Posted in Inspiration, Nature Notes, On the Road, tagged animals, Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, landscape, nature, Photography, travel, turtles on August 21, 2017| 1 Comment »
My understanding is that box turtles will eat just about anything that they consider edible. There must have been some tastiness in the stick in this one’s mouth. But we had to interrupt its meal because it was munching in the middle of Wildlife Drive in the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge of Maryland. It was gently moved to the side of the road where I’m sure it found more good stuff to munch.
Posted in Inspiration, Nature Notes, On the Road, tagged beauty, Inspiration, nature, photograph, sunset, travel on August 20, 2017| 1 Comment »
The sun beginning to set beneath the Chesapeake Bay. The first of a series of images from a whirlwind trip of five-days and four-nights with stops in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and New York.
Posted in Branches, Inspiration, Nature Notes, On the Road, tagged beauty, birds, colors, Inspiration, landscape, nature, Photography, South Carolina, Sumter, Swan Lake Iris Garden, travel, water on October 16, 2016| 1 Comment »
Posted in Inspiration, Nature Notes, On the Road, tagged beauty, birds, colors, Inspiration, nature, Photography, Swan Lake Iris Gardens, swans, travel, water, waterfowl on October 10, 2016| 2 Comments »
When in Sumter, South Carolina, I missed the irises in bloom but the swans were in full force. The city’s Swan Lake Iris Gardens is the only public park in the U.S. to feature all eight swan species. The sun shone bright this particular day as this trio floated by.
Learn more about the park via this link: http://www.sumtersc.gov/swan-lake-iris-gardens
Posted in Branches, Inspiration, Nature Notes, On the Road, tagged autumn, beauty, Inspiration, landscape, leaves, nature, Photography, reflections, Swan Lake, travel, trees, water on October 9, 2016| 2 Comments »
Posted in Inspiration, Nature Notes, On the Road, tagged art, art therapy, beauty, birds, family, Inspiration, nature, Photography, prints, silk screen, silkscreen, storytelling, travel on October 9, 2016| 1 Comment »
My earliest memories of my uncle are of a dapper man from New York visiting his big sister (my mother) in Virginia during the summers. He would hang out with my dad drinking my dad’s homemade wine. Then in later years I remember that we would receive beautifully printed Christmas cards that were unlike anything my younger brother and I had ever seen. Several decades have passed since then. My parents have passed away. He’s since moved from New York to settle in South Carolina. Now that travel is difficult for him visiting him was the primary impetus for my recent southern travels.
Uncle Freeman was a silkscreen printer in New York who, while employed at institutions like American Image Editions, printed the works of Andy Warhol, Larry Rivers, Robert Indiana, Ed Paschke and many other artists. Once he’d learned the art of screen printing he informally taught others including Isabelle Collin Dufresne, known as Ultra Violet. A signed copy of her memoir sits on his bookshelf. “She was famous, right?” I asked my uncle. He said, “She wanted to be.”
When we went to visit my uncle, now 80 years old, I was anticipating an interview where I’d collect tawdry details of Warhol and his parties, the lowdown on the New York arts scene of the 80s and 90s, and so on. But my uncle, ever the gentleman, would only chuckle or smile as we queried him relentlessly. He did share some of the prints he still has in his possession and would describe the techniques used to produce the colors and shading on the page. His wife, who loves butterflies, mentioned accidentally cutting up a Salvador Dali screen print because she was so intent on obtaining the butterflies at the top of the page she did not notice Dali’s signature at the bottom. The altered print hangs quite lovely on a bedroom wall.
It was the art on the walls that kept drawing my attention in my uncle’s modest home. A few screen prints hung, but mostly the walls were lined with canvas paintings. I began to notice artwork outside as well, paintings on trees and wooden panels. Finally I asked who did all of the paintings and he said, “I did.” His wife pulled more from under a bed and those tucked away in closets. As for when he did them, he said the majority were done while recovering from prostate cancer. As he received treatment, “I couldn’t do much but I could paint.”
He shared no rhyme or reason for his subjects. “Just whatever came to mind and whatever pens and paints I had available.”
Birds seemed to be a favorite theme.
And then there was Obama. Born in the south in the 1930s, having experienced the realities of racism firsthand, Obama’s election meant a great deal. “I have a better painting of him,” he said as I gazed at this one on the wall, but we never got around to finding it.
He hadn’t painted before the cancer, he said, and he hasn’t really painted since his recovery. But I have encouraged him to do so. In fact I suggested a subject.
In the evenings as we sat down to dinner he would make his way slowly to the front door and open it wide. For the first few days that we visited, there was nothing to see but then the final evening, he said, “Cynthia, come over here.” And there they were, this magnificent flock of birds flying overhead, filling the sky with their dark silhouettes. They all seemed to settle in one far distant tree. My uncle said, “Sometimes there are so many in the canopy they turn the tree into a square.” “That’s it!” I said. “That’s what you should paint next. The birds in the sky.” He listened patiently as I described my vision but in the end he just shook his head and chuckled. 🙂
Posted in Inspiration, tagged architecture, art, beauty, faith, Inspiration, Jewish history, judaism, Old Testament, stained glass windows, storytelling, Sumter, synagogue, temple, travel on October 6, 2016| 9 Comments »
While traveling in Sumter, South Carolina it was my pleasure to visit the Temple Sinai, founded as a Reform Jewish Congregation. The history of Sumter’s Jewish community dates back to 1815. The first Jews who settled in Sumter were Sephardic and came from Charleston, SC. The current congregation was formed in 1895 by the merger of the Hebrew Cemetery Society and the Sumter Hebrew Benevolent Society. Construction of the congregration’s present temple was begun in 1912 and completed in 1913.
A feature article in the March 1913 Sumter newspaper The Watchman and Southron notes “The Temple is situated on the corner of Church street and Hampton avenue and is an imposing structure of red brick with domed roof … The architectural lines are simple, but the proportions are so good and so well harmonized that the general impression is one of beauty, allied to strength and permanence. As impressive as is the exterior of the Temple, it is the interior that is its chief beauty and glory …”
In terms of architectural style the brick building is Moorish Revival. Eleven stained glass windows grace the interior. Ten of the windows are 5 feet wide by 20 feet high and their shape mimic the building’s moorish towers, each a tall window illustrating a story surmounted by a half-window with further decorative detail. The eleventh window is round and is located high on a back wall. While the specifics of the window designer and makers are elusive, the windows are thought to be handmade in Germany. Installation began in 1912 as indicated in a local newspaper article from September 1912, “The beautiful stained glass windows of Temple Sinai have arrived and are being placed in position.” One month earlier, the same publication had noted, “The work is winding up on the new Jewish synagogue in this city and it will be only a short time now before the remodeled Temple Sinai will be one of the most beautiful places of worship in the city.”
At age 95, Sumter native Robert Moses, a descendant of one of the first Jewish families to settle in Charleston and then in Sumter, is one of the last active members of Temple Sinai. As part of an educational presentation, he describes the windows as late Victorian in style, with rounded tops and interlacing borders giving them an eastern/Moorish look. Known as drapery glass due to the folding of the glass to add depth and color, the brilliant blues have cobalt added and gold was added to brighten the reds.
Each window depicts a scene from the Old Testament including as described in a 1913 newspaper article:
The Test of Faith, involving Abraham and Isaac …
The Blessing – Isaac Blesses Jacob …
detail from isaac blesses jacob
detail from isaac blesses jacob – the ark on ararat
Jacob’s Dream …
detail from jacob’s dream
Vision of Moses when he sees the burning bush …
Moses on Sinai with the Ten Commandments …
Moses on Nebo overlooking the promised land which he is forbidden to enter …
Moses Delivering Laws to Joshua …
Samuel Before Eli …
detail from samuel before eli
Elijah in Solitude …
detail from elijah in solitude, also known as elijah and the ravens
David the Shepherd Boy …
and Solomon at the Dedication of the Temple.
Members of the Moses family were kind enough to allow me entrance into the Temple to photograph details of the windows and share just a bit of the history of people and place. The windows of this place are unique for their pictoral illustration.
Temple Sinai is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. For more information, or to inquire how you can help preserve this historic structure, contact Temple Sinai, 11-13 Church Street, P. O. Box 1673, Sumter, South Carolina 29151 or call (803) 773-2122.
Sources and Additional Reading
(1) “House of Worshop of Jewish Congregation to be Dedicated on March 28th, ” The Watchman and Southron, March 8, 1913.
(2) The Watchman and Southron, September 21, 1912.
(3) The Watchman and Southron, August 10, 1912.
Encyclopedia of Southern Jewish Communities – Temple Sinai
Posted in Inspiration, Nature Notes, On the Road, tagged Inspiration, musings, nature, Photography, politics, race, reflection, travel, West Virginia on October 4, 2016| 1 Comment »
A long trip is nearing its end. I rest in a place that is stunningly beautiful. It is an unexpectedly thought provoking place. The mountains of West Virginia. I have been here before but never during a campaign year. Trump-Pence signs are on many a lawn, as are surprisingly to me, a few Gary Johnson. No Hillary Clinton signs seen so far. As I interact with people here, I can imagine that she would seem quite foreign. I am reminded of the time I sat in an airport near two older ladies watching a television. George W. Bush was on the screen. He spoke but the sound was on mute. One of the ladies said, “I’d invite him to my picnic. I think I’ll vote for him.” Policy and experience were moot. He came across as familiar and likeable. Clinton does not. Yet Trump does? Fascinating.
I am in an area that is approximately 96 percent non-Hispanic White according to demographic tables. Without looking up the statistic, I suspected such a number. I stand out quite a bit. People stare whenever I step out of a car, walk across the parking lot, sit in a restaurant. The culture here is a bit different than my recent experience in South Carolina. There, even if you stand out as different, the culture is such that you “throw up a hand” or acknowledge a presence in some way. At least, that’s the way it used to be. Here … people sometimes seem startled when I say hello or look at them and smile in greeting. Some will nod back. Others just stare. At times I felt uncomfortable, and it wasn’t just the Confederate flags peppering various places. The flags were old and tattered. Perhaps those were really about heritage and not about the new symbolism of hate.
Sitting in a diner — lovely staff, good food –I watched the local news. On screen, a black man was asked by a white man if discrimination still existed. Everyone who walked through the door glanced at me. That’s fine. Once while working with a youth writing program in Boston, we brought the children across town to do an activity. Afterwards we went for ice cream at a nearby ice cream shop. One of the girls leaned against me. She said, “Cynthia, nobody here looks like me. Like us.” I said, “And that’s okay. To go places and to be different. Let’s pick out our ice cream.”
To go places. To be different. Even if one is not readily welcomed. There is value in that especially in a world where it is too easy to view those who are different, those with whom one has had no personal experience, as … well … those who should be held at bay with walls and exclusionary laws that have been passed in the past and can be again.
Because of the various circles I run in for work and pleasure, sometimes people will say to me, “Cynthia, I think you’re the first black person that such-and-such has interacted with.” I have to hope that I am not the last. And I have to hope that interaction is more than what’s shown on TV and in social media.
This is an incomplete post in the sense that these thoughts and my experiences from this trip are still percolating. We’ll see what the future holds. I’m grateful for the opportunity to wind my way through West Virginia and to glimpse just a bit of its natural beauty.
Posted in Branches, Inspiration, Nature Notes, tagged beauty, Inspiration, landscape, nature, Photography, South Carolina, Sumter, Swan Lake, swans, travel on October 3, 2016| 1 Comment »
Posted in Nature Notes, On the Road, tagged landscape, nature, Photography, Sumter, Swan Lake, travel, waterfowl on October 3, 2016| 4 Comments »
Words + Images 