Palm Springs 2020

The weather is perfect for this year's trip to Palm Springs. Our new puppy is enjoying the fenced in property with lots of space to run around.

Still Life With Stuffed Friends

It's much preferred over a 3-day road trip in a car.

We frequented the City of Palm Springs - Dog Park, near the airport and City Hall. The wrought iron fencing and gate decorations are amazing!

They reminded me of the gates by Gustav Vigeland of Frogner Park in Oslo, Norway (see my post entitled, "Baltics (7 of 7) - Oslo, Norway").

But enough about my photogenic dog, there are lots more artful things to see in Palm Springs.There is a Chihuly glass sculpture on display at the Palm Springs Art Museum (see earlier post). I call this my "Chihuly Poolie", patterned after his floating glass objet d'art.

One of the current exhibitions on display at the Palm Springs Art Museum is entitled, "Alexander Girard: A Designer's Universe. The following Girard work is inspiring me to do a graphic design project with my 5th-graders and maybe my seniors. It is also reminiscent of Kandinsky's Circles. If you examine each of the 80 matchbox cover designs you will see words printed on the frames. This will work perfectly for my ~76 5th-grade students. I'm anxious to see the unique designs they will come up with and how they would contribute to a collaborative composition. 

I am further inspired by the exhibition at the Architecture and Design Center entitled, "Jim Isermann. Copy. Pattern. Repeat." I can envision using one of his graphical flower artworks as a replacement project for the hand and concentric circles project that was inspired by Salvador Dali and used to teach about warm and cool colors. This would be a creative way to combine the concept of pattern along with the idea of using non-traditional contrasting colors of different values. I think it would be fun to use two primary colors and the secondary color between them. The challenge would be to find a medium that allows the blending of colors (e.g. painting) rather than using watercolor markers that may not be available in a range of colors/tints. This would also teach color mixing, unless we decided to use one of the larger boxes of Crayola crayons. Outlining the shapes using white oil pastel or crayon may allow neater painting using watercolors to fill in the areas.

I was thrilled to find two large works by Abstract Expressionist, Helen Frankenthaler, who had been part of a previous exhibition at the PSAM that showcased 12 Women of Abstract Expressionism. This large painting was pretty close to the railing on the upper level of the museum so it was difficult to photograph.

The second painting was strangely monochromatic with only subtle changes in tones from orange to pink and a single dark stroke (that seems out of place). It's called "April Screen" and was painted in 1972. Another couple of patrons and I stood looking at it for several minutes until we each began to see something different. I love how abstract works are open to interpretation. When you look up into the sky at a cloud, you may see shapes that form something familiar, but in reality it is simply the atmosphere. It's still fun to look!

You may also enjoy this painting by Karl Stanley Benjamin, entitled "Interlocking Forms (blue, lavender, white)" (1959). This painting was in a section of the museum that included Op-Art works by artists such as Victor Vasarely (below). If you rotate it 90 degrees to the left it could be an abstraction of the rock formations photographed below.

                 

If you're interested in exploring outside you will enjoy the natural beauty and unusual scenery at Joshua Tree National Park, including yucca trees and breathtaking rock formations.











Here's a painting by Sue Messerly that I found on the Internet that captures both the yucca trees and the rock formations.

Perhaps my most favorite find at the art museum is this two-sided modern (1980) Op-Art work by Yaacov Agam. It is intriguing to see another accordion-pleated work. Recall the double portrait of the Danish Monarchs that I found at the Rosenborg Castle in Copenhagen (see other posts).

This appears to have been assembled in vertical triangular strips arranged horizontally to form two distinct images when viewed from alternate sides. I should have photographed it from the front as well.