Tag Archives: Art

Skywatch Friday – Touring the New Gilcrease Museum

As described previously I got a chance to tour the new Gilcrease Museum last month. The building’s exterior is finished and most of the interior.

One thing I love about the building is that it has views of the outside. This is from the terrace looking north to the Osage Hills.

This is looking through another window east. You can see downtown Tulsa just to the right.

From the terrace looking southwest into the sun.

Tulsa's Gilcrease Museum

This area is going to be a cafe with outside seating on the terrace. I didn’t take any photos of the new galleries. No windows and plain gray walls. Not much to see there, yet.

On the terrace looking at the exterior walls. I was struck by the wavy design and asked the guide what that was about. She said she was told but did not understand it. She said it was “architectspeak.” Maybe so. I think it does add interest to the building.

They are still building this grand staircase which is going to be in the center of the building and go to all the floors.

I can’t wait to see it when it is done.

How much does all this cost? About $140 Million. Check out the private money donated. Tulsa has a lot of very generous families who are not afraid of donating money to the right cause. There is a lot of work to be done. They are designing the interior fixtures. The contractor will turn the building over in May 2025. The concrete and other materials used in construction needs to “off gas.” The vapors could be harmful to the collection, so the museum is not scheduled to open until November 2026. I can’t wait. Check out Gilcrease.org for more details. Check out their online collection. It’s fabulous.

I am linking with Skywatch Friday and My Corner of the World.

New Zink Lake Overlook Murals

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On my little kayaking adventure a few weeks ago on Tulsa’s revamped Zink Lake I passed what is known as the Zink Lake Overlook and I saw this mural facing the lake. I had seen some painters working on it but I didn’t know if they were just doing graffiti or what. Nope, no graffiti, they had been commissioned by the River Parks to paint murals. Eleven different artists involved. How cool is that?

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I don’t have any before photos. When I first got my drone I flew it there just to play around. As you can see above it was a dingy neglected place with all sorts of nooks and crannies that are hidden from view. I think you know what I mean I say that public places that have nooks and crannies hidden from view is not really a good thing.

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I did like the bollards they used to define the water’s edge. Makes it look like some sort of riverboat infrastructure. They were handy for daring kids or high (on drugs or alchol) adults to jump from one to another. Well all that changed.

https://www.fox23.com/news/new-zink-lake-overlook-murals-are-now-open-for-the-public-to-enjoy/article_91dd4eb2-7d44-11ef-8681-a7f76a037af5.html

I stopped there and checked it out. It is a sea of color now and paints have been sealed to protect from the elements and make for easier cleanup in case of tagging. Oh boy I hope that taggers spare this place.

The nooks and crannies are still there along with a huge surface to paint.

The bollards are gone and now we have better fencing to prevent falls and mishaps.

I just love all the colors.

In one of the nooks and crannies somebody sleeping. No way you can keep it all out.

It is a lot more inviting public space now.

Right around the corner to the left was where the guy was sleeping. I left him alone.

I’m linking with My Corner of the World

Woodward Park Skies and a Moon

I was loving the light and the reflections

My son not only has a BA in History, last summer he finished a certificate program to be a paralegal. He is working his way through the formal certification tests and has been looking for a job as a paralegal.

Oklahoma Fall Color is a lot of yellows and browns.

He got a call asking for him to interview a law firm in mid town Tulsa for a paid intern paralegal job. So at the appointed time I drove him to the firm and then headed out to nearby Woodward Park to wander around, see what I can see, and maybe take a few photos.

Stumbled on a wedding going on. I wish them a long and fulfilling marriage.

It was late in the day, the sun was low and the shadows were long and it was a beautiful Oklahoma autumn day. Autumn here lasts ridiculously long.

Got me a silhouette

So I wandered around doing my thing and when I was about finished, son called and said he was done. I picked him up and he said the interview went well and they would let him know in a few days.

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They came through with a full time, paid, temporary intern job at a salary about 50% higher than the box store job that he has. So of course he said yes.

The sculpture is Rosalind Cook. A very talented artists who is retired and lives in Tulsa. This is named “Poems and Promises” and was a gift from Ms. Cook and her husband to the City of Tulsa.

Monday morning my wife took him to work and I picked him up at the end of the day. I have picked him up after work countless times over the years and he never had the big smile that he had that day. He had a great first day. He was nervous at first but his training kicked in. He had such a sense of accomplishment.

I don’t know who the artist is for this work but this little lady is going to get pretty frosty this winter. I have photos of her with a robe made of snow.

His boss sent him an email saying he did well.

Appeal to the Great Spirit. I have been posting a lot recently of this sculpture. I love it even though it is controversial to some degree for cultural misappropriation. I’m pretty “woke” especially for Oklahoma but sometimes a scupture is a sculpture.

His second day went well also.

I fired up my Hyperspektiv App and made a glitchy video of the work. I kind of like it.

Who knows where this is going, they only promised a temporary job, but for now his Mom and I are happy just enjoying the work he is doing.

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It kind of looks like a skinned grapefruit.

And here is that moon I promised you. The full Beaver Moon shot a few days ago in my back yard.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday

Philbrook Museum’s “American Artists, American Stories” from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts

Tulsa’s Philbrook Museum of Art has this exhibit going on currently of American paintings from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. We are members of the museum so I went and took a look at it. They had tons and tons of art. The following were my favorite works.

The Artist in His Museum

This work by Charles Willson Peale “The Artist in His Museum” is a perfect opener for an exhibit.

Princess Parizade Bringing Home the Singing Tree

I loved the exuberance of Maxfield Parrish’s “Princess Parizade Bringing Home the Singing Tree”

Young Woman

I loved Young Woman by Isabel Bishop. It was painted in 1937 but it looks very contemporary to me.

Ariadne Asleep on the Island of Naxos

Ariadne Asleep on the Island of Naxos by John Vanderlyn. Such a dreamy scene.

Still Life with Fruit

Some still life’s bore me, others like this Still Life with Fruit by Severin Roesen I find very exciting.

The Crimson Rambler

And this by Philip Leslie Hale, “The Crimson Rambler” is very beautiful. I also find it intriguing because according to the accompanying card, Hale made a protest against woman’s suffrage.

The Soda Fountain

The scene looks like right out of a film noir movie. “The Soda Fountain” by William J. Glackens.

Penn's Treaty with the Indians

So we are hearing about how humanity is threatened by AI and that we are going to be inundated by images and videos generated by AI that have no base in reality. You know that has happened before. This is “Penn’s Treaty with the Indians” by Benjamin West showing William Penn and a Native American Chief, Tamanend in a peaceful transaction where the Indians get goods and the white people get land. Cool! right? Wrong! The land was taken from the Native Americans and this painting of an event that never happened was commissioned by Penn’s son to bolster his family’s image. This led to people thinking it is historically accurate. I find it fascinating how art is harnessed to propaganda.

De Soto Raising the Cross on the Banks of the MIssissippi

And I loved this, “De Soto Raising the Cross on the Banks of the Mississippi” by Peter Frederick Rothermel. The European explorers were a brave lot I think. Not just in exploring the North American continent but in things like planting a cross and declaring some sovereign in Europe now owns a couple gazillion acres just because.

Two Women in the Woods

And how about this hidden Thomas Moran work, “Two Women in the Woods” If you are like me, it was like, what two women? Oh there, and such a beautiful scene, with the two women hidden in the shadows. Not quite as dramatic as some of Moran’s other works but still a great painting.

As part of the exhibition, many of the works were displayed on a “gallery wall” similar to exhibits in the 19th century. It was interesting. To help study it they had a couple of couches and some binoculars available to patrons to inspect the works. They also invited patrons to try and find insights or ideas on why the works were arranged the way they were. It was kind of fun to sit there and just think about the works on the wall and how adjacent works were alike or different.

So after this exhibit I checked out the gardens but that is a subject for another post.

I am linking with My Corner of the World.

Skywatch Friday – New Perspectives!

I went out to the Tulsa History Center to check on the revamped installation of the Oklahoma’s Five Moons. The installation had been damaged by some dummy who stole one of the metal sculptures and then tried to sell it at a metal recycling place. To their credit the recyclers called the police and the guy was apprehended. The sculpture took some time to be repaired and the History redesigned the installation.

Left to Right: Maria Tallchief, Marjorie Tallchief, Yvonne Chouteau (in front), Moscelyne Larkin, Rosella Hightower.

The Five Moons are five Native American ballerinas from Oklahoma who achieved worldwide fame in the late 1940’s and 1950’s. After their performing days were over they became instructors and promoters of their art. Here is a good summary of their careers.

I brought along my drone this day. I have many photos of the ballerinas but they are all on stands and up in the air so I thought that with the drone would provide a new perspective. And I think it worked pretty well.

It was a windy day and my little featherweight drone was struggling to stay in one place but I made it happen.

The lady in the background in the photo above showed up in the middle of my flight and asked what I was doing in a friendly manner. We got to talking and turns out that she is an Urban Sketcher. Which I have come to find out means to sketch on location. So kind of like being an instagrammer except on paper. I thought it was very interesting. You can find out more about Urban Sketching here. She is on instagram as well so we followed each other. We also talked about the Five Moons. We both agreed that not five Oklahoman’s out of hundred know who the Five Moons are. Which is a shame.

So buoyed by my experience with the Five Moons I headed over to nearby Woodward Park and launched the drone on the “Appeals to the Great Spirit” Sculpture. It is really tall.

I think the overhead shot adds to the effect of the sculpture here as well.

It just goes to show that you don’t have to fly way high to use a drone effectively.

I am linking with Skywatch Friday and My Corner of the World.

Here is a previous post on the Five Moons

Saturday’s Critters – In and Out Edition

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Here’s a sculptural critter, some sort of heron I think at the Linnaeus Demonstration Gardens.

And another artistic critter. This little girl on the back of a turtle at the Tulsa Botanic Garden.

I hardly ever use my drone for critter photography and this is “Appeal to the Great Spirit” at Woodward Park. I used my drone to get a different perspective on this sculpture.

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In the backyard I got this squirrel getting his photo taken.

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And a bunny out past 3 am.

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And this leaping squirrel.

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And some birds buzzing the backyard on a high speed low altitude run.

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And these guys going for suet feeder.

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And a Canadian Goose at Woodward Park contemplating the pros and cons of staying vs migrating.

I’m linking with Saturday’s Critters

To Space and then Back to Earth

Earlier this week I headed out to the Tulsa suburb of Broken Arrow to find a specialized geocache. It was a space based Adventure Lab Cache. No container to find, just information you need to look up. It was at the Voyage Solar System Walkway. A collection of displays set up along a street showing the relative sizes and distances of the planets to the sun.

Here is the sun, looks like an overgrown basketball.

Just a few feet away is Earth. Barely bigger than a pin prick and its even smaller moon.

And 2000 feet down the street, all by itself, is Pluto. Stripped of planet status recently but still proud.

And I got a virtual postcard proving that I found it. If only virtual anything proves anything. The installation starts at an elementary school which I think is great.

And I went hiking recently on Turkey Mountain. This flyover are still scary to me. They are not for hikers, they are for bicyclists. They really do fly over them. I think all that steel would hurt if you fell off your bike.

My sister and her husband came to town. We had a fun time. One day we went Woolaroc, wildlife preserve and art museum started by Oklahoma oilman Frank Phillips who started Phillips 66 Petroleum way back when. We saw some bison and other critters. My sister is a former Park Ranger at Yellowstone so it is kind of hard to impress her.

The liked the art a lot. Lots of western artists works are hanging at Woolaroc.

I love this stained glass window.

We went to the nearby town of Bartlesville to see Frank Lloyd Wright’s Price Tower. Built for a pipeline construction company, H.C. Price who did a lot of work for Phillips 66.

BIL Irv got his photo with a big 66.

Sister Ellen did as well.

I did several years ago when I turned 66 years old.

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And a few years before that I got my brother Bob’s photo on his 66th birthday.

Speaking of birthdays, I had one early this month. You can tell I am getting kind of old. I just started my 70th year.

As a treat Heather and Logan took me to see the the Van Gogh Immersion exhibit here in Tulsa. It was very cool.

And I got a cornhole game. Stop by if you are in town we’ll have some beverages and play a few games.

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And I end with yet another Lego animal from the Tulsa Botanic Garden.

I am linking with Skywatch Friday and My Corner of the World. Thank you for stopping by!

My Corner of the World – Making the World Smaller

Sometimes I think I do too much social media type stuff. One of the things I do is PostCrossing. It’s a site where people from all over the world exchange post cards. If you send a card to somebody, then somebody else sends you card. I have exchanged 321 cards over the years with people from 49 countries. Most exchangers are perfunctory but I always check and see what their interests are and if they are on social media. So far I’ve added a few people that way on instagram and found a few geocachers.

You can request what kind of cards you want and I say I like art so I get quite a few cards showing photographs of art works from all over the world. I got a card from somebody from the Ukraine with the above image on it. The back of the card said “I want to introduce you to the Belarusian artist Leonid Afremov… He lived in in Mexico and the USA for many years.” My interest was piqued because here is a guy from Belarus painting a bull fighting scene. I googled Leonid Afremov and sure enough he was an artist who lived in the USA for several years and then moved to Play Carmen, Mexico and then died there.

His family still runs his studio and offers his art up for sale on the internet. I love his style to extravagant and colorful and the prices are reasonable. Go check it out.

The bad part of social media is the creeps you end up running into. The good part is how you can learn things about people from one to one interactions. I have online friends all over the world and I value them tremendously. I hardly ever get the opportunity to meet one in real life.

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

Shadow Shot Sunday – Winter Shadows

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A view of our north fence with shadows from the bench and trees. By this time next week we should have a new fence to replace this well worn installation. I love the old patina but it is time to go.

Son and I are still practice driving. He’s actually doing pretty good.

Tulsa’s Lafortune Park now has a small buffalo herd. They seem to be managing the cold weather very well.

I am linking with Lisa’s Shadow Shot Sunday. Go check it out.

Skywatch Friday – Cadillac Ranch

Continuing my road trip from Springerville/Eagar Arizona for my first 50th High School Reunion. You may remember that I went by the El Malpais National Monument to see a natural arch and some spectacular sandstone cliffs. So after that I drove on into Albuquerque, spent the night and headed home to Tulsa the next morning.

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Something that I have been meaning to see for decades was Cadillac Ranch west of Amarillo. It was installed in 1974 by three architects from San Francisco who called themselves the Ant Farm, on land owned by a millionaire in nearby Amarillo. It was moved in 1997 to further away from the city. You can read all about it in this Wikipedia article.

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I remember driving by it in 1977 when I left home after graduating with my engineering degree. I was on my way to Houston to start my new job with Mobil Oil Corporation. I saw the installation from I-40 and wanted to check it out but you know, I had a long ways to go and I was in a hurry. So here I am retired 46 years later and I took the time, finally.

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It’s kind of a place. No admission fee but you can buy spray paint and people were making the most of it.

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I just took it all in. In some places the paint is inches thick. According to the Wikipedia article it gets repainted now and again for television commercials, social protests, and once to mark the passing of the one of the founders of the ant farm.

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I have had several people tell me that they came out originally to it in the 50’s and 60’s (it was installed in 1974). I just nod my head and say that’s cool!! That’s kind of common for Route 66 attractions. People talk about visiting places as kids when the thing wasn’t even built then,

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I love that people are using really bright colors to paint with.

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And what got me was the kids were really getting into it. Ordering their parents to go buy more paint, or bring them this or that. How does that work? I don’t really remember ever ordering my parents around. I would have remembered if I tried to do so!

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Droplets of spray paint were wafting everywhere in the Texas breeze.

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And I was glad that there was decent sky that day.

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My advice is to not wait 46 years to go do something that you would like to do.

Have you ever checked out Cadillac Ranch? How about the Bug Ranch? It is a similar installation with Volkswagens on the other side of Amarillo. I posted about it about a month ago.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday and My Corner of the World