Canna Lily Blooms

 

Dinner: Summer Bounty: Silver Queen Corn on the cob, Fried Green Tomatoes and Field Fresh Cantaloupe.

 

2026 Election: U.S. Senate

 Looking to the upcoming midterm elections the pundents are in high gear. We are a nation in a tailspin at the hands of an egomaniac.  The paradigm of confusion and chaos that allows our President to dismantle infrastructure meant to maintain the order of law and prevent those in power from using their status to aggrandize themselves in compliance with a Supreme Court that is now at his bid and call, and a Congress with no interest in being a check against his whims and desires and you have a perfect storm of discontent.

The only thing that can hope to set right the balance of power in our Democracy is an assertion of the people's will at the ballot box this November.  We cannot in one election alter the composition of the Supreme Court.  But we can replace a Congress complicate with the President's singular view of what America ought to be with one that will remind him at every turn that America belongs to ALL OF US.

One key to this is the make up of the United States Senate.  Class II is up for re-election.  Add on two special elections and you have 35 of the 100 seats before the voters.  14 of them are open seats.  10 of those were formerly held by Republicans and 4 by Democrats.  What once seemed like a walk in the park for Republicans with their 53-47 majority over Democrats has become a shit fest for Republicans facing a mid-term tsunami rebuke that may be unprecedented in an administration where this word is used...well, in an unprecedented way!

The Lay of the Land based on recent polls as we entered the August recess for congress and the beginning of campaigning in earnest.

OPEN SEATS IN CONTENTION

There may be 24 open seats, but only 6 of those are potentially in play.

Three: Michigan, Alaska and South Carolina have yet to hold their party primaries 

The status of the remaining three looks like this:

VULNERABLE INCUMBENTS

Vulnerable Incumbents are also inclined toward Republicans with only 1 not so vulnerable Democrat.

CONTEST TO WATCH

In March, "Generic Democrat" beat Hyde-Smith by 20 percentage points.  That's unprecedented even in racially partisan Mississippi.  There is no reason why this race should be allowed to "run silent."

Dinner: Pasta with Zucchini, Mushrooms, and Ham

 

Delaware Art Museum: Odds & Ends

 Finally, a couple of works that just caught my attention during my recent visit, and some thoughts they evoked in me.  It seems like my life in art has become rich enough over the past 65 years that I can find comfort and connection in nearly any Art Museum I visit.  That this gallery photo.  The horse sculpture is by artist Deborah Butterfield.  She is legendary for her iconic sculptures of horses created from "found" objects: discarded metal, driftwood, kindling, mud...  As such they are deceptively simple appearing in their physical construction; however, that they are are bronze casts made from molds created off of the found object prototypes.  These are then treated with various elements to attain the uncanny resemblance of the original artifacts.  The process alone is a work of detailed and intricate artistry.

How do I know this?  I attended her Artists-in-Residence lecture at the Phillip's Collection as the guest of a friend.  (The next year, I was gifted the same and attended a lecture by another great American sculptor, Martin Puryear.)  I cannot account for the graces that have been afforded me like this.  I can only be responsible for allowing my mind to draw from when appropriate and hopefully (though never a guarantee!) accurately.

Now you know that I bring to every Butterfield equine sculpture --which also evinces such a powerful and palpable personality from what is by all imaginable description refuse and/or junk!  It's really miraculous in its own way.

"Taking the Oath and Drawing Rations," 1865

- John Rogers (1829 - 1904)

This is a plaster cast.  It's honestly quite beautiful and captures a moment in history.  After the end of the Civil War, the South in particular was devastated and things like the spread of disease and lack of food threatened to exacerbate the horrors.  The nation responded by providing an influx of rations; however, in order to obtain them, citizens of the confederacy had to swear an oath of allegiance to the United States of America in the presence of a Union soldier.

I am a great fan of these works of egalitarian art.  My grandmother owned one depicting a scene around a hearth.  Likewise, my cousin also owned one in the style of Frederick Remington with cowboy on horseback about to overcome a fleeing bison.  Both of these enthralled my childhood imagination.  Alas, both have also slipped from my view in years past with the dissolution of estates that I was not engaged in.  Yet, the magic they create is as fresh as it was when I first discovered those other ones.

"The Soldier," circa 1962

- Jamie Wyeth (1946 - present)

Jamie Wyeth is the Grandson of N. C. Wyeth, and the son of Andrew Wyeth.  He is, 80 years of age, the end of a modern 3 generational family dynasty of American artists.  It's hard to find a more prolific familial heritage of artists outside of the Charles Willson Peale clan that just inundated early American art on so many levels.  The thing that I find most intriguing in Jamie's work is it's latent homo-erotic nuances.  Certainly NOT writ large throughout his oeuvre, but undeniably present throughout.  I'm certainly open to understanding it as platonic, too.  I mean, there's nothing wrong with that.

"Along the Harlem River," 1925

- Marvin Gray Johnson (1896 - 1934)

Isn't this just delicious?  I love the tension between realism and abstraction inherent in the design.  It reminded me in a connective way of the works of artists from Charles Sheeler (1883 - 1965) to George Bellows (1882 - 1925) to Thomas Pollock Anshultz (1851 - 1912).  But it's not any of their works.  It belongs to Marvin Gray Johnson who may share a tragically short life (38 years) with George Bellows (only 43), yet remains uniquely African American.  Now, when you visit most museums, you will be hard-pressed to discover works by Black artists.  At the Delaware Art Museum you won't.  Back to it's earliest paintings by American Artists, the work of Black painters is present, and celebrated.

"Weathervane and Roof Gable with Birds," circa 1920

- Ethel Franklin Betts Bains (1877 - 1959)

I loved all of the choices the artist made.  At every level: Background, Mid-range, and Foreground there is a juxtaposition of choices: Geometric versus organic, depth of light versus shadow, cool versus warm colors...it's a mash-up that works to offer an interesting sense of movement and focus.  It's just a lovely painting with tons of embedded intuition.  And it's a painting by a woman.  Paintings by women are also prevalent throughout the collection.

The simple yet profound idea of presenting a diversity of artistic expression is a reality at the Delaware Museum of Art.  I don't think it's possible to enter a gallery and see ONLY works by white men.  That's a really radical and welcome aspect.  One I just cherish with my visits.

Delaware Art Museum: The City On Paper, Seven Views

 I feel like one of the wonderful things about mid-sized, regional Art Museums is the way in which they utilize their resources to create beautiful, thought provoking focus exhibitions.  They often bring works out of the archives that otherwise would unlikely ever see the light of day.  The current exhibition at the Delaware Art Museum titled "The City On Paper" (March 28 to August 16) is exactly the epitome of these sorts of exhibitions.  It's only there for a couple more weeks, so if you stumble upon this post before it's too late and you have the means to do it--go.  You won't be disappointed.

Here are 7 views from a series of around 30 works.  Because, as works on paper, they also represent a variety of medium and techniques, I'm including that information with the title and attribution.

"Dürer's House, Nürnberg," 1930

- Stanley Anderson (1884 - 1966)

Drypoint

"House of God," circa 1940

- Gertrude Howland Balch (1909 - 1964)

Etching and aquatint with hand painted watercolor

"Radio City, N. Y.," circa 1935

- Leon Louis Dolice (1892 - 1960)

Woodcut on wove paper

"Break in the Thunderstorm," 1930

- Martin Lewis (1881 - 1962)

Drypoint

"Provincetown," 1919
- William Zorach (1889 - 1966)

Linocut

"Evolution," 1928

- Henry Jarvis Peck (1880 - 1964)

Etching

"Hill Street," 1987

- Wayne Thiebaud (1920 - 2021)

Color Woodblock (39 blocks 16 colors)

Delaware Art Museum: My Chosen Exhibition

 I'm intimately familiar with a few art museums having visited them many, many times.  The National Gallery of Art, The Phillips Collection, The Baltimore Museum of Art, the Walters Collection, The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and the Delaware Art Museum, for example.  Many times the impetus is a special exhibition.  But sometimes, I just want to go and rest among the art.

One of the things I occasionally do is just pick a theme, a genre of art, and wander stopping at paintings that fit my theme.  During this visit, I chose landscapes.  Here are four that I spent time with on this visit to the Delaware Art Museum.

"Landscape," 1884

Henry Lea Tatnall (1829 - 1885)

"Morning on the River, Providence, R. I.," circa 1890 - 1891

Edward Mitchell Bannister (1828 - 1901)

"Trout Brook, Catskills," 1875

John Frederick Kensett (1816 - 1872)

"Four O'clock Train," circa 1940 - 1941

John W. McCoy (1910 - 1989)