Our season is even more indeterminate than usual. Weather!
We’ve recently found ourselves caught in a stream of atmospheric rivers. To be so saturated, so early, raises concern for our stability, perching, on a cliff on an island of alluvial fill.
So our garden takes its own rhythm. Some parts have expired with the
simple lack of sun, while much has “hung on”, if not exactly “thriving”
toward some protested ending. I can only cerebrate nature’s wisdom…
however many times I prove myself not wise enough to observe her
learn-teaching/teach-learning. She dances smack in the middle of climate
change. Adaptivity & survival inside maelstrom.
Autumnal energy holds forth beauty of unreliable promise.
Another classmate & friend, who lives in St Louis,
generously returned to Elsah to bring us back into the city, where we had
a reservation for our last evening’s hotel…’just across the street from
our favorite museum, which we’d planned to visit after making an
exploration of the city’s famous Botanic Gardens. Because it was a hot
day we happily found shady benches near the Buckminster Fuller geodesic
domed tropical greenhouse… the Climatron. There Stephen could
comfortably check into a scheduled weekly Zoom call & I could
catch-up with my mail after the busy time at the reunion.
Nearby was a Jacques Lipchitz sculpture, which interests us for another connection…
We
have a Lipchitz drawing from Helen & Otto’s collection hanging in
our stairwell. He’s not a particular favorite, but we enjoy holding it
for many reasons.
There
is a Carl Milles (I would much rather own a drawing of his!) fountain
not unlike the one we know on the Plaza in Kansas City… with those huge
lily pads one wants to float on!
After spending a satisfying hour or so inside the tropical spaces of
the dome, we discovered we’d lost the time to have lunch at the cafe…
but we certainly wanted to see the Japanese garden, having visited so
many of such when we were there. This one is still relatively quite
young, so we could only imagine how it might evolve after such time as
the centuries the ones we saw in Kyoto had been tended. We must come
back… this unexpected botanical treasure deserves much more time &
attention!
Still, we both were happily anxious to find a Lyft driver who was a
lively & fun woman to drive us to the Last Hotel, which, knowing its
location in the old shoe manufacturing district, close to the City
Museum we were to see next, clued me to understand that this was named
for a “shoe last”, instead of an act of desperation! It is a very nice
boutique hotel with a timeless lobby spanning spaces defined by handsome
12 foot columns.
Since we are beginning to shop for new furniture for the condo I took note of the distressed leather banquets.
The capitals on these street-level columns were more detailed than those more utilitarian ones on the floors above.
The guest rooms are carved out of the industrial space of a shoe
factory under the scarred concrete ceilings telling stories inside a lot
of drapery to shade the hyper abundance of large industrial windows. We
took a morning swim next day before we finished packing for the flight
home. All in all it was a good “do”!
ONE UNIQUE MUSEUM…
However, The City Museum is quite another sort of architectural
wonder. We would not miss returning here on any visit to the city! We
walked almost immediately around the corner to this fabulously quirky
& unique museum. This was our third visit. We were introduced to
this venue by our cousin Anjana when we visited to attend a Bell
Convention. “It is a jungle gym for adults” was her description while
acknowledging that this is an all family adventure.
It, too, was a historic shoe factory of 8 stories, now filled with an
eclectic variety of collections from any & all possible interests
or “tastes”. Much of which might be considered junque… old
signage & side-show art. Rooms full of activities for all ages: a
gallery filled with innumerable large sponges inviting youngsters to
play or build with. There are nooks housing small cafés or ice cream
shops. There is an old pipe organ installed in an air shaft. Cases full
of oddities like antique porcelain doll parts, for instance.
However, some of these earlier “filler” exhibits seem to be evolving
over these years. New consideration & work is constantly being
incorporated to finesse this raw mélange since our first visit. Many
tubular structures of steel or newly handsome welded iron allow brave
souls to pursue clambering adventures, sometimes up or down into other
floors. A grander excitement experience is a conveyor/slide, originally
designed for sending the shoes down toward other finishing processe, but
now rebuilt for allowing humans to slide, on rollers with smooth &
swift action all the way several floors to the lobby. This place is
certainly a wild adventure!
My strong favorite, from the first visit, is a collection of stone
& terracotta details salvaged from demolished buildings in Chicago
& St Louis. Originally decorating corners & cornices high above
street level… too far out of sight for easy study, these were at first
simply rather haphazardly piled in a raw room, but now becoming featured
in an evolving state, gradually being imaginably “reinstalled” as
exhibits noting the history or becoming parts of venues being readied
for weddings or social events.
A peek over a mild barrier reveals a mason at work, creating a new collage of architectural fragments.
What had been more random piles of salvaged artifacts which I saw on
our first visit several years ago are becoming more properly displayed.
In some cases being instructive as to their manufacture, technical
structure, & installation.
This open window of reused tile work… demonstrates several ideas:
The rear of the window reveals the technical struts of the terracotta building blocks of such architectural work.
What style buildings used to have!
This well studied re-composition of an old relief frieze backed by theatrical painting sits on a new floor shown further below…
The
romance of that classical terracotta reconstruction takes a stance
surrounded by a painted sky while siting atop a stone mosaic patterned
in an evolution of Escher-like transition of butterflies. A further
example of the design team… which we understand is a collection of
students.
This ceramic tile floor becomes almost jewel-like. The
traffic flow of guests becomes controlled by gates of various style
& material… allowing the vast spaces to be divided for creative use.
A
huge old bank vault door is installed next to a wall of safety deposit
boxes & an impromptu service bar of corrugated metal, which will no
doubt become replaced by some older, finer piece. I’m sure there must
be entire warehouses of such stuff in the waiting…
Another such vault door caps the other ent of a dramatic tubular space.
A second passage nearby mimics that effect with reflective drama!
Industrial
iron & steel become transparently supportive as antique castings
marry new welding… often quite clever as technique must meet playful
function.
An almost crude, newly welded-up bit of balustrade describes the casual finesse of this project…
Yet the entire building has remnants of having been a shoe factory... like the long slide of rollers left to become, with snaking welded tunnels, encouraging playful climbing...
The upper parts evolve into an amusement park in the sky, with even
more adventurous climbing, several plane fuselages & a Ferris wheel!
The playful lobby leaves a happy taste, like an after dinner mint to this full meal of fun.
Such a generously exploratory… & still evolving… public facility.
We attended Stephen’s 50th college reunion the last week of
June. I had gone with him to his 45th & written about another
earlier visit to the campus here: https://www.grbbells.com/a-visit-to-principia/
This is the photo he chose for his original graduation yearbook photo in 1972.
This is our attempt to recreate that image for this reunion, as was suggested to add to the slideshow as part of the class party.
Principia is a Christian Science college located about 35 miles up the Mississippi River from Saint Louis on the Illinois side. The campus, perched atop high limestone bluffs, overlooks the broad waters between the confluences of the Illinois & the Missouri rivers. Floods of history!
The architect Bernard Maybeck planned & designed the campus during the 20s/40s using the concept of a rural English village in order to create an intimate atmosphere for students, who were well removed from the city. The result is effective & lovely. For me personally, the buildings are the best reason for me to enjoy returning.
This view is of the living room of the dorm, where we found the room
which we were assigned, looks like a baronial hall with massive carved
wooden beams, but closer inspection revealed that those are cast
concrete! The leaded windows are genuine, as are the lovely rugs &
comfy furniture. Maybeck’s concept still works, becoming ever quite
permanent, bringing one to at least some fantasy of home.
We were housed in Anderson Hall, a dorm with two wings…
With a rather dramatic interior stairway!
[I made an earlier post in 2011showing many more photos of the campus see here: https://grbarnett.blogspot.com/2011/07/visit-to-principia.html
This was my second of his reunions, so I was better prepared for
his disappearing, quite naturally, to spend time with old friends. That
first reunion was early in the College’s more officially open
acceptance of our being a gay couple. We had felt comfortable & I
happily met many friends of his. This visit, I relished such
opportunities to engage on my own, particularly with those lingering
with me at the breakfast table. I found myself merging into what often
became long conversations. Sometimes with other spouses, finding
ourselves in similar situations, or with people who had known him as the
editor of the student newspaper. I am seen… I am listened to. Not only
that, but I am having a good time!
I got to meet & chat with Tom, married to one of Stephen’s deep
friends, Wendy, whom I’ve met several times over the years. He also is
not a “Scientist”. On another morning, I chatted with a classmate Joel
Selmeier who is a designer of Peace Poles, one of which is installed in
Tacoma, very close to the condo we are moving into next year. A third
such encounter introduced me to a fascinating writer, Brad Newsham, who
has two books published about his traveling lifestyle, but — more
interesting to me — a book about his time as a cabdriver in San
Francisco. I will write more when I can snag time with the copy he sent
us to share.
[An addendum to this post made in 2024 adds that Free Ride is it's title. Further that Take Me With You & All The Right Places are the other s.]
While Stephen had expressed surprise when I agreed to make this trip
with him, I explained that I too was ready for a little travel as well…
since the last time we’d flown together was our trip to India two & a
half years ago. We have a great history of happily traveling together
& I was looking forward to more of the qualities of potential
closeness during this time. Some of that became true, even as he was
never quite as ready for that as I. His capabilities to multitask also
take to the air!
After the closing chapel service & a last lunch
we stayed another night at a B&B just a mile or so down from campus
in an old riverboat town named Elsah. Several classmates have become
faculty members & bought homes in its historic precincts. We were
treated to a walking tour guided by one classmate who introduced us to
the local museum & a general store with dozens of “antique
reproduction” soft drinks.
The collection of newly bottled “antique” soda at the Elsa General Store.
Eventually, our meandering through the village brought us to have
impromptu tea with yet another classmate who had not attended the
reunion. We found dinner at a casual dive on the river… certainly some
sort of experience, but certainly not a memorable meal! It was,
however, the first time after the morality of the campus that we could
enjoy a celebratory cocktail & a glass of wine… albeit served in
plastic!
There is another chapter to this trip. I will write about our next day & last evening in Saint Louis.
A graceful slippage of snow off the handrail of the steps up onto the front deck.
Even as I might complain about months of very cold soggy conditions, I
am reminded, when I get out into the garden for the variety of relief
beginning to develop, albeit too-slowly.
I see the bed of mache, which I’ve tended closely since it began
sprouting in January, start to fill-out again. This very early green has
a rich flavor & sturdy tooth, even as that comes with a fairly
irritating effort to rinse off the bits of compost & soil splashed
by the rain into the handsome muscularity of its squat growth of tight,
small-leafed rosettes. I harvested a great & happily fulsome salad
during a warmer spell earlier in January, but it has been slow to regrow
again during this recent return of cold.
Even a beach walk becomes too quickly less than pleasant.
Making welcome a retreat to the warmth of the wood stove…
Still,
on clear days, Tahoma reveals her thick wardrobe of new snow… echoed in
this shot by an even brighter ship sailing toward either of the two
large seaports deeper in the vast Puget Sound, Tacoma, just around the
peninsula of our island at the right, then further, under the Tacoma
Narrows Bridge [which replaced the notorious earlier one nicknamed “Galloping Gertie”
to Olympia, Washington State’s Capitol. The map of the Puget Sound is a
very complex… well worth a search to see what is essentially quite a
fine Fjord.
Our lady mountain frequently doffs picturesque lenticular berets.
Stephen
loves taking advantage of a neighbor’s invitation to borrow their kayak
for a quiet morning on the water. I can watch from the bedroom, warm
with my morning coffee. You realize I’m not a great fan of our winter
weather.
Daffodils are early portents of the promising season…
Stephen pruned the quince to let this study cutting finish booming out well on the dining table.
A
bunch of white tulips settled into a stage back-dropped by a painting
of a bull with a shekina symbol on its brow which Stephen collected
before we met; the leaded glass lamp I commissioned from an artist in
Sedona & the hand-painted olive wreath platter which I bought &
then hand-carried from my first trip to Tuscany 20+ years ago.
This
specimen of flowering kale was rescued from a sale tale just after the
holidays. It continues to bless us with a happy vibrancy.
One
of her most glorious visages is the alpenglow at sunset. The Pacific
coast is almost 70 miles away to the west, with the Olympic Mountains in
between, which creates a wide range of atmospheric effects, frequently
giving her the notion of a “Raspberry” sundae.
So in spite that it has been too cold & too wet, we have enjoyed some spectacular color… nonetheless I am quiteready for spring!
I realize now that “Table Slaves” is now quite politically
incorrect. But that was the rather too-colorful name I originally used,
some forty years ago, to describe my concept. The idea was to design
figural sculptures functioning as napkin rings. At first, they were to
be Roman Centurions, hauling, dragging or lifting the napery around a tabletop as part of the place-settings.
As I began carving the first studies, the improbability of the idea
presented itself. The necessity of an opening large enough to
accommodate such large pieces of cloth made them too large & heavy.
Still, I have long persisted in my desire to sculpt the human figure at
small scale.
Other early explorations were these figural pendants, which I
designed for Central City Micro-foundry when I first began working with
wax models for their pewter casting processes shortly after college…
c.1969.
As I write, I begin to feel a curious tickle to make some sort of
“trigger warning” for male nudity. I can only chuckle as I celebrate my
long history of loving the human body, both as internal & external
fact: as artistic study & as an openly honest personal pleasure. It
is even more curious that I feel any need to explain anything !
This sculpture in sterling which I named DRAGON-FAERIE EGG was made & sold while I was still living in Denver… I am wanting to know who bought it through the shop of Ron Pingenot. Which, of the many dealers circling that venue, acquired it? More importantly, who ultimately collected it? I’m curious about its reverse provenance…
What might the mythology of this DRAGON-FAERIE EGG be?
Eggs were an important symbol, even then, but I really don’t know any
story to the figures, which are a separate piece, held into position by
her hair. My fantasy can run pretty wild sometimes!
My first studio in Sedona had belonged to a jeweler named Thane
Riggs, who worked in a loose “drip & dab” style which I had already
practiced into a surpassing skill. His work fascinated me for its forms
made of nude figures, often with sexual innuendo. Orgies wrapped around
fingers as rings or clustered to hold a stone. But what turned me on
about these was their audacity. They were
naked… naughty… & quite fun! I felt given some permission I wasn’t
certain I’d find in “cowboy country”. So I found some liberation…
Another sterling piece is this SATYR GOBLET, which became a
centerpiece of the gallery we named Tavernier, after a 17th century gem
trader. I became the too innocent custodian of this shop in Sedona’s
upscale mall, Tlacquepaque, while being enticed with a fascinating
situation which I’d accepted as only a sojourn of a few years, a short
stop along my way to my long-term dream toward the Bay Area.
I came to love the Red Rock country & didn’t leave until fourteen years later…
The
SATYR GOBLET held court in a suspended display case around which
visitors in TAVERNIER could view it, brimming to overflowing with
hundreds of subtly glittering garnets. There are stories to be told
elsewhere about the adventures around how this shop was opened…
While I was playing with
Central City Micro Foundry, I designed a set of goblets with female
nudes as stems. It was not very successful for a number of reasons,
beginning with the lack of appeal for what is basically an alloy of tin
to contain wine. Then there was a lack of strength rigid enough to
support the construction… mostly because I was just beginning to
understand the process. I needed many more years to refine my skill into
the more delicate carving. I have only one casting of a goblet base
& vessel somewhere in a deeper archive, I believe, but this single
casting gives a flavor of the project.
This
is the only chess set I’ve made, though I’ve dreamed numerous others
over the years. It was designed during that same experimental period. I
gave it to my father, who’d taught me to play the game when I was too
young to stick with it. The set exemplifies a quite formal version of
classic erotic tension… a useful stretch?
I was invited & encouraged to make the pendents below with
playful insouciance of gesture & notions of story: the free swinging
ring man & another (not pictured) who was caught in the sling of a
parachute; a female figure bound & hanging from her wrists; another
as a mermaid; plus the winged guy at the beginning of this post.
Regrettably, I no longer have a complete set of the 5 or 6 designs.
Another requested idea was the suggestion for a naked crucifix. Remember, this was in the 60s…
Somewhere in those Sedona years, I cleaned up my act a bit too much.
Perhaps, that was in deference to my budding career as a more upscale
jeweler & enlarging my explorations as a sexual being to include
relationships with women, before ultimately choosing celibacy for a
decade.
While I thoroughly enjoyed the psycological growth inside those
several healthy & loving heterosexual experiences & the further
growth in retreating from sexual relationship… I retain a preference for
men. That becomes obvious in these guys, freed of the repression of
“usual propriety”…
The pewter “RING MAN” certainly leapt freely.
Here I connected two copies to imply gymnastic cooperation, but perhaps implying more intimacy as well.
So, I abandoned the complications, semantic & technical, of that
original “table slave” concept & allowed it to evolve past the
constraints of function into more free expression as art. Still, there
were the perpetual hurdles of how to create a balanced eroticism. What
delightful and muscular conundrums!
Recently re-photographing the two pieces below is what brought me to
begin this post. They have been quietly lurking on this website since
its inception, but I have not actually put them forward.
Indeed, they are technically so difficult to accomplish that I have
rarely reproduced them. Each step of production, including having to
make such large, unwieldy molds, presents challenges. It’s difficult to
inject & touch-up the waxes of such forms containing heavier masses
of bodies and limbs connected to delicate parts like fingers & toes.
The castings don’t always work, and then there are variations of shape
caused by contractions and shrinkages in both the wax and metal.
KNEELING TABLE SLAVE: This pose offers its own creative potential, as several of these viewpoints demonstrate.
The figure Might be “functional” inside his fun! He can lift quite a load!
He
can lift with his legs while standing on his head as well… Thus
suggesting, in this pose, that his erection is actually due to gravity!
The foundry furnished a copy
of the sculpture in a state of solid black oxidation, which gifts the
opportunity to view these two in unusual contrast.
FLYING FAERIE: My original concept was that wings of several
varieties might be added… but none have ever evolved into reality… at
least, not yet!
However, I love continuing to invite all these challenges & explorations as this project into the future…
