Art at the Deep Ellum Dog Park

Artwork in Bark Park Central
Deep Ellum
Dallas, Texas

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Under the Bridge

People walking from the yoga event with their mats under their arms. All Out Trinity Festival - Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, Dallas, Texas (click to enlarge)

People walking from the yoga event with their mats under their arms.
All Out Trinity Festival – Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, Dallas, Texas
(click to enlarge)

From above, the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge – the Dallas Calatrava-designed cable-stay signature bridge finally reaching across the Trinity River from Downtown to long-neglected, oft-reviled West Dallas – is an architectural marvel of geometry, steel, and curves.

Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, Dallas, Texas

Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, Dallas, Texas

It has a dirty little secret, though. It isn’t really a bridge over much of anything. It’s more of a causeway with a huge, expensive, and dramatic sculpture tacked on overhead.

This is obvious when you venture into the vast stretches of the river bottoms. You can see the forest of columns holding up the span.

But still, even there, it is a thing of beauty. A different beauty – a more muscular, less soaring beauty – but beauty nonetheless.

I like it. If nothing else it offers up a vast strip of welcome cool shade.

Underneath the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge.  (click to enlarge)

Underneath the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge.
(click to enlarge)

Underneath the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge.  (click to enlarge)

Underneath the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge.
(click to enlarge)

Spirit of the Centennial – after dark

I love the art deco murals and sculptures in Fair Park. My favorite may be the Spirit of the Centennial sculpture in front of the Woman’s Building.

I have seen it in the daylight many times and took some photos of it. But I had never had a good look at it at night. It glows with a preternatural beauty – worth a gander, for sure.

Spirit of the Centennial, Woman's Building, Fair Park, Dallas, Texas

Spirit of the Centennial, Woman’s Building, Fair Park, Dallas, Texas

Spirit of the Centennial, Woman's Building, Fair Park, Dallas, Texas

Spirit of the Centennial, Woman’s Building, Fair Park, Dallas, Texas

Pillar 6N

Trinity River Bottoms
Dallas, Texas

(click to enlarge)

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Some More Sunflowers

A couple of weeks back I went out and took some sunflower shots – wrote about it on this blog entry. Here are a few more photographs.

(click for larger version on Flickr)

(click for larger version on Flickr)

(click for larger version on Flickr)

(click for larger version on Flickr)

(click for larger version on Flickr)

(click for larger version on Flickr)

The Old Railroad Trestle

(click to enlarge)

(click to enlarge)

Almost three years ago, while the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge was still under construction, I took a photo of a train going by on an old railroad trestle next to the new bridge. Now, the city has opened up the beginning of a network of trails in the river bottoms, and I was able to pass underneath that old trestle.

I never realized how old it really was.

(click to enlarge)

(click to enlarge)

(click to enlarge)

(click to enlarge)

The sculptor carves because he must

Barbara Hepworth
Sea Form (Atlantic)
Bronze, 1965

Dallas Museum of Art, Sculpture Garden
Dallas, Texas

Sea Form (Atlantic) Barbara Hepworth (click to enlarge)

Sea Form (Atlantic)
Barbara Hepworth
(click to enlarge)

“The sculptor carves because he must. He needs the concrete form of stone and wood for the expression of his idea and experience, and when the idea forms the material is found at once. […]
I have always preferred direct carving to modelling because I like the resistance of the hard material and feel happier working that way. Carving is more adapted to the expression of the accumulative idea of experience and clay to the visual attitude. An idea for carving must be clearly formed before starting and sustained during the long process of working; also, there are all the beauties of several hundreds of different stones and woods, and the idea must be in harmony with the qualities of each one carved; that harmony comes with the discovery of the most direct way of carving each material according to its nature.”
—- ‘Barbara Hepworth – “the Sculptor carves because he must”‘, The Studio, London, vol. 104, December 1932

“I have always been interested in oval or ovoid shapes. The first carvings were simple realistic oval forms of the human head or of a bird. Gradually my interest grew in more abstract values – the weight, poise, and curvature of the ovoid as a basic form. The carving and piercing of such a form seems to open up an infinite variety of continuous curves in the third dimension, changing in accordance with the contours of the original ovoid and with the degree of penetration of the material. Here is sufficient field for exploration to last a lifetime.”
“Before I can start carving the idea must be almost complete. I say ‘almost’ because the really important thing seems to be the sculptor’s ability to let his intuition guide him over the gap between conception and realization without compromising the integrity of the original idea; the point being that the material has vitality – it resists and makes demands.”

“I have gained very great inspiration from Cornish land- and sea-scape, the horizontal line of the sea and the quality of light and colour which reminds me of the Mediterranean light and colour which so excites one’s sense of form; and first and last there is the human figure which in the country becomes a free and moving part of a greater whole. This relationship between figure and landscape is vitally important to me. I cannot feel it in a city.”
—-Barbara Hepworth ‘Approach to Sculpture’, The Studio, London, vol. 132, no. 643, October 1946

What I learned this week, July 7, 2014

US bike boom strongest with people over 55 (not hipsters)



ride2

Community Beer Co. wants you to name its newest brew

Riding up outside Community Brewing in the Dallas Design District

Riding up outside Community Brewing in the Dallas Design District


Slightly More Than 100 Fantastic Pieces of Journalism


Want to empower African American kids? Give them bikes


Photographer Shows Proof of Shocking Similarities In Human Templates Between Complete Strangers


In college, we managed to score a keg of beer that had been left behind from a Fraternity Party in a cafeteria cooler. It has sat there for well over a year. We threw a big party, tapped the keg, and realized it had gone bad.
“What are we going to do?” my friend asked, “The beer is bad and all these people are coming over.”

“I know,” I said, “Let’s tell everybody it’s Lone Star.”

People would complain about the beer and I’d tell them it was Lone Star – they would nod knowingly and keep drinking.

11 THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT LONE STAR BEER



Bicycle Second Line New Orleans, Louisiana

Bicycle Second Line
New Orleans, Louisiana

What’s the worst thing about cycling? Other cyclists


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The Politics of Sitting Alone