Floral Surprises and Snakes!

This past weekend my mom and I took our annual trip to the Art in Bloom event at The Milwaukee Art Museum. You'll probably remember how this goes from past years. Basically, people create floral arrangements to represent different pieces of art in the museum. I picked a few favorites to share here, as well as a few pieces of art that I've been meaning to blog about for some time.

So we're starting off here with what I think is a Halloweeny close up of an arrangement. I say it's Halloweeny because of all the orange, the twisted vines, and that Cock's Comb that looks a bit like a brain. I look at this and feel like it could all just slither out of the picture.

All the visitors got to vote on their favorite arrangement, and this next one got my vote. I got such a kick out of the face on that leaf. You don't have to guess how the arrangement relates to the art, do you? I always wondered about that face, like who the person was or what this all means. It feels very 80s to me with all that neon. Something funny I just realized is that the leaf face looks like it's eating some orchids.

These are some beautiful, waxy looking flowers that might be Ranunculus. I'm not sure about the fluffier one.

Now, this was an interesting display! This sculptural arrangement relates pretty clearly to the painting behind it.

I'm not sure what this creature is. A goat? It has large antlers, though. The painting hangs in at least what I call "The Haitian Room". The artist is Rigaud Benoit and the painting is titled Flower Carnival. That's a cool title, although it isn't giving me any clues about this creature.

I thought "Tim Burton" when I saw this next display. Just Tim Burton in general - his hair, the darkness, a few random wacky bits here and there. That painting behind it is the inspiration.

I saw several pieces of art that I thought you'd all appreciate, so I'm going to include those next.

Starting with this ceramic set. Did you know that there's black Wedgwood out there? I didn't. How cool is this? It looks like a tea set that's been painted with modern charcoal paint. Hmm... a little inspiration is forming.

And how cool is this little swamp creature? He was kind of an unexpected little gargoyle on the vessel. I assume he's just someone's idea of a fish, but I'm going to see him as a little swamp creature.

Just as I was approaching this, I overheard a woman say exactly what I was thinking "That looks like Cousin Itt".

Doesn't this metal Cousin Itt cast an interesting shadow?

I've been meaning to share this painting for a while, because I thought you'd all appreciate it. It's titled Outstanding European. Why do you think that is? The artist is Ross Bleckner and it was created in 1989. For some reason I thought it would be a lot older.

I think this is a fairly realistic looking snake. I took these pics through a glass case, but I think they came out fairly clear, considering that.

Here's another view of him kinda sneaking around the back, which is for some reason a little cute to me.

Sssss... This is another one that is newer than expected. This Snake Jug was created in 1991. For some reason, I thought it would be 100 years old. There are two artists listed, Michael and Melvin Crocker, so I guess this was a collaboration?

There's a friend for this snake in the museum! And this one is an older snake. It was created in 1908 by Oscar Spencer. It's titled Snake. So yeah, pretty straight forward.

Looks like its tongue is made of wire.

I took this photo in a room that is made to look like an antique collection of objects a woman has collected in her travels. To my mind, it looks Victorian. You know, the way Victorians collected. I could have taken a photo of many details in this room, but I really liked these lamps. They have a sort of Disney's Haunted Mansion vibe to them.

This one is a little hard to explain if you haven't seen the sculpture. There are a series of glass spheres in a row, and depending on where you stand they show up as bright colored. They're in a rainbow order. And the way the reflection works is, you see yourself upside down in these spheres as you approach them. So that's me upside down taking that pic and my mom coming up behind me.

I'll end with one last flower photo. This is one of my favorites and I might print it out. I like those beautiful orange Halloween roses with the dark edges.

I hope you guys enjoyed this year's trip to the "Art in Bloom" show at the museum! It was a much needed visit with some live plants. Would you believe we had several inches of snow fall only two days ago? It's all gone now, and hopefully we can soon look forward to seeing some flowers actually growing out of the ground!

Goya's dark, symbolic etchings

I had a surprise treat at the art museum the other day. There was an exhibit of Francisco de Goya's aquatints/etchings displayed and the surprise was that I was into a lot of them! I've never thought of myself as a big Goya fan. When I think of him, I usually only think of his painting The Third of May 1808. That is one striking painting, in the way where you feel almost a physical reaction to it. I feel like the wind has been knocked out of me when I look at it.

So that's the feeling I had about Goya when going into this. I thought "Here we go". Stepping into the first room, I was shocked to see how tiny many of the etchings were. Some were made by other artists, and were probably there to show how their work compared with or inspired Goya. One piece was so tiny, it must have been no larger than a business card! There were little magnifying glasses out for us to use, so we could see all the tiny details.

Most of the Goya pieces were larger, probably something like 8x10" or 11x14". I feel like I've seen this one somewhere before, maybe online. It's titled The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters and was made in 1798-98. Actually, all of the pieces you're going to see here were made at that time.

When I looked at this, I was struck with a thought I often have: "They were drawing things like this back then?" Which is probably pretty silly. Because, why wouldn't they be? There's really no reason for someone not to be creating art like this in the late 1700s, it's just surprising to me for whatever reason.

Check out all the wild creatures behind the man! There are owls, that black cat perched behind him, lots and lots of bats, and whatever that creepy feline is that's lounging on the floor. Sort of a googly-eyed lynx? That critter is the weirdest of them all. The man in this etching is actually a self-portrait of Goya, himself.

According to the information next to this piece, the animals symbolize "folly, ignorance, and evil". I don't know about the folly and ignorance, but I'm seeing the evil. The written information goes on to say that this art suggests "the contrast between reason and superstition". So when reason takes a nap, folly, ignorance, and evil come out to play. Without this description, I would have seen this as a portrait of a man having a nightmare.

This next one, Here comes the Bogeyman, is another that seems really modern to me. I guess people have been playing in the same ways forever really.

This one would be kind of cute, if it was just the person in the sheet and the adult woman looking kind of amused/pretending to be afraid. But the kids! OK, one looks petrified and that other little gremlin... That kid is scarier than whatever is under the sheet. Woo!

Hush reminds me a lot of that scene in Disney's Snow White when the Evil Queen/Wicked Witch is creeping around in her cloak getting ready to give Snow White the poison apple. Although, I'm not really sure who the devious one is here. This scene looks sinister all around.

Now, this last one! This genuinely creeps me out. I'm not even sure why. OK, the title is probably a good part of it. It's titled Don't Scream, Stupid. Not the kind of title you expect in the late 1700s, right?

I don't even know where to begin with what's going on here or why it disturbs me so much. Are these evil, floating gnomes? And why does that woman look like she's smiling in a surprised sort of way, given this title?

Wanting some answers, I looked up Los Caprichos, which is the name of a series of 80 aquatints and etchings that these are a part of.

Here's the Wikipedia page for Los Caprichos: Los Caprichos Wiki

Every one of the 80 pieces is shown on the Wiki page. I warn you that some of these are fairly dark. I chose to only photograph the ones I thought were cool and spooky, in that way where they look like they're illustrating a fairy tale. Some of the others are dark and disturbing in a realistic way.

Goya's intention with Los Caprichos was to show what he took issue with in Spanish society. It turns out this series was a little too scathing of the culture, especially that of the church, because Goya had to withdraw the series soon after presenting it. He later wrote that he withdrew the Los Caprichos because of the Inquisition.

I'm interested to hear anyone's thoughts on the etchings here or on the Wiki page. I haven't found much information about the meaning of these as individual pieces, just people analyzing the collection as a whole.

This is somewhat unrelated, but I picked up an interesting book at the library a few days ago. Villains, Scoundrels, and Rogues:

Sounds intriguing, doesn't it? I found this book accidentally while sitting on the library floor, between some bookshelves. I was sitting down, looking through my purse for my keys, library card, etc. and glanced over to see this. This book looks nearly pristine and I think that's in part because you'd have to sit on the floor to see it! It's kind of funny to put a row of books that low to the ground, if you'd like anyone to run into them. Anyway, how could I pass up a title like this? Have any of you read this one? I've only paged through the contents so far. The book is split into three sections, one for the villains, one for the scoundrels, and one for the rogues.

The names I recognize in the villains section are pretty intense. Those wouldn't be good bedtime stories! The scoundrels look like random and kind of wacky characters. The person who stands out to me in that section is "Squirrel Tooth Alice". I'll probably skip right to her story. As for the rogues, they're sounding like something off that show American Greed.

This book should make for some good summertime reading! Not that it's technically summer yet, even if it feels like it! But you know what I mean, it has those juicy, drama-filled, dangerous kind of stories. And they're all true! I'll let you guys know what I think of this book after giving it a read.

Beautiful and Dangerous Nature

Hey everyone! It's been a while since I've been blogging, because it finally thawed out around here and I have to be outside! Can you believe we had snow in late April and today we had over 80° weather? Because I haven't been checking in here much, I've ended up with a number of things to share. So this is going to be one of those Justine's favorites kind of blog posts.

Something I wanted to be sure and share with you guys was a display from last month's Art in Bloom at the Milwaukee Art Museum. You might remember Art in Bloom from past years. If not, it's a wonderful show of flower arrangements that are interpretations of the art.

This arrangement was in the Haitian gallery space. Check out that skull!

This display had a lot of exotic looking plants in it. I actually took a photo of the plant list, because some of these were new to me. I was especially interested in the spidery or octopus looking one in front. This one:

After googling pics of every plant on this list, I didn't find it. So if any of you know what that plant is, please let me know! Here's the flower list:

This is the painting that goes with the floral display, Baron Le Croix (Bawon Lakwa) by André Pierre. If you read the "Designer Statement" at the bottom of the flower list, you'll understand a little bit about the painting and the symbolism. Although, I'm pretty sure you guys had a general idea of what's going on here.

It's worth reading this brief paragraph about Baron La Croix:

Baron La Croix Wiki Page

"The ultimate suave and sophisticated spirit of death" How about that?

Speaking of new and spooky flowers, I saw these little cuties in the woods a few days ago. I was told that these are Bloodroot, and from a google search it would appear that's correct. They don't look like they'd be called Bloodroot, do they? But from what I just read, the juice from this plant is both red and poisonous. And the flowers look so innocent!

If you'd like to read more: Bloodroot Wiki Page

If you read down to the "Toxicity" section on that page, you'll learn why you shouldn't mess with this plant! What I read here is actually pretty scary. To put it simply, do not apply this to your skin because it will destroy your tissue. Don't ingest this or you might vomit or pass out. And you might want to check your mouthwash for "sanguinaria" (another name for Bloodroot) because it could lead to oral cancer down the road. Wow! Nature can be pretty powerful and not always in the best of ways.

Another find in the park was this "Tree Bracket Fungus". I would have called it Seashell Fungus. Don't these look like shells?

From what I've been reading, some of these are not super healthy for trees, but people have turned this bracket or shelf fungi into art. Evidently, it's super hard and makes a good painting surface. If you google "Tree Bracket Fungus Art" you'll see some pretty cool examples.

In other nature news, some of you may have seen this little zebra spider when I shared it on Twitter.

I blogged about these once before. Some fun trivia about zebra spiders is that they don't make webs. Instead, they sneak up and pounce on their little insect victims like a cat! By the way, these spiders are much smaller than this one appears! They're like half the size of a normal ant. Ah, the magic of cropping.

This next picture was scary for me only because I didn't see more than one deer with my eyes before taking it. Then I looked at my camera screen in surprise! There were six deer that I could see, standing out in the open. But those behind this obvious deer totally blended in to the trees. Deer aren't exactly scary, but not realizing there are extra eyes upon you is!

Now that I'm studying this photo, I don't even know if I'm seeing more eyes in the woods! I think I may have just spotted a fifth head back there. I ended up seeing a good 10 in this herd, but who knows how many were actually there.

Onto a view of the outdoors at night. These are pics of the last two full moons we've had. They appeared very differently!

March 31 ~ The Sap Moon:

April 29 ~ The Pink Moon:

It's worth reading this page: Full Moon Names if you'd like to learn why each full moon has the name it does. I hope you guys enjoyed seeing my past month or so in little pieces. I'm finding it fun to write this way, with a little of this and a little of that. Let me know if you guys are seeing any new and interesting plants or insects. Everything is popping out now!

Antique beer steins you won't believe

I saw a totally unexpected display at The Milwaukee Art Museum last weekend. It's not surprising to see sculptural beer steins in a Milwaukee museum, but the subject matter was a surprise. I bet a lot of you are coveting this right now:

Isn't this skull stein amazingly well crafted? It looks like a real skull. It dates from 1900 and has some interesting history, which I learned from a gallery label. I just learned that "label" is the word used for descriptive signs in a gallery.  So, according to the label, skull steins were a common gift for a college graduate! The skull is shown on a book. The Latin on the book reads "Let us rejoice while we are young".

This inscription is the beginning of a hymn "On the shortness of life" which according to the label, is commonly sung at European graduation ceremonies. Is that true? I'm asking anyone living in Europe, who might know. The skull stein was a bit of a joke for the graduate. I think in a "Drink up! Life is short!" sort of way.

Check out the back of the skull, 1/2 Ltr. mark, and bone handle:

Some people might find that skull creepy, but in my view the creepiest stein went by the name of the "Happy Radish".

Yikes! I don't know how happy it is, but it sure looks menacing. I can almost hear an evil little laugh coming out of this. Can you imagine having this happy radish on display where you live? At night, especially! The happy radish was also made in 1900. As the label next to it reminds the viewer "Salted, thinly sliced radishes were a common beer hall snack". So that's it, this is the look of a radish with revenge on its mind!

See? Looking at the radish and the skull side by side, isn't the radish scarier?

This next one is creepy too, but only because of the lighting. I'm sure it would look noble, maybe even kindly if it was sitting in a nice setting, in the sunlight. This is "Father John" and he was also created in 1900.

OK, looking at him again, there is one creepy detail that no amount of good lighting could disguise. You'd have to pop the top off his cranium to drink your beer!

This "Elf" stein, also made in 1900, is nearing cuteness.

There were a few animal steins too. I thought this owl was pretty cool. It reminds me of those fake owls people put out in their yards.

It's not titled "Owl Stein" but is instead titled "2036". Anyone have an idea of what that's about? Maybe it was the 2,036th owl stein someone made? This one was made in 1897. I looked at a Latin to English translation page and learned that Bibite = Drink. I figured the word was Latin after learning that the words under the skull were in Latin.

There was a pig that was just not doing it for me. Just meh. It's called the "Singing Pig Stein" and dates from 1900. Not sure if it looks like it is singing. Maybe.

And a funny pug, which I'm on the fence with. Part of me is thinking "cute!" and part of me isn't sure about those eyes. I'm sure pug people would be into it.

The pug stein is dated from 1891, but its title is "2018". I found that kind of spooky, given that it is 2018. I thought it was wild that someone made this stein in 1891, named it "2018", and in the actual 2018, here I am photographing it. I think if someone told the artist who made this in 1891, that someone would be photographing it with a newfangled camera 127 later, they'd think that was as cool as I think it is.

This frog stein is my favorite, along with the skull. It's so glossy! I like frogs, especially frogs with funny body language. He looks like he's saying "You'd like to take a picture of Moi?" This stein was made in 1900.

Another view of the frog, because I like him so much:

If you're curious about the back view:

It spooked me to see that face in the reflection just now, but then I remembered that it's "Father John".

All of these steins have held up so well over the years! As you've probably all guessed, each stein was made in Germany.

Something funny happened while I was photographing these steins. This has probably happened to those of you who take a lot of photos too. I was in this out of the way gallery space, in a dimly lit area, photographing beer steins, when a woman came in, stood next to me, and started taking the same photos I was! She eventually left and a few minutes later a man came over and did the same! Neither of them said a word to me. I should also mention that there were amazing pieces of art nearby that they both completely bypassed.

I have this theory that people want to take a photo of something, but they don't know what might be important in a museum or at a historical site. So when they see someone in full concentration, taking photos of something, they come over and join in. They don't want to miss the possibly "important" gallery piece, etc. Now, I obviously knew what I was going to do with these photos. As soon as I saw that skull, I ran over thinking "blog post!" but I have to wonder what those other people will do with their photos.

Anyway, what do you guys think of these steins? Would you want any of them around as decorations or to drink from? I liked the skull and the frog. Imagine how neat those two would look sitting out at Halloween! 🎃

P.S. ~ If you'd like to read a detailed history of beer steins, I have just the page for you: A Brief History of Beer Steins 

If you read that page, you'll learn some interesting trivia, like the reason beer steins have lids.