If you go out in the woods today

You’re sure of a big surprise, but it won’t be a bunch of teddy bears having a picnic. Wander the woodland trails at Adkins Arboretum in Ridgely, MD, between June and August, and every so often you’ll come upon an unexpected piece of sculpture. It’s the Arboretum’s 2006 Outdoor Sculpture Invitational entitled Artists in Dialogue with Landscape. Some of the artists were installing their works today. I found this piece—a mature woman’s head on a naked child’s body—very disturbing.

Be Prepared for art

A group of boy scouts in the lobby of the National Gallery of Art’s east building. One is turning and looking up at the Calder mobile overhead.

Looking through

When I was a little girl, someone gave me an Easter egg that captured my imagination.

In England, Easter eggs were (and maybe still are) a big deal. The ones I received from relatives and family friends were typically milk chocolate, hollow, and sometimes filled with chocolate candies. My parents rationed the amount of chocolate I ate, but I didn’t care because I wasn’t wild about chocolate anyway.

The special egg was sparkling white sugar, piped with pink and studded with sugar flowers. At one end was a small hole through which you looked to see a magical, fairytale scene inside—a tiny cardboard diorama. It came from overseas and was not—in my mind anyway—an egg to be eaten. I treasured it for a year or so until it got gray and sticky from my constant handling, and my mother said (very kindly—I bear her no malice) that it had to go.

Whenever I think of my interest in photographing things framed by and seen through something else, that egg comes to mind. Is that where it started? No, not entirely. There was a chapter in one of the P. L. Travers books that I loved as a child. Mary Poppins takes the Banks children to see a pavement artist and, magically, they step into the scene he has created in pastels on the sidewalk. I wanted to do that, become part of a painting, a more romantic reality than the one I was in. And if I’m to be honest, I still do think about stepping through the picture frame into another reality.

What is illusion and what’s reality? I don’t know. Here is one of my “reality framed” images: the National Gallery of Art east building seen through a piece of sculpture on the Mall.

Del Ray

This mural is on the side of a building in the Del Ray neighborhood of Alexandria, Virginia. Del Ray, which has gradually become gentrified without losing its original character and charm, now boasts many ethnic restaurants, small shops and studios, and a thriving arts community.

Swan Bench

Footsore tourists can rest on this elegant swan bench in the Victorian garden surrounding the Smithsonian Castle. The Castle, completed in 1855, was the Smithsonian’s first building. It now houses administrative offices and the Visitor Center. Today, the Smithsonian has 18 museums, including two in New York. The Washington museums are open every day of the year except Dec. 25, and there is no admission charge.

Light and Shadow

Happy Easter. Here I am back at my favorite building enjoying the interplay of the Calder mobile, the building’s structure, and the light and shadow.

Gaga for Dada*

Waiting for the concert at the National Gallery of Art’s Dada exhibit: Twice a day, 16 baby grand pianos and assorted other instruments play a portion of George Antheil’s score for the Fernand Léger film Le Ballet Mécanique.

* Thanks to my friend C. for the title to this post.

Beware of the … bleagle

Marie McC posted a closeup of this strange beast on Alexandria Daily Photo. Here he is, perched on a column to guard the house. (I seem to be on a statue kick this week.)

He is a chimera—that is, a mythical creature made up of parts of other animals. This one appears to have bat’s wings, a lion’s head and body, and eagle‘s talons. Clearly he’s a bleagle.

According to Greek mythology, Bellerophon, riding Pegasus, the winged horse he tamed for the occasion, killed the original Chimaera, a fire-breathing monster that was part lion, part goat, and part serpent.

I’m glad to see that this one is on a sturdy leash.