In Kansas City we are!!!!

So we arrived last night in a storm. Rain like you wouldn't believe. At the airport there is a Tornado shelter sign to welcome people and put them right in the mood...
I won't elaborate about what we did I will just give you few pictures.
That was then and today was that.... Beautiful sky, gorgeous sun and warm temperature. That is more what I had ordered. ahahah
I went to two lectures in the morning. One was about collaborative work from two UC Davis professors. They are working on a project with Vietnamese Designers. They have taken the traditional woman dress called Ao Dai. It is a symbol of what the Vietnamese Woman stands for tradition feminism beauty culture and respect. They have send out a survey to about 50 vietnamese women living in the USA and have combined their answers in their final designs. it is a fascinating project that will have an impact on the community.
The other lecture was by reknown shibori artist Carter Smith. He was demonstrating and explaining how his Shabori Machine is so special. Interesting for sure but it was really his personality that was what triggered my interest. He is full of insight about how passion and work of an artist evolves. I volunteered at lunch time during the Silent Auction and they have nice items to bid on. I restrained myself.
In the afternoon I got visit an exhibit of the SDA members. Next year I will be among them showing one of my piece. It is my goal. That was really the highlight of the day for me. Such talent concentrated in one room with the same size assignment but how deverse. Denise Gallup has a piece (See the picture). We did get to the Vendor's building afterdiner and here again lots of great things. Overall I am very impressed by the organization and the quality what is offered. We also went to the Keynote addressed by an art dealer from Chicago Doug Dawson. Well the guy was very courageous with this type of audience and kept it very "authentic" and honest about his interpretation of "Surface".
That is all for tonight.
Tonight we are blogging and calling our family

Tuesday

I woke up in a panic this morning. I was thinking that the Art Institute of Chicago could be closed today because some museum are cosed on Tuesday. Well my trusty companion checked right away online and reassured me.. It was a go and went we did. All day!!! What a place!. It would be a good reason to live in Chicago. Too many things to assimilate in one day but with the 250 pictures taken... I can assimilate at my own rythm later. I won't go into details except for my favorite pieces.

Let me know if you want to know more about any of those pieces. Until then you can play the guessing game....ahahahha

Finally the day ended outside with a super walk up to a grouping of statues. Those are a bit different. Huge men walking, going their own way, no head mind you. Do they know where they are going? are they lost? Do they miss their heads? I would like to ask them. In the meantime Nancy tried desperately to stop one from going any furter without any luck. He is still on the move. Here is proof of her attempt....

About Monday

Nancy and I could not have timed it better. We decided to do outside things on Monday. It was still a holiday so the "Green Line" train was mostly deserted which was pretty nice. Especially when we needed to figure out what way to ensert the card in the whatchamacallit to get on the deck... Well on a holiday people have the time to help you and so they did... Oh well, I am now a pro at inserting my card. Enough of that though. We had such an excellent day. First I had the best oatmeal ever at our hotel. Even the brown sugar was different. It looked like little tiny beads. Very pretty and hoooo so tasty!!! So with that energy filled breakfast I got to walk and observe and shoot pictures every 5 seconds until 2:30 pm. Our first stop was to the Garfield Park Conservatory. They are having a fabulous exhibit of some 34 sculptures. Those are bigger than life size and are so colorful and happy looking that everyone looking at them has a positive response. It is quite uplifting. Seeing so many of them in such an interesting setting was a real treat. Here is a little sample to make you want to look at the Artist Niki de Saint Phalle.

Of course the plants at the conservatory are really interesting and new to me. Have you ever seen ferns like those?

or plants like those?

What about a flowers growing on a trunk....?

This last one is actually the chocolate tree that makes the cocoa. Pretty amazing world we live in.

After we left the garden we headed to Oak Park a really nice little community of huge tree lined streets and a mix of victorian and mission style homes. Frank Lloyd Wright had his house there and studio and build few houses in his 'hood. So we had a nice italian lunch and we started meandering the streets. Arriving too late to take the inside tour of FLW's house we had a self guided tour which was pretty incredible. To see those houses in person. What a thrill! They are all recognizable has FLW but they have different shapes and character. Very interesting. Not every one was built with the same budget in mind too. There was the very cute small one up to the very large and expensive one on a grand lot. So here are few examples.

So we ended the day on a pretty nice note. Happy Hour at the hotel with Cheese Crackers and a nice Cabernet some jalapeno olives, oh and some yummy pistachio nuts. Nancy got to built her blog and I assisted by trying to calm her nerves when things were not cooperating with her Mac. Fun fun fun.

Good Morning from Chicago

Well I slept like a baby. It was needed. So walking back to the hotel through the park last night I took some pictures of the sculptures that are part of a show called "Artists + Automobiles" . It is really close to the hotel. Those are made out of automobile parts, you might have guessed!!!. The lilies have been made by Dessa Kirk. "They" say that there is a life size Moose sculpture in this exhibit so I want to hunt for it and capture it for my blog today... In the meantime here are the one's from yesterday's. The Bench was made by Jed Garner. The other muffler's sculpture... I don't know. I will have to get back there to find out.

Chicago

My good friend Nancy Dobson
and I are in Chicago since this afternoon. Gaia is taken care by Emily (brave girl that she is). Curt is fishing on the Kenai... Anyway we arrived safely and the weather is gorgeous. Quite a different experience than the last time that I was there (with Nancy too) when it was October, cold and windy and the trees were bare. The town is fully alive people and nature are showing all their color. We have walked about three miles just close to our hotel (The Essex Inn). We had a late/ early diner at the Grill on the Park (Millenium Park) and after consuming a large farm animal (sorry Emily) we had a nice walk to work it off. There was a concert of Percussion at the Gehry Music Pavillion so it made the walk even more enjoyable

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We got to see a beautiful display of purple and green garden. Just breath taking with the skyline in the background. The fountain and the cloud gate still winning the public appreciation (mine too: it is just the most visualy intriguing thing I have seen) (maybe!!!).

More to come in the morning . We are quite tired and it is time to say goodnight. Sweet dreams.

more of Gaia... She just turned 12 weeks!!!

So here is my precious Gaia in all her cuttiness.

Gaia

Meet our new family member "Gaia". She was born on March 1st 2007 in Minnesota. Her mother's name is Licorice. She has discovered my enlarging lap since she arrived and has problem with going without... ahhaha. She is the sweetest mini dachshund you can think of. She has been with us now for 9 days. She is mellow, intelligent (fetches her toys for us already) and cuddly. She is black and tan, short hair. So about her name: She almost got to be "Cachou" which is a French licorice candy that I am very found of and she has a marking under her chin that looks like one. After thinking a bit more Emily and I decided on Gaia (name for Mother Earth). Gaia was also the name of a dear family friend of ours. Louis Gaia who is still missed to this day. So it is nice to be thinking about him when calling out for this sweet girl. My sister pointed out also that Gaia was the name of Salvator Dali's wife. So there!