Category political issues
Rob “Problak” Gibbs Gave Momentum to his Mural, ‘Breathe Life 3’
Today I want to note this one of many murals by Rob “Problak” Gibbs and share some ways it adds to my awareness of what a mural can do. This one can actively demonstrate hand signs for its title when you view it through an app in your device. My post, so far, won’t directly reveal the actions but gives you links to see them or, better yet, go to the wall on Tremont Street at Camden Street, where you can enliven them yourself.
Walks through Kip Tiernan Memorial on Dartmouth Street become Memorable
Since The Kip Tiernan Memorial near Old South Church in Copley Square was dedicated in early October 2018, I have walked through and also paused there several times. My photos in different seasons suggest how the sheltering structure subtly directs our flow and where we stop to read Kip Tiernan’s words. I feel that the design and details function as intended, to enhance memories and convey an overarching mission.
David Fichter and David Phillips Honor Community Histories in Public Art
David Phillips is a sculptor; David Fichter is a muralist. With their distinctly different materials, both are masters of rendering historical figures and events. Both have created public art that is densely packed with researched images and documents. As public art, the expansive colorful mural and the tactile intimate bronze relief wait openly for anyone who wants to focus on some sign or scene and make their own associations.
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.
Nancy Winship Milliken, Pasture Song, plus Earth Press Project: Witness
Pasture Song at deCordova, was originally scheduled to depart this summer. What great news that it will stay another year! ….Meanwhile another time-sensitive matter has sped up my posting about Nancy Milliken’s work. That is Earth-Press Project: Witness, which calls on all of us to each offer one word that might be imprinted in an adobe block of earth for an installation at Minute-Man National Historic Park in Lincoln.
Men in Cambridge Made by Women: Anne Whitney and Theo Alice Ruggles Kitson
The statues of Charles Sumner and the Hiker both connect to stories worth telling, well told in the quotes below. The Sumner statue story leads back to a much earlier Boston proposal that was rejected because the artist Anne Whitney was a woman. The Hiker statue story leads on to a much later time when fifty bronze replicas of Kitson’s original around the country became part of a scientific study.
Elliott Kayser’s Art Adds Many Ways to Celebrate Year of the Pig along the Greenway
Eight lifelike, life-size terra cotta pigs, each representing a different native pig breed in China, have settled along the Greenway. Guided by a map, I found each one, informatively labeled, between the North End and Chinatown. I hope to keep visiting them as seasons change their surroundings and their interactions with people. “The year […]
Steve Locke’s Temporary Art Makes Lasting Connections
This is my temporary post, mainly to let people in the Boston area know that Steve Locke’s temporary art will be gone from the Gardner’s front facade after January 21, 2019. If you can pause in its presence before entering the museum and again after leaving, you can sense its strength as a memorial. Yet if you miss that opportunity, you can still connect the stories of how the memorial for Freddie Gray came to be.
Art Above Us: Cambridge Murals by David Fichter and Be Sargent
Almost caught up with some recent temporary art, I’ll share some views of three murals in my home city, Cambridge. Two, by Be Sargent, have been here for nearly twenty years. One, by David Fichter, has been for fourteen. All three begin above eye-level, so I had seldom made eye contact with the animals or people depicted.
Warming Warning: Welcome Art about Unwelcome Warmth
Installed on Harvard’s Science Center Plaza in October, David Buckley Borden’s artwork asks us to read, look, walk, sit, think and revisit until December 7.
“This educational installation is a co-creation of Harvard Forest Fellow David Buckley Borden and Harvard Forest Senior Ecologist Aaron M Ellison that combines art, environmental design, and science communication to convey global climate-change data and spur action on campus.” quote from description of their project on davidbuckleyborden.com
Art Outdoors 