OCTOBER THEME DAY- SHELTER

SEEKING SHELTER

According to myth and animal symbolism, the praying mantis is a sign of good fortune. I found this one climbing around the front door of my house. *

*For more interesting facts about Mantids, click here.

For more "Shelter" photos from other CDP bloggers, click here.

GHOST SIGNS

Historical photos by Joe Drazen, Bygone Walla Walla

The following is the text of what seems to be a promotional article written in 1923 to accompany the above photo collage of the Walla Walla Candy Company. I included it because the of the old-fashioned word choice and formal tone used to describe the business. Advertising copy sure has changed over the decades!

"At the plant of the Walla Walla Candy Company candies are manufactured with great care, skill and under the most hygienic  auspices. At this plant the famous line of Bur-Bee candies are made. There is class to the Bur-Bee line; it has won its present strong position on sheer merit; one of its features is completeness. A retailer selling the line is fortified and in a position to get the trade. The Walla Walla Candy Company, selling at wholesale, successfully markets its products throughout a wide territory in this inter-mountain Pacific Northwest. Its payroll is one worthwhile to its home city and in every way it is a creditable and well conducted manufacturing establishment."

WILD GEESE

You do not have to be good

You do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.

Tell me about your despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across the landscapes,

over the prairies and the deep trees,

the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting--

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.

--Mary Oliver

SUMMER IS . . .

GOING . . .

GOING . . .

GONE . . .

CARNIVAL

Whitman's Public Art

Carnival, by nationally known Pop artist Jim Dine, is one of 20+ sculptures located throughout the Whitman campus. 

This headless abstract version of the classic Venus de Milo was installed in 1997 and stands in a prominent spot across the street from the Administration Building along Boyer Avenue. It is part of a body of sculptural work in which Dine has dramatically reinterpreted one of western culture's most prominent portrayals of feminine beauty. 

Dine used a chainsaw to create the sculpture from the trunk of a tree, and then cast the tree in bronze at the world renowned Walla Walla Foundry.

According to one source, "In all of his depictions of the Venus de Milo . . .the head has been removed. However, all the other compositional components of the original have been retained: the left leg juts forward while the right one receded; drapery covers the legs; the pivoted upper torso is exposed; and the arms remain lost to time."

MATILDE ON HER WAY TO THE MARKET

A Curious Public Sculpture

I have driven past this sculpture that stands in front of the Walla Walla Public Library hundreds of times but have never taken the time to stop and take a close-up look. 

Mea culpa! Look what I've been missing!

“Matilde” by native Colombian artist Nano Lopez is a colorful and festive bronze sculpture of a cow carrying local produce to market. But this is no ordinary cow! The abundant use of surface texture turns a close examination into a scavenger hunt for numbers, letters, shapes and other natural and man-made motifs that all vie for the viewer's attention.

 A knob-topped round vessel. . .

. . .dotted hindquarters . . .

 . . .machine gears . . .

. . .  and old computer parts . . .

. . . a frog . . .

 . . .a native Colombian bird . . .

. . .and a green lizard in the see-through belly. . .

I wonder what they all mean?

To see the artist and hear what he says about his sculpture, click here.

LABOR RELIEF

Canaday Technology Center

Walla Walla University, College Place, WA

I stumbled across this relief last week when I had business in this building on the campus of Walla Walla University in College Place. Because I am not familiar with the buildings at WWU, this artwork came as a big surprise. Since then I have attempted to research the artist and story behind this relief as well as the name 'Canaday' but so far with no result.

Only today when looking through my recent photos did I realize its appropriateness for a Labor Day posting. (I realize it may be a day late for some viewers, but it's still Monday in Walla Walla.)

IT'S RAINING, IT'S POURING!

Hallelujah!

Half the temperature of a month ago.

HE LOVES ME, HE LOVES ME NOT

The Potential for Many New Loves