Category books
All Ages Connect in Anna Dugan’s Allston Mural,”LEARNING IN THE PARK”
Completed and celebrated in the summer of 2024, this exuberant extended mural rewards repeated visits. Quotes, photos, and links here support this promise.
StoryWalks Playfully Reflect Their Settings
This post is a quick follow-up to STORYWALKS DISPLAY BOOK ARTS IN PARKS WORLDWIDE, INCLUDING CAMBRIDGE with two examples of the eight StoryWalks in Cambridge listed for this summer, 2024. Placement of book pages at children’s eye levels along fences around playgrounds helps relate their outdoor play to themes of selected books.
STORYWALKS Display Book Arts in Parks Worldwide, including Cambridge
In recent summers I’d been captivated by spreads of whole picturebooks along fences in Cambridge parks. I’ve appreciated these broadened views of related illustrations and book design, as well as the opportunity for everybody to follow stories as they move throughout a park.
This post shares examples from my city, plus some background information that made me aware of StoryWalks around the world.
Artists Add New Life to Familiar Forms: “GO OUT DOORS – ARLINGTON 2021” November Notes and Quotes
Guided by the very helpful interactive map on the GO OUT DOORS NEIGHBORS!, Arts Arlington, I have visited most of the 2021 doors. I hope to see them all before November ends, when they’ll be kept safe from the threats of winter weather. Then I will watch for their return in spring 2022 and for newly created doors as well. If able, I will want to show and tell more about “Go Out Doors” beyond Arlington.* Meanwhile here are names, art titles, links ( click on artists’ names in red for their websites), and quotes for the doors I’ve seen so far.
Restored and New Art Combine in Renovated Clarendon Avenue Playground: Bronze Birds by Juliet Kepes with Leaf-Pattern Fence by Bart Uchida
In 1980, artist Juliet Kepes designed five bronze birds for the brick walls of Clarendon Avenue Park in Cambridge. A longtime admirer of her children’s book illustration, I wasn’t aware of her range of creative work until a few years ago when I read the Cambridge Arts/ Public Art listing below. By the time I managed to visit the park in 2019, it was closed off for extended renovations after almost forty years of use. ….
Recently I learned that the renovated park had opened, so I headed there one early evening in July. The bronze birds were back, set against a stone wall that replaced their brick background. Floral plantings enhanced their new setting, with the promising addition of a flowing plant-patterned fence that certainly added to my appreciation of the whole park.
Rob “Problak” Gibbs’ New ‘Breathe Life’ Mural Looks Wonderfully Alive at Madison Park High School
The recently completed ‘Breathe Life’ mural by Rob “Problak” Gibbs’ takes in the sky above Madison Park Technical Vocational High School where he was a student, graduating in 1995. Here are photos from my first visits with quotes and links to valuable resources that promise to enrich your perspective on this significant artwork.
See Poems in New Ways along the Bikeway in Arlington and Somerville
This week I enjoyed Walking Poetry in Arlington and Poetry on the Path in Somerville. Both added to my awareness of when, how, and where a poem can move people. I should post swiftly and simply with quotes, links, and photos that let anyone who lives near these locations experience poems that may be elsewhere in a week or two.
Art Ramble 2019 Creates Connections in Concord Town Forest
Six weeks over and just two weeks left, I took the golden opportunity of a sunlit October morning to take the trail through Hapgood-Wright Town Forest around Fairyland Pond and enjoy fourteen temporary art installations connected by the theme, Witnessing Change. I hope to go again before it ends November 1 and to convince anyone who can to go as well. Each stop on Art Ramble 2019 offers an enlightening way to engage with some aspect of the forest.
More New Murals: Silvia López Chavez in Cambridge, IMAGINE (Sneha Shrestha) in Somerville
Wishing I could keep up with the mural-making by these productively energetic creative artists, I will at least show their momentarily newest murals and share links where you can appreciate each artist in action.
Art Outdoors 