Posts Tagged “art”

Last weekend, Brian and I attended our first Crosstie Arts Festival. It was so great!

It’s a large festival with lots of artist tents, and the artwork is really excellent. We saw pottery, sculpture, paintings, photography, and many other media all living together in harmony. There was also great fair and regional food, plus this cool train for kids:

We had beautiful weather, too. Good job, Cleveland!

As part of this year’s festivities, the Delta Arts Alliance has an exhibit up at the Ellis Theater on Court Street of Floyd Shaman’s work (Floyd was an incredibly gifted artist who happened to live across the street from my grandmother!). If you are in Cleveland, please go check it out. It is a really fantastic exhibit of amazing pieces from the family’s private collection. Brian and I helped move the work from the Shamans’ house over to the Ellis — it was a very interesting experience to interact with the work in that way (touching, assembling, hoisting, etc.)! The exhibit will be up until May 15. You can stop by in the mornings or call DAA  at 662-843-3344 for an afternoon appointment. Don’t be shy! It’s worth it.

Hi everyone! Sorry for the delay in updating the blog. Hope none of you thought we were still stuck in Vicksburg! We’ve been home just over a week, and of course I have a backlog of photos to post from the journey.

First of all, we went through Louisiana, and I owe you this:

Also, remember how I mentioned that it was snowing in Vicksburg? Well, here you can see some snow falling on the Super 8 pool (which was open, of course, since the day before had been 80 degrees or something!):

We did eventually get to Jackson and had to continue recovering from being sick. I had a little relapse, etc. I won’t bore you (or gross you out) with the details… but it did, unfortunately, prevent us from attending most of the events we had come to Jackson to enjoy. Alas! We still had a really nice visit with my aunt and uncle, and they took us to a very cool art event hosted by the Mississippi Museum of Art’s New Collector’s Club. It was a talk and studio tour at NunoErin studio in Jackson. They make very cool swamp-inspired, interactive artwork with thermoactive materials — basically, furniture, pillows, and wall panels that change color when warmed by body heat. Here is one of the artists demonstrating how to use a hair dryer to get the color change effect on some wall panels:

It was fascinating and really fun. Thanks, NunoErin!

Eventually we got back on the road to DC… and I have a few more state signs for you, including the elusive Virginia sign!

(By the way, we went through a little corner of Georgia, but they don’t bother to put up a welcome sign there. What gives, Georgia??)

In Virginia, we stopped at the Natural Bridge Exxon and saw this tiger:

It’s a far cry from the Itasca Wampus Cat, eh?

This tiger was made by Mark Cline, a fiberglass artist whose work we always see everywhere. In fact, we have several stories about Professor Cline… but they’re stories for another time.

Anyway, we’re moving to Austin. Wait, what? No, seriously. We are. I got a job. We got an apartment. Movers are coming a week from Tuesday. Soooo things are pretty busy and crazy. But we’ll keep you all posted as much as we can. Keep checking back!!

We’re back on the road! It’s just a brief trip this time, but with all the chaos in our apartment, being back in the car actually feels a lot more normal than home does right now. Our first stop was in Boston, where we visited with some friends and went to this:

We always enjoy Expo East, the giant natural products trade show on the east coast (held in Boston this year, obviously). One of my favorite giveaways this year was this sticker, modeled here for you by Brian on his Carter t-shirt:

Best sighting of the convention was a group of young women in traditional dress (of the Amish or Mennonite variety) wearing these stickers. Awesome.

Anyway, after leaving Boston today, we drove out to the DeCordova Museum, home to the amazing sculpture park that includes this piece (our favorite of the day):

We enjoyed lots of beautiful fall foliage on our way out to western Mass., which was fun:

We met up with some friends out here and ever-so-briefly went apple picking (in our case, this was more accurately just apple purchasing followed by orchard walking), then we headed to picturesque Shelburne Falls, home of the ancient glacier potholes:

Good times!

Can someone tell me what this plant is?

We saw it all day along the road; I’m just interested.