Arts Center Gardens

 
Sharing some pictures of the gardens at the Ludington Area Center for the Arts today.

You know I love Heuchera, mostly grown for their leaves. This might possibly be the variety 'Caramel,' or not. But it's similar



A beautiful yellow-green juniper.



This is the yarrow I always wanted, probably variety 'Paprika.' I ordered some, but what they sent me was the plain old pink one. I should have complained but I never did. It was long ago now and mine are all dead anyway.



You know I love just about any kind of hosta.



And this contrast with the bright lilies and the purple leaves (that I can't quite remember what they are) is great.



In other news: It was a super-productive day. I wrote in the morning and did errands all afternoon. All of them worked out, as opposed to the last afternoon I dedicated to such an annoying list where I managed to accomplish almost nothing. No matter that 2 of the answers I got were bad news, at least I got answers. Then I took myself out to dinner and had writers' group after that. Whew!

	See Hosta and Heuchera
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Demo Day at Ludington Center for the Arts

 
The other big event I went to yesterday was Demonstration Day at the Ludington Center for the Arts. This was free, and you could watch artists at work and talk with them about their art, and sign up for classes if you wanted (not free).

I'll only show you a few of the pictures, because there were lots and lots of things being demonstrated. Here is print making


Here is my friend, Linda, doing a collage. There was another collage artist who works all in black and white.



Art done by the local middle schoolers was also on display. There was a lot of really nice stuff. I sure wasn't that sophisticated in junior high!



Two groups were making music. This is one of them.



There were several painters and sketchers- watercolor, acrylic, oils, pastels. One man was doing caricatures, and another woman was working on a drawing that was going to become a painting of her dog. This painter's technique was fascinating. He paints on an iPad.



There were wood turners and fabric artists. There was also a photographer. This man does acrylic pours.



Our writing group held a workshop during the time period, but I did not sign up for it.

It was an amazing event that makes me want to take lots of classes, but I have neither money nor time.

This morning was bell choir, and that went really well! But I have totally reached my people and event limit. I completely chilled out for the afternoon. Read and watched a movie.

	See Linda's Art Show
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The Amazing Fair Women

 
Taking a day off from Flower Show pictures because tonight I went to a reader's theater production of an original play called The Amazing Fair Women. It was written by local writer Jane Carpenter, and provides an historical and humorous look at the women who were involved in creating the Women's Building of the 1983 Columbian Exhibition in Chicago. Christine Plummer of Ludington directed.

The play provides a setting in which many of the women who contributed to the creation of the building and exhibits look back at the experience, as if they were still alive today.

In this scene, Bertha Palmer (seated), wife of Potter Palmer, of Palmer House fame, interacts with Sophia Hayden (far left) and Enid Yandell (middle). Palmer was the President of the Board of Lady Managers, Yandell was a sculptress, and Hayden was the architect for the stunning building at only 21 years of age.



The play was more of an historical lesson than a story with a plot, and the points were enhanced by a screen with photographs of the actual parts of the exhibit or people under discussion.



One of the funniest scenes was between Bertha Palmer and Edith Clarke. Once it was decided that there would be a display of books written by women there was little agreement on how they should be displayed. The Dewey Decimal System was quite new, and Clarke, who was head cataloger of the Newberry Library (Chicago), wanted the books organized and displayed using that system. Palmer was more interested in the DISPLAY of the books, and apparently the two women disagreed violently on this point. Clarke persisted and almost finished cataloging the 8000 books by the end of the Exposition.



There were other well-played and funny moments as well. You only get to see scenes where my pictures turned out.

The play ended with the women learning about a thing called the internet, and they all were given smart phones and told how to look up their names and the Exposition on Wikipedia!



In the gallery at the Arts Center for this past month there has been a Celebration of Women in the Arts, and this play is the culmination.

In other news: I wrote in the morning, and did a bunch of odds and ends in the afternoon. Sometimes I'm not sure if I'm making progress on anything or just making a bigger mess.

	See Theater
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Celebrate Family and Friends

 
OK, so the Dove candy company prints things on wrappers that will work in any number of situations, but this is now number four that has been a perfect match for the day's activities. Today they suggest I celebrate family and friends. And I can do that.



For starters, the newest member of the genealogical clan arrived last evening in Texas. His name is Shepherd Dean Greenawalt. He's Omer's youngest sister's (Kathleen, who died) grandson.



For the friends part, there was an artist reception at the Art Center in Ludington this afternoon. I just have a hard time making myself go to anything between work shifts on Friday, however...

One of the artists is Linda Sandow, who is doing the cover art for my Dubois Files mysteries. Here she is, showing off the cover art for The Secret Cellar against the display of some of her work. I took this picture the other day.



Here she is this evening, talking about her works with some of the visitors at the reception.



I also know another of the artists, Ellen Niemann, quite well. Our lives have intersected off and on for about 50 years. I knew she did black and white portraits, but I had no idea until a few weeks ago that she also does beautiful color paintings, often incorporating calligraphy with the images.

Here she is (on the left) talking about her work with another visitor. These paintings were all inspired by a trip she and her husband took to Rwanda a few years ago.



Here is another of her works.



So, I'm glad I made the effort to go. They said it was a pretty good turnout. That's good. The community is supporting the arts to some extent during the non-tourist season.

In other news: work. Well, I'm trying to finish chapter 9 in The Hitchhiker.

	See Learn Something New...
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Art - Spring Reflection

 
The book launch party last Saturday evening for my friend Jeanie was held at the Ludington Area Center for the Arts. They have become a real force for the arts in the area. You may have noticed many works of art on the walls in the post about that event.

The current display is featuring works by artist Carole Hunnes-Nielson. She's Michigan based.

I really had a hard time choosing just one picture as a "favorite." I have a hard time with that whole concept anyway, but I forced myself to pick one. Mostly I asked myself, "If I were going to spend the money but could buy just one, which one would it be."

My final choice was "Spring Reflections." The technique is watercolor batik, a wax-resist method of painting.


The feature that finally tipped the balance to this one is that the picture looks different when viewed from far away and close. Here's a tiny piece close in.



I'm still working like crazy on a whole bunch of details for the upcoming release of Dead Mule Swamp Druggist.

	See Jeanie's Book Launch
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Taking In the Seasons with Jeanie

 
Tonight I went to a book launch of a writer friend of mine. Jeanie Mortensen published her second book, Taking In the Seasons. Her first is a novel, but this is a book of poems.

Our writers' group is a big fan of Jeanie. Her poems are poignant, nostalgic, and full of evocative imagery. She read five of them at the launch party.



We had a really good turnout for this kind of event. It was held at the Ludington Center for the Arts.



Here's Jeanie in the center, visiting with people.



The cake was decorated with an edible reproduction of her book cover.



You can see and buy both her books at Amazon.

	See Writers' Rendezvous
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Breakfast and Tea

 
Ester and I are pretty comfortable just being together even if we don't have a lot of activities. It was too hot again to today to do much extra. However, we started by going to House of Flavors for breakfast. Always a good choice.



The afternoon was filled with a Reader's Theater presentation at the Arts Center. I was one of the readers.



We did two short plays written by one of our own members, Phil Barrons of Pentwater. The first one was a lighthearted look at the history of tea in the Western World. The second one was a humorous interpretation of the short story, "A Family Christmas." The audience was larger than we expected, and they responded well. That's always good!



Of course, there was tea for refreshment, and plenty of cookies.




Ester made me buckle down and finish Chapter 47 of Dead Mule Swamp Druggist, so that's really good news. I'm ready for writers' group on Tuesday evening.

It's possible we might get some of the tasks done tomorrow that we have planned for the weekend!

	See Too Much Fun to Blog
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Rikki-Tikki-Tavi

 
I went to a delightful children's puppet show this afternoon, the story of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi. I wanted to see it because there was supposed to be a variety of puppet types, and the technical aspects of puppets interest me.

Here's a long shot of the set, the puppet theater, so you can understand the staging.



Here, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (the mongoose) makes friends with the boy, Teddy. Rikki-Tikki is a hand puppet, and the operator could change from the narrator to the boy simply by wearing the mask or not.



Here is Darzee the Tailor Bird. The cobras eat one of the bird's babies. Darzee was a puppet on a stick whose mouth could open or close.



The two cobras, Nag and Nagaina discuss what they will do since Rikki-Tikki has now destroyed their eggs. (The story was re-written to some extent, and the timeline changed, so that only one human character was needed, plus the narrator.) The snakes were stick manipulated with an articulated jaw and a hood that could spread. The bodies were probably rubber, as they could coil around easily and look quite realistic, although I thought their faces were too cartoon-ish and not evil enough.



Rikki-Tikki-Tavi and Nag face off for a fight to the death.



I thought the puppeteer was quite skilled, and the play believable, even though you could often see his hands. The kids in attendance had no problem with this. I watched them a fair amount too, to see how they were following the story.

Here's my take on that. Although they paid attention well, and called for Nag in unison when Nagaina requested it, I don't think the 120-year old story (Rudyard Kipling, 1894) translated well to the world-view being taught today.

The kids often giggled when the snakes were talking to each other, and some seemed to be sorry for Nag when Rikki-Tikki killed him.

And here is the clincher. Afterwards, I overheard two college-age boys discussing the play. One asked, "Why was it OK for the mongoose to kill the cobra's eggs, but not OK for the snake to kill the bird eggs?"

In this day and age of having respect for life forms of all kinds (although I'm betting these kids will gladly kill a mosquito), the reality of cobras being an ever-present deadly threat to a family living in India has been lost. The reason the story was meaningful to children and adults in the past was because there were real dangers near at hand, and of course people were going to value animals who protected them above those who sought to harm.

I missed the very beginning (wrote the time down wrong), but I think, sadly, this story would probably need introduction to help today's children relate. Perhaps that was done. I just don't know.

Literature from other ages is always valuable, but sometimes we need to educate ourselves or an audience to understand it.


Read Rikki-Tikki-Tavi

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