Memorial Day Parade

 

Every parade needs bagpipers.

The parade went on and on.

Does your town have little fencers march in the Memorial Day Parade?

The Ridgefield High School marched.

Another marching band.

Scouts.

Getting Ready for the Memorial Day Parade

 

People gathered for the Memorial Day Parade.

Antique cars are popular in the parade.

The drivers of these two carts patrol Main Street and Danbury Road, watering the hanging flower baskets. 

Three Female Artists

 A new apartment building in Providence, Rhode Island, has murals on three sides of the first floor.

They depict three noted female artists.

Yayoi Kusma is an avante-garde Japanese sculptor and painter.  She is one of the most renowned living artists working today.  Muralist Fu'una chose to feature Kusama's iconic black and yellow polka dots, which feature throughout her mixed media practice.

During the 1960s Alma Thomas emerged as an exuberant colorist, abstracting shapes and patterns from the natural world around her. She was the first African American woman to have a solo exhibition at New York's Whitney Museum of American Art.  Muralist Joanna Vespia portrayed Thomas in monochrome contrasting with the bright colors the artist often used.

Georgia O'Keeffe is one of the most significant artists of the 20th century. She is best known for her paintings of the New York skyline, radical and enlarged flowers, and the New Mexico landscape where she lived for the later part of her life.  Muralist Fu'una juxtaposed a late portrait of the artist depicted in a wool gaucho hat and black clothes against a detail view of an earlier 1945 painting.

Linked to Monday Mural.

The Black Experience

 My classmate and friend Bernie is receiving an honorary doctorate today.  Yesterday I attended a forum in which Bernie, her husband and two adult children spoke about their experiences in college.  When Bernie and I were in college in the turbulent mid-sixties, Bernie was one of six Black women in our class, along with five Black men in a predominantly white university.

Bernie and her husband were instrumental in effecting change that benefitted the African American community at our university.  They pushed for their rights, but in a polite and respectful way.  They mentored Black students who came up behind them.  They both had successful business careers in technology.  In time they were both chosen for leadership roles on the boards that run our university.

At yesterday's forum, Bernie, her husband and the two children (one a doctor and the other a business man) talked about their college experiences and how the university changed during their time here. 

The parents in particular were instrumental in making the changes.

I know what America and college was like in the 1960s and how they have been over the decades since then.  I know there have been many rough experiences for Black people.  It was striking how each related their experience without resentment or anger, but calmly, positively and optimistically.

Maybe that is one of the secrets.  To be forceful and persistent in demanding what you want, but with a smile on your face and with optimism.

Reunions

 And Campus Dance.

Green Harbor

Visiting friends in eastern Massachusetts yesterday, we had a great meal last evening at a fish restaurant in the Green Harbor area of Marshfield, looking over to Brant Rock.

 

Weir Farm and Amanda Oglesbee

I visited Weir Farm National Historical Site again recently.  It was the home of American Impressionist painter J. Alden Weir.  Amanda Oglesbee is the resident artist for May.  She generally paints trees.

 

It was mid-week and not many people were there.  We got a good tour inside Weir's house.

Four Sports

 

These paintings are on walls of a hallway leading out of the Norwalk City Hall atrium shown yesterday.

Three of these paintings were done in 1934.  The hockey painting is from 1938.

Artist George Avison was born in Norwalk in 1885. As an adult, he resided and raised a family and was a member of an artists colony in Norwalk.  His sons were models for the athletes in the series.

Norwalk players are in green, which is still the school teams' color today.

Norwalk City Hall

 I read that the City of Norwalk has some excellent WPA (Works Progress Administration) murals in its City Hall and other government buildings.  I was in Norwalk for something else, so naturally I wandered over to City Hall.  

City Hall is in a building that was once the high school but has been beautifully renovated for municipal offices.  And art!  I was blown away by both the amount of art at Norwalk City Hall and by its quality.  

There is a three story atrium ringed by artworks on each floor and down the corridors leading out of the atrium.  Today I will show only the architecture (with glimpses of some of the art).  

Artworks will follow on future days when the mood strikes me or when I am short of other images.

Anne and Rebel Daughter

Driving around Wall and Isaac Streets in Norwalk to admire the many murals, I came across Rebel Daughter, a year-old bakery.  

It was closed, but I met Anne, the owner, outside.  

"Introverted But Willing to Discuss Cookies."  Can't beat Anne's shirt!

These murals were on stands in the parking lot.  Anne's shop is behind them.

"A dream ain't a dream for you unless you believe it believes in you."

The mural at the left shows three athletes from Norwalk,  I recognized Mo Vaughn (the Red Sox baseball player in the middle) and Calvin Murphy (the Houston Rockets basketball player on the right) but I have no idea who the man on the left is or what sport he played.

Linked to Monday Mural.