Photography

Halloween: This Old House

~ travelsandtomes ~ 17 Comments

The house in Germany:  although we’ve packed up and left it, it hasn’t left us.

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Images of autumn and Halloween are starting to flood the internet, and I’m sitting here in Florida thinking that it’s still too hot to plant pansies, wear a sweater, or start the full-on (and often pumpkin inspired) baking frenzy that I feel compelled to throw myself into this time of year.  (I bake in the autumn the way birds migrate: I can’t help myself, it seems to be woven into the fabric of my being.)

I love my new environs in Florida, for all of the reasons this place inspires love:  the dolphins I’ve watched in the past week; the great horned owl who graces our backyard; the glistening bay, beach, and boat docks that I walk to with my dog every evening.

But the interminable summer is a little frustrating for a girl who loves four seasons.  So today, I give you this wistful image– the old house in Germany in a tinted Halloween mashup.  Old, creaky, spooky, beautiful . . . and autumnal.

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Boo!

Happy Halloween!!

 

 

* JNW’s Halloween Challenge

Salzburg in Sepia

~ travelsandtomes ~ 18 Comments

Tucked below the headlines of terror yesterday was another sad note, from a very uplifting life.  Charmain Carr, the actress who played Liesl in The Sound of Music, has died.  For all of us who love the movie, or love the story and spirit of the real von Trapp family, or love the city of Salzburg– and this must surely include a lot of us– this news is sure to prompt a moment of reflection.

I offer a small tribute here:  photos of Salzburg and the Villa Trapp in a muted sepia.

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The Hohensalzburg Fortress rises over the city streets.

 

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St. Peter’s Cemetery, Salzburg. Familiar from the movie Sound of Music, and a beautiful, poignant place to visit.  The von Trapps didn’t actually have to hide out here, but it’s a lovely and historical spot.  We walked through two days before Christmas, and families were placing small Christmas trees before the larger graves and preparing the trees with candles to be lit for the holiday.  

 

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Another remarkable view from St. Peter’s, with the Hohensalzburg looming large.

 

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Outside of Salzburg, at Hellbrunn Palace. A quiet spot for anyone who is, or feels like they are, 16 going on 17.  For a time, the gazebo was open for visitors to come, sit, enjoy, and maybe (maybe?) sing a little.  After an elderly woman fell and broke a bone–apparently having slipped and fallen while reenacting the scene where Liesl leaps from one bench to the next, all the while singing– the gazebo was locked for good. (An unfortunate end to her escapades, but I bet it was totally worth it.)    Today, you may pay your respects, but you may no longer sing and dance. 

 

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The elegant Villa Trapp, home of the von Trapp family in earlier times. Now a boutique hotel, a truly delightful, historical, and hospitable place to stay.

 

 

Art in the Autumn #1 – Picasso: A Horse is a Horse

~ travelsandtomes ~ 6 Comments

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Of course.  Of course?

Well, actually, not necessarily.

Take, for example, “The Picasso” in Daley Plaza in Chicago.  It is untitled– which is the first tricky thing about it.  No hints to tell you what it is.  I walked by it for years, always assuming it was a horse.  I’m sure I’ve heard plenty of Chicagoans refer to it as “the horse,”  which looked about right to me.  (The long muzzle, the powerful haunches, the glamorous mane– it all fits.)  But on our recent visit to Chicago, my daughter said, “It’s a baboon.”  That’s all, no debate.  Clearly, it’s a baboon.  Duh.  And, guess what?  I totally see that too.  (How could I not have seen that before?)

However  . . .

it turns out that if you view it from the side as you come around it, instead of straight on . . .

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Sculptor’s model.

it’s a woman’s profile.  In fact, at just the right angle, you really see the woman and her cheekbone lines from the front– especially if you look at the sculptor’s model in the Art Institute of Chicago.  The hair, the shoulders, the cheekbones, it’s all there.

Although that model could still be an especially fetching baboon.  Hard to say.

Picasso designed this mammoth statue for the city of Chicago– it’s 50 feet tall and weighs 163 tons.  At that size, whether or not you understand it, you will find yourself looking at it.

dsc_0689But wait– there’s more.  Because it’s a huge piece of art in a huge public space, you will find yourself as part of a community that interacts with it.  People navigate by it, eat lunch by it, stage movie scenes around it (remember the Blues Brothers?), and allow their children to play on it.

Can you do that?  Play on a Picasso?  Is that cool?  Some onlookers clearly think not, but others seem to believe this was Picasso’s intent all along– let the children run and slide on it!

Me?  In my head, it will always be a horse, but Picasso loved bending the lines of life.  I think he’d be thrilled that we are perplexed.  “Keep your eyes squinting at it, your mind chewing over it, your children running up and down on it,” this is what I think he’d say.

Picasso at Home, by Rene Burri
Picasso at Home, by Rene Burri

After all, he’s the guy who said, “Everything you can imagine is real,” and “The chief enemy of creativity is good sense.”

So Chicago has its untitled Picasso,  a gift given freely by the generous  artist– a little nonsense standing at the navel of a great city, daring its inhabitants to guess its riddle.  Pablo Picasso knew exactly what he was doing. . .because even if we don’t get it, we still get it.

“If I paint a wild horse, you might not see the horse…  
but surely you will see the wildness!”  Pablo Picasso

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