Crystal Bridges = Great Museum

This metal tree sculpture, "Yield" by Roxy Paine, is the first work of art you see after a drive through the woods and down into the valley. You can't drive by it. You have to drive to it. You might think that a museum built of cement and copper would be cold but it is as magnificent as the Getty, only surrounded by nature not a city.

To enter you don't just open a door, you stroll through the woods, down a short trail and into a courtyard before you get to the main doors. The gift shop is separate from the rest of the museum. This is a view looking down into the courtyard and across the tops of the buildings. 

Like the Getty the mass plantings will be fabulous. They have used all native materials and with winter coming on they aren't as spectacular as they will be in Spring. 

Once inside the galleries hold great treasures of American Art. The easy thing would have been to buy an example of noted American artists and call it good but no, Ms Walton has chosen well. Nearly all the paintings in the collection are major examples of the artist work. You can travel through time from Peale through Moran and Cassatt, Homer,Sargent, Bellows, Benton, Rockwell, Nevelson, Rauschenberg and tons more in between. 

Worn out after half the galleries we stopped for lunch. Not only is the cafe area spectacular with the glass walls, wood beams with skylights and views of the pond and other galleries, but the food is great, creative and not over priced.  

The cost numbers are spectacular as well. It is said that the building alone cost 1.3Billion. The Walmart Foundation has created an endowment of over 800 million for art purchases. They do have some gaps. Nothing from Taos School and light on the impressionists. They also have a series of trails dotted with sculpture that aren't yet complete with sculpture by Paul Manship and Dan Ostermiller among others. There is lots of room for more great sculpture. 


If you can't get there visit the web site at www.crystalbridges.org
Plan to visit, it is worth the drive. Besides there are several other interesting museums in the Bentonville AR area including the original 5&10 where Walmart began. 

Buy American

I think we are all wondering at the moment what we as individuals can do to help pull our wonderful country out of this economic mess. As individuals we are not powerless. We are the most powerful force imaginable. Here is what I am doing in my own small way to help.

I am reading labels. Everything from toothpaste to clothes and trying to purchase as many things made in this country as possible. You might assume that that means paying more but don't assume, check it out because often that isn't the case or perhaps a few cents more. I got started on the quest watching the ABC News special series called Made in America. http://abcnews.go.com/WN/MadeInAmerica/

We need to encourage and support things made in this country if we hope to help create jobs, employ more people and boost our economy out of the crapper. It's up to us as individuals, not the government to help solve this mess. You can do your part. You can be part of the solution. 

Technology Love it/Hate it

Today I have been on the Merry Go Round of Technology. Yes, I am among the many who have a love/hate relationship with technology and all it's numerous devices. I have a Toshiba lap top, an i phone, a Blue-tooth printer, a HP office jet wireless printer and my husband has or shares all of the above and a new Android tablet he just got. We even have dongles. When it all works it is amazing and wonderful. When it fails, stalls, hiccups,sends error messages or crashes I want to throw things. You would think that all these genus computer geeks could make things that just work. That are easy to use and have clear and complete directions, but NO.

My theory is the companies are too big with too many people doing things and not talking to each other. So the Geek that creates the thing doesn't write the directions and the guy who writes the directions can't have ever used it or the directions would be better because with his directions you sure can't make it work. The sales people at the store are energetic and enthusiastic and, for a small fortune, will help you get started with actually using the stuff you just bought in addition to the extra warranties. No problem they say!

Tech support is in India, the Philippines, Mexico, or some other foreign country where the folks on the phone have never used or seen the device and are trying to use the same directions written for you to fix your problem. Please, can someone just make it all work?

We are stuck with it. No going back now the genie is out of the bottle.

I once had dinner with astronaut Alan Bean and he was telling the story of how they figured out how to write in space. After numerous pens, technical devices etc. they finally settled on the old fashioned pencil. It never ran out of batteries, didn't need gravity and yes, it just worked. We are creating lots of new stuff that has lots of whiz bang features but just doesn't do what they say it will do when the average consumer, unlike my 12 year old neighbor, gets their hands on it.

Of all the devices I use the best, easiest and most reliable is my I phone. It works, I can figure it out and the directions are written by someone who actually uses the device. It is even Cool, according to my grandchildren. So, for future purchases I my stick with Apple.

The Circus Museum

Today I remembered that at age 10 I wanted to be a "flyer". That was the beautiful girl in the skimpy costume that got flung between hunky guys who were "catchers" on the death defying trapeze. Yep, it was a trip to the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus that prompted this short lived idea. I also was reminded today as we wandered through the Circus Museum that is was the first place I saw an Elelphant, Lion and a Tiger. Zoos weren't prevalent then and this was my first African animal sighting. I vividly recall the elephants raising on their hind legs and then leaning their front legs on the elephants ahead of them while beautiful women in feathers headdresses and sequins perched on their backs. I was awe struck!

In it's hey day the circus traveled by train and stopped at all the small and large towns along the way. Staying only one day and moving on. It was a spectacular event in every town. The massive event makes today's road shows look puny with a couple of semi trucks. We are talking rail cars filled with circus wagons. 5 wagons per rail car. Filled with exotic animals, costumes, people, tents, horses, blacksmith shops, kitchens in other words an entire city plus hundreds of horses to pull all the wagons and hundreds of people to put up the tents and keep the whole show moving along. The circus was so good and so efficient at logistics that the military studied how they did it!

Where is the art you might ask. The circus wagons were pieces of art filled with hand carved figures and painted with exciting scenes. The circus posters were used to advertise the circus was coming to your town and were papered like wall paper on walls of buildings in each town. Those that survive are worth a in fortune. It was a time when the circus owners lived in luxury, traveled the world and, like the Ringling's, collected everything from Greek artifacts to Peter Paul Rubens paintings. In addition to the Circus Museums there is an art museum housing their collection and their palatial estate all available for your enjoyment here in Sarasota Florida. Don't miss the experience if you are down this way.

2011 Another New Year

Taken with my i phone in NY.

I am welcoming the new year today and thinking back, as us old folks do, to how things have changed throughout our lives. Let's take radio. When I was growing up in Estes Park CO we couldn't get the Denver radio stations because we were in the mountains but at night we listened to KOMA in Oklahoma City that played the latest Rock and Roll! We missed a few curfews because of the time difference but we loved the music. Now we have I phones, that with a clever app, we can tune in radio stations throughout the world. Last night we were listening to a jazz station in Paris.

How about photography. I began taking pictures with a brownie box camera. Over the years I have used all sorts of cameras including slide cameras and even 8mm movie cameras as the kids were growing up. Now I use only digital cameras and the camera in my i phone that can send photos in a matter of seconds to friends and family. In order to salvage the early years of photos I now have to find someone to convert the slides to digital format, many are so old the film has darkened to just black blurs.

Then there is TV. The first television show I saw was the coronation of Queen Elizabeth. One hotel in Estes Park had a TV and everyone was invited to come see this exciting broadcast. It was grainy black and white but we all thought it was amazing and wonderful. Now we are about to hook up a device to our HD TV that will allow us to use the internet on the TV so my husband can watch live streaming Nebraska football and other things we haven't even considered yet, because over 300 TV channels just isn't enough.

With the advent of Bluetooth we can have wireless keyboards and mice for our computers, ear roaches and hands free conversations in the car. We can have tiny stereo systems that will play the music or radio stations on our iphones.

We keep in touch with friends and family via facebook, email and digital photos. I even play scrabble with my daughter, who can be far away even traveling in foreign countries. I do have a couple of friends who don't own computers so we stay in touch the old fashioned way, letters written by hand and phone calls.

We are moving so fast that technology we buy today will be passe by Christmas. I wonder what new things these clever 20 something inventors will bring us this year.