I didn't realize when I snapped this through a car window that it was an advertisement for a restaurant. All I saw were the flowers and I thought it made a nice mural. I took this on my way to the airport in Chicago last Wednesday. I still like all those flowers and I guess technically, it is a mural.
Taking part in Monday Murals.
I have always thought of Georgia O'Keeffe as a southwestern artist living on her ranch near Abiquiu New Mexico. However, she lived with her husband, photographer Alfred Stieglitz in New York City for a number of years. While there, she painted city scenes along with her paintings of flowers and shells. The painting above is "The View From the 30th Story of the Shelton Hotel. If I had seen this painting all by itself somewhere, I would never have guessed it was painted by Georgia O'Keeffe.
These are just a sample of some of the paintings I saw in the exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago.
This one is "The Radiator Building - Night".
This one is a painting of the Shelton Hotel where she was living. It's called "Shelton Hotel NY No. 1".
While painting these views of New York, she also painted scenes from the natural world such as the flowers she is known for.
She had old dried out bones and branches sent from New Mexico to New York and slipped them into some of her most famous pieces.
This one is called "Cow's Skull with Calico Roses".
Here is a photo of O'Keeffe with one of those skulls that she had shipped to New York. She hung it on the balcony at the hotel and used it as inspiration for her art works.
I loved so many of the paintings in this exhibit but, this one I especially liked. It's called "East River from Shelton". I love the colors in this painting. It has that earthy southwestern look even though it's an east coast, urban scene.
This exhibit will travel next to the High Museum of Art in Atlanta Georgia. It opens October 25th there. If you are in that area, I highly recommend seeing the exhibit.
After having a fabulous French meal in Chicago last Saturday, I was craving a bit more so I joined a friend yesterday afternoon for lunch at Zinc Bistro in Scottsdale. It's a great place to satisfy that sort of craving.
I had the crab crepes served with the lobster sauce and shiitake mushrooms. It was delicious. It was the perfect 'foodie' treat.
On my last visit to the Art Institute of Chicago, I was talking to one of the gallery attendants about all the beautiful things I had seen over the past few days. He told me to be sure to see "The Wave" before I left the museum. The Wave of course refers to Katsushika Hokusai's famous woodblock print of a wall of water looming over Japan's Mount Fuji. (I apologize for the reflections in the glass.) It is no doubt an image that would be familiar to almost everyone. The print is very light sensitive so it only goes on display every five years and for very short periods of time.
The attendant gave me directions to find the gallery it was in. I was a bit awestruck by the mysterious feel they have given the room. The entrance area was dark with many pillars leading up to a very large Japanese screen which also featured Mount Fuji. The print was on the wall to the left.
I'm back home but, I thought I'd show you a few outtakes from those last few minutes in Chicago. First up, this was shot through the window of the Uber at the beginning of the long ride to the airport. I snapped it because I recognized that building all the way to the left. It's the same one that is in the photo I posted on Tuesday shot through the restaurant window. It's just from the other side this time.
Here is another one I shot out the Uber window. I was mesmerized by the size of that graffiti on that building. Painting those letters (or whatever they are) that big must have taken some ingenuity.
This one I shot out the plane window as I waited for everyone to board. I was wondering what that guy was doing leaning over the engine on the jumbo jet.
Tuesday turned out to be another rainy day. In fact, very rainy. I did manage to get out around 9:30 to walk to Federal Plaza to photograph Calder's grand "Flamingo". I think that wet pavement kind of adds to the flamingo's brilliant look.
I walked along Michigan Avenue again while it was drizzling and then stopped for a leisurely lunch. When I was done, it was pouring down rain. I walked for about two blocks and then found a cab to take me back to my hotel so I could dry off. It was really coming down.
See that building on the right, the very, very tall one? That is the tallest building designed by a female architect and it houses the St. Regis Hotel along with condos above. That's where I had dinner Tuesday evening.
This is a view from the table at the restaurant. It just so happens that my friend Dave (of the Julie and Dave that I've mentioned many times on this blog) was in town for a trial. He didn't know how his trial would turn out so we didn't plan anything ahead of time, but as things turned out, we had dinner Tuesday night at a place called Miru on the 12th floor of that very tall building. It was a Japanese restaurant and the food was excellent.
We walked along the river after dinner allowing me to snap a couple of night time photos like this one of the Wrigley Building.
This one is looking west along the river. The dreary, rainy day ended up quite spectacular with great food and good friends.
I fly back to Phoenix this afternoon. It was a wonderful 5 days.
I started my Monday experience back at the Art Institute. There was one wing I hadn't visited and that member's hour was pulling me to go while it was quiet. I was only there about an hour and a half and I truly enjoyed browsing the art so peacefully.
After that, I headed north on a long walk up Michigan Avenue.
I stopped to visit Columbus Plaza where I lived all those years ago. (26 years ago to be exact) There are an amazing amount of new buildings surrounding "my building". I'm sure the view from my old apartment must be completely different now.
I managed to walk all the way down to the Water Tower before my legs were telling me it was time to go.
My friends I had dinner with on Saturday told me that the new hot spot in town is called the West Loop. That's an area that was kind of rough when I was living in Chicago. I looked up a restaurant, made a reservation and had dinner there. It truly is a "hopping" area. Lots of restaurants and shops and lots of people out and about.
I was seated next to a window and this was the view as the sun was going down. (Those two red arrows are reflections from inside the restaurant.) I liked how the buildings were glowing from the setting sun.
Late Saturday evening I took a stroll around the loop looking for some old favorites. I got to Daley Plaza to see the giant Picasso sculpture.
Just across the street I visited the Joan Miro sculpture. Those stained glass windows along the wall of the Chicago Temple were nice to see too.
After that, I took a taxi up to Lincoln Park to have dinner with some friends. They had chosen a wonderful French restaurant called Mon Ami Gabi. The food was superb.
Sunday morning I woke up to rain. Such a difference from Saturday's sunny skies.
I started my day with a short stroll though Millennium Park where I caught one of the monoliths that make up the Crown Fountain.
And of course, I had to walk past "The Bean". I've got lots of photos of Anish Kapoor's masterpiece so I only snapped two or three this time.
And then it was over to the Art Museum where I visited the Georgia O'Keeffe exhibit that will be ending tomorrow. I've been to the O'Keeffe museum in Santa Fe many times but these were paintings I had never seen before. Many of them I never would have attributed to her. It was an amazing exhibit.
I'll have to do a post about the exhibit later when I get home. There is so much to tell.
After lunch, I walked down to the Fine Arts Building where I rode on the hand operated elevator. The nice man operating the elevator took me up to the 10th floor to see the Art Nouveau murals on that floor.
On the walk back toward the hotel, I peeked in the windows of the Auditorium at Roosevelt University. I snapped this photo of the beautiful stained glass above the doors. There were a whole row of these doors but I only captured these two.
This last shot is my own little artsy shot that I took on my way back to the hotel. I decided to capture "the el" rolling past this reddish building.
This was one of my first views of beautiful Chicago. We swung across the lake and over the city as we made our way to the airport.
No problems on the flight. We left about 15 minutes late but landed 15 minutes early.
However, that was the end of the good travel karma.
It took over an hour to get our checked luggage. We started our wait at one carousel and then we were asked to move to another carousel where we waited and waited and then were told to go back the other carousel. Finally the correct luggage arrived.
Then there was the taxi ride into the city. I was delayed enough that we hit rush hour traffic. That ride took another 45 minutes. Finally I was greeted by a long line of people waiting to check in.
I stopped at a plant nursery on the other side of town over the weekend. I haven't visited this place in several years but I remembered that they had a huge selection of pottery so I decided to take a look. After admiring a large array of seasonal pottery, I saw this little corner and thought there was something attractive about its rustic quality. (I'll post photos of some of the pottery I saw closer to Halloween.)
I ran the same photo through some editing processes to see how it would turn out. I liked this one the best. At first I thought it looked like a Mediterranean scene but then thought it had an alien quality.
I'm flying off today to spend a few days in Chicago. If all goes well, I'll be posting from there tomorrow.
I recently found two more in-fill housing complexes squeezed in between single the family homes around them. These appear to be units above a two-car garage. They have a nice urban look.
These have a more traditional look. They look like they might be three stories high. That would probably be too many stairs for me but I'm sure they would appeal to a lot of first time buyers.
When I stopped at the drug store recently to get my updated COVID shot, I saw these "fellows" hanging by their skulls on the holiday decoration shelf. I wondered where their legs were but then I saw them folded up behind them. That would be a seriously uncomfortable position to be in.
Looks like Walgreens has a good supply of Halloween decorations ready to be spread around town.