These photos, notes, and links are my attempts to connect recent and past events in outdoor art. These may help me transition to some future post with my own thoughts.
From 10 a.m. till 4 p.m., explore a row of 15 different ice sculptures on display in Fiedler Field, each of the three days: Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Quotes and links give background and perspective.
This February (2022) I learned to look up at light poles for Black History Month banners along Massachusetts Avenue in Arlington. Luckily banners from earlier Februaries (2020 and 2021) were up again, along with a new set. Different artists, selected by Arlington Human Rights Commission and Arlington Commission for Arts and Culture, created the banners for each year.
A public radio segment about sculptor Edmonia Lewis (1845-ca. 1909) recently roused me to order a sheet of newly issued stamps honoring her and then to seek out the marble monument she made 150 years ago for a family lot in Mount Auburn Cemetery. Stories behind the new stamp and the long-standing sculpture led to more revelations about the artist’s life, through resources I will share here with quotes and links.
Here is my record of seasonal decorations in the front yard of a historical house near me in Cambridge: William James House at 95 Irving Street. Most of the photos here focus on the tree and fence, though the steps, porch, and roof have also been transformed for several holidays. This post just keeps track of the leaves, blossoms, lawn, and snowfall as they interact with holiday shapes and colors people placed within the landscape.
Public art in Somerville has enlightened me in many ways in recent years. Here are two more examples, each enlivening my resources as a long-time volunteer guide at deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln. Both focus on fascinating aspects of Somerville’s Union Glass Company, owned by Julian deCordova through the early years of the twentieth century. One is among the seven vibrant panels of the Union Square History Murals on the building where Webster Avenue (55-50) and Prospect Street (70) intersect. The other is a bright sturdy signpost, among more than fifty others in Conway Park on Somerville Avenue. Here are photos, quotes, and notes to elaborate their connections.
Pandemic restrictions mean that we may not go to as many museums these days. Instead, we walk more and have time to investigate the public sculpture that lives everywhere in and around Boston. A recent stroll in Harvard Square highlighted a contrast between figurative and abstract monuments. Just off Harvard Common, one of Theodora Alice […] […]
New important plantings around Cyrus Dallin’s long-standing sculpture (since 1912) on the lawn of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston this summer made me realize how much I did not know about the sculptor. That led me to Arlington, where some of his significant works have braved all weather for over a century, and where the Cyrus Dallin Art Museum has developed valuable online resources about his works. A winter lull finally let me review my summer notes and photos for Dallin’s art in Arlington, where he lived in the first half of the twentieth century. Now I need to share some fascinating aspects of his art.
Analog the Sphinx Dog and Wapiti the Green Elk recently joined Michelle the Blue Elephant on Palmer Street in Harvard Square. All three stand with slender sturdy legs on narrow skis. All three are creatively constructed from various recycled materials, adorned with objects, and decorated festively. All three are called Skraelings by Bob Smith (of Minimum Wage Art), who describes them in the following quote: “These being(s) are super heroes that are made from wood, metal, even plastic, all castoff materials from an overly materialistic society. Skraelings fight boredom and apathy in all dimensions of time and space.” ….
Here are my photos, with quotes and links that should take you to fabulous photos on Silvia López Chavez’s website including her creative ways with windows in two buildings (290 and 314 Main St.. Cambridge). Both temporary public art installations, commissioned by MIT, developed as part of a community project called MIT Art Activation, Kendall Sq. Cambridge.
Art Outdoors 