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.

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.

      

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 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:

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.

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.

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

 

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.

Crown Park

 

Nighttime in Chicago. The train passes, people play in the water and lighted carriage rides travel under the Millennium Park Bridge.

Millennium Park Bridge

Cloud Gate aka The Bean

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.

So Many Things to Share

So little time.

Each day was generally filled with doing and seeing. The first several days,  I couldn't get the wi-fi to connect on my laptop. All my photos were there. Some ready to post, others in need of editing. I made several short videos along the way,  but as things fell behind, I didn't do anything with them.

On my long train ride to Avignon, I  wrote about the trains in my OneNote app. They are there somewhere in quick notes, but I can't find them.

I am now sitting at the Heathrow airport waiting to fly home several days early. I am homesick and tired of struggling to understand and to be understood.

All but the last day of photos have been uploaded to Flickr.

I learned:

• Traveling alone is alright for a while, but it is more fun when you have someone to share the experience with.
• Many apps, like Pandora and Amazon music don't work when you visit another country.
• 20 days is a long time to be gone from family and friends.
• You can muddle your way through.
• France is beautiful. 
• They have some wonderful agricultural diversity. Sunflowers, next to wheat, next to grapes, next to rice fields. 

Water system along many fields

The Beautiful Tournesol

• I love the French words pamplemousse and tournesol.
• The Mediterranean Sea is not overly salty.
• Olives are wonderful.
• Many cheeses and creams are actually more mild in France than at home.  Maybe it's because they are fresher.
• I'm sure there is more, but I'm off to catch my plane.

American Airlines Flight 47 to Chicago

From the Plane waiting to take off

Auvers sur Oise -- Vincent

My last day in Paris, I traveled to Auvers sur Oise. This is the last place that Vincent lived before he died. Most people believe, from the stories they have heard, read and been taught, that he committed suicide. It is now believed that he was murdered. A book on my list to read fully is Van Gogh, the Life by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith.

I started it, was pulled in by the beautiful writing, but didn't have time to read it all before leaving in this journey. At the very end in the appendix, there is a section about his death and what research has uncovered.

The short version is that there was a teenager from a local wealthy family who teased Vincent mercilessly. Vincent didn't try to stop him,  he was already too tortured mentally, and only found solace in drink and paint. On the day that he was shot, it is thought that Vincent went out to paint, was actually inspired and feeling pretty good, the young man met up with him and teased him with a old gun that he had been given. They suspect it went off by accident and Vincent was shot.

The first part I wrote riding the train to Auvers sur Oise. It was cool and cloudy.

After the challenge of the second train never arriving,  I caught an Uber the rest of the way.  The driver dropped me off in front of the signs showing the places to visit; just a few steps from Vincent's room.

In front of the building sits a small table with two chairs two glasses and a bottle of red wine.

The town was mostly quiet except there were at least three school groups of children taking tours. As I sat across the street from the house, the last group passed by. They were happily singing a tune skipping along.

The tour of Vincent's room was interesting. They tell the story that he committed suicide. The room has been empty for 126 years. No photographs were allowed. But they told the story of a man who committed suicide. I wonder if that is a better sell for the visit than the possibility that someone shot him by accident?

The highlight was the last three stops on the walk. The church he painted, the wheat field and the cemetery where he and his brother are buried.

From the Musee D'Orsay

The Church in Auvers s/Oise

 

Vincent and his brother are buried side by side. Theo died 6 months after Vincent 

These three spots made me feel like I was truly walking in his footsteps. It was a beautiful day. Beautiful clouds, the sun shining, and no major tours of people making selfie photos in front of each location. I guess not completely walking in his foot steps as I visited his grave, but peaceful and hi paintings came to life for me.

Giverny -- Claude Monet

I was very fortunate to grow up seeing at in Chicago with school trips. It was there I was introduced to many artists and also where I fell in love with the impressionist painters. Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh became my favorites.  Why these two when there were so many, I'm not sure. I feel a connection,  I love the colors, and their paintings resonate with me. Many years ago,  as a teenager, I saw Monet's paintings of the Water Lilies of Giverny at the Art Institute. I remember walking into a dark room and the paintings stood under light long and huge reflecting a place of dreams and color.

The day after visiting Giverny and Monet's garden's I went first thing in the morning to the Musee de L"Orangerie where the Water Lily paintings hang in two large light oval shaped rooms.

The Water Lilies of Giverny

The paintings took my breath away again as they did many years ago.

I don't know that I always wanted to go to see Monet's home over all these years. I guess in a way, it never seemed possible until I started doing research for this trip. When I realized I could see the place, I purchased a ticket.

I took the early train to Giverny so I would arrive as the gardens opened for the day. The train leaves out of the Saint Lazare station one of the places that Monet painted when he was in Paris.

Saint Lazare Station today. No longer the smoke and steam from the trains.

Gare Saint Lazare as painted by Monet

Even arriving early at Giverny, on such a beautiful day, it was crowded, though I noticed that the lines to get in after lunch were much longer.

It was beautiful.

Water Lilies of Giverny

For more photos from Giverny Check out my Flickr Album of France or with this photo Time and Giverny start here.

In his home, the rooms were filled with light and art. It was a place meant for work (painting and gardening, sleep, pleasure, and visitors. If there was no window, there were paintings hanging on the walls. 

Monet's Studio

Monet's bedroom

View from Monet's bedroom window. Now that's a great way to wake up each day.

A Second Special Gift

For my birthday every year, I receive a card with a check from my father-in-law. This year, I opened the card and:

Que tous vos desirs se realisent" means "May all your wishes come true"

What a lovely surprise with a wonderful sentiment.

First Special GIft

In my house, Christmas was about the surprise, buying just the right thing, wrapping it beautifully and then watching the recipient open the gift on Christmas day. The biggest or the smallest gift was not always the most thought out gift, it was the gift that you had no idea you were getting; the one that maybe you had asked for or commented on in March of that year and then forgot about until the wrapping paper was ripped and tattered around your feet.

The last few years of mom's life, she didn't have the energy to go shopping for Christmas. I would "take care of everything," but I know that it was one of the things that bothered her tremendously. Christmas of 2014, I wasn't sure if mom would live to see it. The early weeks of December were tough. Mom mostly slept and hardly ate. She made it. On Christmas Eve, we made plans for spending Christmas morning at Mom and Jane's house. As planned, we arrived with food and gifts. I went in to see mom but she wasn't feeling well.  I got her to the bathroom, but that was all she could handle. She was too tired to go out to the living room. She felt so bad to be "ruining" Christmas. "It's OK," I said, We'll just have Christmas in here." She sat in her bedroom chair and I took care of a few things in the kitchen. She decided she felt well enough to be wheeled out to the living room. So we had Christmas together in the living room with all the traditional scattered and tattered wrapping paper. After the last resents were opened, mom asked me to get her walker that had a little pouch where she could carry her papers, money and what-not. 

She asked me to pull out three envelopes; one for Jane, one for John, and one for me. 

With the little energy she was able to muster during the night, she had put together three envelopes with the only thing she still had to give. I knew that I wanted to use the money for something special.

Not long after mom passed away, I started planning a trip to France. That trip will begin in less than a week. Somewhere along the way, I will do something with this little treasure to honor my mother's memory.

What Does it Mean?

I decided to start a new blog for my trip to France. I was originally going to call it something tres French. As I thought about a name, I realized that if I did that, the blog would start and end with the trip to France and maybe I could think a little broader and create a blog that could be bigger than that. And that is how, 1. Librarian, 2. Cameras, 3. Go came to be.

1. Librarian. I am a librarian, there is one of me. The Librarian part of me informs the way I go about traveling and going.

2. Cameras. I love photography and even if it is just using my cell phone to capture photos, I am more likely than not to capture moments along the way. I tend to remember things visually and see the world as a movie in which I am one of the characters. Sometimes I play the starring role and others, I am one in the crowd. And, I happen to have two cameras which allow me to either be prepared with two different lenses or have a little back up plan in case anything happens with one of the cameras.

And 3. Go. For me Go can mean a walk through the field behind our house or something bigger like a 20 day trip to France on my own.