Waukesha Celebrates Armed Forces Day

This weekend, Waukesha, Wisconsin, which is 15 miles west of Milwaukee, celebrated Armed Forces Day by having  historic tours, talks and other events spread out around town.  It was sponsored by the Waukesha Landmarks Commission and the Waukesha County Parks & Recreation, and highlighted famous residents who contributed to shaping how the city looks today. 

Saturday started out with historic talks about prominent historical persons who were either born in Waukesha or became important citizens later in life.  As you can see from the photo I took above, these citizens were from many different eras from the founding of Waukesha (which used to be called Prairieville) through both the Civil War and the Spanish-American War, up to the sufferage movement.  The speeches were very interesting, and I learned some things I didn't even know about Waukesha.  I did not know that Mary Todd Lincoln came to the city after her husband's assassination to take advantage of the city's many springs.  Ulysses S. Grant also came to the city for the same reason.

These talks were given at Prairie Home Cemetary on the west side of town, and maps were available afterwards to find the tombstones of those spoken of.

From there, I went over to the Waukesha Housing Authority building on Arcadian Avenue where they had an old-fashioned fire truck (pictured below) on display in their parking lot.  I went in and was treated to an art exhibition and, down in the basement, I got to see what is left of one of the original springs that brought people to Waukesha in the mid-to-late part of the 19th century (Waukesha's town motto was even "Spring City").

In the afternoon, at the Les Paul Bandstand in Cutler Park, there was a brief ceremony to hand out three awards to members of the Landmarks Commission who contributed to the preservation of some of Waukesha's most historic buildings.  One of the recipients restored the Moor Downs Clubhouse to keep it from being destroyed, and another recipient restored a building on the corner of Madison Street and St. Paul that I remember being in such disarray a few years ago.  This led to the other side of St. Paul experiencing a revitalization of its own including the new downtown fire station and bus station.

After the awards ceremony, there was a really nice fashion show of many historic gowns.  You can see a display of them below.

They also had actors dressed as Waukesha citizens from different eras speaking about life during their time, just like the talks given at Prairie Home Cemetary in the morning.

My friend, Beth, was even involved, wearing an authentic 1940's outfit (pictured below).

It was a weekend packed full of events.  So many that the battery in my camera ran out at the end of the fashion show.  There were also a few cars on display from the Waukesha Old Car Club in Cutler Park, a dedication of a historic marker in Frame Park, and Sunday they had tours of some of the homes of Waukeha's most prominent citizens, as well as a tour of Carroll University.

Photo Friday: Detailed

This week's challenge on the website Photo Friday is "Detailed."  I took this picture last weekend while participating in the free Milwaukee Museum Mile tour (see the article on the main page).  This bridge is situated behind the North Point Lighthouse and I just love the detailed ironwork.

To see more great Photo Friday entries, go to http://www.photofriday.com/ and look for the Links box on the left side.

Great Photo Race: Fences

This week's challenge on http://www.greatphotorace.com/ was Fences.  I didn't do as bad as I thought - I got 9 votes.  But there were a lot of great, original photos that were entered this past week.  My favorite was a fence where lost cowboy boots were placed on its posts.  The winning photo was of an old fence in Salt Lake, submersed in water so you only saw the withered tops of the posts.  Oh, it was also taken right before a thunderstorm at dusk.  A well deserved winner, in my opinion.

This week's theme is "Mystery - Texture" and already there are many great photos that I wouldn't be able to replicate.  I probably will skip this week, unless something comes to me later.  But I'm excited to see what the others come up with!

Milwaukee Museum Mile

Another dreary weekend in Milwaukee.  A great weekend to spend some time checking out some of the city's wonderful museums.  We have a great collection of museums besides the Milwaukee Art Museum and the Public Museum, and this weekend residents from around the area were able to tour 5 of them for free.  Known collectively as the Milwaukee Museum Mile, the tour consisted of the Charles Allis Art Museum, Jewish Museum Milwaukee, Museum of Wisconsin Art at St. John's On the Lake, North Point Lighthouse, and Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum.


After having breakfast down on Brady Street and taking some shots for future challenges down by the lake, I started my tour at the Charles Allis Art Museum.  Charles Allis was an heir to Allis-Chalmers, a manufacturing company in Milwaukee known mostly for producing tractors.  Charles Allis was only in charge of Allis Chalmers for about 6 years, but he built up enough of a fortune to purchase an amazing collection of art from around the world in the early part of the 20th century.  The collection is on display in the house he shared with his wife Sarah designed by architecht Alexander Eschwiler.  Unfortunately, due to many security cameras placed around the museum, I was nervous about taking any photos.

The next place I toured was the Jewish Museum Milwaukee (shown above).  This place is truly a hidden gem, and I will now tell anyone who visits Milwaukee they have to check it out, whether they are of Jewish descent or not.  Starting from the early 1800's when the first exodus of Jewish immigrants came to the city, to the zionism movement, it was truly fascinating.  I had no idea so many local (and national) businesses were started by the Jewish immigrants who came here.  Although some immigrants used carts to sell their wares, as shown in this photo:

Appropriately, an extensive part of the permanent exhibit was dedicated to Jewish descrimination, including the Holocaust.  Another thing I learned today was that in the mid-1920's, there was a quota on how many Jewish persons could be brought into America.  Whether or not this led to the massive amounts of Jews exterminated during WWII, I can't be sure. 

In front of the museum, there is a very respectful memorial to the Jews lost during the Holocaust, shown below:

From there, I took the (free) shuttle to Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum.  This is a really cool museum that looks like it's right out of Florence, Italy.  Below, I took a picture of the museum (right) and two of its neighbors.  This diversity of styles, in this case Victorian, Greek and Italian, is indictative of many streets in Milwaukee.  We are a land of immigrants after all, and I think it's great that architechts and designers have the guts to mix styles in such a bold way.

Villa Terrace was onced owned by Lloyd Smith, owner of A.O. Smith, a company that produced hot water heaters. 

Next, I visited the North Point Lighthouse.  The highlight of this museum is you can go up to the top of the lighthouse and look out over Lake Michigan.  I, instead, chose to take a look at the bridge in back, which makes up one of Milwaukee's many parks.  That's where I took a picture of the lion, one of many that ornament a lovely bridge and pathway throughout the park.  Back inside, there is a very interesting set of exhibits detaling the lighthouse's history, including one woman who saved lives by keeping the light going for 30 years.

Although this was a special event to attract more visitors to these spectacular museums, I hope this will inspire tourists and locals alike to check them out.  For more information on the Milwaukee Museum Mile, visit http://www.milwaukeemuseummile.org/.

Great Photo Race: Springtime

This week's theme for the Great Photo Race was Springtime.  I didn't do too well, only getting 6 votes for the photo above, but I was happy I wasn't at the bottom.  There were a lot of photos of flowers, both in groups and singular.  The photos that got the most votes were different - a couple of cactuses (or is it cacti?) with flowers, animals (including fuzzy ducklings), and one of a nest of eggs.  My favorite was of a lone robin with great depth of focus.  The robin was crystal clear and the background was completely blurred.  That one came in somewhere in the middle of the pack.

This week's theme is Fences.  To see all of last week's entries and the new ones for the week, go to http://www.greatphotorace.com/.  Happy Snapping!

Painting With Texture Demo

Carolyn Snow, right, with some of her paintings

 

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of getting out of the rain to attend a free demonstration at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (MIAD).  The demonstration was taught by a friend of a friend, Carolyn Snow,   about how to add texture to acrylic and oil paintings.  Carolyn mostly uses modeling clay, pumice and sand to make the most interesting patterns on her canvas either prior to or after creating her design by mixing it with gel and applying the mixture to the canvas.  She stated that sometimes she’ll just apply the mixture randomly to the canvas first and then either use it to jump-start her creativity or manipulate it to fit the idea she has already.  Other times she’ll use it after painting to add texture in select places.

As you can see above, she took a pumice/gel mixture and combined it with different colors of paint to give her a starting point.  For another painting, she had applied sand and gel to her canvas so it was blank except for the texture.  She then went back and forth with other colors, and, to me and my friend, it looked like flowers started to appear on the canvas, without Carolyn even planning it that way.  So it ended up looking like this:

After demonstrating her process, Carolyn invited participants to take canvases that she already manipulated with the sand mixture, and make their own creations.  It was very interesting to see how everyone used their canvas to create their paintings.  Some made a simple design, like Tom, one of the participants, did here:

And others combined different colors in more of an abstract way, like this one:

My friend used her favorite colors to make this wonderful painting, shown here:

And another participant used vibrant, primary colors in her creation, here:

I had a lot of fun taking pictures of Carolyn’s process and learning something I might want to give a go someday.  If you live near beaches, like I do, it’s a free way to break out of an artistic rut and add something new to your paintings. 

This demonstration was sponsored by Ultrecht Art Supplies in Milwaukee’s Third Ward.  For information on future demos, go to http://miad.utrechtblog.com/2012/03/07/april-demo/.

Great Photo Race #1-3

I love photography.  I do love my own, but I especially love seeing how other photographers interpret subjects.  This is why I'm thrilled to be part of a wonderful online photography challenge group called GreatPhotoRace.com.  Every week, there is a theme that you submit 1 photograph to, and your fellow participants vote (or boost) your photo.  The one with the most boosts wins, even though it's just bragging rights.  I've only been a part of this group for the last 3 weeks, but they have already generated 70 themed challenges, including #70, Springtime (going on now).

The first one I submitted (above) was for the Lighthouse theme.  I did pretty well, getting 18 votes among my "competitors".  The best thing about GreatPhotoRace.com is that you get feedback on your photos as the week goes by.  This is great for an amateur like me, who has never taken a photography class, and wouldn't know how to adjust shutter speed if you put a gun to my head (I'm learning though, thanks to my new Canon DSLR).  This is different from some other photo challenges, such as PhotoFriday, where you just post your URL and hope it does well.

The above picture was submitted for the Red theme.  This one didn't do so well, only getting 5 "boosts".  From seeing, and voting, on other photos from that week, I knew it just wasn't up to par.  I took the photo at about 2:00 in the afternoon on a sunny day.  Not the most optimum time of day to take any photo, much less one with such bright colors.  This was brought up to me by other photographers on the site, and the lesson was learned - if you take pictures of something bright, make sure it's an overcast day or either just after sunrise or just before sunset.

This last picture, my entry from this past week, was for the Aviation theme.  I took it at the EAA Museum (mentioned in the post below) of "Marge" and got a lot of nice comments from the other photographers.  I got lucky with this shot.  There weren't too many other planes close by to distract from the subject, and the shutter on my old point-and-shoot stayed open long enough to make sure it didn't come out blurry.  I did better with this one, getting 17 boosts.  Not the top of the list (that person got 38 boosts) but nicely situated in the middle of the pack.

This week's theme is Springtime, as I mentioned above.  If you have a great photo you would like to submit, just join the group and go for it.  The web-site is http://www.greatphotorace.com/.

Happy Snapping!

Photowalk #1: Bay View Milwaukee

Last Saturday, I participated in my first organized group photowalk, courtesy of the Flickr group Cream City: Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  This month, the neighborhood we toured was Bay View, on the southeast side of Milwaukee.  This is by far my most favorite area of the city, full of cool restaurants and shops, mostly independently owned.  Before the photowalk I purchased two CD's at Rushmor (http://www.rushmor.com/), in celebration of Record Store Day.  And people were actually buying albums, including the guy behind me in line who had his hands on a rare Nirvana album that used to only be available in Europe.

I had never met any of the photographers in the group before, but everyone was very nice and relaxed.  No artistic snobs amongst us.  We started out having a beer at Sugar Maple (http://mysugarmaple.com/), a restaurant/bar known for it's HUGE selection of craft beers from around the world.  From there, we meandered down Bay View's pretty streets where nearly every house is Victorian in style, down to the KK river and then back towards the shopping district.  Below are just some of the photos I took:

Here are some of my attempts at more "artistic" photos around the neighborhood:

To see more photos from all of Cream City: Milwaukee Wisconsin's photowalks and to find out where we'll be next, go to http://www.flickr.com/groups/creamcitymilwaukee/.

EAA Museum Trip

A couple of weeks ago, I drove an hour-and-a-half north to Oshkosh, Wisconsin to visit the EAA (Experimental Aviation Association) Museum for the very first time.  It was very interesting to see all of the planes, both "experimental" and historical.  There were two rooms of exhibits - one where all of the smaller, experimental planes are located, and one with nothing but WWII planes.  You can even see one of the first Wright Brothers' planes and the Spirit of St. Louis.

Below are some of the pictures I was able to take. Enjoy!