Archive for August, 2015

An Engineer’s Guide to Art

The Town of Cary always has various kinds of public art on display in all of its buildings. They host art loops and artists’ receptions, and seem to work hard at bringing the public different kinds of art in different mediums. So I thought the best thing to do would be to go on a tour with the person I know who would least appreciate it: my dad. I was actually surprised that he made stabs at what things might symbolize, although not at all disappointed by his amazing summations of exhibits. Behold:

Beth Palmer: Fiber Art – Exploration in Color
Gallery Description: Beth Palmer is an artist who explores color and surface design in her work. Trained as a painter, she is always investigating new materials and techniques to enhance her work. History has always intrigued Beth. Found objects as well as old and antique materials are a fascination and one of the themes of her work.
Ron’s Description: “It was dyed cloth with a bunch of crap on it.”

Poseidon's Revenge by Beth Palmer

Poseidon’s Revenge by Beth Palmer

Ron: The first one they had was “Poseidon’s Revenge”, which, when I looked at the title, I was thinking “Oh, we’re going to have something about Greek mythology,” and it’s just a bunch of loops and odd colors and everything else and if anything else it may be some abstract art of Medusa, but certainly not almighty god of the sea Poseidon. And it’s even got a bunch of browns in it, when you’d expect some greens and blues of the sea.

Crossroads by Beth Palmer

Crossroads by Beth Palmer

Ron: There’s two white squirrelly lines that look like they do cross, so I suppose there’s something there. But all of these other little things there, like the embossing [note: I think he means embroidering] and the circular embossing… it’s just clutter as opposed to art.

Who and Movements #1 by Beth Palmer

Who and Movements #1 by Beth Palmer

Ron: There’s another one called “Movements #2”. I think maybe she forgot that she named one of them Movements, and then she named the other one Movements, and, what the hell, she had to add the 1 and 2 on them to differentiate them. Though they are different, they’re not that different, so who cares? And this one named “Who” looks more like a bunch of red blood cells than it does anything like the interrogative nominative pronoun or the musical group. It doesn’t look like ethier of them. It looks like a bunch of red blood cells and blood. Actually, it’s much too thick.

Sticks and Stones by Beth Palmer

Sticks and Stones by Beth Palmer

Ron: This one is sort of nice. It’s called “Sticks and Stones,” and it’s got this rectangular pattern that does have sticks and then it’s got stones in it. This is the most literal one of all. And, you know, just seeing stones isn’t all that great a deal.

Me: So is that your favorite?

Ron: Oh yes… my favorite… my favorite… is… is… is… uh… that one’s really the most bizarrish thing. What’s it titled?

Inner Dance by Beth Palmer

Inner Dance by Beth Palmer

Ron: So it’s just chaotic totally. It’s difficult to try to make anything out of it, so maybe that’s the one I can give up on the quickest, so I wouldn’t waste as much time on it.

Me: So it’s your favorite?

Ron: It’s my favorite, yes.

Me: Would you put any of these in your house?

Ron: Uh… The only thing I could see useful is that you’re out in the garage and you’re using them as rags for painting or working on your machinery or something. That’s about all I would ever use them for.

Me: Burn.
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What It Was Like Being “Dad Ladd” For Little Patricia

My dad wrote this post after unearthing some embarrassing things from my past!–PLadd

After Robin’s Guest Blog was posted a few months ago, I figured it was inevitable that I would get the communications from Patricia that it was my turn to author a guest blog.  Patricia gave me some ideas, like what I am going to be doing in retirement, but none of them seemed like they would be of particular interest to the great volume of devoted readers of her blog.  I wondered what would be of interest to the blog’s readers (and also to me), and I decided upon a review of some of the artifacts of being Dad Ladd, which I have kept over the years.  Some of this was motivated by finding some “art” produced by Patricia and Thomas when they were very young, while I came across when cleaning out the 20-year accumulation of items from my office when I retired last month.

So those of you who have been subjects of some of Patricia’s writings over the years (Tamiami Times, Wiess Cabinet minutes, etc.) will recognize in the following samples the evolving wit and insightful observations for which Patricia became renowned in her later writings.  Unfortunately for me, I was generally the only person providing her material for her style of expression during those early years, so many of these examples are not so complementary to me.  [Mom Ladd comment:  If you were not such a doofus, Patricia would not have had so much material for these.]  As she went out into the world, many more people provided her material and I tended to get off easier.  (And maybe I did not look so bad by comparison.)

{One note here – Patricia was frequently called Tricia or Trishe in her younger days and this name shows up in some of these examples.}

 

So on to what you really want – Plaid PLadd original material.

 

Maybe this video of Patricia, when she was 2.33 years old, provides some subconscious justification for some of her comments below.  (Certainly it could not be my characteristics and actions.)

 

This item was pretty early on, before the written portions and my characteristics started to dominate the items which I received from her.

ILoveMyDad

 

This looks like a kindergarten or 1st grade assignment to draw and write about herself and her family.  Interesting title, already knew how to throw around the “big” words.

MarvelousMe0001 MarvelousMe0002

At this age she already knew what she liked and what she wanted to do.  (Teacher is pretty close to Children’s Librarian for this age.)

MarvelousMe0005 MarvelousMe0007

 

Patricia was pretty good at getting us to do things.  She even had a T shirt that said “SLAVE MISTRESS”.

mehat
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