Uncategorized (page 2 of 2)

A Visit to Zurich’s Museum of Fine Art

I have been lucky enough to visit art museums in many cities. This is consistently one of my favorites. There are other museums that have more, but in a way that is the point. The Louvre, the National Gallery, and their like are amazing, but they are too large to really take in and emotionally digest what you find there. This is where Zurich’s Kunsthaus is different. Yes, it has relatively little in the way of old masters and prehistoric whatnot and many of the things that make other world museums so dynamic, but what it has is truly choice and can be experienced in an afternoon. It is just the right amount of beauty to be taken in, felt, remembered, and treasured.

Van Gogh, Rodin, Chagall, Picasso, Monet, Beckman, Ernst, Kandinsky, Giacometti, Klee, Rousseau, Matisse, and on and on. Just as important is what it doesn’t have: a mad crush of bodies getting between you and the experience. Most museums in major cities are in a constant state of crush, with flashing cameras and hordes of tourists mobbing a handful of well known works, making it very difficult to savor any of the experience. In Zurich, there is dignity, [read more]

Collage: Vintage Papers, Maps, and Found Images

[read more]

Altered Book Wall Hanging

This is a first try at a book carving technique. It can be either a wall hanging or displayed on a counter. It is wild and dramatic, yet evokes all that a map should: mystery, adventure, and exploration.

[read more]

The Eerie, Dreamy Island of Skomer

Off the west coast of Wales is an island called Skomer, one of the most strange and beautiful places I have ever seen. In the summer it is inhabited by hundreds of thousands of sea birds, many rabbits, and very few humans. A limited number of day visitors come and go by ferry; no more than 14 guests are allowed to stay overnight.

It is a place of crazy, senseless beauty but for me the most luxurious part of the visit is the silence, except it isn’t really silence: the cries of a million birds can be pretty raucous. It’s just that there are almost no human noises. Walk away from the hostel after the last ferry leaves taking the day visitors and you are quite alone. No cars, no telephones, internet, screens, television, restaurants, or gift shops. Time there is about cultivating and going into this silence that isn’t really silence.

You sit down on the grass over a cliff to watch a fulmar, that graceful, snowy cousin of the albatross, soar in circles as it catches a thermal. An hour goes by, and you rise feeling still and grounded and fed by something you didn’t know you were hungry for [read more]

Uplands Street Market, Wales

On the last Saturday of every month, there is a street market in Uplands. Back in the day the Uplands was home to Dylan Thomas. Now it is where you can find local produce, handmade crafts, homemade brews, live music, and a fun, festive walk around.

Recently seen:

This is the booth for Teifi Farmhouse Cheese. Their multi-award cheese is a Dutch style gouda type made from raw milk at a small dairy at Glynhynod Farm. They also distill their own fine gin.

Goozeberry Hill is a local crafts studio that produces charming stamped, vintage spoons and other cutlery.

www.goozeberryhill.com

Every time I see The Flower Hive, they have beautiful things that you just can’t find at your grocery store. Special, hand formed bouquets of organically grown flowers with a little wildness.

theflowerhive@gmail.com

Lori at Lori Loves Bags uses tiny dried blossoms, moss, and other gossamer-like plants to make ethereal earrings and pendants. She also makes bracelets using vintage beads that are one-of-a-kind.

www.lorilovesbags.co.uk

Dylans Bookstore is a longtime Swansea treasure run by Jeff Towns, Dylan Thomas scholar. In addition to its home base in Mumbles, it goes around in a van and offers Welsh titles, second-hand reading, antiquarian books, and miscellaneous treasure, such as a home decorating magazine from [read more]

The Castle in My Backyard: Oystermouth Castle

Something I never get used to – in the best  possible way – are the castles scattered around the Welsh countryside. As an American I am pretty much bowled over by anything from the 19th century; ruins from the 12th leave me slackjawed. The natives, not so much, and as far as I can tell only notice them when American friends are visiting.

Six miles from my apartment in Swansea is Oystermouth Castle, in the village of Mumbles. It dates from 1106 when it was built by the Earl of Warwick. Like most castles in Wales it was a stronghold for English, would-be rulers who oppressed the local population. They were bitterly hated and over the centuries the castle fell back and forth between the British interlopers and the Welsh rebels who regularly ousted them. It remained in private hands until 1927.

In 2010, the castle underwent extensive renovations. Included was a glass floor 30 feet above the ground, which provides a viewing platform for the windows of a chapel that was added in the 1320s, and is today called Alina’s Chapel. The stained glass has been gone for centuries but today, looking through the arched windows, you can [read more]

Vintage Fashion: Now THAT is a Lot of Look

I have worn vintage clothing for many years, and it never fails to disturb when I see something labelled “vintage fashion” that dates from, say, the 1970s. (Even more horrifying, the 1980s being considered vintage in any unironic way.) Me, I am too mired in the esthetic of the 1930s and early ’40s to get hot and bothered about clothes that came after, but I have a lot of love for looks from an earlier era: many’s the time I’ve worn a 19th century piece with Levis and cowboy boots. Here is a selection of great looks from an older, and cooler, time from the gazillions of cabinet photos I have collected over the years. (Shoes, be sure and notice the shoes.)

[read more]

Travel – Amsterdam – Canals, Museums, Flea Markets

Amsterdam has never spoken to me, but last year Old Friend and Sometime Traveling Buddy Matthew said that Amsterdam was next and that was that.

And it was beautiful. There was something old fashioned but strange about it: the tall, thin houses, the canals used as streets, the way that everyone travels by bicycle. It is also a great city for walking, and we managed about six-miles-plus a day.

Of course the museums were some of the best in the world. The Rijkmuseum had been closed for many years and was newly reopened. It is the home of Rembrandts and Vermeers. Like many things, I couldn’t figure out what the big deal was about either artist until I saw them with my own eyes. Especially Vermeer. Both The Love Letter and The Milkmaid were mesmerizing. I could hardly move away from them and was happy to just stand for half an hour staring at one of them. Not that this was easy to do: most of the time the pictures were surrounded by people with cameras snapping. Which I understand, sort of, but it was dismaying was that NONE of them actually stopped to look at the painting. They just spotted it, [read more]

Newer posts