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Tag Archives: Sculpture
Stack of Stones
Stack of Stones
Walking through the Cedars Neighborhood I was struck by all the open space. Block after block had been torn down, leaving vacant lots – some with concrete steps where a stoop used to be, now leading nowhere. In many cities, this is the hallmark of urban decay – but in Dallas, this is the sign of a giant multi-use development getting ready to launch, simply waiting for the market to be just right.
One stretch of street was lined with a wall of heavy welded steel plates. I peered through the gap between two slabs of slightly rusting metal and saw this sight. What is it? I don’t know.
Bronze Couple
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This is a cool bronze sculpture at one end of the McCasland Sunken Garden at the Dallas Arboretum. You can see the sculpture in the foreground of the photo I used once for a Sunday Snippet I did to practice my character sketches.
Hidden Places
Last Thursday I took a PTO day off of work, a mental health day. I decided to go to the Dallas Arboretum in the morning and hang out for a while. We have a membership there, so I don’t have to pay for parking or admission, which is nice. Especially nice because I can go at my leisure and simply relax and walk around, not feel any pressure to get my money’s worth. For that, I can always come back another time.
The Chihuly Exhibit is still up, and will be until November. It is a beautiful as always – and now, since I have a familiarity with it, I am able to see some details and subtle facets that I missed the first time or two through. More than the Chihuly stuff, gorgeous as it is, I am appreciating the beauty of the Arboretum itself – its design and vegetation.
This trip, as always, I took a lot of photographs, which I will continue to force upon my helpless readers whenever I feel like it – or I can’t think of anything else to whine on about. So far, from this trip, here, here, and here, for example… with many more to come.
But other than snapping photographs I wanted to find some spot to sit down with my Kindle and read for a bit, simply soak up the peaceful beauty.
When I first arrived at opening, there weren’t too many folks there, but the crowd quickly grew. Now, there weren’t as many folks as there are on the weekends, not by a long shot, but they tended to cluster along the main paths, surround the more spectacular Chihuly stuff, and blabber on about this and that – generally messing with my chill.
No problema, I expected this. It is a public spot – a tourist attraction – with a very popular special exhibit going on until November… I did not expect to have the whole place to myself. I had already decided to seek out a couple of hidden places, somewhere that I could sit, undisturbed, read a little, and generally chill out.
A couple of parameters had to be established:
- Obviously, out of the main traffic areas.
- A nice bench to sit on.
- Shade (I am using the phrase “Chill Out” in the metaphoric sense – the heat is amazing and deadly)
- A nice view
The first hidden spot is one I already knew about – I had spotted it the first time I came to the Arboretum. The first stage of A Woman’s Garden is a fiendishly designed series of formal gardens and water features that have a lot of Chihuly’s most spectacular glass works. It draws a big crown, oohing and ahhing and holding their iPhones up to send images back home to Aunt Emma who didn’t want to visit Dallas in the summer.
What they miss are some clever, smaller bits of garden that jut off to the side, little isolated areas that really make the place special. One of these, sandwiched between the first fountain by the entrance to A Woman’s Garden and the Degolyer Mansion is called The Sunset Garden. It is a tiny path that goes up a bit of hill to a stone bench beneath a huge tree. As the name implies, the bench faces west and would be a great place to watch the solar orb sink beneath White Rock Lake. There is a little sign that directs you to the side garden – a sign that everybody, entranced with the colorful glass beyond, seems to miss.
When you clamber up to the stone bench you look down through a gap to a fountain and then past into another small garden – The Pecan Parterre Garden, with a beautiful little sculpture – Harriet Frishmuth’s “Playdays” (more on that bronze piece in a few days, I promise). It is a truly idyllic spot.
The path up to the stone bench in the Sunset Garden from the main entrance to A Woman’s Garden.
A view of the Sunset Garden from the veranda of the DeGolyer mansion. You can see the sun-drenched entrance to A Woman’s Garden and its fountain, and the Pecan Parterre Garden, with the little statue, beyond. White Rock lake is through the trees in the background – this would be a wonderful spot to watch the sun set.
The only problem – as I discovered once I climbed up there and settled in – is that the stone bench is tilted out, ever so slightly, so it is not very comfortable. It’s like sitting in a church pew. I’m afraid that little detail makes the sunset garden a bit more useful to look at than to sit in for more than a few minutes.
Later on, though, I found another little hidden spot that didn’t have any disadvantages at all. I was strolling through the Jonsson Color Garden (the big open ovals where some large Chihuly glass rears up) and looking into the strip of woods that separates that area from the Texas Town (a children’s area with small historical displays) and noticed a wooden bench set deep within the trees. I walked around a bit and found the path back there.
It was perfect. It sits in deep shade from tall overhead trees and is screened from the main walking path by a clump of Crape Myrtles. Cool and quiet – most importantly, the wooden bench is very comfortable. A perfect spot to sit and read (I cranked through an entire novel) and contemplate the universe.
The view ahead and to the left from the little bench. These are some Chihuly red glass sculptures sitting along the edge of the Jonsson Color Garden.
To the right from the bench is a bit of a view of Chihuly’s gigantic Yellow Icicle Tower.
Here’s the bench, with my Kindle, camera case, and woefully inadequate water bottle.
I had a little visitor while I was sitting there – somebody else trying to get out of the killer afternoon heat.
It was too comfortable – I stayed too long into the stifling heat of the afternoon. The rest of the day I was dizzy and confused… even more so than normal. Still, I think I’ll go back. It’s a nice place… and there has to be some more hidden spots that I haven’t found yet. Maybe one with some burbling water nearby.
Lotus Blossoms – Glass and Flesh
The Chihuly Exhibit, Persian Garden Pool, at the Dallas Arboretum
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Chihuly Glass at the Dallas Arboretum
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These are the sculptures that were damaged during the hail storm not too long ago. They look fine now.
What I learned this week, July 20, 2012
Editorial: Finding Lost Dallas
Cities should be dynamic places. The corner of Commerce and St. Paul streets, where the building that once housed the hotel still stands, is a great place to see how this works over time. When it opened in 1956, the Statler Hilton was a marvel to behold. It was home to the largest convention facility in the South. Some of the hotel’s amenities — music in elevators, a rooftop pool and televisions in every room — were trendsetting and the height of luxury.
It was also the first glass-and-metal hotel in the nation. As such, it was a precursor to the Modern movement that defines the Dallas skyline. The buildings that now seem so familiar to all of us rose from the remnants of the old downtown. When you see footage of Dallas a half-century ago, what strikes the eye is how little of it seems to be left.
LOST DALLAS
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Help me, I’m melting!
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Shane Pennington, the artist that did the ice sculptures down in the Dallas Arts District that impressed me so much that I visited them day after day, as they melted:
– I found a cool article about his show in Berlin – “Leaving the Shade.”
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The two human form sculptures, what is left of them
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Not much ice left
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How 8 Sci-Fi Gadgets Are Becoming Reality
A Modest Proposal: Nasher vs Museum Tower
Howard Jacobson’s top 10 novels of sexual jealousy
The 50 Best Rolling Stones Songs (in case you were forgetting….)
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A while back I wrote about a Foodtruckapooza event at the remains of the old Valley View Mall. It was such a success the mall owners are trying to bring in a little business by making it a regular thing.
New Valley View owners hope to park food truck test kitchens in vacant food court stalls
It’s a fascinating story of urban devlopment, timing, and the death of a mall.
A few weeks back, the Becks rolled in more than two dozen food trucks for a fest that filled the parking lot — first time that’s happened at Valley View in a long time. Said Scott last night, the traffic jam brought in ’round 12,000, which is why the Midtown Food Truck Fest becomes a regular event beginning July 20 and scheduled for the third weekend of every month, with an indoor component that will include a beer garden.
Concurrently, they’re partnering with Jack FM to create food truck “test kitchens” in the seven empty food-court slots once populated by the likes of Sbarro, Chick-fil-A, Sonic and McDonald’s.
In two months’ time, the Becks hope to fill empty food-court spaces with food truck test kitchens.
“You will have your favorite food trucks in one location,” says Scott Beck, who notes that’s about two months off. “We won’t make those spot into national or regional vendors. We’ll have food trucks who want test kitchens for a month. They will rotate in and out — and be right there in the food court. Every food truck wants to be part of that. They think it’s interesting to do a test kitchen, because there are only so many things you can make in a food truck. This gives them the chance to do more items in an area that’s promoted.”
I think I might head down there after work today.
Some very interesting editorials about the future of energy in the US.
The Energy Revolution Part One: The Biggest Losers
Energy Revolution 2: A Post Post-American Post
Energy Revolution 3: The New American Century
While the chattering classes yammered on about American decline and peak oil, a quite different future is taking shape. A world energy revolution is underway and it will be shaping the realities of the 21st century when the Crash of 2008 and the Great Stagnation that followed only interest historians. A new age of abundance for fossil fuels is upon us. And the center of gravity of the global energy picture is shifting from the Middle East to… North America.
Dallas Star
I have an entry half-assed written, but I don’t have time tonight to finish it – have to get another scene on a short story done.
So, into the photo folders… and here are some more photos from the Chihuly Exhibition at the Dallas Arboretum.
Stay thirsty, my friends.
Some random photographs
…found on my drive, left over from my trip down to the farmer’s market. I took these when we walked over to Deep Ellum.
Bikes out in front of Reno’s.
Deep Ellum Graffiti
Travelling Man
Chihuly Nights
I had been reading that the recommendation was to see the Chihuly exhibit at the Dallas Arboretum at least twice – once during the day and once at night. I was happy when Candy and I were able to go to the concert in the evening – I’d get to see it at night.
During the band’s second set I sneaked away (I could hear “Sympathy for the Devil” filtering through the greenery) as the sun dipped below the far shore of White Rock Lake. During the crepuscular “magic hour” the lit glass seemed to jump out of the landscape. It was a lot easier to find the Chihuly glass amongst the maze of gardens because they were colorful and glowing as if lit from within (everything actually had spotlights trained on them… but the translucent glass appeared incandescent).
I walked around and then returned in the darkness for the end of the concert. Then many folks headed out to stumble around and marvel at the sculptures in the dark. It was magical. Probably the most entertaining (and crowded) spot was the infinity pool in A Woman’s Garden with the two glass-filled boats. The night was dead calm and the water was a horizontal mirror.
Finally the staff came out in golf carts and powerful lights and herded everyone off the grounds. I now have my little membership card so I can go again… and again.
As the sun set the sculptures began to glow. This one is one of the largest (about 20 feet tall) and most dramatic works… called “The Sun.” When I first saw it, I thought it was all yellow and red glass, but some kids were looking closer and you can see that there are actually many colors in there.
The boat on the infinity pool. This is taken from the steps that lead down below the water leve.
Red glass shapes with the dramatic Icicle Tower in the distance. The open grassy areas became haunting, lined with the glowing glass.
The thirty foot tall Icicle Tower was even more dramatic at night.
The boat on the infinity pool, taken from the other side.
The One I Missed Before
It’s been almost a month since I went with my Writing Group down to the Arboretum to take some photographs of the Dale Chihuly exhibition there. I know I have posted a lot about this, put up a lot of pictures, but I’m not done yet, not by a long shot.
For father’s day, Candy bought me a year-long membership to the Dallas Arboretum – so I can go as often as I want, sit around, and maybe stare at strangers. We were talking the other day when we had gone to the Zoo to see A Hard Night’s Day – a Beatles Tribute Band – about the fact that there weren’t any Rolling Stones tribute bands. So she also bought tickets to a concert at the Arboretum by Satisfaction… a Stones tribute band.
The Dallas Arboretum is massive and maze-like. When we were there, I wondered if we had missed any of Chihuly’s stuff. In the interim, I was able to learn the layout a bit better and I slipped away from the concert several times to walk the grounds, both in the evening light and the darkness (nighttime Chihluly photographs to come).
It turns out we did pretty well, only missing one Chihuly piece. It was a beautiful one though. In the second phase of the Woman’s Garden there is a little pond full of water plants (the Pool in the Genesis Garden). The artist had placed some white glass sculptures in amongst the green lily pads and colorful blooms.
It was gorgeous.
Bill Chance 