Tag Archives: Philbrook Museum of Art

Shadow Shot Sunday – Super Bowl Edition

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The last football game of the season (big frowns).

Here is our little Lizzie on neighborhood watch with LJ down in the shadows below. They love to watch the goings on.

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I went on a walk around our Lafortune Park the other day. Lots of good shadows there. I love playground shadows.

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And winter tree shadows.

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I found me some bleacher shadows at the baseball diamond.

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A couple of friendly old guys (in other words about my age) came by on their bicycles. Don’t normally see bikes on the walking path but they were going very slow and not causing any problems.

Heather and I went to Philbrook Museum a week or so ago for an art respite. I think shadows are an integral part of some art.

And another work

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This isn’t my photo, it’s an ipad jigsaw puzzle I did. I love the online puzzles. I don’t like real jigsaw puzzles. Such a mess and I have a real sensory issue with the paper backing. I can’t stand touching it. Plus the pieces scattered about are a mess. The online puzzles are cool. For rookies like me you can specify the orientation to be up and down which simplifies things greatly and when you make a fit, the screen has a small flash and a cool little clicking sound. And when you finish, the jigsaw lines go away and you get the photo. (Note, the copyright still belongs to the company, not me.)

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And another puzzle I finished. I love the combination sea and landscapes with interesting buildings.

And speaking of not my photo, this is from my buddy Josh who is working this week in the Bakken Oil Field of North Dakota. He is always giving grief about how pensioners like me need to get back to work. I give him a hard time being so dang lazy.

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Here is another photo from Josh from the inside of a natural gas processing plant. I find the plants to be very cool. In fact they chill the gas down to about minus 132 F to extract the ethane, propane, butane, and natural gasoline out of it. Oh well, I can tell you don’t care. I don’t blame you. I am way off topic, sorry.

I’m staying off topic for a bit, sorry. It’s Super Bowl Sunday. Heather makes a Turkey Chili. That is all the snack I want for the game. Our son loves it as well. Don’t tell him that Heather loads it up with all sorts of vegetables that just mix right in.

I eat the chili with Fritos scoops. Don’t get me the regular Fritos, more sensory issues from me.

And this will be my beverage of choice. It comes well recommended.

I hope everybody is having a good and safe weekend. I am linking this hot mess of a post with Magical Mystery Teachers Shadow Shot Sunday 2 meme and with Lady Fi’s Our World Tuesday. Come join in the fun!

Our World – A Stroll at Philbrook

I was feeling a little bit of the weight of the world on me the other day so I went to Philbrook Museum of Art to get my head on straight. Thanks to Nana, the world’s greatest MIL we have a membership to Philbrook so I can whenever I want. If they are open, I mean I have been going there for years but they still haven’t given me a key. Perhaps I should ask?

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They have a special exhibit by Anila Quayyum Agha called “Shadow of Time.” Instead of paintings and sculpture she has this steel structure with a powerful light inside that fills the whole room with light and shadows and it is mesmerizing. A single piece that fills the entire exhibit space. I’ve never seen anything like this before. One reason I like museums is that I want to see things I’ve never seen before.

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Speaking of that kind of thing, there is another exhibit upstairs showing paintings by Eric Saall. So I am like, okay, I feel inadequate on abstract paintings but some of these are are pretty cool in that he painted them on stage during a ballet. And on a platform that was being moved around. Sounds kind of gimicky? Maybe, but cool idea I think. Cool ideas are another reason to go to museums.

Here’s a “test video” of the process.

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Another painting upstairs is this one “Victory for the Water Protectors” by Kent Monkman. It is about the vicious DAPL protests in North Dakota a couple years ago over the Dakota Access Pipeline construction. Lots of high emotions on both sides. Lots of finger pointing on both sides. With the passage of time I’ve come to see that many Native American’s viewed the dispute in terms of their overall history of relations with European descended Americans where they continually got screwed out of their land and rights. So I have made my peace with the painting.

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And then I ventured outside to the Philbrook Gardens on a cold day. I checked out the cabin they built there.

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And I checked the signature Tempietto in the gardens. And then it was time to go, all done in an hour and a half, getting my head back in the game.

I’m linking with Our World Tuesday

Slumgullion (The Venerate Outpost) by Karl Unnasch at Philbrook

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Have you ever seen a cabin shingled in tshirts? Neither have I until now. 

I suscribe to Philbrook Museum‘s instagram feed and for weeks they have been posting images of a new “Installation” in the gardens at Philbrook of a 19th century cabin shingled with plasticized clothes and a fireplace made out of books. So I have been muttering to myself this whole time, “What are they up to now??? a cabin shingled with t shirts???” Them crazy artist types at it again. 

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Have I ever told you that I love stained glass? Well I do.

So I ventured over there last week. We have a family membership thanks to Nana, the world’s greatest MIL. So I can check on those artist types whenever I want.

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Genius move, turning the page side out on the books. Plus, just so you know, that it is a fake fire.

And yep, it is true. Philbrook has built a cabin out in the back 40 of their acreage and it has plastisized tshirts for shingles on the roof, and chinking in the logs, along with some LED lights. And a fireplace made out of books.

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I love the impression of light coming through the walls.

And they have some beautiful stained glass windows and some great many lights in the ceiling made out of found glass. 
And you know  what it all works. It was a dark, overcast day outside but inside it was bright and sunny and just plain wonderful. My iphone pics do not do it justice. It was a very bright happy place. Light was coming  in everywhere but the floor!!

The artist behind all this is Karl Unnasch, who specializes in stained glass and all things considered with light. 

This whole”Installation” thing is something new to me and it seems that Philbrook is doing more of these. They seem to be temporary and not meant to last forever and you know somehow it works for me. So I guess that I approve of this cabin and what the artist types are up to.

This installation is called “Slumgullion (The Venerate Outpost)” If you know what that means, please let us know. Or at least let me know since everybody but me seems to think it makes perfect sense.

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I love the soft colors filtering through the plastisized tshirts and the found glass lights in the ceiling.

Check out Philbrook’s web site.   They got all sorts of info on hours and what they are doing, which is considerable. You know they have two sites now, right?

It I am linking with Our World Tuesday.

Improv Skywatch -Philbrook Style

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That kid of mine, he sure spends a lot of time at Clark Theater here in Tulsa. He is in production on a play and is also participating in Clark’s, Laughing Matter Improv, Fortunately, thanks to the worlds greatest MIL, Nana, I can go to nearby Philbrook Museum of Art, with my camera and snap a few pics. So that’s what I did recently out in the Gardens of the Museum. Villa Philbrook was the home of Tulsa oilman, Waite Phillips, who gave it to Tulsa way back when when he left town. (You know how those oilfield trash are!) Anyway, it is a nice house, now museum, and a nice sky for us non oil magnates.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday this week.

 

Skywatch Friday – Villa Philbrook Spring Sky

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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.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday 

Shadow Shot Sunday – The Gardens of Philbrook

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I spent part of my day off Friday roaming around the Philbrook Museum of Art Gardens there are lots of shadows there. One of my favorite trees is above. It has a very long branch that snakes horizontally and then splits. It makes for a great shadow.

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There is a bridge across a creek that makes a great shadow also.

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American Hippo by John Kearney

There is this car bumper sculpture of a hippo. For this I used the “In Camera HDR” function on my Nikon. I had an “aha moment” while working in the gardens on how it is supposed to work. This sculpture was kind of lost in the shadows and the HDR was able to pull it out so we can see it.

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“Negative Tree” by Menashe Kadishman

This is one of my favorite sculptures in the Philbrook Gardens but it is a bear to photograph on the shady side which is what I wanted to do because I wanted to put a real tree inside the negative space. The HDR function has maybe five settings so what the heck, lets max it out and I did. Maybe next time I’ll back it off a little bit. Maybe not though. Moderation in all things is itself excessive is what I say. Plus I can honestly say that this is SOOC.  I am not sure that means much in this day of super capable cameras. 

Linking with Shadow Shot Sunday

My other Philbrook Posts over the years

Packing it All In – A Very Full and Busy Day Off

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I had a day off today. I had it all to myself because Heather went off to an Autism Conference in Norman, Oklahoma and Logan had to go to school. So I kissed Heather goodbye at 6 am and made the kid breakfast and made sure that he was dressed and ready to go and off we went to his school. After I dropped him off I headed up to Tulsa’s Oxley Nature Center. Turkey Mountain gets all the press, and the people, but Oxley is a gem also and its North Woods Loop Trail is wonderful and deserted. In all the years I have been going there I have seen somebody else there once. I love Turkey Mountain, but the problem is so does everybody else.

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And this was my first trail run since my injury on Turkey Mountain back in September. I wanted somewhere that was flat with no rocks. Oxley fits the bill. Plus it is just flat out beautiful. Turkey Mountain will always be my favorite but Oxley is my go to place when I don’t want to deal with rocks and and hills, and lots of people.

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I got there about eight in the morning and I have to tell you that I saw lots of deer. I didn’t get a single photo of them. I saw them running through the brush, swimming across lakes and bounding around all over the place. You will just have to take my word for it.

Here is the data on my so called run. I ran quite a bit and walked quite a bit. I went looking for two geocaches and found one.  After my jaunt at Oxley I went home, cleaned up, and headed up to Tulsa’s Philbrook Museum. They have an Andy Warhol exhibit going on and I felt ah, well, so what until I actually looked at it and saw a bunch of art that I had only seen in magazines. Warhol’s screen prints of Marilyn Monroe, Mao Tse Tung, and John Wayne plus a bunch of other works. It was amazing. I always thought of Warhol has a lightweight celebrity artist but I’ve changed my mind. They didn’t allow any photography of the exhibit so you will just have to check out the link to see for yourself.

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After Warhol, I checked out the gardens of Philbrook. I don’t know what I like better, the gardens of Philbrook or its art.  Don’t make me choose is all I can say. The Tempietto above is the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen.

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Villa Philbrook, the heart of the museum, used to be a house. Not for me is what I say.

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Eric Baker’s glass and steel installation, Oklahoma Autumn, is my favorite work in the gardens.

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I was also taken by Theordore Van Soelen and his Tesuque (Dark Houses). You see my folks were living at the Tesuque Ranger Station when I was born. That was in the day before health insurance so Dad called the hospital’s in Santa Fe and Espanola, New Mexico and got bids on getting a baby birthed. Espanola won. It cost like $95 or something like that. I’m not like Ben Carson who is running for president so just take my word for it.

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I love the pottery from Acoma Pueblo.

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And the black on black pottery of Maria Marinez is wonderful.

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And here is something different. A catlinite pipe inlaid with lead. I’m not sure that smoking with that would be good for you. It sure looks like though.

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So a pretty active day for me, so far about 18,800 steps or over nine miles. Not bad for a guy with a bum knee.  Actually they are both sore right now.

Jesus Wept - Pray for Paris

I didn’t hear about the news from Paris until pretty late in the day. How sad. I really don’t know what the answer is to radical Islam. They seem to have no regard for life.

The Gardens of Philbrook Museum

Saturday I dropped the kid off at his comedy improv class and I headed over to the Philbrook Museum of Art to wander the grounds. My MIL Nana bought the family a season pass and I love it because I feel that I can just pop in and spend an hour without thinking that I have to get my money’s worth.

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This is the Tempietto at Philbrook. It and the Praying Hands at Oral Roberts University are the most photographed scenes in Tulsa. I’ve taken my share of them. It is just so beautiful I never get tired of it. The guy in the pic had an easel and was painting. There were several other people out and about drawing and sketching the gardens on Saturday.

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And this is from the base of the Tempietto looking back to the house, Villa Philbrook it is called. I never tire of this scene either.

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And this was on the east side of the grounds. There were purple tulips (I think they are tulips) and they were just beautiful.

The gardens at Philbrook Museum of Art are a great way to spend an hour or two when the weather is good. Do you have a go to place that you never get tired of going to?

Linking with Our World Tuesday

 

Our World Tuesday – Philbrook’s Festival of the Trees

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The family loaded up and went to Philbrook Museum of Art‘s annual Festival of the Trees. It’s a don’t miss event for me. It is a fund raiser where artists and organizations build Christmas trees and rich people buy them!!! The museum patrons get to see the them before the rich guys take them home.

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One of my favorite trees was a Route 66 tree with a symbolic route 66 as a garland.

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It had a all sorts of route 66 doodads on the tree. I liked this map segment. I used to work for Standard Oil Company. Which got bought by British Petroleum who spun my assets off to Tex/Con Oil and Gas which was bought by a part of Public Service Company of Oklahoma who then sold them to Shell Oil Company. Dang!! I’m off topic. I love those old maps though.

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My other favorite tree was dedicated to the men and women who serve in our armed force and how much it means to them to be able to get home for Christmas.

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That tugs on my heart strings because I have family members who have spent time away from their loved ones while serving our country. I’ll bet most of the people who read this post will also. Regardless of what country.

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As far as I am concerned, the best way that the most people make it home for Christmas is by making sure we, as a country, don’t do anything stupid.

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There was another tree with a similar but different theme. It was dedicated to the people in the armed services.

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It had all the services on the tree but I liked the Navy stuff.

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So is that a Barbie doll or what on top?

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The event also has gingerbread houses. Many of them by Girl Scouts. I’m a big believer in scouting. I liked this camping theme.

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Heather, the official by goodness Oklahoma State University certified Master Gardener liked this gardening theme and so did I.

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I liked this thin mint walkway, along with more camping theme. Plus I like the thin mints. Did I mention that I like thin mints. So when do Girl Scout cookie sales start, March?? I don’t know if I can last that long.

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I hope that you don’t mind. But of all the trees, gingerbread houses, and other works of art presented at the Festival of the Trees, this was my absolute favorite.

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And here we are. My youthful wife, and my great son. I look more and more like the wizened old man all the time. At least when I stick my chin out to minimize my my chins. When I don’t I look more like Jabba the Hut!!

Anyway, so much for that. What have you done lately??

Our World Tuesday