Art, Nature & Progress: O'Donnell Park & the Milwaukee Art Museum

Milwaukee is continuing to grow.  Recently, a first-class hotel was built by the Potawatomi tribe as part of their casino, drawings were just unveiled yesterday for our new arena for the Bucks basketball team, and, in my own area, Wauwatosa, the Mayfair Collection has added Osgood's, an upscale casual dining and ice cream treat restaurant.

I went down to the Milwaukee Art Museum this past Thursday, and finally got to see the construction being done on what will be the tallest building in Milwaukee, the remodeled Northwestern Mutual building.  You can see the skeleton of the building above.

Here is an even better photo of the progress being made.

I also took some time, in the sunny, 70 degree weather, to walk around O'Donnell Park, which is located just west of the Milwaukee Art Museum, and considered to be the divide between downtown and the east side.  We still have some gorgeous autumn color to see.

I also took a photo of "The Calling" a sculpture famous in downtown Milwaukee, designed by artist Mark di Suvero in 1982.  The Art Museum sits to the bottom right.

I couldn't leave without taking some more photos of the Art Museum itself.  The museum is closed for remodeling and expansion, except for its temporary exhibit, gift shop, and café.  It will re-open on November 24.

 

Keeping Cold: Ice Sculptors at Waukesha Janboree

The same weekend I attended the State Snow Sculpting contest in Racine (you can read about that entry too), I went to my city's downtown to the Waukesha Janboree Ice Sculpting contest.  This year was a little different than previous years in that the high temperature was 45 degrees and just after the judging began, the sun came out.  So the sculptures had to work fast and pray that their creation didn't melt before it was judged.  Needless to say, the ones in the doorways and under awnings fared the best with the sun, but I think everyone did a fantastic job with their creations.

The sculptors got to work at 9:00 Saturday morning and worked until 2:00 when the judging started.  They got to use whatever tools they wanted as long as they weren't electrical.

This man finished his sculpture rather early, so, while waiting around for the judges to come by, he sculpted a smaller block of ice into a beer mug (why not?  It's Wisconsin!)



                                

My friend, Ben (below), participated for the first time in 4 years and made a really cool sculpture of a dragon with an ice cream cone (you can see the finished sculpture below).  The theme of this year's Janboree was "Fire & Ice".

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

And here are some of the other finished sculptures:

This sculpture was made to represent Golden Guernsey dairy, which, unfortunately is closing its doors very soon.

This sculpture, representing General Electric (a large employer in Waukesha County) had a working light bulb inside.

And this sculpture represented my favorite Waukesha coffee shop, The Steaming Cup.

This is also my "K" post for Jennifer Matlock's Alphabe-Thursday.  Unfortunately, even though I have a lot of fun participating in her blog hop, my participation this year may be sporadic at best, since I'm in my last semester of school.  But click on the link to see more posts!