Resting at OHare © 2010 Bo Mackison
The Seeded Earth blog is taking a short break from botanical photography as I take a short trip before I start my summer art fair schedule. For the next week or so, I’ll be sharing a few travel photos as I visit one of the few areas of the country I’ve never seen in person – the Pac Northwest. We started our trip to Seattle at Chicago’s OHare International Airport. We were energized with anticipation of the trip ahead of us, but not all travelers were quite so happy to be on the road. (Or in the skies.)
BTW, best use I’ve seen for a men’s tie in a long time – as an eye mask to block the bright lights of the airport at high noon.
White Dogwood © 2010 Bo Mackison
These Dogwood blossoms were dressed in their Sunday best, and showing off their beauty in a tiny landscaped area in front of a century old church. Most everyone was inside the building, dressed in their Sunday morning finery, but I was outside in the warm sunshine, preferring to examine and photograph a bit of nature’s fleeting beauty.
The blossoms were such a soft creamy color and had bits of feathery plum accents on each bract (the part that looks like a petal). I could have looked at the blossoms for hours. See the tiny circular area that almost looks like a tiny eye? Reminds me of the “false eyes” that some butterflies have on their wings as defensive adaptations. And notice how the dogwood blossoms are in layers, facing towards the sun–getting their full share of sunshine? I love that.
These white parts of the dogwood are really a modified type of leaf. The flowers of the dogwood are the little green bits in the center — the flowering head.
This dogwood was photographed in Quincy, Illinois, nicknamed the Dogwood City because it has an unusually large number of both pink and white dogwood trees. There is an annual Dogwood Festival and Parade in the city, held the first weekend in May.
(This festivities for this year are scheduled for April 30 – May 2, but it appears the party will go on without the dogwoods in bloom. Peak will be in 7 to 10 days, I’m thinking.)
Building Under the Tube - Campus Center, IIT
The McCormick Tribune Campus Center at the Illinois Institute of Technology is tucked under the elevated train tracks (the “L”) on Chicago’s South side. The stainless steel and concrete tube shields the student center from the vibration and noise of the passing commuter trains.
I was trying to keep up with the tour, offered by the Chicago Architecture Foundation, so I couldn’t wait for a train to come whooshing out of the tube. Next time.
In 1976, the American Institute of Architects recognized the IIT campus as one of the 200 most significant works of architecture in the US.
Chicago postcard
Spent a few fun days in Chicago recently. My eldest kiddo has lived half way across the country for the last six years – three years teaching in a high school in NYC and then three years going back to school for another degree once she realized she didn’t really want to teach for forty more years. And so now it’s time for job interviews. She just had several in Chicago.
Chicago is just a drive across the state line and then a few more miles from home. Sure beats traveling to and from New York. The last time we visited, we had a noon flight out of LaGuardia and finally flew out about ten the next morning. And no, the weather was fine. I won’t even try to rationalize why our trip took nearly 36 hours instead of six! There was no rational reason, though we heard a lot of excuses.
So I have my fingers crossed – my toes crossed, too – for a great job offer in Chicago.
The Law Troll of Northwestern University
The older Law School building at Northwestern University’s downtown campus has an interior courtyard, full of benches, flowers, mother ducks and their ducklings in spring, and…the law troll. He’s a charming fellow who greets everyone as they enter the outdoor garden. He has a stern look, but he seems to take a lot of ribbing without moving a muscle. Rather a charming sort in an old fashioned way.
The El in Chicago's Loop
We took a trip down memory lane on Sunday, drove down to Chicago, and did the “tourist” bit – but from the view as students when we lived here 30+ years ago. We traipsed through the halls of the law school on Northwestern’s downtown campus, ate at Gino’s East, sampling the “authentic” Chicago-style pizza–the same pizza recipe, I swear, we ate several times a week as students in the mid 70′s. Then we walked around the downtown loop area, and I caught a snap of the “el” – the elevated trains that cruise above ground and also dip under Chicago on underground tracks.
Funny though, how I don’t remember ever differentiating between the two. I caught the “el” whether I had to climb up steps and wait on a windy platform or trudge deep within the bowels of Chicago and take what people from different cities would call the subway. I could get anywhere on public transportation when I was in my twenties – and did. I routinely visited hospitals and clinics for internships throughout the entire Chicago area and a few of the suburbs, too. Sometimes my travel would require two trains and two busses, and a two hour commute each way. I’m glad I don’t have to travel to such extremes now to get where I need to go.
Hey, and I sure don’t remember the trains being decorated in pink paint! iPod? What’s an iPod?
Hanging Heart by contemporary artist Jeff Koons
We went to Chicago this weekend and visited the Museum of Contemporary Art which is running a Jeff Koons’ exhibit. It began May 31 and runs through September 21.
Hanging Heart, which is fabricated from stainless steel, has a transparent blue coating and a silver ribbon, and hangs in the entrance hallway of the museum. Unfortunately, it was the only photo I could take as there is a no photography restriction in the galleries themselves. But I loved the exhibit – it was bold and bright and sent a clear message on Koons’ take on society. The tour was certainly well worth the 45 minutes it took, and free so the cost was right.
The heart is made in 5 unique versions (red/gold, magenta/gold, silver/blue, violet/gold, gold/red). The sculptures were fabricated between the years 1994-2006 and each one measures 106 x 85 x 40 inches. It also weighs one and a half tons so I chose not to stand directly underneath it. Yep, cowardly. That’s me!
The blue heart recently sold for a cool 23 million dollars.
Billboard featuring Jeff Koon's Balloon Dog
Sixty pieces fill two huge exhibit halls and include works from all of his major series.
Koons’ site features his work, biography and artist’s statement.
Stalking the Clouds
This is central Illinois. Corn and farms. And more corn. Some soybeans. A small town here and there. And a city of moderate size once in awhile. And more corn. I grew up in west central Illinois. I grew up in a river city on the Mississippi – and still was surrounded on the other three sides by corn.
Turn of the 20th Century Mansion, Quincy Illinois
Detail of Roof, Including Wrought Iron Tulip Garden
This house in part of a several block stretch of turn-of-the-20th Century homes built on Maine Street in Quincy Illinois. Each home is more fascinating than the last. I love the wrought iron detailing on the roof – can’t you just imagine a stately row of early spring tulips in bloom?
The Charles and Anna Newcomb Residence was built on Maine Street in Quincy Illinois in 1890-91. The home had 33 rooms and 13 fireplaces. And it’s construction cost was $50,000.
The building was owned by Quincy College for several decades – known as Stillwell Hall – and was used as a residence for male students. My great grandmother was a housemother and cook for “her boys” for several years in the 1940s.
The building now houses the Quincy Museum. A complete description of the building and its interior includes a listing of the current museum offerings.