With Love for Nathan ...

This is our beautiful, blue-eyed grandson, Nathan Paul. He doesn't like it when I refer to him as a "beautiful boy" ... but he is! I love this picture of him. Doesn't he have such a great smile?!
We celebrated his fifth birthday EARLY when we were down to Texas a few weeks ago. It's hard to believe that he is FIVE already ... and the oldest of four children!
Nathan is a great little guy, pure boy through and through. He is very fun to spend time with. I love to talk with him and find out the interesting things he thinks about ~ he has quite an active imagination!
Grandpa Jones and I wish you a very HAPPY FIFTH BIRTHDAY, Nathan Paul! We send you hugs and kisses and a lot of LOVE.

Only God ...

I think that I shall never see
a poem as lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is pressed
against the earth's sweet flowing breast;
a tree that looks at God all day
and lifts her leafy arms to pray;
a tree that may in Summer wear
a nest of robins in her hair;
upon whose bosom snow has lain;
who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
but only God can make a tree.
~ Joyce Kilmer ~ "Trees" (1914)

I drove out to Meijer Gardens today to purchase a membership! Dylan and Kelly gave me a gift certificate to the Gardens for my birthday this year, and I only had to add just a little more to become a member ... so I did! I'm so glad! Now, no matter what the weather, I can go visit beautiful flowers!

It was an absolutely gorgeous autumn day today, almost 80 degrees here in Grand Rapids. After walking around the Gardens for awhile, I drove out to Ada Park to walk in the woods out there too. I've been in love with trees all my life ... no matter what the season ... but aren't they especially beautiful this time of year?! Thank you, God, for every single amazing tree!

More art ...

Since I had missed seeing so many of the ArtPrize entries last week, I ventured back downtown for a few hours yesterday to see what I could see. The above picture shows just a little bit of "Outside: Judgment" a bronze sculpture by Liviu Mocan of Romania ...
... and this piece is called "The Water Prize" and was created by three members of Mars Hill Church ~ two children are carrying water jugs on their heads ~ illustrating the need for clean water in so many countries. Both of these pieces were outside at the Gerald R. Ford Museum. I liked them both very much.
This is one of the 20 pianos that were placed around various ArtPrize venues. Many folk sat down and played a ditty or two and then moved on ...
This wood sculpture is called "A Matter of Time" by Paul Baliker (he's from Florida).
This is an up-close portion of the sculpture. The artist, Mr. Baliker. was standing around his piece interacting with lots of school children who had come down to ArtPrize. I enjoyed listening to all of their questions and his easy manner with the kids.
This is an up-close shot of the immense pencil drawing (9 x 39 feet) hanging in the Grand Rapids Art Museum ...
... titled "Cavalry, American Officers, 1921" by Chris LaPorte, a local artist who has been "drawing all of his life." He teaches at Aquinas College. If you back away from this even just a little distance, it looks like an old black-and-white photo. The detail is stunning. All of it is sketched using a #2 pencil!
There were so many interesting and beautiful entries into ArtPrize. I had a difficult time choosing who to vote for. But I remain a realist and I have always admired folk who could sketch. Mr. LaPorte's has been favored to win ... I did vote for him ... but really ... so many deserve the prize!

Yesterday, down by the riverside ...

Last year, our fall trip to Texas overlapped ArtPrize here in Grand Rapids and I completely missed the whole thing. I was determined this year to see and experience at least some what was going on downtown with this nationally-acclaimed event; so yesterday, Mr. Jones and I took in just a little bit of the wonder of ArtPrize. This is the last week of the 19-day contest ... by Wednesday, everything will be over!
There are 1,713 entries this year displayed at hundreds of different venues from museums to restaurants to coffee shops ... to the DeVos Place Convention Center! We started at the convention center because there were 54 pieces of art to view there. Wow. I took a lot of pictures, but somehow it doesn't feel right to post them without giving credit to each artist ... and I naturally neglected to take note of the artist's names, etc. There are a lot of folk writing about ArtPrize, lots of good articles in the Press, and I hear there's a bunch of stuff out there on the bloggosphere ... but I'm not qualified to give much comment to works of art ~ I haven't studied art or art history!
So I'll just show you two of them that I was rather partial to. This gorgeous stained glass mosaic (above) is called "Svelata" by Mia Tavonatti. I'm hoping it wins the $250,000 grand prize ...
This is a close-up of "Svelata." Isn't she beautiful?
There was so much to see! Photography, oil and acrylic paintings, sculpture, abstracts ... art that told stories and got into people's hearts.
I loved this piece ... the artist said he saw a photograph a friend had taken and asked if he could do a painting of it ...
He is using a technique called Pointillism ... and I don't know enough about art history to know who was the first to use it ... but I have always been fascinated by it and I love it like a do any impressionistic work. We walked down to the Grand Rapids Art Museum to see some more of the entries ... but it was SO crowded with folk trying to absorb all of this art! I'm going to go back down Monday morning and hope that there will be less people around! I really have only begun to see what is down there ... and the voting ends Wednesday ... and everyone gets to vote! Isn't that cool?
It was fun to begin to experience ArtPrize. We have such a beautiful city here in Grand Rapids. It was good to see the city so full of people and vendors ... and smiles! I'm looking forward to seeing more works of art in the next few days.

A few fall flowers ...

Earth is crammed with Heaven
and every bush aflame with God.
But only those who see
take off their shoes.
~Elizabeth Barrett Browning~

A day of trains ... Part I

Monday, Grandpa Jones asked if I would come along on an all-day train excursion ... and bring my camera. There is a model railroad train convention coming to Grand Rapids in the summer of 2012 and Grandpa Jones and many of his friends are on various committees to prepare for that occasion. All kinds of brochures and informational pamphlets need to be made, along with promotional materials, etc.
We drove down to the Kalamazoo area to look at five model train layouts. It was so much fun. This first layout is one that Grandpa Jones was especially interested in seeing because as a boy, he often admired American Flyer trains.
This fellow's layout is before the age of electronics ... everything is mechanically built and operated. He has very cool sound effects. Everything works! The steam engines, the lights, huge cranes ... really fun to see!


I know several small grandchildren who would have LOVED to be with us Monday!


I had a lot of trouble loading these pictures today ... so they are out of order, etc. The following few pictures are from a fellow who has a rather pristine layout that he has freelanced. The entire thing can be run by computer. It even has the coolest bus system that runs all throughout the layout, stopping and starting and ... even parking!
This was NO dirty dungeon basement kind of setting ... everything was practically perfect ... but almost TOO perfect ...
Beautifully modeled buildings and streets ... I wonder how many hours went into doing all of this!



After spending a whole day at five different layouts, what impressed me most was the amount of work that has gone into each one. The landscaping and art work is gorgeous! Each building has intricate detail with signage ~ if you look in the windows of some of the buildings, they are completely modeled inside and out! There are real working track signals, lighting, and amazing sound! And many of these layouts are prototypes of actual historical railroads during a distinct period of time! There are farm lands and rivers and animals and people ... and it's really an accomplishment to put it all together. Some of these folk have worked on their layouts for twenty years or more ... some of them as family projects! I have a few more pictures to show you and have had my share of trouble loading photographs today ... so if you'll go to the next post, that's where they are.

A day of trains ... Part II

This is Part II of our Monday train excursion ... Blogger refused to allow me to load any further pictures, so I've been forced to do two separate postings ...
Of the five layouts we visited Monday, I think this one was my favorite ... but I'm not still sure! I loved this steam engine with real steam and authentic sound ...
This layout is an O-gauge collection of engines and cars. It's really fun to see the trains run ... three can run simultaneously ...
The owner/operator has done a beautiful job modeling each scene.

Grandpa Jones was busy taking pictures of every angle of every layout.
If Grandpa Jones was doing the narrative on this post, he would tell you every single detail about what was being modeled here. I don't know very much to tell you about any of it! I was completely impressed, though, with the artistry and detail these folk put into their work.
Doesn't it feel like you are right on this street getting ready for a day of shopping?!


The next place we visited was very cool too. The fellow who has built this layout is a musician ~ and his house was built in 1888. The layout is in his kind of dungeon-like basement. The buildings he has modeled were SO amazing ... look at this church!

... complete with graveyard!
He did a really nice job on the river, tugboat, barge, bridges too ...
I concluded Monday that all of these people who do model railroading are on the level of geniuses ... serious!

By the time we got to the last place we were visiting, I was kind of tuckered out from all of these trains ... and all of the train language and details that were very foreign to me! It all began to look alike to me! Very unfortunate, since NONE of it is!
This fellow is freelancing a modern urban layout of the TP & S Division of the Sante Fe in and about the Chicago area ...


There was even a sign on the top of one of the buildings lit with fluorescent lighting ...
So ... you've probably seen enough model trains to last you awhile, right? I walked away really impressed with all of the folk who are involved in this hobby. I like their enthusiasm and commitment to historical detail, and I really really admire their artistic talent as well!