Thursday Treasures 05-21-20

Well, It isn't MY treasure, but something I see every day, usually twice.  I have lived in this house for over 30 years and from the very first day I have wanted to make some clothes for this lady.  I've done some drawings of how I could make a "santa" suit for her and fasten it with Velcro strips.  Of course, I don't intend on asking the owners.  They would just wake up one holiday morning and see their naked beauty clothed.  I don't have the nerver, unfortunately. 

The one story house is nondescript, tucked into a corner where two roads end.  The "landscaping" is just anything the owners want to stick in the ground with lots of weeds.   She is really quite a nice statue, but the location is so odd, I wonder if she has been there for fifty years, since the houses were built.  I keep hoping someone will take pity and give her a nicer environment. 

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Wordless Wednesday 08-03-16

 

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Wordless Wednesday 06-03-15

Wordless Wednesday 12-10-14

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One year ago in Arizona 05-20-14

Last year on this date I was on my way to Quilt National in Athens, Ohio.    It was a great Road Trip and I plan to revisit it with pictures this week.   A high point was the discovery of La Posada hotel in Winslow, AZ.  www.laposada.org  It is the remaining hotel from the years of the Santa Fe Railroad years and refurbishment continues.  A step back into an earlier time and way of travel.  The Amtrak trains stop at the back gate, offering easy access to the vintage hotel with a nice restaurant, gift shop, public spaces and, of course, elegant lodging from yesteryear.  I parked my car in the front parking lot and strolled through the gardens and all the other spaces open to the public. 

 

Just through the entry gate is a Bactrian camel.

A very handsome guy, but, I suppose, he will eventually rust away, even in the dry Arizona climate.

I  even like the shadows from the entry gate.

A little further along the path there is a metal donkey.

And even further along is the entrance to the Inn - build in 1930.

A pathway off to another garden area.

Many of the plants are native to the area.

Great corn stalk gate.

In one of the lounge areas I met this lady with her pet lop eared rabbit.  He wears a harness and lease - just like Corky! 

 

This is one of the original chandeliers hanging near the check in desk.  Notice the native American rug on the wall.  An extra nice piece for sale in the gift shop.

Here is another rug for sale - it is a Wide Ruins pattern from a Navajo weaver.  Nice and about $1300.

Directly through the public area of the Inn and out the back door are the train tracks and the Amtrak stop.  I'd love to take the train and stay a few days at the Inn, but there isn't really anything else to see or do in Winslow.

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Wordless Wednesday 12-15-10

California Giraffe 06-20-09

I wonder how many times I have driven by this herd of giraffe? They are on the east (or south) side of Santa Ana Canyon Road in Anaheim. I don't go that way often lately, but had to go to the Auto Club of SCalifornia to see about switching license plates. I'll put the "DELQLTS" plates on the Lexus - guess that means I am going to keep it - and I have new plates for the Caravan.

Here is a closer view of the two giraffes on the right. All of them are made from metal which is rusting different colors. It is too bad the power cables are where they are, but perhaps they came after the animals. I could not see a way to take a picture without the cables - perhaps if I stood in the middle of this very busy street?

There is also a moose, not nearly as wonderful as the Butterfly Moose in Pacific Grove. See http://delquilts.blogspot.com/search/label/moose

Some years ago I read the non-fiction book "Zarafa: A Giraffe's True Story, from Deep in Africa to the Heart of Paris" by Michael Allin (c1998 Walker & Co.) and found it fascinating. It is indeed about the first giraffe in Europe in 1827. I recommend it.

Sculpture in Brea, CA

This metal piece (painted Terra cotta) is "Candelabra" by John Oukavic. It is very close to Imperial Highway, but the color makes it blend a bit with the surrounding buildings.

As you can see, taggers have no respect and will paint on anything.

These two pieces can be seen in the background of the first picture on this page. They are "Kaikou Series - IV and XVI. As you can see in the other picture they sit up on a rise and out from the buildings, so they are among the most noticeable pieces around town.

This could well be a sculpture, don't you think? Maybe "Inch Worm X3". It is actually a bicycle rack right outside a Starbucks.

Quilts, Lunch & Starbuck's 01-29-09

I didn't do well with pictures today - forgive me, please! I'll do better when I go to see Visions again in a couple weeks.

I drove to Oceanside today to see the Visions exhibit, and I had the great company of my friends Carol and Teresa. It was a gorgeous day with blue skies, blue/green/grey ocean and wind tossed palm trees. Of course, all the trees and everything else were tossing in the Santa Ana winds, but the palm trees are so... exuberant! Carol and Teresa seemed to enjoy having their own personal docent, but they know that when I get talking quilts it is hard to shut me up. Sort of "More than you ever wanted to know about art quilts!" We spent about 1-1/2 hours at the museum.

We had planned to go to Sammy's in Carlsbad for lunch, but it is closed for reconstruction after fire tore through the building. I don't know when it happened, but when I checked online last evening the site said it was closed and I couldn't imagine why. When we slipped off I-5 at Palomar Airport Road to see it was obvious there had been a fire. Since we had lots of time we drove south to the Sammy's on Del Mar Heights Road. Same food, different ambiance. Delicious salads - two w/grilled shrimp and my Chinese Chicken - no desserts. We all had half salads because the whole salads are each enough to feed four!

Our table was near this mosaic wall and we contemplated the strangeness of having cat grass hanging so high - long necked cats? Of course, it is artificial, but seemed to need something else... a flock of tiny birds, a couple frogs, grasshoppers? The beaded lamps are very attractive, but the light that shines below this one is actually my flash reflection. I took a few pictures to get it lined up - nice effect.

In August I posted some pictures of public sculpture around the City of Brea, just north of Placentia, and I wanted to include this one which is between the corner and the drive-thru at Starbucks. I decided to wait until they finished the massive reconstruction of the intersection, but, as you can see, they still have not completed the project. When I stopped this afternoon I thought I might as well take the picture, who knows how many more months the barriers and cones will be there?

I particularly like this piece, but cannot find a plaque w/title and artist's name. And I have not yet visited the Brea Civic Center to buy a listing of the 150+ sculptures the city has required of builders for the Art in Public Places project, but you can see twenty of them by going to: http://www.ci.brea.ca.us/custom.cfm?name=aipp_index.htm

Find the sculptures I posted previously at: http://delquilts.blogspot.com/2008/08/sculpture-city-of-brea-08-24-08.html

Wordless Wednesday - Nat'l Bison Reserve - Montana 2005

Sculpture - City of Brea 08-24-08

Placentia, CA, is basically a bedroom community that is surrounded by Anaheim, Yorba Linda, Fullerton and Brea. Anaheim, as everyone in the world knows, is the home of Disneyland. Yorba Linda features the Nixon Presidential Library/birthplace/burial site. Fullerton has California State University-Fullerton. Brea has a large shopping mall, but also a program of public sculptures which are required as part of any development. I don't know what the requirements are, but sculptures pop up all over the place. I have been tracking them down to photograph. The first thing I discovered is that most of them are not located so people can walk up to them. Sometimes I have to park a block or more away and walk through the shrubbery to even take photographs. Some have plaques that give the name of the piece and the artists name, but others seem to be anonymous. I know that a list can be seen at the City Hall and maybe they even have a copy I can take with me. I'll check it out later.

"Saturn Sail" done in 1985 by Harold L. Pastorius is located on Saturn Street. It is between the sidewalk and the building making it easy to access.

No plaque that I could find on these almost life-sized metal horses, also on Saturn St., at the entrance to a parking lot.

Admittedly, this is not intended to be a sculpture, but it could be, eh? "Water Valve Trio" by public works department? Also on Saturn St.

From my picture files 10-05-07

I' m not sure my life is interesting enough to have a daily Blog! I don't like to show work-in-progress and I don't finish enough quilts to fill 365 days a year. So, I will dip into my Picasa II files.

When I was in Seattle in August 2004 I visited the Air Museum, because they had an exhibit of art quilts and I had an afternoon free. The art quilts were nice, but seemed very much out of place on one long wall in a hanger filled with airplanes. It was very clean and they were nicely displayed, but...! Also showing were a number of these sculptures (I think that is what they would be called) made of scissors suspended in resin (?). The scissors were taken from passengers at preboarding scanning and sold as surplus in large lots. Other sculptures included just about anything that could possibly be used as a weapon - knives, screwdrivers, guns, box cutters, ice picks, files, a button hook (surely a collector, eh?), even a small rectangular omelet pan, handle and all. I had not flown since 9/11 and though I seen the reports and heard about the difficulties from friends, I had no idea the variety of things confiscated. I was amazed that someone would make art from these forbidden items.