Four years ago the Philbrook Museum of Art here in Tulsa hosted an exhibition of shadow art, called Shadow of Time, by Anila Quayyum Agha. Part of the exhibit was this huge decorated cube hung from the ceiling with a powerful light inside that projected very sharp shadows on the walls, floors, and ceilings. This and the other installations in the exhibition were stunning.
I’m linking with Shadow Shot Sunday, now hosted by Lisa’s Garden Adventure.
Friday, I visited the Philbrook Art Museum in Tulsa. My MIL buys us a membership every year and I love that she does that. I don’t need any more stuff, a museum membership is a gift that keeps on giving. This trip I spent it all outside. I walked two miles in the gardens. Pretty good workout. And of course I took lots of photographs in my wanderings.
I came upon this sculpture. I like the shadow pattern on it.
I love these blue chairs. They are at the top of the hill and have a grand view of the grounds.
They even have swings now.
I actually swang a little (or maybe I swinged). Do you like the tan I got on my legs from ten days sitting on the beach recently? It had been raining just before I got there and I didn’t notice that the seat was yet so my rear end was soaked after this. Oh well, things dry right?
One of my favorite sculptures in the gardens is “Oklahoma Autumn” by Eric Baker. It was too early to catch leaves turning at Philbrook but I will be back.
I had the GPS on my watch turned on during my walking and here is my map. One hour to do two miles? Yep I was in major wibble wobbling mode. Do you know that they used to have a geocache on the grounds. Yes they did and I found it eleven years ago. Read about it.
I am linking with ShadowShot Sunday II – go check it out!!
Heather and I went to see Pink here in Tulsa at her concert. I tell you what she can sing, and she can fly. Toward the end she got geared up and flew on wire from one end of the arena to the other. Up high in the air and cruising just over everybody’s head. She was amazing.
Massed decorations in stores creep me out. Even these birds.
I happen to think that gnomes are evil.
The gardens of Philbrook Museum has daffodils. I love them, especially on gloomy days.
I found some artistic bee hives at Philbrook also. Gardens, no matter how fancy have those areas at the very back where they put all their left over stuff. Do you think they will reuse those hives? I hope so. My MIL, Nana, buys us a membership to Philbrook every year. I love it, I can just pop in and pop out and see what I want. I feel pretty comfortable there. They might think I am a little too comfortable.
Philbrook has an “Installation” as they say by Rachel Hayes, a textile artist. The installation is spectacular but I get to thinking, what happens to the installation later? I mean do they ship it back to her, put it in their dumpsters, is it recycled? Just what or do they store it for posterity. Yes, I worry about this kind of stuff. I tell you what I think. I think they have the material returned to them, and they cut it up, and reuse it. You see I have known a few artists and they hate to throw away stuff and they will reuse what they can. Hey, I can respect that.
I ventured out to Tulsa’s Graffiti “Permission Zone” at the former Mad Mike’s Liquors. The liquor store was okay with the graffiti but I wonder if a new occupant would be so welcoming. I posted a cropped version of this photo on Instagram and several people popped up and said that the female figure is an Anime figure, “Morrigan” from the Darkstalker Series. Uh? You over feel that there is a lot of stuff going on that you don’t know about.
A driveby moonrise.
In my photography class we did light painting. The instructor arranged all these cameras on a table in a totally dark room then illuminated them with a flashlight for 90 seconds while we held our shutters open on our tripod mounted cameras and then got colored light sticks out to create the ribbons. Totally cool! is what I thought.
A couple weeks ago I walked a trail run. I have not run since November so I walked this quarter marathon. The race was in the third day of racing after several days of rain so it was muddy. Since I was walking I tried to stay out of the mud and I was okay but there were a few places like the creek above where I just had to slog through the ice cold water.
Similar thing here. The trail, which has running water in it, is paralleling a creek. Off to the right is some pretty thick brush. Just smile and splish splash.
But hey, we eventually made it to the top of Holmes Peak, the tallest point in Tulsa County, big sky in all directions. You can see the high rises of Tulsa off in the distance. I love the big skies of Oklahoma. I have to report that it took me about four hours to go the six and change miles. It was slow going!!
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.
I went to Philbrook Museum of Art earlier this week at lunch. We have a membership there, courtesy of the world’s best MIL so I can pop in when ever I want. Anyway I breezed through the galleries and went outside but didn’t go tour the gardens since I was short of time so I took this photo of the chairs and tables on the patio.
I ran a half marathon back in November and caught these shadows in the early morning sun.
My employer rebuilt their plaza area in front of the building and now it is a really nice space. They have a large ramada and a bunch of chairs and tables that make for interesting shadows.
This is from back in warmer weather. I was running on the Arkansas River trails here in Tulsa and got passed by a couple of bicyclists so I snapped their pic and caught a shadow selfie.
Sunday afternoon, after setting the DVR for the Dallas Cowboys game, son Logan and I headed off for an outing at Tulsa’s Philbrook Museum of Art. I wasn’t interested in the art on this trip as I was the gardens of museum. They have spectacular gardens and there is something to see in them all seasons. Thanks to Logan’s grandmother, my MIL, who buys us a family membership every year, we get to go see Philbrook a lot.
First up they had a Special Exhibit called “Museum Confidential” that was about, among other things, why some works that museums have in the their collections never get exhibited. They had a pretty dense display of Philbrook owned art that never gets displayed. A lot of it is funny looking, or worn out, or they are not sure exactly who painted it (provenance that is called). I thought it quite interesting. My theory is that a lot of stuff is donated and they don’t know what to do with it. My dad was involved in a museum in Idaho and he talked about all the worthless stuff people donated just to get a tax deduction.
Anyway, we checked the exhibit out in a couple minutes an then toured the rest of the three floors in about 15 minutes. It doesn’t take me long. I have been to the museum dozens of times and I just like looking at the stuff I like and it is like saying hello to old friends and I never get tired of the collection, and every once in a while I notice something new or rather, noticed something that has been there all along. So, after our whirlwind tour we headed out for the gardens.
The focal point of the gardens is the tempietto. The money shot is the tempietto reflected in the pond. I wonder how many photos have been taken of it over the years. I think it has led to an imbalance of photons in this world that is causing many of our current problems. So I know that it is somewhat of a cliche but you know I have been clicking away for years and will keep on clicking. I think the scene is gorgeous.
And then we went off. I found this foliage right next to the employee parking lot. I’ll take it.
Some more Fall color.
By now you have figured out that I have a thing for curved walkways that go underneath colorful trees.
And on our way out, I stop for another shot of the tempietto. I like all the purply colors in this scene and how the colors are reflected in the pond. I also love all the textures in the scene. I am not bragging about the photo, I love the what my eye sees and what is weakly captured by the camera.
If you plan on visiting Philbrook check their website. They have lots going on including both big special exhibits and smaller. Note that they have a monthly event called Second Saturday where the museum doesn’t charge admission and they have all sorts of activities for all ages. it is quite fun and is sponsored by my employer.
They are also very photo friendly. You can take photos of almost anything in their permanent collection. Just don’t use flash and don’t be a pain to your fellow guests. Special exhibits are sometimes different because they bring in art from other museums and private collections and sometimes there are restrictions. If you have any questions, just ask the people at the front desk. They are very friendly, well trained and can answer all your questions.
Friday was my day off and I went to Tulsa’s Philbrook Museum to check out the recently opened exhibition of a selection of Cheech Marin’s collection of Chicano Art. Marin is of course half of the comedy duo Cheech and Chong. Who knew that he had a world famous collection of Chicano Art?
Tirando Rollo (I Love You) by Gaspar Enriquez
It is amazing. A wide variety of styles of both established and new artists. They were all new to me. I had never seen an exhibition dedicated to Chicano art before.
If La Virgen Returned by Pablo Andres Cristi
Many of the works are political or religious in nature and they all express strong emotions such as the above work by Cristi reflecting his feeling that the Catholic Church has hurt his people more than helped.
I have not heard the word “Chicano” used very much in decades. Growing up in New Mexico it was a common term and seemed interchangeable with Mexican-American with connotations of cultural pride. I don’t know why I haven’t heard it in Oklahoma especially since there is quite a bit of Hispanic cultural influence here. From my brief survey on the internet the term is still controversial and not everybody considers in a positive light.
I found the art to be remarkable and very good and succeeded maybe in enlarging my world a little bit. The exhibition recently opened and will be a Philbrook until early September. Check the Philbrook link for deatails.
Saturday I dropped the kid off for his Comedy Improv Class and headed up to the Philbrook Museum to walk around a little while. It was their free second saturday promotion going on inside so I went outside to the gardens to get a little air and breathing room. I went to the bottom of the hill and shot back up to Villa Philbrook. I never get tired of the view and in the winter it seems a little crisper even on a cold overcast day.
This is the reverse view. I never get tired of the tempietto and its reflection but I pulled back the shot a bunch to take in the patchwork of colors, textures, and patterns.
I just love that place.
One of my favorite spots in Tulsa is the Philbrook Museum of Art. It is not only a great museum it has wonderful gardens. So last week I was out there taking pictures of daffodils and I took this tilted photo of Villa Philbrook and a twisted gnarly tree and a big dramatic sky.
Here is the conventional view
I don’t mind Winter too much here in Oklahoma where it generally is not too severe and given my trailrunning and geocaching hobbies late Fall and Winter is really, really nice because I don’t have to worry about the many vipers we have here and the ticks, chiggers, bees, hornets, spiders, and wasps which have each sent me to the doctor before. Anyways Winter isn’t too bad but Spring is just great. It is great for baseball coming back and wonderful for the flowers especially the daffodils. I just love daffodils.
How about we get down to the ground and look up?
Tulsa’s best spot for daffodils is Woodward Park. This years “crop” seems a little sparse compared to previous years but still just spectacular.
How about zooming up the iso, and reducing the fstop to get narrow depth of focus. I know it is not much but I love this shot.
I went at lunch one day last week and the light was hazy. I thought it made for a nice effect.
Woodward Park is almost as good as the State Fair for people watching. We Tulsan’s love Woodward Park
I saw this lady get out of her car and she sat in the middle of a daffodil patch and brushed her hair really good and put a blue ribbon in and made a bunch of selfies. I thought it was really sweet. A couple years ago a guy and his girl were there and he set up a tripod low to the ground and he filmed he and his girl rolling around kissing and groping each other in the daffodils. That wasn’t too sweet.
On this past Wednesday during our Spring Break staycation the family indulged me by going to Philbrook Museum to take pics of the daffodils. They seemed kind of sparse there also. Still beautiful.
They had some of these very pretty blueish purple flowers also. That’s not the latin name for them, it is the Okie name.
And the purple flowers falling over the ledge is great also.
The best daffodils at Philbrook were in the front of the museum. They don’t charge you to look at these. We are members at Philbrook so its all the same to us. I love flowers in abundance. I’m greedy that way.
I know I am posting way too many pics of them. I promise not to post any more. I might change my mind though. Can you tell that I am a potential politician?
Here I found the abundance I was looking for. I fixed the focus about one third of the way down which left the flowers in the back kind of mushed (that is a very technical photographic term) in an effect that I kind of liked.
So this is my daffodil mania post. No filters, not even any cropping!
So, did I post too many photos? I’m trying to figure out what blogging means in this day of Instagram, twitter, and facebook. I love Instagram and post two or three pics a day with minimal text. Twitter I use mainly during breaking news plus it is a best way to keep abreast of industry news. Facebook is for friends. So I am trying to figure out where blogger fits in. I like getting to know people in blogging and it is kind of hard in Instagram and Twitter. With facebook I already know you. At least I thought I did until you started posting the My Little Pony videos. (hah)
So, how are the flowers where you are?