Art Archive

The Renaissance World View, and the Way of Fountains

By Richard Leo | Filed in Art

There are some profoundly interesting resonances between the world view of the people who lived in Renaissance times and the contemporary era. The thinkers of the time conceived of all life as being part of a great chain of being , that began with the smallest form and moved upwards in a kind of evolutionary progression toward the divine. As such, there’s a deep connection between all living things, and underneath the surface world there was always a series of mysteries.

One way to enter into the spirit of these mysteries was by consciously observing correspondences between things. In paintings, images of dogs were always metaphors for faith. Fido is Latin for faith, and dogs have a tendency toward faithfulness. This correspondence also speaks of one of the more complex ideas, the microcosm and macrocosm .

The macrocosm refers to the universe in all of its entirety. A microcosm, then, would be a miniature version of it, something that flatters the bigger whole by representing it. The dog then is a microcosm of faith. Garden fountains are beautiful unto themselves, but in this view, the fountain as a container of water can be many things. It can be a microcosm of a pond, or a lake, or taken to the next level, a fountain can also serve as a microcosm of the oceans of the world.

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Tampa, Florida Art Culture is the Envy of its Surrounding Cities

By Richard Leo | Filed in Art

Tampa, a small, yet vigorous city with an upbeat mood that’s completely contagious makes this a destination point for a majority of vacationers. Tampa’s also a business hub of the west coast, which also makes it a destination point to conduct business transactions. The city, as the beneficiary of the flood of people and money, boasts an impressive cultural infrastructure that is the envy by the larger rival cities, and besides having some top-notch Florida four star hotels for visitors to stay at, the Tampa Museum of Art is one of the most popular destination points, second after Busch Gardens.

Tampa Museum of Art , is please to present more than 4,500 objects in its permanent collection, plus has the largest collection of Greek and Roman antiquities in the Southeast. The museums Center gallery displays themed permanent exhibitions. The Museums Terrace Gallery features 19th and 20th century sculptures, set against a backdrop of the Hillsbrough River . The Outdoor Courtyard is a great place to stroll among the an excellent collection of contemporary sculptures, bronze work and fountains. Of course, there’s the Museums gift shop, where you can purchase gifts, prints of the artwork displayed in the galleries, books and children’s items.

Current exhibitions includes ‘The Moon Museum’, running through to August 1, 2010. This exhibition is the brainchild of Forrest ‘Frosty’ Myers, a New York sculptor. Back in the days of the Apollo 12 mission to the moon, a group of the most significant artists of the time, which included John Canberlain, David Novros, Claes Oldenburg, Bob Rauschenberg and Andy Warhol all contributed individual drawings that engineers at the Bell Laboratories transferred onto a handful of identical ceramic tiles. They were then surreptitiously attached to the Apollo 12 lunar landing LEM, and now reside on the surface of the Moon now for more than 4 decades. The exhibition highlights a fascinating moment when the world of space exploration and the world of art meet, and six important artists contributed to a work that made its way on-board the Apollo 12 lunar landing mission in 1969.

Jesper Just: Romantic Delusions, runs through September 5,2010. This exhibition is 4 films by this critically acclaimed Danish artist. Jesper Just’s films explore the contradictions and complexities of emotion. He adapts popular songs with literary references and overlapping them to communicate the vulnerability and insecurities in personal relationships. The films have the quality of polished Hollywood productions and uses a narrative storyline to create a film-noir-like atmosphere without a conventional plot line.

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Florida Water in Miami

By Richard Leo | Filed in Art

Miami is a spectacular city, with a burgeoning art scene, and a musical atmosphere that is intoxicating. There are many charms and enchantments all over the city, and plenty of reasons to visit five star hotels in Miami , to see what the madness is all about.

It is a divine madness, surely, with a wide array of cultures and traditions that inform the daily activity of the city. It moves according to its own rhythms, and the rhythms are constantly shifting. It’s lovely to visit the clubs at night, dancing and socializing until it’s late (and here, late is the same as late in Latin America and Europe, where things often don’t begin until around midnight). It’s also wonderful to explore the neighborhoods, and see what’s happening in town.

Some people like to stay away from the botanicas, and others love to visit, and the only thing to keep in mind is that it’s good to enter with an attitude of friendliness but also respect. The shops sell all kinds of interesting ingredients that perform a number of functions. This is where one can find the candles and the baths to make someone fall in love with you, or to bring a roving eye back home. There are a number of other things too, that do have a more serious function, but it’s best to look around and not ask too many questions. Nosiness is not terribly welcome anywhere.

Many people notice the presence of Florida Water in these places, and also at grocery and drugstores in the health and beauty sections. It’s very popular in the city, but the Florida in the water just means “floral,” the same as the name of the state. It actually comes from New York, and the most popular brand is under the banner Lanman & Kemp-Barclay .

It’s used for purification rituals, and is very common in spiritual work, but it’s also got plenty of other uses for the uninitiated. Some use it for skin freshening, after shave, or to splash around a room to make it smell good. It is a cologne, and it’s actually a pretty fine one for the cost. Sweet orange, lavender and clove are the dominant notes, making for a pretty sparkly and citrusy fragrance. It does make a good gift, too.

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Geronimo Music Fest in Lafayette

By Richard Leo | Filed in Art, Travel

A vacation deep in the bayou might just be exactly what the doctor ordered, if the doctor has got a lick of sense in their head.  But chances are, your doctor’s been chewing on the stupid stick again, and wouldn’t think of sending you to Lafayette to take a nice holiday.  It’s a great idea, however, and any time of year it’s a great place to get away to, and let the magic of the place remove all the worry that the year’s anxieties collects on you.  It’s a very interesting place, and there’s a constant sense of things moving backwards and forward simultaneously.  That’s the sense that most guests have, anyway.

There are some very old and interesting traditions here that you probably won’t find in most places, and a charm that’s absolutely infectious, and certainly as addictive as butter, garlic, and salt.  There are also plenty of new trends and conveniences, and chances are that the hotel you book in Lafayette will be a combination of these things.  You can find this heady combination of old and new in the local music as well.  You can see a heady barrage of styles in the clubs and the pubs, and sometimes it comes together gloriously at events like Geronimo Music Festival.

This is a very new event, with a prototype from 2008, making 2010 technically just the second year.  There are some things that are still coming together, like publicity, but it’s shaping up to be a world-class event.  It’s really something you wouldn’t want to miss if it has any appeal, because it’s a fantastic idea with fantastic people working on it.  The line-up for this festival is just announced, and you can see a whole lot of local bands, playing all kinds of music.  Mostly it’s indie-alternative, and with particularly Lafayette-inflected rhythms, and a heartbeat that comes from right here.

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