SILVER BELLS - CROATIAN BELLS - CELEBRATING HOLIDAY RESONANCE...

As I post about Croatia during this holiday season I'm poring through the 1,700 photos made on the trip & realizing how many images I made of bells. I suppose I was thinking of the requests I get to do slideshows at ABA conventions. [The American Bell Association is an international organization for bell collectors of which I've been a member for 30 years.]

Of course the "silver bells" part notes my long time passion for making small bells, usually in sterling silver, which I market on the website: GRB BELLS  While I've been happily in thrall to the archetype of bells I celebrate them particularly at this season...

We trekked steep steps to the tops of several bell towers in the churches of the stone-wall fortified cities we visited along the Dalmatian Coast but we also discovered numerous bells stashed in museums or even stored in dead-silent crypts.

Stephen made these shots of the bell tower in Split & me on the way up... The Bell Tower is the name of the ABA's journal.

These bronze automatons functioned as theater, 

miming striking the bells high in the tower yet visible from the pavement.

These originals, having been replaced, are now retired... 

relegated to stand at such attention for eternity.

Since they chimed the hours there was clockwork involved as well.
This apparatus was also replaced, allowing me to enjoy in the same museum it's
mechanique antique 

Climbing into the throats of some big bells...

Wondering what the environment would be when they were ringing.

 Such art & engineering!

Stephen leads the way up ancient steps
fortunately retrofitted for safety 

along with the structure supporting the bells.

 They can be massive, mounted to swing,... or more usually be struck... pounding tones from their tonnes atop what becomes delicate engineering... comforting for the proof of longevity.

 One was tucked in a courtyard... seemingly to cap the well... 

Curious... thus sealing off the water, muting resonance"?

& this one is a resin replica... a big prop for what show?

 These seemed staged toward some installation
 developing an open space

I

A table in a street in Ston presented this conundrum on bell sound.

 I must invent stories for the bells relegated to a crypt in Split...

 While others get to hang-out in glorious exposure.

 I can only then wonder at the resonance here when the bells peal.

Solstice is Shifting.
Much Joy & Resonant Peace!

MORE KANSAS CITY...

Liberty Memorial is another landmark I remember from my youth... a tower commemorating the losses of the first World War, dedicated in 1921. An important museum was added when its foundations were restored & rebuilt at the end of the century... as complex as the world change it explores, it is a rare source, done well.

These forms fascinate me for their somber reflection... precisely the solemn mood with which I left the buried museum.

The story is poignant:

Two Assyrian Sphinxes guard the south entrance of the Liberty Memorial. “Memory” faces east toward the battlefields of France, shielding its eyes from the horrors of war. “Future” faces west, shielding its eyes from an unknown future.

I ponder inspiration toward possible bells...

 

Fortunately our brothers Jon & Michael were more than cheery guides for our day's varied adventures... at lunch I discovered the antique tile pattern signified to immigrant folk who could not read that this was a drug store...

We'd walked to a river access nearby the Arabia River Boat Museum, which Stephen & I had toured during some free time while attending the bell convention, I'll segue with a ceramic pitcher from the collection of an interesting archaeologic dig...

This boat carried an entire inventory for the winter's needs of a small town in Nebraska... Now thousands of objects being restored & displayed... preserving significant history.

Here are Jon & Michael playing in front of the Kemper Museum on our last visit...

Brother-in-Love Michael grew up in nearby Belton. He & Brother-Jon have lived in Kansas City all the 34 years of their relationship. We've enjoyed visiting their several interesting homes over the years... always being remodeled. BroJon has a well deserved reputation for making bold changes in a house. While we all got some version of that bug from Poppa Vic, Jon is the one still actively maintaining such passion... working on their own home plus another house as an investment.

Jon & I had a grand time when he came to Arizona in 1977 to help with my house in Sedona, which we ripped apart, added onto & quite totally remade. [I ought to continue the series describing my various studios by featuring Up-Willow.] We also built a deep relationship during that period when he was ready to come out. I became a more proper big brother with the one who was a youngster of 10 when I left the farm for college. We'd had neither the time nor the freedom earlier] to forge that bond. We've become only closer over the years.

He has recently returned to an older connection with the Midwest Men's Festival, which is held at a parcel of land in Kansas named Gaea. He's connecting to the spirit of a property owned & maintained for the use of alternative communities & wanted to share this special place. We grabbed pizzas & drove for an exploratory hike & picnic followed by a swim in the pond... enjoying a bit of heaven in the state where I was raised but long mostly rejected...

My brother is deeply complex, rudely sensitive, ponderously lively. I respect his complicated path. As gay siblings we juggle a lot of mirrors...

A gate in the woods brings easy ritual to us as we pass to explore various sites for various communities Pan's point around to Venus' Mound. 

I can only celebrate again the curiously elucidating difficulties & joyous discoveries I've had along my own journey...

  Michael is an imp whom I've come to easily love...

He has his own complexities... to have lived with my brother for their decades...

 One human-made feature on the land was a rustic corral of sorts...

Yet... the spidery tree I would not have imagined in the land of the ruby slippers my Dorothy refuses to click the heels of... rewarded me with an organic symbol of the web in which we live...

 

I've been enjoying unraveling tangles & re-weaving webs as stories around our travels to the bell convention in Kansas City...

ABA CONVENTION - KANSAS CITY - 2015

The 70th annual American Bell Association Convention was held in a city I've known & appreciated since first visiting after graduating from 8th grade. Over the years I've visited two aunts; an early art teacher; a college roommate; my only sister; & my closest brother... plus several favorite cousins.

We have lots of good reasons to visit KC... even before the barbecue!

The city's Nelson-Atkins art museum is a great & unusually lively institution,  It was there, in 1959, on my first visit I met the ancient Greek lion sculpted of marble which became the model for my logo. I drew him as a wheeled pull-toy, inspiring in turn my doppelganger, Leo Toye. He was long in the repair shop & on our last visit the museum was closed... although the translucent walls of the Steven Holl building glowed enticingly...

I certainly was anticipating remaking acquaintance with this important entity who has become a personal symbol. He's still wonderful!

We are most likely to attend the ABA convention when it is held in a city we want to visit, Because it is such an expensive show we often don't find it worth the time/expense. The group has been getting smaller in the decades since I began attending in 1983... coincidentally staying with brother Jon & his partner Michael that trip as well. They loaned me a car to drive to Springfield, Missouri, where that meeting was held. In those days 350-400 registered. When I came to know only 128 were attending this year, I became concerned... in spite we'd been 4 years absent ourselves... which does historically help build interest.

The first day is a gathering time before the next day's first official session. The display room is open that day for the longest block of time. We begin setting-up our display after breakfast & the room is opened from after lunch until dinner time. I usually write half my business in those 5-6 afternoon hours. At closing time we were still wrapping-up an single client's order for 10 bells... a  sale handsomely allaying earlier fears. Appreciative business continued to make a very successful show for the bells.

THE BELL DISPLAY 

 

The hotel was rather perfect: with a pleasant staff; a roomy suite overlooking an open interior court from 8 floors up; breakfast with custom omelets; a generous happy hour... both gratis; & meals from quite a good kitchen... we were pleased.

Of course I have developed friendships with many of the ABA members over the years. Stephen has his own relationships since he often has accompanied me during our 20 years. We were the first out gay couple during times which did not easily guarantee the acceptance we feel now.

During handshakes & hugs hello I found myself repeatedly queried... with puzzled or concerned glances... about my health. We discovered a rumor that I was perhaps dying of AIDS! I can only presume some story concerning my period learning about inflammation got overblown during the years we were absent from attending conventions. That all got fixed years ago by my changing to a gluten-free diet with copious amounts of kale!  It was amusing to ravel by explaining the young man with whom I work in our garden & woods is often impressed how well I can keep up with him. 

"Oh, the humanity!"

At least they were talking about me!

Our luggage, waiting on the Island's dock with me for Stephen's hike up to the parking lot to bring down the car. This is our total baggage for the bell show; his biz; &amp our wardrobes. It includes a very well-traveled taped paper construction I made sometime in the 90's to transport the bell display boards... it still functions beautifully even as it has accumulated significant additional value over the years in terms of shipping costs. 'Slap another $50 bill onto its hide for this trip...

'Twas a good trip indeed... beginning with rare views of the backside of our mountain on the first flight's takeoff...