Wordless Wednesday
art
Sunrise, Sunset
I never tire of looking at the Dale Chihuly glass installed at the Missouri Botanical Garden. These paired pieces, as you might expect, look especially good with sunlight shining on/through them!
Garden of Glass
This summer, the Missouri Botanical Garden has a special exhibit in the Climatron…Garden of Glass by Craig Mitchell Smith. The members’ preview night was Saturday, and we were very eager to attend! On the advice of the woman at the membership desk, we made sure our ticketed entry time was after dark, and we were definitely not disappointed!
Most of the glass works are in the Climatron, but there are displays in the Visitors’ Center, above the fountain outside it, in the Linnean House, and near the tram shelter. The pieces in the Climatron are beautifully lit, with the lights frequently changing colors. There are flowers, dragonflies, butterflies…even a phoenix! Some of them look unbelievably lifelike, and it’s hard to tell what in the Climatron is glass and what is actual plants!
You have to stop and really look closely at the flowers to appreciate all the details:
The fountain in front of the Visitors’ Center is lit up in a rainbow of colors:
The Garden is always beautiful, of course, but there is something special about seeing it lit up at night!
Garden of Glass will be on display through August 13. Tickets are available for both day and evening viewing, but from what we saw while we were there, I definitely think it’s best viewed after dark (evening admissions are available Thursdays-Saturdays). Make sure to take your time and really take in the show…way too many people were rushing through it the night we were there, and missing things! Like the Garden Glow, and every other special exhibit we’ve visited at the Garden over the last few years, I highly recommend it…they always put on a great show!
Art on the Square 2017
It’s Art on the Square weekend in Belleville! This year is the 16th fair, which means Art on the Square has been a thing for as long as our Markel family has…as a matter of fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the first one was the exact same weekend that Ryan and I got married!
This is always one of our family’s most anticipated events of the year, and if I counted correctly, this is the 10th year we have attended. We all love walking around and looking at the different art. And we all love finding new favorites: styles of art, individual pieces, and artists! This year, we were especially impressed with the art made from sculptural felt, something I didn’t even know about before this weekend!
We went on Friday night for the first time this year…usually we go bright and early on Saturday morning. I don’t know if it was because of the impending rain, or if it’s always like this on Friday, but it was busy!
There was so much to see. Jewelry and textiles, glass and sculptures, photography and line drawings, and all the different kinds of paintings you’d expect. I may not understand all the different styles of art, and of course, they can’t all be my personal favorites, but even a novice like me can appreciate how much talent is on display in every booth!
Belleville always looks so pretty for Art on the Square!
Today is the last day of the fair for 2017, and then we have to wait a whole year for it to come back again!
Degas, Impressionism and the Paris Millinery Trade
The St. Louis Art Museum has a special exhibit which will soon be coming to a close: “Degas, Impressionism and the Paris Millinery Trade.” I hadn’t realized that it had so little time left, and we almost missed our chance to go. We got tickets to see it last week, for the “Free Friday” event, and it was quite impressive!
As you might expect, there are works by Degas on display. There are also by paintings by some of his friends and contemporaries, as well: Renoir, Cassatt, and Manet were included.
While the bulk of the exhibit focused on women’s hats, as you might expect, there was also an area dedicated to the different styles of men’s headwear.
There were quite a few actual hats on display, as well. I was impressed by how well they’ve held up over the years!
There was a small area of hat-making materials that you could touch…the children really enjoyed that! The feathers were especially popular!
We even saw a doll who had a selection of tiny hats!
This was a fantastic exhibit. I think Bunny and I could have spent all day admiring the paintings and the hats (although I think Turkey would have been happy had we hurried along a bit). There were even children’s books scattered throughout, and Chickadee enjoyed hearing me read an old favorite and a new story to her while we there. The exhibit will be in town through May 7, and I highly recommend taking a tour!
Art on West Main
The Belleville Library West Branch on West Main has a new piece of art out front!
This life-size sculpture, “Looking for Schroeder,” was installed a few weeks ago. There are some whimsical details on this instantly-recognizable piece of art:
Lucy looks great from every angle, especially decorated for St. Patrick’s Day!
What a fantastic addition to the landscape on West Main!
Glass at the Butterfly House
One of the reasons I decided to add a visit to the Butterfly House at Faust Park to our field trip day yesterday was because I heard that there more pieces created for the Garden of Glass exhibit on display there. We were not disappointed!
I think out of everything, I liked the mushrooms the best, but all the pieces are beautiful. I think that they will be moved to the Missouri Botanical Garden for the exhibit which begins in May, but for now, you can see them at the Butterfly House. I can’t wait to see what they look like lit up at night!
Space Propaganda
The children and I were very amused by this artwork at the St. Louis Science Center when we saw it on Thursday!
MetroLink Mural
The Bean
OK, I confess…I had never seen “The Bean” sculpture in downtown Chicago, either. The children had seen pictures of it, though, and it was on the top of their list, as well as mine, so we tracked it down!
And just in case you wondering what it looks like from underneath:
Chicago has so many cool landmarks…I’m glad I could introduce the children (and myself) to some of them!