The number of Jelly Beans in the Jar is 528 so Gloria came in as the winner tonight as she guessed 500 and didn’t go over the total amount.  

Thanks everyone for looking and guessing. 

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This is a team effort.  Blogging through a four year olds eyes. Could that be a stylus at the foot of the mat on the left?

I’m on the left and Maura asleep on my iPad  on the right.  You can see the computer hinged lid. Maybe an iPad, too.

(corrected by Maura, what is really happening in the picture she drew)

Here’s a photo I received from my DIL on Thursday.   My youngest granddaughter Maura (4) drew a picture.  There is another version where we have ears, and I mean EARS!!!   Maybe I’l lost that one, too.

When I visit in Ohio, I sleep on a  mat in Maura’s room. She gets her Hello Kitty Sleeping bag and camps out, too.

So she drew herself sleeping  on the right, while old Grandma(me) is next to her on the left,  BLOGGING on the computer!  She always says, “you can do the blog in my room.”

It is cool that everyone wants to contribute to the effort.  Thanks supportive Family!!

love,

Ma/Grandma Ruthie

Do you know how many times I have walked by this locksmith on 7th Avenue and it was always closed?  The intricate collage of keys always caught my eye.

Wednesday morning,  Mary and I were returning from the Post Office and the locksmith’s door was open.

Mr. Mortillaro was speaking with a customer. Mary walked on ahead but I signaled to her to wait.  After the customer left, I entered and although I’d photographed the facade on other occasions, I asked the proprietor if I might photograph him.  Mr. Mortillaro was totally welcoming and agreeable and here is the portrait I captured.  He told me he has been a locksmith since age 14!

The links to his website and a trailer of a video are found at the end of the post.

Although he says he is not religious, he has actually made St. Peter (a gift)  the Key to Heaven 

Just like the New York Public Library-  Patience and Fortitude guard the entrance.

You can see a trailer to Mr. Mortillaro’s video Do Not Duplicate 

and visit his website to see his Metal Art

Do Not Duplicate Trailer

We walked through Strawberry Fields and saw the Imagine mosaic.  A man sat on a bench playing the guitar.  We wondered why he wasn’t strumming a Beatles tune.  We walked over the to the Frick Collection and saw the Piero della Francesca in America , no photography allowed.

At the Metropolitan Museum of Art

you could stand around all day and take photos of people being photographed with Vincent Van Gogh’s self portrait.

The scaffolding on St.Patrick’s Cathedral will be in place for three to four years.

Lit a candle in St. Patrick’s.

Mercury at Rockefeller Center

Prayers for Peace. I read the sign and took the photo.  After I crossed the street I realized just how many ribbons there were on the fence surrounding the church.

We walked down Fifth Avenue from 72nd St to 10th St

Mary and I stood at Washington Square in the late afternoon sun for long shadows.

Culture.  We are part of so many different cultures.  I went and read the definition of the word.  More like definitions!

Tried to get a direction.

Friday night was the Gallery Crawl in Pittsburgh. I’m adding two from NYC Spring Break trip that seem to fit into my take on the challenge.

Music, Painting, Sculpture , Art and my wonderful teacher Germaine Watkins from Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild with two of his photographs on display Friday night.

I ‘d gone downtown with my friend Steve to check out and take pictures of the students’ artwork at the All City Show.  

Buddha became the enlightened one, under a Bodhi tree.  

This is the name taken by native Pittsburgh artist who tragically passed much too soon, the day before Thanksgiving in 1991.  If you graduated from Perry High School, Pittsburgh Public Schools, class of 1968, you knew him as Charles Kuklis.  An incredibly talented artist, he was always sketching and drawing.

Recently there was an article by Joe Smydo in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about what to do with an artist’s work after they’ve died.

Bodhi Wind painted the murals for Robert Altman’s 1977 film 3 Women. (Click here to read about the movie and see a photo of Sissy Spacek and Shelly Duvall and one of the large murals painted by Bodhi Wind.) He designed clothing for Cher and his work was shown in Architectural Digest May 1978.  An archived article in the NY TimesApril 26, 1977  by Jennifer Dunning is online.

A blog by Angeliska shows more photographs of Bodhi painting the murals for 3 Women.  We read on this blog that his mother, Jean Kuklis (also mentioned in the PPG article) would welcome speaking of her son and his art.

I had the good fortune to meet Mrs. Kuklis, her daughter and granddaughter, Monday afternoon and got to photograph some of Bodhi Wind’s artwork.  His mother generously shared his story and creative artwork and I wanted to share it with you.  I had the privilege of seeing pieces he created in high school, too.

She hopes her son’s art could be shown in a large space, a bank, hotel lobby or convention center. Some of the painted panels are big.

Many are painted on wood and  interestingly framed.

Readers who would like more information about the artworks should email Bodhi Wind’s family  Bodhi.Wind.Art(at)gmail.com.

detail from the Octagonal

This is one panel of a series.  Very large.  It needs to be turned right side up.  I left a bit of his sister in the pic on the right so you get the idea of the scale.

Update:  5-13-13   

Just added this gorgeous  panorama photographed by Instructional Team Leader for the Fine Arts Department -Michael Dean.

The Pittsburgh Carrick High School student Art Show is hung and waiting for the Monday opening reception at 5:30.
Anyone who works in this magnificent building will get a sneak peek during the day. There were ten of us working most of the day Saturday to hang the art and place the tags by each piece.
Awards ceremony is Monday evening at 6:30 PM. Sponsored by CITIPARKS!

How about those Tiffany columns? The marble, the windows, the painted ceiling? And all the student artwork? Wow!

I can’t wait for the students to see their artwork on display in such a wonderful setting.

There will be refreshments at the reception.

Everything looks great!

You have to see it in person to get the full experience.

If you are in the city, please come see the amazing student artwork.
(Parking downtown gets cheap after 5)

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P.S.
Remembering our mothers every day of the year

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Sometimes you see something on the fly-  take a quick picture and later you think, oh,

I should have taken a little more time, shot more views or gotten better photographs as you review what you captured.

I left these  photos the way I took them-  a bit crooked, a partial door- as a reminder to take my time and get the detail, watch the angle,

*note to self- take a few more pictures when you see something magnificent, unusual and interesting.  Take the entire door in the frame!

When we hung the art show at the City County Building downtown Pittsburgh, we were getting into the elevators and I took a couple of photographs of the bronze elevator doors.  You almost felt like you were in Florence.

 Henry Hornbostel was the architect of the building (and about fifty other building that are still in the city) but I couldn’t find who designed and sculptured/cast the elevator doors specifically.  They were amazing to see. Figures with earlier government buildings in hand.  Definitely need to get to the Carnegie Library for some detailed research but just look at the doors and think about how they don’t make buildings like this anymore. There’s a lot of history in the story of the doors that I don’t have at hand.  Details later.

Brass vs. Bronze the difference in the two metals information here

The seniors in sixth period finished their Digital Photography exam.   And after homeroom, the seniors were allowed to go home.

One of the young women in the class and my homeroom, handed me this two tone metal dog pin and said, “Here Ms. Hendricks.  This is for you.”

I was so surprised. She’d made it in Jewelry Class.

I took the highly polished pin and pinned it on my shirt collar, fastening the safety clasp, thanked her and told her how lovely it was….  but then as I thought about it, I asked her if maybe she should give it to someone in her family, it was so beautiful.

She said, “No, I want you to have it.”

My first year teaching high school is coming to a close.  I’m touched when asked to sign a yearbook. They want me to bring my camera to graduation on Saturday.

I’ve learned a lot.

Thank you Jaquea.                                           (p.s.  It is really difficult to photograph highly polished metal)

Last week I emptied the dryer at my son and DIL’s. Thought I’d help out, fold a load.

When I cleaned out the lint trap, I found a tri-layered catch of  fresh dryer lint.  The striation helped out by the load of new white towels.

I put the dryer lint on the counter above the garbage and saw the face of a sock monkey.

“Erika”, I said, “let me save the dryer lint and show the kids in the morning, It’s striped and looks like a sock monkey.”

Hmmmm.  I decided to take a pic on the phone instead and throw it in the trash cause I didn’t think she was seeing the face and she hadn’t been to the dryer lint art show at the  Duds ‘N Suds Laundromat on Centre Ave  here in Pittsburgh, a few years ago.  I took some friends and it was a memorable and quirky event. The laundromat had that detergent, steamy scent.  The people and scenes were all made from none other than DRYER LINT!  You know how different loads offer different colors, frequently gray but sometimes a lovely hue, depending on the clothes or sheets.

My DIL had no idea there was a National Lint Project and that artist Cheryl Capezutti  creates art from such a catch.  You can go to her website and see her creations.

 What I should have done is send the batch of lint to the artist Cheryl Capezutti and she could have created a winged creature or a tiny figure. She finds art in the everyday.

My lint screen here at home in Pittsburgh isn’t as interesting a shape, either.  Erika’s is a half moon and mine is a flat, broad screen.

Port Authority Downtown Pittsburgh- Gateway Center Station 
“Pittsburgh Recollections”Romare Bearden Mural

To see and read more about the mural painted by Romare Bearden  in 1984 click the article here.

Appraised at 15 million dollars.

Most people who pass by it on their daily commute,  probably have no idea.  It’s 60 by 13 feet.

I tried the panorama setting again on my new iPhone.

What I Found in the Compost Bowl

What do you find in your dryer lint? I asked-   early June –  in a blog post

Here is another one for the series.  My family’s lint seems more interesting than mine at home.

(iPhone shot)

When I saw this man at work this morning,  Rodin’s sculpture of The Thinker came to mind. I had my camera at the ready for the 9th grade orientation.  Lucky day!

Today the painting arrived.  A few months ago, I heard from artist Jon Walker.

He asked if he could paint the Sunoco station photograph he saw on the blog.

I thought it was a cool request and appreciated his asking permission. His intention was to paint it, not to sell it to me.

I liked the look of it, the feel  and although it was summer and no paycheck season until we returned to school,  the gallery put the red dot on it “sold”.   It is a wonderful painting.  I am thrilled to have it now.

Thanks Jon and the team in Savannah who helped get it to me. When I called again about being remiss in sending the $ I discovered the painting had migrated to another Savannah gallery- The Atlantic Beacon Gallery  (go and like them on Facebook, too) where Jon Walker is the visiting artist for September.  If you click the link you can see some of his other paintings.

They were most gracious to pack and ship it.  Thank you thank you.

Phone shot  of ” Sunoco”on the mantel tonight after I unpacked it

Sunoco painted by artist Jon Walker

The August show  Remixing Banality: Rural Studies by Jon Walker was at the Butcher Gallery.   

You can go to the Butcher Gallery Facebook page,  and see the painting on the left wall at the show (be sure to click the “like” button while you are there! )

The original photo posted in April 2010  On the Way to Munhall

A photo Jon emailed of the show at The Butcher Gallery in Savannah  (not sure who photographed this to give credit)

I was going down to the Strip to work on an ongoing photography project I started.

Seemed like a good day to go as I was in town, no school on Sunday and the weather was perfect.

As soon as I neared the Strip, I saw an incredible amount of traffic backed up and some tent tops.  Parked immediately instead of trying to get closer and walked the rest of the way. Here’s what I saw

Strip District World Festival- A Community Event    

Food-

I ate a  delicious Baklava from Taverna 19, a new place with Greek food and dancing at night. (Right across from Primanti’s)  I had already eaten lunch at home. Who knew?

Manuela the Caricaturist

Dance to the Music

Steel Dragon Kung Fu members dance the Lion Dance

This note from Chris at Steel Dragon   the dance is actually a LION DANCE

I would like to mention that actually we did a lion dance today. The MC confused the name of what we were doing. Our name (as you know) is Steel Dragon (or Gong Lung in Chinese). What we did was a lion dance. The actual name of the one we did  today is “Eight Immortals Carry the Mountain to Fill the Eastern Sea”, which is a story from a classic novel called the Eight Immortals Cross the Sea. 

Incidentally, Dragons have many more people than lions (7-100 people vs 2 in a lion) and when you see the head, you can tell their different. If you want, you can check out the video we just posted which has clips from lion and dragons dances on it (plus I just edited so I love when people look at it ) The link is on our website under videos. (see  link)

Look behind you!

Alex and Ben were the Lion with Steeler Colors

Two Pound Pepperoni Roll and Mr. Sunseri

Schorin’s has everything

Mr. Bennett Price

Sounds like a cinch, doesn’t it?   From lines to patterns? Organic might have been a better route. Nature.

After reading about this week’s challenge and viewing some fellow bloggers posts, here’s my gallery.

It was suggested to go with the “tiled mosaic gallery” so I thought I’d try it.

We were having a special afternoon at the Easton Mall, Laura, Anna and I.  A beautiful autumn day.

And the artists were out in force, “chalking the block“ as we headed to eat lunch. Chalk drawing dates back to prehistoric times.

I spoke with Mr. Jose Bastidas from Ecuador about his artwork and unfortunately didn’t get to see the finished pieces.

Some farther along than others. There was a lot of excitement as the forty artists started to work.

You could vote for your favorite, cast a ballot.  Awards are on Sunday the 29th.

Mark and Erika went out for an anniversary dinner in the same location Saturday night  and saw the finished works.

Fascinating to watch the artists line out the drawings on the asphalt, the many boxes of chalk waiting to be used.

Love how his spheres “floated” above the pavement….

See below to see the finished work of the Wright Brothers

Above and below

- Wright Brothers taken by Mark with his iPhone  this evening when he and Erika went to dinner to celebrate their wedding anniversary.

Chalk drawing reminds me of Mary Poppins and here is the scene where Bert Mary and the children enter the sidewalk drawings

Due to Penn Avenue closure, I ended up in a Bloomfield Alley and caught this trash scene with the iPhone as I waited to get out into the main road.

Do you think people get tired of looking at what’s on their wall?

When I was at the Mattress Factory for Professional Development last Tuesday, a colleague and I slipped into this room, part of the permanent exhibition.

And the name of the room is perfect for the challenge...     Infinity Dots Mirrored Room.  (click to see the museum’s photo of the installation)

The black light gives you a strange sensation when you’re in there. You can lose your equilibrium.

It’s really cool.  You should come to Pittsburgh and experience this mirrored, polka dotted space.  The going into the actual room as compared to  viewing an iPhone snap of it, is quite different. The limitations of technology.

The artist- YAYOI KUSAMA created the installation.

You can watch the short documentary about her and her artwork below.

Sunday afternoon was the official dedication of the Gary and Nancy Tuckfelt  Keeping Tabs- A Holocaust Sculpture at the Community Day School at the corner of Beechwood Boulevard and Forward Ave.   The sculpture is a maze in the shape of the Star of David, created with glass blocks which are filled with six million pop tabs which took almost five years to collect , each tab representing a human life lost in the Holocaust.  Many people contributed time, money and effort to the creation of the sculpture and the  beautiful surrounding park.  Walking into the maze, one is struck by the magnitude of the horror of genocide, the number of victims is hard to fathom but the pop tabs in the glass blocks are a reminder of the millions killed.

The resident artist, Elena Hiatt Houlihan has been with this project since 2002.  Pop tabs were being collected since 1996 and Mr. Walter the History Teacher at Community Day School had aquariums filled with them when Elena arrived to help the student teams design the sculpture. Their original artist statement was read by her at the dedication ceremony today.

Elena had been a resident artist at Greenfield Elementary when I was the art teacher there and I remember her talking about the ongoing work of this sculpture and then funding and other circumstances delayed the completion.

It was a beautiful Autumn afternoon and there were speeches and prayers and an 8th grader played the violin.  A chill wind and shadows gave one a shudder and reminded those present of the significance of the memorial sculpture.   Never Forget.

I went up earlier in the day to photograph the memorial sculpture before all the people arrived.

Receiving a standing ovation,  Mr. Walter comes to the podium to speakArtist in Residence Elena Hiatt Houlihan and  Social Studies Teacher Mr. Bill Walter who started the collection of the pop tabs when he was teaching the Holocaust to middle school students at Community Day School.

Article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about the Keeping Tabs Memorial Sculpture Dedication, this time including Elena Hiatt Houlihan’s name

One of the many many, memorial stones and engraved bricks. each representing the accumulation of many donations, small, medium and large. I chose this one to photograph because for the inscribed words about “generations never born”- that message struck me.

This block will be used for educational presentations.  I put a tab in and then asked the next woman if I might photograph her doing so and she agreed.

It’s been here for more than a year in the East Liberty neighborhood.  Where have I been?

Driving back and forth from school each day, I’ve been passing this shop since it opened in September 2012.

Right there on Highland Avenue.

I know mornings when I drive by on the way to school it’s dark and of course closed

but I  thought I had some keen  observational skills.  Ha!

Guess not!    Missed this shop until….

Saturday I was meeting my friend R for lunch at Pig and Chicken next door. (I photographed the Pig and Chicken one night in Feb 2012 before The Shop in East Liberty was established.)

I  had the chance to go inside as I was a few minutes early for lunch.  I met the shop owner Julia Reynolds, and purchased  a unique, Made-in-USA , artist crafted item for a gift – so can’t reveal what I bought yet cause they might see it on the blog today.

The store itself is a work  of art and cool design. You can check out the “unique handcrafted gifts“ here

A return trip is necessary to  more photos so you can see some of the artists’ work.  You’ll have to click the link to see the art!

Ringing up my sale and giftboxing with white and red baker’s string.

Took the one above when I got home as I liked the look of the little cube box tied with string.