The End of the Trail is a monumental sculpture by James Earle Fraser and is the entry hall centerpiece at the fabulous National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.
The sculpture over the years as come to mean all sorts of things by all sorts of people. The museum has a short video that has one take on it.
I’m linking with Weekend Reflections
It is July 4 Season where we celebrate the Declaration of Independence gaining our freedom from Great Britain. A day of fireworks and eating way too much. Our family will be going to Tulsa’s Veteran’s Park to watch the fireworks show, and eat too much.
Tulsa’s Gilcrease Museum has a certified copy of the Declarations of Independence and for the first time in several years they brought it out of the vaults and put it on display to the public and so I went and checked it out. It was awe inspiring to see it and astonishing to see how faded it was. They were allowing photographs and I did not take one because it would not have been a good photo. Still, being able to view such an ancient, important, and foundational document was uplifting.
After I viewed the Declaration of Independence I wandered outside and found some flowers.
I also found a fabric art installation by Rachel Hayes. I used by Lensball to take a photo of it.
And I ventured further into their grounds (which are not gated and are free!!!) to the far end to see the Frontier Woman Statue. That lady has been churning butter and looking to see something for about twenty years now. Probably waiting on her husband to come home.
And their is this cabin nearby. The door is always open and I always close it because there is nothing worth looking at inside and it takes a better photo with the door shut. Otherwise I get this big dark spot right in the middle of the photo.
And I stopped by on the way back to the parking lot I stopped to say hello to the Twins. That is the name of this sculpture by Jay O’Meilia. I love it.
Thanks for staying with me on this meandering SWF post, that doesn’t show much sky.
It is incredible how they time the fireworks. Here is a double stack.
Of course this being an American blog, you can expect some fireworks as we celebrated the Declaration of Independence on July 4.
Triple Stack
A couple of my Brit friends posted “Happy Treason Day, You Ungrateful Colonists” on facebook. All in good fun of course. At least I think it was all in good fun.
Quadruple Stack!!!
Enough of fireworks!!! How about a stainless steel tree!!
Enough of fireworks and politics okay. How about a stainless steel tree? It is a sculpture called “Yield” by the artist Roxy Paine installed at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas.
a bonus shadow selfie
Tulsa’s Howard Park right on Route 66 in the city’s gritty industrial west side has a brand spanking new monument consisting of three big sculpted pillars of Indiana Limestone by Utah artist Patrick Sullivan.
The pillars depict Tulsa sights like Cain’s Ballroom, art deco architecture, the energy, aviation, and railroad industries and Native American heritage.
I love stuff like this. This monument is here to stay. An F5 tornado may topple them but they are not going anywhere.
An article from Route 66 News with video and a lot of the backstory on the monument and the artist who created it.
Howard Park’s Facebook site
I’m linking with Our World Tuesday
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.
I went on a lunchtime geocaching adventure in east Tulsa last week and on the way back to the office I saw a huge sculpture so I pulled off the road and took a photo of the statue. I would have got closer but a dog came bounding out and although friendly acting decided to move on. It turns out that the sculpture is of the Buddhist bodhisattva, Kwan Yin, who represents mercy, compassion, kindness, and love in the Buddhist religion. The sculpture is located at Tulsa’s Tam Bao Buddhist Temple. The sculpture was erected by the Temple to express their appreciation to the people of Oklahoma and United States for the hospitality extended to the Vietnamese refugees who came here after the Vietnam war.
It is 57 feet tall and made of granite and is beautiful. I used Topaz Lab’s Glow software to add some texture to what was a flat blue sky.
The following is a short (1 minute plus or minus) documentary on the sculpture.
I live for serendipity. Don’t you?
Linking with Digital Art Meme
I love a good puddle reflection
Well it was kind of a snowy day last Saturday. I dropped the kid off at his Improv Comedy class and then went over to the river to plod a few miles. It had snowed a little earlier that morning but had quit. Just the kind of snow I like.
I used Topaz Glow – Whisker Wires effect on this photo – true confessions
So I did my thing, stopping and taking pictures every now and then.
This sculpture is “Crossing the Prairie” by Glenna Goodacre. I happen to love this work. More true confessions I used Topaz on this photo also.
I don’t like cold weather that much but I don’t mind it when I’m running. I have the right kind of clothes for running in cold wet weather and my movement keeps me warm. I’m just hoping that we don’t get any ice. I hate ice. Except in my scotch, I like it a lot there.
There is a striking sculpture in the Tulsa suburb of Broken Arrow. A bronze sculpture named “Binding Contract” by Bradford J. Williams is in the middle of downtown and it kind of tugs at the heart a little bit. Two cowboys are shaking hands across a fence and you can tell that they are neighbors but more importantly you can tell that for both of them, their word is their bond. For those of us in the business end of things, our word is very important and so is the word of your counterparty. Contracts are very important and not to be neglected but all they are is a statement in writing of both party’s intentions. From the day a contract is signed the business relationship is tested all the time with situations that were not foreseen and one depends on the other person’s word that the relationship will continue.
I love the sculpture and the principal it represents.
I’m linking with Good Fences today.
And a Happy New Year to You!
Last week before the five or six days of rain at one of my favorite fountains and sculptures on Tulsa’s River Parks.
Linking with Skywatch Friday