Resilient Ox Tongue

 A few years ago I bought a little Gasteria gracilis.  I planted it in a little rectangular planter and surrounded it with little pebbles and stones, and made my annual Garden Zoo habitat for a family of Fennec Fox.  It was both fine with the DC summer weather and happy to over winter inside at a window with a southwest exposure.  It relied almost exclusively on natural precipitation when outside and would tolerate long stretches without any watering inside.

Native to arid regions along the coastal highlands all along South Africa's coasts from the Atlantic to the Indian Oceans, it seemed to be just as at home here in my little house in suburban DC.  It started out rather small, and took its sweet time adding a new leaf to its palmate sort of form.  It was a law care, curious little plant.

Then, late in the spring, not too long after being returned to its seasonal perch on the table on my back deck, disaster struck!  Disaster in the form of Winken, Blinken and Nod three young raccoon siblings who regularly terrorize everything on my deck!  On this morning after, I found the upper portion of the plant snapped off from the base and laying with other debris across my deck.  The little Fennec Fox figurines were likewise scattered, but all were eventually found.  

As I cleaned up the mess and pondered the remnants, I wondered what to do for the little Gasteria.   It seemed clear that I could not reconnect the upper leaves to the base.  I also thought, "Well, this sort of thing must befall Gasteria in the wild, right?"  So I set about looking up answers on the internet.  In the end I left the base alone, and simply placed the broken off piece in it's own planter where the torn bottom of the acaulescent stem was in contact with the soil and then added pebbles and stones to give at a surface featuring an inorganic covering like that one it used to have.

I am assuming, since it looks normal and healthy that it is using its plant energies to re-establish a root system.  

As to the original base, a most glorious transformation is occurring.  "Pups" (or new growth spurs) are appearing both around the base, and even more curiously, as a cluster at the site of the open wound to the stem.  Life is tenacious.

Incredible Impatiens

 I love to tell this story.  In 1984, I lived in Costa Rica.  My rented abode was half a little house, framed and sided with wooden planks on one side only--even the exterior walls.  It had two bedrooms and a large area that contained a small kitchen, and bathroom.  The toilet was in a closet, but the shower was not.  Ken, my roommate, and I made it work.

It was located in a contiguous neighborhood on the outskirts of San Jose called Curridabat.  From the main road to Cartegena, the exit to Curridabat climbed a steep hill to a city square with a cathedral.  Half way up that hill lined with little houses was a public bus garage.  And just beyond that a rather hidden driveway to the backside of a one-time shoe factory.  A 20 foot tall metal gate was only opened for truck traffic and to the side was a little metal door.  Open the door and to the right was the little house I lived in.  No one would ever know it was there, unless you knew it was there.

The other half of the house was rented by an old man who had lived there for decades.  He had a little dog named "Jogito," and a cat and he was a sweet person.  All around the house were trees he cultivated.  Papaya, Mango, Orange, Lemon, Lime, and herbs (Rosemary bushes!), and flowers.  Everywhere possibly Impatiens thrived.

Fast Forward.  I'm back in the states, it's 1985.  I'm living in central Kentucky in the same little town I went to college in.  I get a call that the Methodist Bishop of Costa Rica is moving to town to attend a local seminary in persuit of a Doctorate in Theology.  I'm asked to help them settle in.  The seminary secures a home for him and his family.  The local Methodist Lady's Society plants the front yard with gardens of flowers.  Impatiens are a new and more expensive offering at the time and learning they are native to Central America, they splurge and fill the beds with them.  

Upon arriving, the welcoming committee greets the Bishop and his family at their new home.  The Bishop's wife is enthralled by the house.  When asked to comment, she says, "Oh, everything is so beautiful!"  Then indicated the beds of expensive, exotic, Impatiens, she adds, "And once we get rid of all of these weeds, it will be perfect!"

Indeed.  Impatiens.  Weeds if you consider their veracity.  Impatiens are nothing short of amazing.  They will persevere every way, every time every chance they get.  You can damage them.  They will adapt!  They will sprout anew.  They will always survive.  Their seeds can also make it through sub-zero winters!

They are truly worthy of awe.

Welcome To The Jungle

 A rainy August Sunday--a rare gift.  My deck from the Kitchen door.  Welcome to MY jungle!  What joy.

Happenstance Theatre: Adrift: A Medieval Wayward Folly

 My second Happenstance production and now I know that what you get from them is very much what you would expect to have gotten from a Medieval troop of actors and musicians traveling across England or France in some annual rotation.  Setting up shop and delighting the serfs in the town square or church hall, perhaps even an appoint at the local manor where some of the egalitarian humor would have no doubt been tamped down a bit.  The show is a folly in the truest sense, bits and pieces strung together with some regular stuff and music (instrumental and vocal) and even a little dance.  Death is present and there's always a place toward the end where death comes and cuts down the majority of the cast--a reminder of it's unrelenting power over their (our) world.  Other regular bits include a pair of oracles that come to answer questions from the audience with great humor and little profundity.  There's a doctor sketch with slapstick where the cures are always worse than the maladies--again to remind the working folk that having a doctor around isn't necessarily a good thing!  A Luna Moth arrives to take away everyone's cares, a metaphorical gift...but a gift nonetheless.

Among the music used was "Gaudete".  I LOVE GUADETE!  With new lyrics in both Latin and English, the song is secularized.  The line that goes "Christ is born" is replaced with "Celebrate everyone".  But my favorite adaptation came in the bridge where the line "Ashes to ashes" is rhymed with "So get off your ___" and we all burst into laughter without the need to fill in the obvious blank!  As before the costumes are beautiful, the actors are a true ensemble, the musical instruments are medieval and exciting.

The journey begins with our intrepid troop encircled by a barrel hoop and adrift at sea.

L-R: Sarah Olmsted Thomas, Mark Jaster, Sabrina Mandell, Gwen Grastorf and Alex Vernon

Sometimes the winds took the adventurers in directions they did not anticipate.

Frightened by the voice of God, Sarah cowers.  Then in the guise of a crow, Marc eases her fears with the succor of nature.

Of Course, the oracles have never been offered a question they cannot answer.

Gwen leads the audience is a medieval sort of "sing-a-long" accompanying herself with the harp.

The Fool finds himself stuck hopelessly to a demon!

He seeks out the help of the Doctor, who declares he has no heart!

To which he replies, "That's my foot!  My heart is up here in my chest."

"I know that," declares the Doctor.  "But you have a soul problem!"

CUE: eye roll!

Try though she might, the Doctor fails to separate them.  This is something that only the Luna Moth can accomplish.  Score one for superstition.  

Sabrina in the guise of the Luna Moth who can take the cares of the world away from the poor.

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)