Peaceful Heart Stories and Art: Chicago, Lighthouses, Black Book of Color

I went to Chicago for an evening of wandering and photography with a friend recently. She wanted to see the gardens and do night photography and I wanted to see the Lighthouse exhibit and ride the water taxi. We did it all. Lucky for us, there are very nice gardens right on the Magnificent Mile.

From the bow of the Water taxi, the boat rails, water, bridges and tall buildings on either side.

If you haven't taken the Water Taxi on the Chicago River, I highly recommend it. The Water Taxi is less than a block walk from both train stations and for under $10, you can ride up and down the river between Michigan Ave and Chinatown all day.

Just look at the gardens that separate the sidewalk from the busy street on the Magnificent Mile. So man colors, beauty, and nature within the concrete jungle.

A rainbow shape of flowers. Pinks, reds, and greens.

Coleus and a long leafed grass. Random puffy patterns of lime green against deep green and red.

Ferns, orchids, and a tropical feel in this woodland garden. A wooden redheaded Woodpecker adorns a tree.

An artist friend shared his journey in creating a lighthouse that would stand on Chicago's Magnificent mile. Rich Green spent three years preparing for this project to support Chicago Lighthouse. This social service organization supports people who are blind, visually impaired, disabled, and veterans.

The lighthouse exhibit is a call to action for access and inclusion of people with disabilities. They will be on the Mag Mile until August 11th. After that, each lighthouse will be auctioned off. (Hey, you could have one in your yard!)

By Rich Green. Folk and fairy tales come to life. Real children turned into characters and stories.

By Rich Green in front of the Disney Store

We walked a few blocks before we came to Rich's lighthouse. One the way we saw many of the lighthouses on display. The first one we encountered:

Woven lighthouse. Weavings made by people with visual impairments.

This lighthouse and the weavings were made by people who are disabled, blind or visually impaired. Seriously! I am so impressed with the colors, the even weaving, and the fun wrapped up feeling. This piece really made me think about the exhibit as a whole. There is so much color on all of the lighthouses. It is a reminder that I am very fortunate to be able to see and process colors. It also means that I need to use my best descriptions to make this post and the images understandable and enjoyable to people who are not able to see. It reminds me that life is about using all of our senses to understand the world around us.

One of my favorite books is The Black Book of Colors by Menena Cottin and Rosana Faria.

This book is black pages with shiny black drawings with white text and braille text

The book talks about colors in nature through the senses of someone who can't see. He describes each color based on the way things of those colors taste, smell, sound, and feel using simple descriptive language. This is a wonderful book to share with children to help them understand visual disabilities.

Below are more of the lighthouse that we saw on our outing. Take a look on the lighthouses on the magmile website to see more lighthouse and learn about the artists.

You can checkout a very nice video from Sunday Morning on CBS at this link.

Below are a few more photos of the lighthouses we saw.

Blue, white, and green plantings lead up a path to this blue white and gold lighthouse.

I got lucky with the man on the left color coordinating his outfit to this lighthouse.

Large three dimensional red poppies on a white lighthouse.

A close-up section of this rainbow, highly textured lighthouse and window.

Silly little creatures adorn the top of the lighthouse. In this close-up, there is a little corn cob characters. Eyes big and round staring out at the big City.

This lighthouse is covered with just two eyes. One on the front, the other on the back. Thick paint gives it texture. The eye us blue, white, gold and black.

I see you.

If you have the chance to visit Chicago between now and August 11th, be sure to look for all the lighthouses. Appreciate all that you can do and see. Appreciate all that others can do as well.

I mentioned that we also wanted to see the night lights of Chicago. Here are a few photos. Even at night the City is full of colors and light.