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| Alexander Calder "Black Dots" 1941 at the AIC |
Savor of the Month* (from Rob Walker)
At the start of every month I announce one specific thing to look out for, pay attention to, appreciate. The idea is to convert something everyday and taken for granted into something we might, yes, savor.
Themes so far:
For July, the subject is Reflections: pay attention to noticing reflections — not just in mirrors but water, glass surfaces, anything!
Mid-Year Questions - Gregg Krech* video link of seminar
- What are the highlights of the year so far?
- What do you consider your most important accomplishments of the past 6 months?
- What are the roles that have dominated your time and energy during the past 6 months?
- What are the most important contributions you have made to others – your family, your friends, the world?
- What is it that required you to go outside your comfort zone?
- As a result, did you become stronger, wiser or more skillful than you were at the beginning of the year?
- What activities or events have given you a sense of meaning or fulfillment?
- What is something you are disappointed about?
- What items of unfinished business are in need of attention (make a will, reconnect with someone )?
- What is an activity that you spent too much time on?
Calder Mobile*
One of my favorite things at the Art Institute's Frida Kahlo/Mary Reynolds exhibit was his Alexander Calder Mobile.
From the AIC about the sculpture: "Black Dots"
Alexander Calder arrived in Paris in 1926 and soon forged an inventive new artistic path with caricature wire portraits and animals; he even produced a full circus environment in which he also performed. In the early 1930s, Calder began to make unconventional sculptures from flat pieces of steel, which he cut into biomorphic forms reminiscent of the work of his friends Joan Miró and Jean Arp. He bent, welded, and painted the steel pieces, assembling them into fixed (“stabile”) or moving (“mobile”) constructions, like Black Dots. These revolutionary works, presented without a traditional pedestal and often suspended from above, allowed Calder to explore the organic nature of artistic form as it continually shifted and evolved in the environment in which it was installed.
At the Calder Foundation:
Because his father, Alexander Stirling Calder, received public commissions, the family traversed the country throughout Calder’s childhood. Calder was encouraged to create, and from the age of eight he always had his own workshop wherever the family lived. For Christmas in 1909,Calder presented his parents with two of his first sculptures, a tiny dog and duck cut from a brass sheet and bent into formation (figs. 3–4). The duck is kinetic—it rocks back and forth when tapped.
On This Day (07/07):
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