chuckography

Some art and culture....

A nice quiet Saturday. A bit chilly, but the rain had stopped earlier this morning.

I slept in because I knew I was not doing anything until meeting a friend later to go downtown.

Yawn.

Fred Davis and I met in a Queen Street parking garage in the afternoon and walked over to the famed Gibbes Museum of Art (C.1905) in the historic district of Peninsula Charleston, S.C.

I like a weekend at a gallery. Especially when I hear and see young children and their parents bonding amid art.

Saw family groups and a single parent with her child wandering and looking.

Some kids tarried to gaze longer some more... and then hurried to catch up with the others.

Small clusters in one gallery and a crowd in the next.

Weekend at The Gibbes.

I grew up just a few blocks down Meeting Street, on the corner of Society Street in Ansonborough, and had visited the gallery often.

Dad was not so attracted to the place, but my Mom made sure her three boys knew their way around our downtown museums.

One painting caught my eye and I asked my friend to stop and take a look.

"I know I am older than you Fred but, growing up, did you ever see the ice wagon parked and reach in to grab some ice chips from the back on a hot summer day?"

Looking at the painting of the iceman, with his ice tongs draped over his burly shoulder, I recalled the sign Mom placed in the window telling him how large a block of ice was needed that day.

Another piece of everyday life snuffed out by 20th Century progress.

Fred replied he did NOT recall any horse-drawn ice wagons but remembers milkmen who came by early in the morning to place bottles in a galvanized box by their front door.

No horse cart though, it was a white truck we remembered that chugged and clinked when it passed by, he added.

While touring and leaning in for a closer look at the various paintings, I asked Fred to snap a picture of me standing behind a bust.

He too had seen that image in the opening staff credits of Saturday Night Live!

I had promised myself to pose for such a photo someday and...here was my chance.

Nobody else was in the room, so I carefully stepped into the open space behind the carved bust and happily spread my arms!

Guards did not come rushing in. No interruption of the enjoyment of other art patrons. No giggling young people...except for Fred.

A Yawning Leopard caught my eye and instantly reminded me of my 7-year old orange Tabby.

Watching her pure enjoyment when she would stretch...and yawn her gaping mouth ...all at the same time as she flexed ALL of her claws. My, my, pure pleasure!

I did get another stifled laugh from Fred as we toured all three floors of galleries.

Both of us are avid photographers.

We often will zero in on something about a subject that others did not see.

We  both were amused when I promptly quietly re-named a beautiful large wooden sculpture  as "Awkward Selfie."

Another great painting called Charleston In The Rain prompted a comment by Fred that even back then in the 1940s, a rainstorm would flood some streets!

Sure enough,  the details showed a wet street and a bit of flooding.

We understand the city leadership is addressing the problem by planning to raise the height of the 100-year old battery and getting counsel from flood-prevention experts from the Netherlands!

You know how I do things here..click on the photos and links for more details.

Thanks for stopping by to spend some time with me online, looking at art.

Let's do this more often..and tell your friends.

Labels: Charleston in The Rain, flood prevention in a climate change time., Founded in 1905, Gibbes Art Gallery, lots of artists with well-known local Charleston names, sculpture of "taking a Selfie", The Iceman

posted by chuckography @ 12:10 AM