Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Nachusa Grasslands -- Autumn on the Prairie

Each year Nachusa Grasslands has a huge day filled with events; they call it Autumn on the Prairie. Everyone is invited and the only required fee is $5.00 to park. There are guided hikes, information tents, a self guided tour, and most recently added a chance to take a tractor ride out to see the Bison that now live on this prairie. 

Bison just a short distance from the main gathering area for the festival.

The self-guided tour. This is a great opportunity to look at prairie plants
that are marked so you can learn their names.

Tracy and I got our ticket for the Bison Tractor ride, but saved that treasure for the end of the visit. First we went on a photography walk with Charles Larry. They took the group out by truck through the woods to a prairie field. We hiked back toward the gate and stopped along the way to take photographs. It was quite breezy and I wanted to capture the breeze in the field. I slowed my shutter speed so the motion of the grasses would be captured.


I loved how this photographer looked as she contemplated the field. The moment reminded me of a photograph I took of a gardener at Giverny in June.

 A Question Mark (Polygonia interrogationis) decided that my leg was tasty. It stayed there for quite a while even allowing me to move enough to get my leg in a position for me to take its photograph. I learned this past spring that butterflies tend to sit still with their wings closed. (It's one of several clues you can use to tell the difference between a moth and a butterfly.) This was true for this Question Mark as well, it only spread it's wings for a second or two before closing them up for what felt like minutes.


No reading skills necessary to understand this sign. I guess for some, it could be a dare, but I saw the bison up close and I don't want those horns anywhere near my backside or any side for that matter.  I do love how the sign is so ominous, but the sky and flowers feel so peaceful.

A Moment on the Prairie

Kevin Kaltenbach our tour guide on the afternoon
Prairie and Fen walk.

Prairie Gentian
 This Prairie flower is a fun bright spot in autumn when the flowers are dying off for the season. It is an indicator plant of an original prairie and other high quality prairies. In other words, the more you see, the better the prairie is doing.


We hopped on a bench on the tractor bed and off we went through the prairie in search of the bison. We stopped and this is what we saw. I was reminded of my whale watch trips where you go out and you can see the whales way off in the distance, but you feel so far removed. Our tractor and two others sat and waited. We watched and could see that the bison were eating and slowly moving. We waited and we waited, and then there they were munching and walking and coming right toward us. It was like that moment when a whale breeches right next to the boat. You are frozen in time and awe.


They kept coming toward us. We ended our visit so the bison could go along their way and do their thing without interruption. It was a joyful experience and we wanted to do it again. When we got back to the loading area, we asked if we could go one more time. It was the end of the day, there were no lines, so the answer was yes. Off we went and we were given another show.

They headed in a different direction, but were quite close. Then one bison, mounted another one and that started a stampede of sorts. They took off across the prairie parallel to our tractor. Check out the video as they ran by. Now that's up close and personal with nature.


If you have never been, I recommend a trip to Nachusa Grasslands. It's beautiful and you just never know what you will encounter.

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Kerry James Marshall Exhibit

I needed a day away; a distraction from my own life. My friend Stacy told me about the Kerry James Marshall Mastry exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.  I realized this would take me out of my own personal thoughts and open my mind to something new. I have never been to the MCA before and Kerry James Marshall was a new artist to me. If you click on the link to the museum above, you will get more information about Marshall and this exhibit. 

I took the train into the City and then on the recommendation of the train Carmen I took the water taxi from Ogilvie Station down to Michigan Avenue. For $8 during the week and $10 on the weekend, you can have unlimited rides on the up and down the river. 

If you haven't spent much time on the Chicago River recently, you will be amazed at the changes. There are now many outdoor "rooms" with restaurants, bars and lots of places to sit and watch the people go by.
Walking to the museum, the rain had stopped, but the puddles were still reflecting the world as it went by.

The museum is pretty nondescript from the outside and as usual, most of the people hanging out were focused on their phones rather than the world around them. The entry fee is a suggested donation of $12. (It is free to the public on Tuesday's.) I happily paid the suggested donation as I love to support the arts in any way that I can.

Inside, even the stairways are artistic. 


Before you reach Marshall's exhibit on the top floor, (take the stairs if you are able or stop at each floor if you need to take the elevator) there is another exhibit by Andrew Yang called Matter Matters. The photograph above is a capture of part of a larger piece. It spoke to me that it was meant to be here in this museum at the same time as Marshall's exhibit (Well played MCA). In a video at the beginning of the Mastry exhibit, Kerry James Marshall talks about how he needed to find his way in the art world that historically was a predominantly white field. He talks about how Art education is systematized and teaches a prescribed way of doing things. He discussies his "Paint by Numbers works and shows that the painter in the painting is "Taking liberties with the outlined and defined image, even of ones self."  Part of his goal is to normalize seeing black content figures in the museums and on display. He makes much more sense in his video than I am. Click the link below to watch it. This exhibit is a retrospective, it is not just about one thing it shows how his ideas and ideals have changed over his artistic life. 



School of Beauty, School of Culture, 2012

Detail from the Barber Shop painting Growing Up in Watts, LA


This is one room of the exhibit. You can see that the work is large, vibrant and full of life. What stood out to me as I walked through the exhibit was that most of the visitors were white. I was excited to learn from my friend that through a grant, there was a group a young African American students who were brought to see the exhibit on a field trip. This pleased me immensely as I believe it is a big part of the purpose of Marshall's work to show children of color that they too can be successful artists if they choose that path and that black people do appear in artwork. This exhibit shows that you can be anything that you want to be if you have the desire to become it and you make the effort and energy to make it happen.

When I took a job at the Chicago Public Library several years ago, my first branch was the Roosevelt Branch which was surrounded by University of Illinois Chicago campus and a low-income high-rise. As the Children's Librarian, I worked with the kids who came in to get out of the summer heat or just to have a place to go. Most of those kids were black and came on their own. Many of them were just in their first years of school. The summer reading theme was about art from the Art Institute. We offered programs for kids to create their own artwork and explore the world of art. What really sticks out to me wasn't the art or the activities, but the young girls asking me if they could touch my hair. It was red and so different from theirs. Today that is such a no no, but when it happened, all I could think was that they need to understand the world around them and if they are going to make any connection with me they need to see the ways that we are different and the same. I wish now, that I would have been to be able to take them to see Marshall's exhibit and then to talk with them about what they saw and how they felt about the experience. We could have talked about the ways that we are the same and different, we could have broken out of the systematized way that we are supposed to understand the world and taken liberties with the way we define ourselves.

The exhibit is only in Chicago through this weekend and then it will be moving to New York so if you have a couple of hours in Chicago this week, I recommend you stop in to see this great exhibit and if at all possible share it with someone who might not otherwise be able to go.

Here is another great article about his work.

https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-how-kerry-james-marshall-became-a-superhero-for-chicago-s-housing-projects

Looking down from the top of the staircase at MCA.



Friday, September 16, 2016

Roussillon -- a Village of Color

I read about Roussillon in Susan Vreeland's Lisette's List. It is a historic fiction novel set before, during, and after World War II. It is a story of a young woman who after leaving her Paris City life learns about living a rural life, learns about art and artists, and discovers that love comes in many forms. 

I was fascinated about the ochre mines and the pigments made from the colors described in the book. I knew this was one place I wanted to visit on my journey in France.


After my hot air balloon ride, I took the route to Roussillon rather than heading straight home. Winding roads led to a busy little village in the Vaucluse hills. Everything was reddish, golden and ochre. The village spiraled in a Fibonacci swirl up to its peak looking out over the incredible beauty of the region. I found a place to park, it was still early in the day, but the sun was hot, and there were tourists everywhere.


I walked down from the parking lot and the first store was filed with colors. It was a store selling the pigments of Provence.  I was in heaven. I wanted them ALL! I wandered the little store enjoying all the colors for a while. The employee was bored and seemed to prefer smoking her cigarettes to talking with customers,  but that did not deter me. I was in a little slice of heaven and she could not shake that lovely dreamy place from me. 
 

Such a vibrant little village filled with shops, narrow streets, people, and restaurants. After wandering, taking many photographs, stopping for a delicious lunch, I made my way back to the pigment store once again soaking in all of the beautiful colors. I wanted everything and the only thing that slowed me down was knowing that I would have to pack all that I purchased in my bags to come home. I settled for a lovely sampling. 


One of these days, I will open them and try them out to create an ode to this very special place.