November 20, 2009

Cloud quest


Sometimes you see such beauty  you are transfixed.

Before I saw this scene I'd been amazed by the clarity of the late October light and its power to transform something as mundane as a busy intersection into something extraordinary. (See my October 31 post.)

Driving home I was pulling into my road when I saw that amazing cloud over Pontoosuc Lake.

I turned the car around, drove across North Street and into the Muscle Beach parking area, and walked along the shore. I took some shots, a lot of shots. (With all that motion, I guess my claim to being transfixed falls apart.)

Maybe this was a transcendental experience. But I'm never quite sure what that means.


Click on photos to enlarge. Photos by Grier Horner. Protected by copyright.


November 19, 2009

The house where we lived


One of the most beautiful displays at MASS MoCA in North Adams several weeks ago was this tree in its courtyard. (Click on photo for large-scale view.)

I know. That shot has nothing to do with the house where we lived. But looking out a window at MoCA you can see it off Houghton Street. In the photo below its the one on top.



It is a wonderful  Victorian house with a cruciform layout and a big yard. It was our first place. Babbie and I rented the bottom floor from 1960 to 1965 for $65 a month plus heat.  Shannon and Eric were born there.

Babbie was a nurse at the hospital and I was a reporter at the North Adams Transcript.

We had some great upstairs neighbors during that time. But one couple complained because I sang or whistled in the bathroom in the morning. Stifling happiness is a bad business.


From the big window in our bedroom at night, we could see the flames of a blast furnace at Hunter Machine, located where City Hall is now. That was beautiful.

We had some pretty wild  parties there. Everyone got so smashed at one, they spent the night, sleeping where ever they could find a spot. For some reason, I slept in our car. That was before we had kids.


Going off subject again this shot of operating piping, gages and shut-off valves at MoCA is a piece of art in its own right.

November 16, 2009

Hope Gangloff takes off



The show I liked best during Gallery Quest 4 was Hope Gangloff's at the Susan Inglett gallery at 522 West 24th Street.

In a slow art market her  cool, classy acrylic paintings have all been sold.

The New Yorker on November 9 said, "This young drawing whiz shows large paintings of pretty, languid friends that are mannered and feel trendy, pleasantly." Seems pretty apt.

The large paintings are pale with splashes of color like the dog and the window scene in the one at the top. I like the way she nails expressions and find the subtle way she paints skin fascinating. Here's a closeup.
 
The New Yorker described the young woman below as "a plainly overqualified waitress lurching to grab a bottle of Tabasco sauce."  


 
The young woman in the painting in the gallery window, is almost overpowered by the red dress she has stripped off and hung on a corner post of the dock, next to her beer. She is clearly annoyed as she looks at her cellphone. At what? A text message. The number of her missing boyfriend?

The show is at Inglett through November 25.

Click on the paintings to see blowups. Photos by Grier Horner.