United Church of Christ

 

This church on North Avenue in Bridgeport originally served a Hungarian congregation, beginning in the early part of the 20th century.  After a series of mergers with other denominations, it became a Congregational church, but with strong remaining Hungarian traditions.

Moving On

My Ridgefield house was listed for sale yesterday.   It was a great place to live in the summer for the past six years after 40 wonderful years in West Hartford. 

 The daughter and granddaughters are just 20 minutes up the road.  We are lucky to see them often.  We are moving to an apartment in a senior housing complex in the next town.  The family will still be close.

Fruit

This was a dessert in Rome more than a decade ago.

 

In 2016 we toured the Baltic Sea on a Viking Ocean Cruise.  This was a dessert on that trip to celebrate my birthday.

The May theme for City Daily Photo participants is "fruit."  Click here to see other interpretations.

Colorblends House and Gardens

 

Colorblends is a Bridgeport-based wholesaler of daffodils, tulips and other spring-flowering bulbs.  

The lovely garden at their 1903 Colonial Revival house is worth a springtime visit. 

Chenlu Hou and Chiara No: "What the Hands Remember to Hear"

 

Hou and No draw upon their Chinese heritage to create ceramic works that bring to mind bells and sounds.  Both artists make objects that suggest sound's potential to invoke ceremony and shared histories across cultures and time.

I particularly liked No's bell-shaped creations.  Some were hung against the wall and I thought the shadows enhanced them. 

Hou's vivid sculptures reference Chinese folklore and ritual vessels, Buddhist and Taoist temples, and memories of home.

Jennie Jieun Lee: "Luteal Elements and Grooves"

 Jennie Jieun Lee works primarily with clay.  She was transplanted from Korea to the United States when she was three.  She writes that her art navigates themes of loss, ceremony, and invention, reflecting on her lost Korean heritage and her transnational experience in America.

In the walls of the gallery where some of her ceramic works are shown, 15 min hold, Slow cool, 2025, the artist's largest textile work to date, provides a fascinating background.  Lee describes it as a monumental translation on textile of a glazed test tile.

Would I buy it?  No.  Did I understand it?  No.  But, did I enjoy seeing it?  Absolutely.

In a smaller adjoining gallery, Lee recreated the tomb of a Black nineteenth century voodoo queen in New Orleans.  At its base, the tomb has the artist's vases and dried flowers from her gardens, along with encouragement for visitors to make a wish, leave a tip, and mark the tomb with an X.

Uman: "After all the things"

 Uman now lives in upstate New York but her work draws on childhood memories in Somalia and Kenya, before diasporic experiences in Europe and the United States.

Uman's colorful paintings were hung against rich red walls, a terrific curatorial decision.  

I am not the person to interpret contemporary non-representational paintings, especially those done by an artist with a very different background from mine.  But, I can say that they made a strong positive impact on me and on the others who were in the gallery at the same time.