of it in the delta country of Mississippi and Arkansas. There was lots of weather during much of the drive especially early on in Alabama. The rest of the time we dodged the rain and got see some great clouds.

So Heather drove and I snapped pics of the sky and country. The above two are in Mississippi.

I snapped this as we crossed the Mississippi River.

And this was in Arkansas.

And so was this. I am not sure just where but I really liked it. And no, we didn’t drive into that storm. I’m not sure where it went.

And this is Oklahoma. I was driving and I confess I took the photo while driving. Lock me up officer, throw away the key!!!

Anyway we got back safe and sound from a great vacation.

I hope that everybody is being safe, while also enjoying life. Please find that balance.

Come join the fun at Skywatch Friday

Skywatch Friday – Gulf of Mexico Seascape

Orange Beach Sky

A shot from our trip to Orange Beach, Alabama earlier this summer for vacation. I love hanging out at the beach. What you see changes every second.

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A full moon from earlier this week. I’m told it was the Thunder Moon or the Buck Moon. I captured not too long after moonrise so it had some color to it.

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From our trip to Bentonville, Arkansas recently. They have a charming town square. I noticed this confederate monument in the middle of the park. As far as I know there is nobody clamoring to have it removed. It is interesting to me that Oklahoma and Arkansas are right next to each other and you won’t see sights like this in Oklahoma. Arkansas was a state long before Oklahoma  is the reason I am guessing. Just as an aside, Stand Waite was a Cherokee from what was then “Indian Territory” who rose to the rank of Brigadier General in the Confederate Army and was quite successful fighting Union troops and was responsible for keeping them out of Oklahoma and east Texas during the Civil War. He was the last confederate general to surrender which he did in Doaksville, in what is now Oklahoma on June 29, 1865. I stumbled across the ghost town of Doaksville years ago and wrote this blog post about it.

Well, I got off on a tangent. Sorry about that.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday

Glass by Dale Chihuly at the Crystal Bridges Museum

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This past Sunday the family loaded up and ventured over into Bentonville, Arkansas to see the Dale Chihuly glass art exhibition hosted by the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.

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Chihuly’s art is amazing. Blown glass with all sorts of colors made into all sorts of shapes. Big pieces, little pieces, everything.

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As good as the art is, the presentation is also special. The setting, the lighting, everything is perfect. Not only the glass but the shadows and the reflections are part of the installation.

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All sorts of designs are his hallmark.

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They had some of his paintings on display along with three videos of him in action. His painting technique fascinated me. This isn’t some guy with a beret dabbing at a canvas. He paints directly from the tubes in big bold strokes. He drips paint from buckets, it is all very physical. They had videos of the glass being blown. Big burly guys struggling with the big pieces trying to get the color and shapes right. This is very muscular art.

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The exhibition has two parts “Chihuly in the Gallery”  and “Chihuly in the Forest.” The piece above seemed to hover in mid air and seemed alive as it shimmered in the sun. It reminded me of something from a Stephen King story. This piece contains over a thousand individual pieces.

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The art seemed a part of the forest, the woods and the glass complimenting each other.

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Once a week or so they have a nightime exhibit. I think that would be spectacular.

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I love this boat.

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And these two pieces.

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And not far away were two fawns. That is cool. I don’t know where mom was. They were in a safe spot.

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Afterwards we drifted in the town square of Bentonville to eat and came across Sam Walton’s first store and museum.

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They had an old time soda fountain with ice cream at 99 cents a scoop. Not a bad finish to a great road trip.

I am linking with Our World Tuesday

Thorncrown Chapel – Eureka Springs, Arkansas

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Thorncrown Chapel is a beautiful wood and glass chapel set in a forest near Eureka Springs, Arkansas. It is absolutely beautiful.

I used to Topaz Impressions to make the photograph look more like a painting. I’ll tell you thought that there is nothing like being there for this gem of a building.

Previous Post on Thorncrown Chapel

Linking with NF Digital Arts Meme

Thorncrown Chapel – Eureka Springs, Arkansas

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During our recent outing to Eureka Springs Heather and I visited Thorncrown Chapel. Architect E. Fay Jones little jewel in woods.

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It’s footprint is 24 by 60 feet and is 48 feet high. It is modeled after the much larger Sainte Chappelle Church in Paris. The architect E. Fay Jones said that Thorncrown was “Ozark Gothic.”

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It may be the most remarkable structure I have been in. It is so full of light and is light and airy. I I don’t see how it even keeps itself supported. The structure is built entirely out of wood, glass, and stone.  You can read more about it and see some spectacular photographs on Thorncrown’s Website.

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The chapel gets lots of visitors but everybody is very quiet inside the building plus they quite politely and calmly ask people to sit down while they are looking around and taking photographs.

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I loved how the design is kept open by the absence of an altar. Note though the cross standing outside the structure and the rock ledge looks like an altar to me. The chapel fits in perfectly with its surroundings. Jones specified that no single component could be bigger than what two men could carry through the woods to the site. The trusses and such were built on site the lumber that was carried to it.

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I guess that I am turning into a fan of E. Fay Jones. Just a year ago I visited his Marjorie Powell Allen Chapel at Powell Gardens near Kansas City, Missouri. It was another structure that blew me away.

Google has built a 3D model of the building. You have to play around with a little bit. It gives a better idea of what it looks like in its setting.

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