Living WholeARTedly: architecture

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Saturday, August 10, 2013

2013 Glenwood Avenue Art Fest...
...Only A Week Away!

Thankfully, art has been occupying a healthy portion of my time lately. I am doing two art fairs this year and the first is only a week away! The Glenwood Avenue Arts Fest is one of my favorite Chicago Street Fairs. The Art Fest is easily accessible via the CTA Red Line (Morse Stop) and features three separate performance stages plus more than 100 artists and vendors. The Fest is August 17th and 18th and more info can be found here.

The week before is always hectic, finishing and touching up paintings. In addition to original paintings, I will also be offering photographs and cards, including photos featured in previous blog posts: "I Didn't Find Any Eggs...But I Did Find This Gem!" and "The Baha'i Temple In Wilmette...An Architectural Treasure"

Art Deco Bowling Alley, Logan Square Neighborhood

Baha'i Temple, Wilmette, Illinois

I am rarely without my camera, so be sure to check here and my photography site for new additions. My recent photo essay of Millennium Park can be found here.

Bridgeway Connecting Millenium Park to the

Lurie Garden, Millennium Park

Well, it's back to work for me. I have five paintings I am working on and hope to have them all completed in time for the Art Fest.

If you can't make this fair (or even if you can), I will also be exhibiting at The Edgewater Fall Art Fair on September 28th and 29th. Details here. You can also view my painting website.

Have a great day!

Monday, April 8, 2013

Spring Is Here...
...Time To Explore Chicago

This morning I contemplated building an ark and gathering animals two by two, but by late morning the rains had subsided and the temperatures began to climb. Despite a few downpours, the last few days have been quite pleasant and signs of spring abound. The crocuses are starting to wane, but the snow drops and daffodils are starting to bloom.

I even was treated to these early blooming miniature irises on one of my walks this weekend!

There are also signs of Spring in the built environment. I walked into Andersonville this afternoon and saw my first paleta vendor of the season. Paletas are Mexican style popsicles. They come in almost any flavor you can imagine, and probably some that never would've occurred to you! In the warmer months pushcarts and bicycle carts filled with these delicious, frozen confections can be spotted along Chicago's beaches and in any neighborhood with an appreciable Latin American population.

Another sign of spring: the fountain on the northern edge of Andersonville was happily bubbling, and the gardens, urns, and the Gethsemane Garden Center were all bursting with color from pansies and other hardy annuals.

I love this time of year for exploring the city. The quality of the light is wonderful for picture taking, and it's nice to be free of the heavy, winter jacket. I've been wanting to get to know my city better, so I recently purchased a deck of cards printed with walking tours of Chicago neighborhoods.

City Walks Chicago
Text by Christina Henry de Tessan
Maps by Bart Wright
Published by Chronicle Books
ISBN-13 978-0-8118-5558-7

Each card has a map and directions to tour part of a Chicago neighborhood. The tours highlight points of interest (not just historic sites, but also shopping and eating opportunities). Sunday was beautiful so I decided to break the deck in by doing the Old Town Triangle walk. This is a beautiful area of the city with a variety of architecture styles. Among other things, I saw one of the last surviving fire-relief cottages built after the Great Chicago Fire. I am still sorting through the images, but will post the photos later this week.

Today, I a found another great resource for exploing Chicago, only from a culinary perspective. As you may have noticed, photography and food are among my addictions. I found this book at a Goodwill store today (a true bargain at only 89 cents, though I'd recommend it, even at its full price),

"A Cook's Guide to Chicago by Marilyn Pocius
Published by Lake Claremont Press
ISBN 1-893121-16-X

The book is a great guide to the various ethnic foods available in Chicago, and includes a directory of stores, a top 10 list of ingredients for each culture, and though it is not primarily a cookbook, there are some great recipes. Look for future blog posts about my culinary exploits as I tour the globe, without having to leave Chicago!

Thursday, April 4, 2013

The Baha'i Temple in Wilmette...
...An Archtitectural Treasure

A short post tonight. I have had a little writer's block the past couple of days. April is one of my favorite months in Illinois, as Spring seems to finally give Winter the boot. I belong to a bicycling club that each April has an annual brunch, followed by a ride out to The Chicago Botanic Garden. Last year I went to the brunch but was unable to ride (my bicycle was making a rubbing sound and no matter what adjustments I made to the brakes, the problem persisted). The weather was on the cold and windy side, so a few others had decided not to ride, but we did decide to walk down to The Baha'i Temple, which is just down the road from the hosts of our brunch.

It turned out that the congregation was celebrating the centennial of the groundbreaking for the Temple, so we had access to their property across the street, a beautiful spot on the shore of Lake Michigan that was formerly the studio of the Temple's architect, Louis Bourgeois. They had a tent set up with an exhibit about the landscape plan and were even serving tea and cookies, a much appreciated treat on a cold day!

The Temple is covered with elegant carvings of symbols from various world religions and is surrounded by beautiful gardens with fountains. The Illinois Tourism Office calls it one of the 'Seven Wonders of Illinois'. You can learn more about the temple by clicking here.

You can enjoy the rest of my photos of The Baha'i Temple and its grounds, including some rarely seen views of the property across the street, by following this link.

Monday, April 1, 2013

I Didn't Find Any Eggs...
...But I Did Find This Gem!

For the past several years, I have spent Easter with my brother-in-law's family. It's a big celebration with lots of people and lots of Polish food! Though my family and my brother-in-law's are largely of Polish descent, the party is truly an American celebration in that it incorporates traditions from other branches of the family tree. There is kugel on the buffet most years and last year a group of my my brother-in-law's cousins sang a Passover song, while this year we all joined in a rousing chorus of the African American spiritual 'Amen!' Though there is no Easter egg hunt, the past two years we have had an egg smashing contest, sort of a food-based version of thumb wrestling. It is definitely one of my favorite holidays and it's nice to be part of a family celebration when I live so far from my parents and grandmother.

I love holiday celebrations, but I have yet to master the art of being fashionably late. So, despite my best efforts, I arrived in Logan Square half an hour early. Fortunately, I brought relatively easy to carry food (a butter lamb, homemade horseradish, and chocolate lambs for the youngest guests). Thankfully, I also brought my camera, so I decided to explore the neighborhood a little more. I came upon this beautiful Art Deco bowling alley.

Art Deco is one of my favorite architectural periods, and I am particularly fond of Moderne facades like this one. I also a have soft-spot for neon signs of this period, and this building has a beauty.

Photographing this gem of a building was the perfect way to fill in the time until the party started. I shot more than 75 images, plus I spent this afternoon and evening playing around with colors and effects.

2015 Update: Some of these photos are also available as photo blocks. You can view the collection by clicking here and learn more about photo blocks by clicking here. My online photo gallery is currently offline, but if you would like info on ordering copies of these prints or would like to see others in the collection, you can e-mail me at eepart@gmail.com

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Saturday, August 10, 2013

2013 Glenwood Avenue Art Fest......Only A Week Away!