Runaway Feeling

© copyright Linda Swanson all rights reserved

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A photograph of my nephew, Robby, having fun in the surf.

A mountain is composed of tiny grains of earth. The ocean is made up of tiny drops of water. Even so, life is but an endless series of little details, actions, speeches, and thoughts. And the consequences whether good or bad of even the least of them are far-reaching. 

Sivananda

Scream and Shout

© copyright Linda Swanson all rights reserved

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There's nothing like spending a July afternoon on an inner tube on a Colorado river! Ahh, the exciting days of summer.

"Swift or smooth, broad as the Hudson or narrow enough to scrape your gunwales, every river is a world of its own, unique in pattern and personality.  Each mile on a river will take you further from home than a hundred miles on a road." 

Bob Marshall

Twisted

© copyright Linda Swanson all rights reserved

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The Eleanor Blake Kirkpatrick Memorial Tower was commissioned in 1999 to be the signature sculpture of the Oklahoma City Museum of Art in the Donald W. Reynolds Visual Arts Center. The Tower stands as a memorial to the late Eleanor Blake Kirkpatrick, a Museum founder. It is one of the largest Chihuly towers in the world, occupying the three-story atrium in the Museum’s main lobby. The Tower is 55 ft. tall, 7′ 6″ in diameter, and is mounted on a black granite reflecting pool. It is comprised of 2,100 individually blown glass parts, held together by a seven piece steel armature, or spine, with 2,100 individual forks, and weighs 20,000 pounds. Illuminated 24 hours a day, The Tower rises as a beacon for Museum visitors. It is one of the many tower-type sculptures Chihuly has made since 1996, of which no two are alike.   Dale Chihuly's practice of putting together teams of artists with exceptional glassblowing skills has led to the development of complex, multipart sculptures of dramatic beauty and scale that place him in the leadership role of moving blown glass out of the confines of the small, precious object and into the realm of large-scale sculpture and environmental art. In fact, Chihuly deserves much of the credit for establishing the blown glass form as an accepted medium for installation art and, hence, for contemporary expression in late twentieth and twenty-first century art generally.

“When the Earth's last picture is painted and the tubes are twisted and dried.”

Rudyard Kipling quotes (English short-story writer, poet, and novelist. Nobel Prize(1907), 1865-1936

Cadillac Ranch

© copyright Linda Swanson all rights reserved

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Just outside and west of Amarillo, Texas is Cadillac Ranch.  Out in the middle of nowhere is an unusual sight.  Ten Cadillacs  buried nose first into the ground.  When you're driving on I-40 in Texas there's not a lot to see on the south side, so when you come up upon this sight it's very noticeable.  Over the years it's become a quirky tourist attraction.  An eccentric millionaire, Stanley Marsh, is a driving force in unusual artistic endeavors in the Amarillo area.  Over the years, the ten Cadillacs comprising the work of art have been ravaged by the elements and covered over with years of ever-changing graffiti.  Every so often some company will do a commercial or they will be used for a movie.  When this happens the Cadillacs might be painted with just one color or possibly with their original colors.  No matter when this happens, within 1 - 2 days of them finishing the project, the graffiti will be put on again.  Visitors come from all over the world to leave their mark and to add to the years of ever-thickening paint, which at this point, may be the only thing keeping the cars together.  It can be difficult to get photographs without people in them as it is usually covered with tourists.  I've included original photographs and copies of the photographs manipulated in Photoshop.

A work of art is the unique result of a unique temperament. 

Oscar Wilde

Round and Round

© copyright Linda Swanson all rights reserved

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I think I'll end the month with another picture from the Santa Monica Pier.  This is the world's only solar- powered ferris wheel.  It gives riders a panoramic view of the Southern California coastline from more than  130 feet above the Santa Monica Pier.  

“I see nothing in space as promising as the view from a Ferris wheel

E.B. White quotes (American writer 1899-1985)

Bradley

© copyright Linda Swanson all rights reserved

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The other brother of Kylee, Bradley is all boy, loving baseball.  He has very impish eyes.  He always looks like he has a secret and somehow you want to know what it is.  He laughs easily and loves life.  He's fun-loving and happy.  I like him a lot.

I'm convinced that every boy, in his heart, would rather steal second base than an automobile. Tom Clark

Gavin

© copyright Linda Swanson all rights reserved

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This is one of Kylee's brothers, Gavin.  He is a smart cookie.  I just heard that he was accepted into a really cool gifted and talented program where he got to spend time in the mountains of Colorado.  He's also an entrepreneur.  He makes and sells masking tape wallets.  I'm so impressed with him.  He's very nice, well mannered and a real cutie!  Oh, a couple more things....he plays baseball and is a great athlete.

" Attitude reflects leadership, leadership reflects attitude."

Author Unknown