Stormy Dawn Over the Old City
Burst of Color
It’s a rather dreary Tuesday morning. The overcast got me thinking back to the weekend and a bunch of flowers bursting their color forth on a sunny afternoon in downtown Vermilion, Ohio.
Vision at Entry: Tableaux of Three Statues in Altar Setting
While I am not Catholic, I do appreciate the illustrative and evocative art created for the Church and particularly the statuary. Many years ago now, when I worked for a newspaper, I shot a photo feature headlined “Portraits of Mary” showing statuary within a number of area Catholic churches. In the Cleveland, Ohio suburb of Lakewood a restoration artist shares that appreciation.
Museum Gallery, Western Wall
The artist saw a need to not only restore those religious artifacts but to save them. Over the years a good number of churches have closed, their furnishings and decoration either destroyed or scattered to the winds. Artist Lou McClung made it his mission to save and restore those displaced works and created a museum within which to preserve and display them.
St. Joseph: Detail from Holy Family Sculpture
We visited the Museum of Divine Statues for the first time this past Sunday. Appropriately, the museum, which opened April 10, 2011, is housed within the former home of St. Hedwig’s Church. The interior of the church has been repaired and re-purposed from that of a place of worship to a fine art / historical gallery. Enthusiastic guides and McClung himself are present to answer questions and tell the stories of the many statues and smaller artifacts.
Christ Child
Here are a few of my photos from our recent visit. I won’t attempt to fully-describe the pieces shown and that’s not my purpose here. Nor will I try and tell the story of the museum and its creator; that is done well on the museum’s Web site. I hope you can see what I see when I gaze at the statues and what I attempted to capture with my camera and that you can appreciate the great skill and love the restorer has bestowed upon the pieces.
Jesu – Resurrection
Yellow Asiatic Lily
First Bloom: Yellow Asiatic Lily. Last year, deer ate all of the apparently tasty lily buds before they could bloom. This year we repelled the deer long enough to enjoy this first bloom of the season.
Hailstone from Thunderstorm, June 25, 2013
The weather outside is frightful! Hot and humid days, lately, have been punctuated by strong thunderstorms. Tonight’s blew in with rushing winds, hail, rain, hail, lightning, rain, hail… you get the idea. We’re to expect more storms over the next few hours as well. What most impressed me with this evening’s first storm was the hail, the likes of which I’ve not seen in a long time, if ever. I ventured out to collect one of the stones from our patio and popped it into the freezer. A little later I shot the photo shown here with a ruler; that stone was not the exception tonight! We can use the rain but, goodness, such stormy weather!
The Storm Arrives – iPod Photo
A Cool Place on a Summer Day
A cool and ancient place is this: the deeply-undercut, rocky gorge of Chippewa Creek in Brecksville. The stream has run through this area for untold eons and has, in places, worn deep troughs through solid rock — passages for its waters. On a day like this the shadows of the rock walls offer some relief from the heat and humidity of the new summer. The curve of the creek promises new discoveries around the bend.
Hope Springs
There it was, a sprig of hope amidst the desolation of a landscape littered with broken slabs of concrete, decaying leaves, and rocks. The tiny plant was nurtured by a feeble spot of sun; sometimes that’s all it takes.
Hiding in Plain Sight
Can a yellow fire hydrant hide in plain sight by standing amongst a bunch of like-colored flowers? No. Dumb as a fire plug.
Lionfish – A Scar in Tree Bark
I was out and about this morning, enjoying the beautiful spring weather and shooting some naturescapes and scenes around town. As I was driving home, I glanced to the side and into the woods. There was a tree whose trunk was illuminated by the sun making it stand out from the surrounding shaded trees. What registered in that split-second, however, was something peculiar: an oddly-shaped scar in the smooth bark. I found the first turnaround, whipped my car about, and headed back. Parking nearby I hiked back up the road a bit, then into the edge of the woods. The tree bore a scar that had a remarkable resemblance, in my mind anyway, to a lionfish! I shot images of the tree trunk that first attracted me, then several of the scar. I’d recorded several memorable scenes this morning but, I think, my favorite may turn out to be a tree tattoo.
A Cauldron of Light at the Center
I love watching cumulus clouds billow and tower against a deep blue sky. Lately we have seen some of that with the scattered rain and thunderstorms that are a part of spring. In the early evening Sunday, the sky was changing from mostly cloudy or overcast to partly cloudy, allowing views of the cloudy blooms. I shot a good number of photos and it was difficult to choose what to show here. My shoot ended as the puffy towers passed overhead and no longer showed their profiles. A high-flying aircraft left a thin contrail, seemingly ejected from the clouds, high above it all.
Above It All
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