photography and musings from a Midwesterner
From the monthly archives:
in Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Cloisters, located in upper Manhattan, is part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is devoted to the medieval arts and has nearly five thousand pieces of art dating from the 12th to the 15th centuries.
{ 12 comments }
in Wingra Park National Register Historic District
There is a cluster of bungalow homes near Vilas Park, a near-westside neighborhood in Madison, Wisconsin. These bungalows, built in the Craftsman Style tradition, were the work of one of the early female architects, Cora Cadwallader Tuttle. Tuttle learned carpentry from her father, design from her mother, and drafting in college. Though she grew up in rural Dane County, Cora moved to Texas with her husband, children and nephew in 1904. Following an unsuccessful business venture on a rice plantation and the death of her husband, she and her three sons joined her sister’s family who had settled in Prescott, Arizona. There she was introduced to the craftsman-style homes under construction in the Prescott area. She returned to Madison in 1908 when her son began studies at UW.
Cora bought a lot in the new Vilas Park area, and designed and built a home patterned after the Prescott Craftsmans. She attracted a favorable following and eventually designed a total of 5 homes in the area. Cora Tuttle was the only woman architect to design and build in the Madison area prior to WWI.
A Cora Tuttle Bungalow, Updated
This home, the Eugene C. Smith House, was built in 1911. A one and a half story home, it shares many characteristics with the other Tuttle bungalows. Small details were changed in each house to give the feeling of individuality, but the basic parts of the homes are quite similar. The Smith home has a side entrance into the living room. The dining room opens from the living room, and has an entrance to the kitchen. Upstairs, there are three bedrooms and a bathroom. The recent owners have updated the rear of the home, adding a large deck for outdoor living space, but maintaining the architectural style.
The Tuttle bungalows are a part of the Wingra Park National Register Historic District.
{ 12 comments }
Common Flax
We saw this field of flax in bloom last year in early June, and so when we passed it this year on our way to the campground, I was a bit surprised to see them in heavy bloom again. The bright blue doesn’t last long and so I photographed the field early Saturday morning. When we were leaving Door County on Sunday afternoon, the field had taken on a decided gray cast. The blue flax bloom was nearly at its end.
linum usitatissimum Latin for "most useful fiber"
Flax is one of the first plants known to have been used by mankind. Traces of fiber woven from flax have been found in sites dating over 10,000 years ago. Linens spun from flax have also been found in Egyptian tombs. Linen thread is actually spun from the stem of the flax once it has been dried and processed. The cloth made from flax is extremely strong.
Flax oil, commonly known as linseed oil, is also utilitarian. It is used as a component of oilcloth, linoleum, and varnish.
{ 16 comments }
in Monochrome
I’ve spent the better part of the week going through my photo library. My computer has been groaning about the Aperture Library load ever since we’ve been home from NYC, and the best way for me to get space quickly, without paying for it, is to cull my photographs.
Why is this such a hard job?
Well, partly, it is darn time consuming. No one needs 4 views of anything, but to narrow the choices, it takes time to look at each photo and compare. Then to tag with keywords, to check the meta-data. All time I could spend . . . taking MORE photos!
But the weather has given me a great opportunity to stay inside, huddled in a corner with my Mac. I know it’s summer, and this year it seemed I had to wait months and months for summer to arrive. And I know it’s Wisconsin, all that temperate weather and those cool breezes, but the last days have been darn hot by upper Midwest standards. 95˚F and 65% humidity is enough to slow anyone down to a slow crawl.
I looked at the entire weather map of the US a couple of days ago, and there were two areas of the country with bright yellow weather warnings for heat advisories-the middle of Arizona in the Sonoran desert and the upper Midwest-Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois. Our heat doesn’t get compared to desert weather too often!
As for the above photo, I found it buried in my archives, where I found way too many photos that I once considered posting, and then ran out of time and space. Considering I shoot 4 to 5 days a week, a few hours in the morning, and then back again for the evening light, it is way too easy to collect a huge number of photos. At least when I shot film, my wallet always stopped me from taking too many photos. It seems that no controls like that exist any longer, though I know my camera does have a limit. Just like the Ever-Ready Rabbit, I just keep shooting, and shooting, and shooting.
If nothing else, it keeps me out of trouble. (Usually.)
{ 16 comments }
Gills Rock, Wisconsin
There is a reason why photographers get up at five in the morning for photo shoots. It’s all in the lighting. Love this early morning light.
{ 17 comments }
Oriental Poppy
More poppies, but taken at a different time of the day. These poppies were photographed in the early morning light, and they took on a shimmering, papery translucency.
{ 18 comments }
The Brightest of Reds
We found poppies growing in dozens of gardens on the Door County peninsula, many in gardens that have been tended for generations. Huge flower petals and a black center make these tall flowers a delight in a mixed perennial garden. The petals are so thin that they wave undulate in the air, almost in dancing waves. I had a great time photographing these particular flowers, waiting for gentle winds to hide or expose the black centers for my photographs. When I scanned the many photographs quickly on my computer, it was like looking through a flip book, and it reproduced the movements of the poppies. A movie of dancing poppies!
Poppies have a long history of cultivation as an ornamental and medicinal plant, from as early as 5,000 BC in Mesopotamia. They have been found in Egyptian tombs. They are mentioned in Greek mythology, the poppy being associated with Demeter, the goddess of agriculture. Folklore has it that if poppies in fields grow bountifully, then the food crops will be bountiful as well. This is why the Oriental poppy is sometimes referred to as the corn poppy, “korn” being the Greek word for grain.
{ 13 comments }
Lake Michigan Triptych
We spent the weekend in Door County, the northeast peninsula of Wisconsin that juts into Lake Michigan, and which is often referred to as “The Cape Cod of the Midwest.” I actually set my alarm so that we could get up when the sun came up. Too bad I chose the Summer Solstice,the longest day of the year, for an early morning shoot. Even though I slept great–I usually do when I’m camping unlike my insomniac nights at home–the alarm went off way before either of us were ready to get up. Nonetheless Sherpa and I lugged ourselves out of our sleeping bags and into the fresh air. Armed with camera equipment, we headed north to the shores of Lake Michigan.
I was rewarded with a few moody shots, including these that I photographed from the northern tip of Door County, gazing into the purple mist of the lake. (This particular area is called Death’s Doorway. Washington Island, not too far in the distance, is hidden from view by the morning mist. Evidently more than a few sailors have lost their lives trying to pass this way.)
When I decided to try to put these three photos together as a triptych, I called on the computer skills of my younger daughter. She’s not majoring in Computer Science for nothing! I have no idea how she managed to get these together. Though I might have played around with the proportions of the black framing if I’d had a clue, I’m greatly appreciative she put them together for me. The software I found on a Google search for stitching a triptych was for Windows, nothing my Mac nor I want to fuss with at the moment. Maybe someone out there knows how to make a triptych without using Photoshop. I don’t think it’s something that Aperture can do, though I may be wrong about that.
We packed a lot of shooting into the weekend, so there will be many more Door County photographs to come.
{ 15 comments }
Yellow Tulip
I took this photograph a few weeks ago, and then in the midst of celebrating birthdays and graduations and anniversaries, I forgot to post it. So here is a macro of a yellow tulip, a bit late, but I like its delicate look.
{ 14 comments }
Louis Sullivan, Architect
Several weekends ago I went on Wright & Like 2009: Madison, a tour of architectural wonders including homes designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and other Prairie School architects of that era. It was a wonderful experience, even though the threat of rain was ever-present. I went through six homes, including one that was open to a public tour for the first time (the John and Ruth Pew home.) It will take me a few weeks, but I’ll post photographs of the all of the homes I toured.
This immense home, approximately 10,800 square feet of space, was built as a wedding present for Harold C. Bradley, a professor at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, and his fiancee, Josephine Crane, the grand-daughter of the founder of the Crane plumbing company. Her father engaged Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright’s mentor, to design the home. George Elmslie, one of the finest craftsmen in the period, did the exterior and interior woodwork and the elegant interior furnishings. The home was constructed in 1908-09. This was Louis Sullivan’s last residential undertaking, and in it he implemented many of the ideas of Wright and other Prairie School architects.
This is One Huge House!
The home, located just south of the UW campus, was too large for the lifestyles of the Bradleys, and the size of the home made it difficult for the hearing-impaired Mrs. Bradley to supervise her young children. The Bradleys therefore sold the home to the Sigma Phi fraternity in 1915 and it remains a fraternity house to this day.
The Wright & Like tour provided an inside tour of the house, and though no interior photographs were allowed, it is evident that the Sigma Chi’s continue to maintain this architectural gem in the fashion it was intended. (I did find a blog which shows the lovely interior of several rooms, including a photograph of the circular dining room table which accommodates 16-well worth taking a look at.)
Built in 1909, Restored in 1972
This home was nearly destroyed by a St. Patrick’s evening fire in 1972. Only one member of the fraternity was at home during the time and he escaped without injury. However, the second floor of the house was in ruins, and the first floor suffered from water and smoke damage. Due to the generosity of A. C. Nielson, the Nielson ratings guy and an alumnus of Sigma Chi, and other donors, a substantial restoration took place. Neilson and his son, also an alum, continue to assist in the support and maintenance of this architectural masterpiece.
Architectural Details, Front Porch
Elmslie designed the fretwork of the home’s exterior, including this detail which is on the enclosed front room of the house, and originally an open sleeping porch. The home’s interior woodwork and furniture retained this design, and some of it still remains in the home.
The home was placed on the National Historical Landmark after the restoration, a designation given to only the most historically-important buildings. It really is one of the most interesting of all the Wright-inspired homes I’ve toured, and I really have to give credit to the members of Sigma Phi who are living a part of history and taking care of a national treasure.
{ 18 comments }
