Carmina Burana at the Bowl

Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos conducted the LA Phil, Los Angeles Master Chorale, and the LA Children's Chorus in an evening of celebration of living. The first half of the program was Mendelssohn's music from A Midsummer Night's Dream with the famous Wedding March.

The second half was Orff's Carmina Burana with the soloists: Laura Claycomb, soprano, Hugh Russell, baritone, and Nicholas Phan, tenor.

Mr Russell demonstrated an amazing range and dramatic interpretation. Ms Claycomb was beautiful in voice and in presentation in her red dress.

Colleen and I agreed it was one of the best Bowl nights ever.

Malibu Hindu Temple by moonlight

Sculptors, Goonie Bird and me playing on the beach

Summer Monday

Back to Bowl for Mozart

After munching and sipping our way through Yamashio's farmers market, Colleen and I went to the Hollywood Bowl for a delicious LA Phil concert of Mozart. Nicholas McGegan conducted and Henning Kraggerud, Norwegian, played the 4th Violin Concerto. Colleen and I hummed along with the 39th Symphony.

Getty Center Revisit

Thursday's Roaming through the Getty Galleries was enhanced by their free audio guide. I gained further insight into the visiting collections of Gustav Klimt's drawings, Herb Ritts' photos and Getty's European painters of the 19th Century.

A Henry Moore

Portrait of Albert Cahen d'Anvers, 1881, by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1841-1919
Renoir used the deep colors of blue/purple with a touch of deep red, that I love about his paintings, to paint d'Anvers who was a composer best known for light opera. 

Paul Cezanne, 1839-1906, painted "Young Italian Woman at a Table"in about 1895-1900.  He used brold brushwork and a radical use of color to portray a somber, thoughtful mood.  He was considered by many to be the best painter of his day and inflluenced Picassso and Matisse. 

"Arri Matamoe" (The Royal End) was painted in 1892 by Paul Gauguin during his first trip to Tahiti.  I seems to represent the recent death of a Tahitian leader as well as the dying Tahitian culture by the presence of the French colony.  The description next to the painting states:  "Given that Gauguin wishfully identified himself as a 'savage' and a Polynesian native in his rejection of European society, it might also be understood as a symbolic self-portrait of the artist as a noble martyr."

Paul Gauguin carved this "Head with Horns" out of Sandalwood with traces of pigment on lace wood in about 1896.
 He mixed his own features with those of a Polynesian..an "uncorrupted" native.

Vincent van Gogh painted Irises in 1889 in the garden of the asylum at Saint=Remy, where he was being treated for mental illness.  He worked directly from life and nature and then enhanced nature.  An artist sees and hears and then enhances to sometimes a magical level.  True artists are bring a new level of awareness and being to life.

Joseph Mallord William Turner, English 1775-1851,l painted " Van Tromp, Going about to Please His Masters, Ships a Sea, Getting a Good Wetting" in 1844. Here again, the artist enhances nature and depicts a wild sea with an amazing sky...his signiture in all his paintings.

"Man with a Hoe" was painted by Jean-Francois Millet, 1814-1875 in about 1861.  "Millet wrote "In a rocky place a man, all worn out...tries to straighten himself for a moment and breathe.  The drama is surrounded by beauty."

"Starry Night" was painted in 1893 by Edvard Munch, Norwegian, 1863-1944.  The description states "Representing the Norwegian lake shore where Munch spent many summers, this mood, evocative composition blends a contemplative approach to landscape with a distinctly modern awareness of form and color."

Tuesday with Colleen and Haydn at the Bowl

Nicholas McGegan, a lively Brit conducted the LA Phil in an evening of Joseph Haydn's works. Beautiful Alison Balsom played the trumpet.

Roaming with Mary Lou in I.S.U.'s Reiman Gardens

Lego sculptures play in the garden.

Roaming with my Bro in Iowa

Two Shepards on the Indianola CC.


And Bill's Shrine to the Iowa Hawks and the Marine Corp. Semper Fi!

Roaming at Iowa State with Glenice

Fifty years ago I enrolled at I.S.U.. It is amazing to see and feel the sameness and difference that a half century makes.

One half of Grant Wood mural in the Library

The Campanile

Christian Peterson bronze in the Anderson Sculpture Garden in front of Morrill Hall

The dome of Beardshear Hall

Christian Peterson Bronze

Celebrating the glory of the win over OSU last year.

Christian Peterson bronze of girl studying while peeking at a boy next to her.

The sacred zodiac inside the door of the Student Union....step on it and you flunk your next test.

William King's sculpture."Forward", 1984

Iowa Stater's feet next to ISU Logo in basement of Beardshear Hall.

William King's"Mary Me" (2007) with Glenice

They say that if you kiss a virgin at midnight under the Campanile, a brick will fall.  So far, all bricks are in place.

Glenice and the Christian Peterson children in front of McKay Hall.

The second half of the Grant Wood Mural in the Library

The Roamer with "Solo" by William King, 1973  The caption reads:  "Through the decades, the artist created sculpture that referenced miseries or anxieties encountered in school from childhood through college, as well as other challenging experiences in organized social encounters.  Sometimes these public induced miseries kept King from fully functioning and enjoying life.  "Solo" expresses the exhilaration of triumphantly surviving those miseries and boldly anticipating what it is to individually address and conquer our personal anxieties."  So here are two conquers!

Christian Peterson's four seasons fountain in front of the Memorial Union.  Each Native American woman represents a season.  Fall is holding ears of corn, of course.

Leo, my sign.