My Artsy Side – An Image & A Story
Having Art In My Heart
All the other things about living life outside the main stream.
I have seen a lot of these yellow fields in my travels across America, but this is probably the biggest one I have come across. I can only imagine that it is a mustard seed field. I really wanted to take one more tour through our neighbors to the north, but it just wasn’t to be so. But, I have hundreds of photos of past trips that will continue to be presented here.
One thing that is very mandatory at all reenactments is campfires with the always present big pot of coffee.
I visited the Salvador Dali museum in St. Petersburg in 2022. It was the last time I saw my brother. I was just starting my 4,000-mile final visit to the south and southwest U.S. One of my goals for the trip was to try to understand abstract art. Dali was one of the founding fathers of that genre.
I appreciated the atmosphere but was most enamored of the stairwells, as shown above. They just spoke to me.
Now that I have decided to continue my “Mosaic of Life” posts, I need to fill in some blanks. The Basset Hound on the leach is Beulah. She had a fenced in yard that she roamed unleashed, but she did also love to explore other territories. She was my last pet, and my second favorite. (Sam, who was a dachshund, was my first personal pet was my first.)
When Beulah and I were having our “outside the yard” adventure, Rocky would frequently show up. Rocky was a Pitbull and one of the sweetest of all Beulah’s friends. He lived about three doors down, which was a quarter of a mile down the road. I don’t know how he knew we were doing our thing, but he frequently showed up to say hi.
I still vividly remember the story behind this mosaic. As shown above, it was taken in July of 2012. We were leaving our third and last trip to Mesa Verde and decided to tour more of Utah. About a month before this trip I got this new 2012 firely orange Chevy Sonic. I had to go to a dealer about 80 miles from home to get it as no local dealers had one.
When I bought it I realized that it was probably the last vehicle I would purchase, and indeed I still have it thirteen years later. When we were driving down the road there were red buttes, or whatever you call them, and part of my brain lit up and said “you gotta get a picture of them as a backdrop for my Sassy Sonic. I think they compliment each other very well. 😁
Since I have decided that my “Mosaic of Life” is more than a one-year project, it’s time to fill in some missing pieces. Let’s start with the first one.
I know this is post #153 in my Mosaic directory, but it is the first picture I have of my existence on this earth. The other person in the picture is my big brother, Ronnie. For the first nine years of my life, I constantly looked up to him for the lessons he could teach me. Then, he was abruptly taken from me when my mother took him and abandoned the rest of us.
Ronnie was later named Jim from an adoption by mom’s 3rd husband. My dear brother passed away in 2022, two months after my last visit to him. Since he lived 1500 miles away, that visit was only the third one I had had with him over the years. I always wonder what my life would have been like if he had been around more to help me with my ever-present adversities.
I think the internet is making us sniveling babies when it comes to hardships. Now days if you want a job all you have to do is get on line and search for likely possibilities. One hundred years ago during the Great Depression, the above mosaic was just about the only path to employment. Standing on a street corner with a cardboard sign, hoping someone would notice.
The image here was taken at the Woody Guthrie Museum in Tulsa Oklahoma. It is one of my favorite places. This Land Is Your Land written by Woody should be our national anthem.
This picture was taken during my bachelor years when I roamed the country in my self-made camper van. It was taken in southwest Colorado at the 10,000 foot level.
I think this mosaic was the last time that I had to plow my 400′ driveway. It was at least 8 inches of snow that day. I was a 66 year-old youngster at the time, so I was up to it. My 25hp Craftsman tractor with a 54″ blade did the job in under an hour.
I can’t say for sure, but there were only a couple of time after that that it snowed enough to use my rig with the concrete blocks on back for ballast.
(click the image to see an enlarged view)
As I am writing this post, it is 32 degrees and snowing outside. So, I think it is about time to dust off some pictures from the homestead years (2000-2021). This picture was in the middle of those years. I think I counted 18 birds in the photo and all of them are cardinals. There were also dozens more in the bushes around the garden. The safflower seeds are probably primarily responsible for that crowd loving our feeders.
Birds Of A Feather, Flock Together
I never tire of giving you yet another picture from one of my many trips to Pleasant Hill Shaker Village. I really don’t know how many times I have visited this site. Whenever I feel down and just want to get away, this is usually my destination.
Shaker furniture, which I love, is usually known for its simplicity, but there are many places throughout the village that demonstrate the complexity and its corresponding beauty of their crafts. The stairwell in the Trustee’s Office is certainly one of those places.
Parke County Indiana has more than its share of covered bridges, and I have visited most of them. But, perhaps this one is my favorite. It was taken from a weathered window at the bottom of the Bridgeton Mill.
Parke County is home to Indiana’s Largest Festival, The Parke County Covered Bridge Festival™ and “The Covered Bridge Capital of the World” with 31 Covered Bridges found in the county.
(click the images to see enlarged views)
Pittsburgh is very much a “working man’s town.” One day on a trip to Philadelphia, we made a one-hour tour through some Pittsburgh’s legendary neighborhoods that haven’t changed much in the last 100 years.
The picture here is what my mind’s eye sees when I think of Pittsburgh. A crude steel bridge in need of paint, and the houses 3 feet apart with the almost obligatory front porch.
It’s been almost 50 years since the last steel mill left Pittsburgh, but it is still known as “Steel City”. The smog and grit are long gone, but the attitude still remains.
One of the most memorable sites to see in this gritty town is the Heinz Museum, which is an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institute. I’m sure “Three Rivers Stadium” is higher on the list for all you sports fans, For you, try to visit both.
And then there is the PRIMANTI BROS. Sports Bar with their “must have” hamburger piled high with coleslaw and french fries on two slices of Italian bread. I was there in an off-time, meaning no Pittsburgh sporting event on any of the dozens of TVs that line the place.
Here’s to you Pittsburgh for maintaining your “steel mill” culture long after the steel mills have left town.
Old Quebec is a fortified town retaining its colonial architecture from over 400 years ago. “Fortified” means it still has the defensive works that protected it from attacks. We didn’t visit Quebec but were fascinated by the original version
The picture above is actually painted on an existing brick facade in Old Quebec. The attention to detail was remarkable. The only part of the picture that was actually real was the green fence that kept visitors defacing the work of art.
One thing I didn’t really appreciate was the retailers in the shops were told not to speak any English as it pollutes the meaning of the place. I guess that is the inherited French arrogance that seems to be natural with that language.
(just for the heck of it, I thought I would bring a post from my other blog at RJsMosaic to RJsCorner. This one has a deep philosophical thought 😎)
In my days before I put aside the idea of life after death, I wondered what I would look like when I went to heaven. Would I be an old guy as when I die, or maybe a baby starting all over again. Or maybe the bigger question is what do I want to look like? I answer that question with the blurry photo above.
The photo was taken soon after a major life change of being married. Before that, I had lived 16 years in the LOMO mode (Life On My Own). I gave up even the idea of being part of a married couple. Married life lasted for 36 years, and ended three years ago when the only love of my life died.
I don’t look at myself in a philosophical light much, but when I see my image in the mirror, the far reaches of my mind expects to see this 42-year-old image, instead of the hunched-over old practically bald guy with a white goatee staring back at me.
I will close off this post with one of my favorite Mark Twain quotes.
It seems like it was yesterday that I was watching the Spring flowers bloom. But, with the temps going done into the low 40s again, I know winter is on the way. This picture was taken in January 2007. Winters here in the Midwest were much more severe then than they are now.
I really can’t remember when the last time we had a snowstorm greater than 3 inches. It was probably 2015 or so. Surely, even the naysayers can no longer deny global warming? With the Southwest being in the 100s for much of the year, and with so few snowstorms in the Midwest, it won’t be long before we are THE destination for retirement. I’m not sure if that is a good thing or not?
“My Mind’s Eye” is one of the most descriptive phrases I have ever come across. To me, it is more than just a visual element—it’s packed with symbolism. Typically, the eye represents perception, consciousness, and awareness. In this context, it can also be seen as a metaphor for seeing deeper than just the surface. But, in other contexts, it is our inner eye that sees, thinks, imagines, dreams, feels, and senses things about your inner and the outer world.
To me, I see my Mind’s Eye as my creative soul.
It drives our childlike compassion to see things differently than the rest of the world.
Getting to the physical side of mental imagery, I found it fascinating the about 1% of people have no ability to form visual images in their minds, while almost 3% can vividly see images. Most of us are stuck somewhere in between.
I was a weird kid in unimaginable ways. So my first real thoughts about “My Mind’s Eye” came from Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
Anyway, the picture above is what my mind’s eye saw as what my cluttered mind looks like on a typical day. The glass sculpture was in the lobby of the Milwaukee Art Museum in 2007. It is about 12 ft tall and probably 5 ft wide. When I walked in the door, I saw nothing else for in unimaginable period of time.
Mosaic #136 is from the Iowa State Historical Museum, in Des Moines, Iowa. There were many unique pieces there, including a “Box of eggs” that is one of my favorites. But, one thing I was fascinated with was the staircase as shown above.
From a very young age, I was fascinated by architecture. I can still draw the floor plan for any of the 17 different places I have lived in my 78-year life. The first one we moved out of when I was 4-years-old. That should have given me a clue as to what I should have become in the business world, but since we lived mostly hand-to-mouth through my college school years, I never considered that a possibility.
A major part of my life since those years has been visiting historical sites. I haven’t taken many photos of people, but I have a pretty big collection of historical buildings, and buildings that house historical things. I wasn’t able to become an architect, but I have managed to make it a serious hobby that I see as needing documentation here at RJsMosaic. As a matter of fact, I think RJsMosaic as a whole needs to be able to be sorted into different collections. I think I will put in some serious time this coming winter to make that happen.
The picture above is synergy in the making. The two reenactors are from an event in Indiana, while the background is from Ft. Bridger in Wyoming. Putting the two together makes an image better than either alone.
I know there are purists who think this sort of thing almost sacrilegious, since I made up the reality. But, isn’t that what creativity is all about, seeing through your Mind’s Eye, instead of what might be in front of you?
Being that one of my main road trip events were annual reenactments, I simply couldn’t eliminate all the other visitors in my photos. So, the logical fix was the above. Even if you are a purist, I think you will agree that this picture is better than the two reenactors walking around hundreds of people eating corndogs and slurping drinks from paper cups.
I took this picture at the same place as yesterday’s post. The cattails, they are called reeds in Canada, just spoke to me. This is one of those instances that the on-line photo is actually better than the original, but I can’t explain why.
We were about halfway through our 2011 Canadian adventure when we happened upon an Acadian village in New Brunswick, Canada. It was a very interesting place, but in my mind the star of it all was the old greeter above who welcomed us to his home.
He must have heard us rustling about and thought he would take a peek. I wished him well, and congratulated him for all the obvious winters he had survived there. He didn’t have much to say, but was still there when we left the building next to his home. Every time I view the photos from this visit, I joyfully remember my forever Canadian friend
During my travels across America, I have become fascinated with containers found in old-time general stores. This was probably the most complete store shelf I ever ran across. It was in The Museum of Appalachia near Norris, Tennessee. That is one of the top 10 places I have visited.
I have probably spent hours looking at zoomed versions of this photo.
Mystic is simple mystical. It is perhaps the most beautiful place along the Atlantic seaboard.
Ever since I saw the 1988 movie “Mystic Pizza” , Mystic has been on my bucket list. The movie was the first one for Julie Roberts, and it certainly wasn’t her last.
But, of course, there is much more to Mystic than pizza. The mosaic above is a transformed photo of the harbor area.
Mystic is a village and census-designated place in Groton and Stonington, Connecticut. Mystic was a significant Connecticut seaport with more than 600 ships built over 135 years starting in 1784.
Wikipedia
One of the things I always did when I visited State Capitals, was to get a picture of the capital domes. I need to make a collage of all those images to make them a mosaic of mosaics for this site. I think I have visited almost all the capitals except for Hawaii and Alaska.
But I have to admit that this picture I took in September 2022 is probably my favorite dome picture. Of course, the statue was on the first floor, but it blended quite nicely with the dome above. Before this trip, I had been through Connecticut several times but never really saw the sites. I treated it pretty much like a pass-through State. This 2022 trip was made with Connecticut as the primary destination. Of course, I took many pictures, and I’m sure some of them will end up as mosaics of their own.
On the way home I went through northern New York. When most people think of New York, they think of NYC. The vast majority of the State is TOTALLY different from that perception. Albany, the capital, has a small-town feel that very much appealed to this small-town boy. If you want to get a quick look, go to mosaic #115 for a dramatized view of a city street in Albany.
Anyone who has visited Seattle, Washington has likely been to the Pike Place Fish Company. After our Inner Passage boat trip to Alaska in 2006, we spent 4 days in the Seattle/Vancouver seeing the sites. I must admit, I enjoyed Pike Place more than the Space Needle. Yes, they do throw fish around like they do when you see them on TV. They do it up to 200/day!
One of my favorite parts of my 2011 month-long trip through Eastern Canada was Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island (PEI). They were full of history, beauty, and good food. Anne of Green Gables has always been one of my favorite stories. It is a fictitious story about a young orphan who is mistakenly sent to live with an aging brother and sister on Prince Edward Island in the late 1800s. The heroine, Anne Shirley, is a red-haired, freckle-faced girl full of imagination and spirit.
I have always been for the underdog and especially with those who seem to live in a world of their own. I think I have seen three remakes of Anne of Green Gables over the years, and loved each one.
PEI is simply a beautiful place and has the best mussels I have ever tasted. I ate three servings of them at one dinner during our visit there. Unfortunately, my wife got sick while we were touring the area, and we were forced to leave early. I was hoping to get back to PEI again, but unfortunately that has likely passed.
Another part of this trip I will be talking about soon is the Citadel and a couple of other places in Nova Scotia
To close out this post, I want to give you a couple of pictures of PEI.
I have given you several “reflections ” posts from Ottawa Canada. Even though Ottawa has these types of pics in spades, the U.S. has its share too. The mosaic above is one of the most dramatic reflections mosaics I have in my portfolio. We visited there in July of 2014 a little over a month after the site opened. The World Trade Center pools are (shown here) brought back many memories of our visits to those fallen buildings.
When we lived in New Jersey from 1996 – 2000, I got the distinct impression that the average New Yorker didn’t really like those buildings. They considered them an eyesore on the skyline. But, then came Sept 11, 2001 and that totally changed. Besides the “Windows on the World” restaurant at the top of one of the buildings, I remember what was probably the longest escalator in the world going from the trains to the street level.
I have never been to London, but I have seen much of it when I watch “House Hunters International” while eating my daily lunch. And of course, I am currently watching the latest version of The Crown on Netflix. So, when I visited Canada’s National Capital in Ottawa, I could see similarities between the two. The picture above just spews out pomp and circumstance to me. I think that door was to the National Library, but I could be wrong.
We spent 3 days in Ottawa in 2011, and enjoyed it very much. I have shown you numerous mosaics of what I call Reflections (old buildings reflecting off the newer glass buildings in the area.) I, personally, can’t appreciate the centuries old traditions that they hold so dear. To me, that just reminds me of the aristocracy/privilege of ancient times.
The picture above is one of the few I have of myself during my college years. It was taken in my Sophomore year in 1966 outside my Quonset hut type dormitory at Purdue University. The photo is a copy of a copy of a copy so it is quite blurry. My college years were a time that a young/shy/naive boy finally grew up.
When I first went to college in 1965, I had been saving up for two years to pay for it. I got jobs wherever I could find them. It was mostly farm work including putting up hay in the summers and working in a gas station at other times. My first day there, I quickly realized that I didn’t have enough money to fully pay for the second semester, so getting a job was mandatory.
Before you ask, I couldn’t get student loans as my mother, when she abandoned us ten years before had subsequently married a rich lawyer. It was the 2nd of her 5 marriages. Being that she was an extreme narcissists (like you know who) she never offered to help me with my college expenses, and since her husband had such a large income, I didn’t qualify for student loans. It was the perfect Catch 22.
I found the job in the dormitory cafeteria. I would work there almost forty hours a week for the five years I was in college. I started out mostly doing “P&P”, that is scrubbing pots and pans and there were lots of them. Since I wasn’t particularly comfortable with social stuff. That was the perfect job for me. The cafeteria served about 1500 meals a day, except on Sunday when it only served about 600. By the time I was a senior, I in charge of the waitstaff of about 70 people.
Working about 40 hours/week in the cafeteria and storeroom, along with 50 – 84 hours/week in summer jobs almost paid for all 5 years I was there. I found out the first semester I was there that it was just not possible to take a full college load. If I did, there was simply no time for sleep, so that is why I spent 5 years to graduate.
The picture was wearing my usual daily stuff, white jeans and a T-shirt. I had a couple of flannel shirts to keep warm in the winter months along with a heavy coat.
I have this thing for brick walls. They are quickly becoming a thing of the past, as most remodels seem to dictate that they be hidden with paint. The same thing seems to also go with varnished wood. Oak cabinets and kitchens have to be covered with paint, or it will be deemed “my grandma’s kitchen”. Everything must be synthetic and painted over now.
Ok, enough of my lament, let’s get on to my obsession with brick walls. This one was found in Paoli, Indiana. It especially drew my attention as much of the brick was covered with concrete. It likely wasn’t to hide the brick, but rather to stabilize the wall from crumbling down. Since texture is also one of my fetishes, this picture is a double-whammy for me.
I discovered Flaming Gorge, Utah during my trip to the Ft Bridger Rendezvous in 2018. Ft. Bridger was on my bucket list for more years than I can remember. It was the first fur traders rendezvous in the U.S. I will be putting out a mosaic on that site soon. This one is dedicated to the adventures of traveling in a 30+ year old pickup across some of the peaks of the Rocky Mountains.
When I left the Fort Bridger Rendezvous in 2018, I decided to take a 55 mile scenic route through the Rocky Mountains instead of using the closest Interstate. That meant taking State roads through Utah. It seemed like a good time, and it was some of the most beautiful real estate in the U.S. But, one thing I didn’t consider was that I was in a 26 year old truck with 100,000+ miles on it. Getting up some of those mountains were a struggle for my µRV. I was in the middle of this trek when I came across the view above. The truck was on the verge of overheating so I decided to spend almost an hour taking in the landscape. That proved to be the most peaceful part of the trip.
I am still enjoying all the photos I took from my March trip to an Indiana University greenhouse. There was such a variety of plants there. Even though I have seriously been taking photos of flowers and such, I haven’t really done much studying to know the names and varieties. I think I kinda just enjoy the artsy side of this new hobby. They do make some interesting mosaics, don’t they?
I don’t know if the above plant is some sort of Medusa or if it is just dead? Either way is just fine with me. BTW… I purposely took the pic with all the infrastructure in the background. That shows that it is a working greenhouse. I like that.
I am coming to believe that sometimes the most beautiful things are the simplest and smallest things. The subtle colors above draw me in
I love this “pen & ink” version of cityscape mosaic, so I am going to add it as a stand alone topic here at RJsMosaic. One of the prerequisites of this new category of “Cityscapes (Pen & Ink)” is that the image must contain historic buildings and infrastructure/utilities. Another is it must represent the character of the area where it was taken.
I know I have quite a few of these type pictures of Pittsburgh and I will be seeking out more of these pictures these type cityscapes from my roadtrips across America. The picture above was taken just down the road from the New York State Museum.
Albany, New York is a city of less then 100,000 population that is surrounded by woodsy rural areas. How it became the capital of New York State instead of New York City (population of 8,000,000) is worth studying.
I have been in a playful mood lately, or maybe you could call it infantile creative mood. I have been on a serious search for Artsy tools and so far have found ten good ones. This mosaic was made with one of them. I tried to clear my mind of anything of this world and just go crazy with my iPad pen. When I was done it looked like I was trying to draw a windmill. I have been watching House Hunters International quite a bit lately, so maybe that had something to do with it.
It was fun just completely letting go. I have got to do that more often.
For this mosaic, I want to talk a little about AI (artificial intelligence) and how it relates to “My Mind’s Eye”. I am a techie, but even I am getting a little disturbed about the constant presence of AI in my life. Maybe the most disturbing thing is AI is that it is becoming more and more dominant as the days and months go by. I realize that this is new stuff that will eventually settle down to some established state, but right now it just seems too pervasive.
Some say that AI will replace artists, but, I kind of have a different view of the matter.
Yes, there are now apps that can mimic those of past artists. I used one of those apps on the mosaic above to give my photograph of a Galena Illinois street a Van Gogh-ish type flavor. I had an image in my mind’s eye of what I wanted it to look like. The morphing app did a pretty good job of meeting my expectations.
That got me to thinking, is AI just another tool in the artist’s palette? In the old days, meaning 600 years ago, the only way to produce what was in the artist mind’s eye was pigmented oils of various hues. It turns out that many of those pigments proved to be very toxic, and I imagine, caused premature death for the artist. Then about 150 years ago someone invented photographs. That technology was adamantly resisted by the artists of the day, but now is considered an art form of its own. Will AI enhancement of photos eventually prove to be the same. I kinda think so.
To me, art is something that simply fulfills what the mind’s eye sees.
Does it matter if that is done with messy toxic paint of AI based apps? But, getting to the crux of the matter, AI is not a creative process, but instead it just mimics other’s creativity. So, I don’t think the analog artist is threatened that much.
When it comes to texture, I slip between two extremes. One extreme is the rough texture as shown above. The other is glass smooth, and particularly reflections. You will be seeing both in spades in the course of RJsMosaics.
The picture above was taken with one of my cameras that doesn’t have GPS, so I don’t know exactly where it was. But, I do know it was just a small town along a State road in northern Indiana. When I saw the barn, I had to turn around and get the picture to add to my collection. I can just imagine the worker who built the building years ago putting in the mortar and placing the bricks. It looks like the bricks were likely taken from a previous building. I should have went around to the front to see what the building was primarily used for. But of course, that is another coulda, woulda, shoulda I missed out on.
Who knew that full-size trees also had thorns. This picture was taken at the Indiana University Biology Greenhouse. The tree was about a foot in diameter and probably 20 feet tall.
Ottawa, which is the national capital of Canada, is one of my most favorite cities I have ever visited. One of the primary reasons is “reflections”. That is, the old and the new building coexisting and actually complimenting each other. The picture above is replicated there dozens of times. In this particular case, it is a reflection of the Parliament building.
