Category parks
Applaud Playground Turtles and their Creators: Nancy Schön and Lilli Ann Killen Rosenberg
Endurance is a quality shared by the turtle sculptures in this post. Lilli Ann Roseberg’s colorful concrete turtles in Cambridge have been ridden, jumped on, snowed in, flooded over and lots more in the past three decades. Nancy Schön’s bronze Myrtle the Turtle was bound up and relocated within Boston’s Myrtle Street Playground soon after settling in last year. These sculptures endured isolation while playgrounds were closed in the spring and then cautiously reopened.
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.
Playgrounds Thrive on Art by Mitch Ryerson and Gail Boyajian
As playgrounds have cautiously reopened, I can happily share photos of art by Mitch Ryerson and Gail Boyajian. This lifts my own sad restrictions on earlier posts about these artists and others with work outside Maud Morgan Arts. Now I can show and celebrate art that was meant to be where children play.
John Tagiuri’s Art Can Open Doors in Surprising Ways
The two giant paintbrush “door pulls” created by John Tagiuri for Maud Morgan Visual Arts in 2009 when the center first opened now must wait for a post-lockdown reopening, whenever that will be. Meanwhile my attention to these and other artworks outside the center pulled me into John Tagiuri’s website, which is rich in samples of his other projects, all displaying unique combinations of strong concepts with playful twists. From those, I located the towering endless-column lamps over the basketball court in Sennott Park, at Broadway, Cambridge.
Mitch Ryerson’s Benches Begin Adventures for Many at MMVA
Mitch Ryerson’s Dancing Benches near the Sacramento Street sidewalk signal the start of the short walk to the gate that leads our way to workshops and studio classes at MMVA whenever art centers can open up again. Meanwhile these two benches have led my way to learn how many other enticing outdoor structures have come out of Ryerson Design.
James Tyler’s Tower of East Cambridge Faces Holds Power Over Time
My recent post about James Tyler’s Ten Figures in Davis Square led me to search out and visit his fourteen-foot tower of fifty bronze portraits completed in 1986.
Spiral Inspired Art for Quincy Square, a Collaboration of David Phillips and Halverson Design
In earlier posts about David Phillips’ art, I noted his collaboration with Halverson Design, but here I’ll let it shape my perspective with quotes from Cambridge Public Art resources about this park that opened in 1997 near Harvard Square.
Nancy Webb’s Bronze Insects and Plants Became Treasures in Cambridge
I’ve walked through Charles Park before, (on the way to or from CambridgeSide Galleria) without noticing most of nearly forty bronze representations of insects and plants Nancy Webb created almost three decades ago. This week I came to find and focus on them, guided by the Cambridge Public Art Fact Sheet.
David Judelson’s Brickworker and Ballplayer Keep on Documenting History
By a ballfield in North Cambridge ( Rindge Field) since 1983, two brick beings by David Judelson have faced each other supported by pertinent names, equipment, and stories. In recent years I had visited them with vague plans to post about them, though waiting for a way to focus. Then this spring when walks with face coverings became one of the few recreational options, I discovered that Brickworker and Ballplayer had been outfitted in response to the pandemic.
Ink Block Underground Murals by Women Artists: Indie 184, Silvia López Chavez, Imagine876, Thy Doan
In honor of International Women’s Day, I will first focus on the four women artists who have created murals for Underground at Ink Block, an urban park that opened in Boston’s South End 2017. I have already enthusiastically posted about other murals by Silvia López Chavez and Imagine876 (Sneha Shrestha), but Thy Doan and Indie184 (Soraya Marquez) are new discoveries for me.
