Posts Tagged ‘beauty’
on a sunday walk
Posted in Branches, Inspiration, Nature Notes, tagged beauty, flowers, gardening, Inspiration, landscape architecture, Photography, urban landscape on July 9, 2018| 1 Comment »
a life in three scenes
Posted in Inspiration, tagged architecture, art, beauty, faith, Henry Holiday, Inspiration, Photography, religion, religious art, St. Paul, stained glass, storytelling on July 1, 2018| Leave a Comment »
Like his big brother Phillips Brooks in Boston, the Reverend Frederick Brooks was making a name for himself inside and outside of the pulpit doing good works in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1874 he returned to the Boston area to find a teacher for a school that he had founded. In the course of his travels, on a stormy night on September 15, he left a disabled train in East Cambridge and decided to walk along the bridge. As his father recounted, “The night being dark, he fell through the draw and was drowned. He was thirty-two years of age. The body was not found until the 20th in the Charles River. Funeral services were held September 24 …” In Cleveland, Frederick Brooks had served as rector of St. Paul’s, a prominent church. And that may be why Trinity Church vestryman Charles J. Morrill. if he had a hand in the selection of theme, chose to honor the memory of Frederick Brooks by funding a memorial window depicting Three Scenes in St. Paul’s Life. The window is located on the northern wall of the nave, designed by Henry Holiday of London, 1878.
The story begins with a young Saul sitting with his teacher Gamaliel.
The center picture represents Saul’s conversion to Christianity.
The final image is of Saul, now Saint Paul, preaching to the people of Athens. As a whole the window is almost overwhelming … which makes sense given that it tries to capture one of the most complicated life stories in “just” three scenes. What is it I always say? See for yourself when you have the opportunity.
saint luke
Posted in Inspiration, tagged architecture, art, beauty, Inspiration, Photography, stained glass windows on June 28, 2018| 1 Comment »
Detail from St. Luke as Physician and Evangelist, a stained glass window located in the south transept of Trinity Church in the City of Boston, designed by Heaton, Butler & Bayne of England, 1920, in memory of James Sullivan Amory (1809-1884) and his son Robert Amory (1842-1910), a noted physician.
bared branches and flowers too
Posted in Branches, Inspiration, Nature Notes, tagged beauty, flowers, Inspiration, nature, Photography on June 25, 2018| Leave a Comment »
ferns
Posted in Branches, Inspiration, Nature Notes, Uncategorized, tagged beauty, ferns, green, Inspiration, landscape, nature, Photography on June 21, 2018| Leave a Comment »
hummingbird
Posted in Branches, Inspiration, Nature Notes, On the Road, tagged beauty, birds, hummingbirds, Inspiration, nature, Photography on June 18, 2018| Leave a Comment »
saint mark’s episcopal church
Posted in Inspiration, On the Road, tagged architecture, art, beauty, Inspiration, Photography, stained glass, stained glass windows, Tiffany, travel on June 12, 2018| 1 Comment »
I’m a details oriented person for the most part, in fact so much so, that I know I sometimes miss the big picture. But by being details oriented it becomes easy to recognize things … in this case … As my companion and I walked around the perimeter of Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church I could see the outlines of the stained glass windows. I pointed. “That for sure is Tiffany Studios, and maybe that one, too.” “You’re sure?” he asked. “Oh, yes,” I said with more confidence than I actually felt. “Look at the faces and the opalescent glass. The drapery. Signature Tiffany.”
He took me for my word and began helping me tug on doors. A homeless man making himself comfortably in a shady corner waved us over and said, “You need to go to that door.” We thanked him. It was locked but eventually, as service was about to begin, an usher unlocked the door and let us in. He was very kind.
As my companion talked with him about the organ, I snapped away trying not to disturb parishioners starting to settle in. And this is what I saw …
As for if and how many of the windows are actually Tiffany Studios, I don’t know for sure. That would involve a deeper level of research and conversation with the church historian or archivist.
But just as fascinating would be to discover more about the windows that are decidedly modern looking in a style I’m not yet familiar with on the East Coast.
Sometimes reminiscent of Chagall for me. What do you think?
Anyway, mostly when I see glass of such different styles in a sacred space I am reminded that the building like the people can be dynamic. A lovely, quick visit … 🙂
first church berkeley
Posted in Inspiration, On the Road, tagged architecture, art, beauty, Berkeley, Inspiration, Photography, religious art, stained glass, stained glass windows, travel on June 12, 2018| Leave a Comment »
It wasn’t quite one of my “the door was open and I peeked in” adventures. It was more, it was a Sunday, the church doors were open and we were welcomed in and allowed to take pictures before the service began. Very inviting airy place with bright sun shining through colorful windows.
beauty
Posted in Inspiration, Nature Notes, On the Road, tagged beauty, botanical garden, cactus, colors, flowers, hope, Inspiration, landscape, musings, nature, Photography, succulents on June 11, 2018| 2 Comments »
I must say it was a bit depressing to read headlines from around the world today. From gang violence across U.S. cities, a new ‘trail of tears” as parents are being separated from children, resources for those most in need increasingly being eroded, and at the same time big business wielding its lobbying might to change policies that would have helped hold them accountable to the many for their actions as they work to increase wealth for a few. And then if I look outside my own borders to the rest of the world … well, goodness gracious. It is an avalanche or perhaps a mudslide of just damn bad news without clear sight of where hope lies on a grand scale. It clearly will not be coming from the White House anytime soon as that’s all that needs to be said for the moment about that sad mess and those sad people who do not represent me as an American. At the same time I know that there is lots of good work being done on the ground but where is the sweeping change to come? Is there a groundswell somewhere out there that I have yet to see? Time will tell … anyway, meanwhile, I choose to share these images of beauty, of prickly cactus crowned by flowers filled with light.
egret
Posted in Inspiration, Nature Notes, On the Road, tagged beauty, birds, egrets, Inspiration, nature, Photography, San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge, travel, wildlife on June 10, 2018| 4 Comments »
I kept wanting it to take flight, to see its wings fill with light, but it did not want to fly apparently, no matter how many times it lifted its wings. I chanced upon the egret in my usual way, stepping to the edge of a structure and peering over to see what I might see, and there so still in the grass it stood …
… before taking those high-legged steps into the water …
… and then back out again onto land, feathers ruffled but still not taking flight. An impasse. Finally under the heat of the intense noonday sun I moved on suspecting that with my back now turned the egret’s wings spread and silently beat the air as it rose upward and upward, away.
https://www.fws.gov/refuge/san_pablo_bay/
