Although we had a mild winter, the weather was not good enough to go out and take photographs. Our health has not been the best lately. But, both the weather and our health have been getting better. We finally found two nice days at the end of March to venture out and enjoy the weather.
Roger Williams Park
The first was a trip to Roger Williams Park for me to take photographs using the ROGETI Frame to finish the review. Jan and I enjoyed the park, which was reasonably crowded, and using our cameras. The ones I took became part of the content in the previous post. But, Jan did not just twirl her thumbs! Here are the photographs she took at the park, even the other photographer setting up his tripod!
Click on the images to see them larger, uncropped, and read their titles.
Visit Wickenden Street
The next day, we wanted to venture out again and I looked for more public art locations. I thought we would find some at the addresses I got from The Avenue Project site, but that disappointed us. However, as we drove on Wickenden Street, I spotted the portraits of famous women we wanted to see and parked the car on South Water Street close to the murals.
Three Artist Portraits by Two Artists, All Women
At the corner of Wickenden and South Water Streets sits an apartment complex with various stores at its ground level. As we left the car, we were looking at a sizeable portrait of a woman with an intense look on her face. We both photographed the small size mural with our different framing. Later, I learned that to be “… Yayoi Kusama, an avante-garde sculptor, painter, and one of the most renowned living artists still working today.” The local artist who painted that portrait is Fu’una whose other work I presented on these pages before.
Fu’una had another mural portrait of Georgia O’Keeffe. That piece was hanging on the opposite side of the building on South Main Street. “Fu’una juxtaposed a late portrait of the artist depicted in her iconic clothing against a detailed view of an earlier 1945 painting.”
On the Wickenden Street side of the building was a mural by Joanna Vespia: Featuring Alma Thomas. We learned about “Alma Thomas, who emerged in the 1960s as an exuberant colorist, abstracting shapes and patterns from the natural world around her, particularly trees and flowers.” We have seen other works by Joanna Vespia and shared them with the readers in not one, but two articles.
Jan’s collection
Cemal’s Collection
Trader Joe’s Wall
A little further from the O’Keeffe mural, was Trader Joe’s grocery store. The side of the building on South Main Street had a mural but it was blocked by a series of trees on the sidewalk We took various segments of the large work, which was segmented anyway. The local artist “Greg Was Here” painted the “… large-scale mural reflecting the 19th-century river trade history.”
All of the above work, and my brief quotations, are organized by The Avenue Concept. You can find many more on their Web site.
Continue The Walk
I make it sound like a lot of walking, but for us it was significant. That walk was a little over one-half mile and the longest walk we could make in a long time! We continued to walk around Trader Joe’s and turned right to go back to South Water Street. Once there, we walked past Al Forno’s restaurant, looked at the bridge, and on the way back, we photographed the facade of the building juxtaposing highly geometric shapes and random walks of the growth of tree branches.
It was time to sit! We got in the car and returned home.
James Turner
Enjoyed the photos of your jaunt to Wickenden Street.⁹ Nice photos. Excellent written dialog.
A. Cemal Ekin
Thank you, Jim. Once I accumulate a new list of public art in RI, we can visit them together again.
Cemal
Don
Glad you’re out and about! All great shots. I especially like Jan’s crops of the murals. Thank goodness the season is turning and we’ll all be getting out more.
A. Cemal Ekin
Thanks, Don. Jan likes close crops, focusing on details. Those days were like yesterday and today. More to come, at least soon!
Cemal
Haluk Atamal
Important is to be able to go out and walk – distance covered is secondary. So you did yourselves good and us too – by sharing those lovely façades.
Take care and best regards,
Haluk
A. Cemal Ekin
You are right, Haluk. We had not been out walking a fraction of this walk for quite some time, it felt good. More to come. Take care,
Cemal