Category children
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.
Artists Resa Blatman and Christopher Frost Keep Up our Connections with Birds on the Bike Path
To follow up on earlier posts, here are views from recent rides ( June 2021) on the bike path through Arlington and Somerville, plus links to rich resources about both artists and community arts organizations.
Look Up at Significant Symbols in Concord for the Umbrella ARTFEST
The two photos above are from installations I had hoped to include in my quick post about ARTFEST a week earlier. Both installations interact with varying light, air currents above, and beings below. In this promised swift sequel I try to offer photos, quotes, and links that will lead you closer to those experiences online or in person.
Connect to Concord with “Change is in the Air: Art Walk” through May
Following the map for Umbrella Artfest Earth Day Art Walk has greatly added to my own awareness of Concord as well as the artists who created installations for the six stops listed. Because Art Walk has been up for a week with just a few more ahead, I’ll post quickly now. I want to spread the word so people who live close enough can go before it’s gone. Then I’ll hope to post a more comprehensive sequel later in May, including one key installation* I didn’t get to visit yet.
Wonders of Children’s Books Wait within the Solomon Gate, Designed by Höweler + Yoon Architecture
If you enter Harvard Yard from Quincy Street near its intersection with Massachusetts Avenue, watch for the rushing rabbit, grinning cat, top hat, and other small images in the tall black ironwork of the gate completed in December 2020. These might entice you to stop and look for more connections to “Alice in Wonderland” or to a world of children’s books.
Winter Weather Combines with Outdoor Art: Monique Aimee’s Brine Tanks Mural, James Tyler’s Ten Figures
Photos from recent winter visits add perspective and updates to earlier posts in other seasons.
Arlington’s Artist-in-Residence Michelle Lougee Highlights the Existence of Persistence on the Bikeway
Many hands and minds created each of nearly forty unique forms installed among the trees two months ago to survive four seasons of New England weather. Their shapes and textures have become more distinct since October’s shade from autumn leaves has gone. Like others who use the bikeway, I’ll watch for ways the art will change with wind, snow, sleet and sunlight. And I’ll keep thinking of the meanings of “persistence.” Meanwhile, here are quotes, links, and images that should reveal the resourcefulness, resilience, and reasoning that have carefully kept this prescient project going.
Panels from Significant Summer 2020 Extend Mystic River Mural and Affirm Hopes
In my July post about the Mystic River Mural Project, I was hopeful but not sure that the Summer 2020 project would work through all the complications of the pandemic. Now I can gladly share glimpses of the inspiring outcome with photos of the 2020 panels added this fall on Mystic Avenue. For context, read quotes with links to informative sources. Also note a new video that adds an enriching overview of the whole project.
Mural for the Movement Makes Statements in Many Languages with Faces, Flags, and Fist in front of MFA Boston
After visiting the mural “No Weapon Formed Against Thee Shall Prosper,” currently on the Huntington Avenue lawn of the Museum of Fine Arts, I want to urge everyone in the Boston area to see it before it leaves November 19, 2020. So, this quick post includes photos, quotes and resources that could help you appreciate the mural in person, or at least through connected stories about it.
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.
Art Outdoors 