Silver Lining

 Silver Lining is a Ridgefield consignment store.  Inside they have a good selection of the usual consignment store items:  furniture, rugs, china, artwork, etc.

But, outside the store there is an ever-changing and eclectic array of unusual things.  

Yesterday they included a fake fire hydrant, a metal pig and a black metal sculpture made from scraps.

Around the corner, there was a weird gentleman in a yellow suit and a green hat.

And a pelican with a fish.

Lambs

 The Hickories is a family-owned and operated farm in Ridgefield.  They are growing a herd of sheep.

From mid-March through mid-April, the ewes in the flock gave birth to lambs.  There were many triplets.

Lola

Monday night was tough.  Daughter Susie's 14 year old weimaraner, Lola, was in pain.  They rushed her to the veterinarian, but she didn't make it. 

Lola was born in South Africa, where Susie and her husband lived before moving back to the States.

Lola was a wonderful dog.  She was very energetic when she was young, but in recent years she had become pretty slow, with lots of her time spent sleeping. 

Lola is now with her longtime companion, Sequoia, who crossed the rainbow bridge two years ago.

R.I.P. Lola.

Flowering Trees

I have been enjoying the many spring-flowering trees in Southwestern Connecticut. 

I pass this house and tree at the southern end of Ridgefield's Main Street all the time.  

The tree is a redbud.  

Funeral Cortege

I was in Bridgeport.  Horses pulling a white carriage were coming in my direction, followed by a dignified line of cars that might have been three blocks long. 

I don't know who the deceased person was, but it must have been an honored person in Bridgeport.

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.

Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art

 Ridgefield is fortunate to have a high quality art museum on Main Street.

It was a rainy Saturday, a perfect day to spend a couple of hours inside.  The administrative offices are in this older building on the front.  

The galleries are in a newer building below.

I looked out at the older building from the second floor of the newer one.

There were some very good exhibitions.  All were foreign-born artists who had wandered elsewhere before coming to the United States.  Photos from those exhibitions will be here in the coming days.