Art – Page 25 – Ellis Hollow

Amorphophallus scans

How bad did it stink? Not bad at all. Because I chickened out on Christmas eve, chopped it off, scanned it, and dumped it in the compost pile. There was just a funky little aroma if you put your nose right down into the flower. But as you can see in the scans, things were just getting going inside.

Shot above is close-up of partially dissected flower. Below is about all you can fit on the scanner bed. (I’ll spare you the regions to the north.)

The portion of the flower I removed cried out to be scanned, too. Inside …

And out …

David Bromberg and The Angel Band (State Theater, Ithaca, 12/3/2010)

Packed the lumbar pillow and braved the State Theater for an excellent show by David Bromberg and company Friday. He and the band haven’t lost much since I first saw him 35 years ago as the opening act for Hot Tuna at SUNY Binghamton when I was still in high school.

Back in the day, says Bromberg (if you can believe him), he played a now-defunct theater here in Ithaca that had a strip club nearby that employed a dancer who danced to one of his songs, and she came over and danced for the concert. Here’s the story.

Sharon (from 20 years ago): ‘It won’t cost you no money, boy. You got to pay with your heart.’

Here’s what the band looks like now:

Hustling across the street into the theater I noticed a car with some bizarre bead work animals on the hood. Little did I know that it was the art of Bromberg’s wife, Nancy Josephson, who leads The Angel Band (they opened the show and sang back-up during the main act). Check out her cars/bead/other media art here (and click older to see more).

She’s also been working to raise money (and hope) for Haiti since long before the earthquake:

Black Friday

You can avoid the Black Friday blues by ordering Ellis Hollow calendars. Three designs for 2011. See box top of right hand column or follow the link to zazzle.com.

Bloom day scans: Clematis, grass

Thanks, as usual, for Carol for hosting at May Dreams. More scans here. Flower scanning directions are here.

Trees and Other Ramifications at the Johnson Museum

I’ve heard great things about a current exhibition Trees and Other Ramifications: Branches in Nature and Culture at the Johnson Museum on the Cornell University campus through January 2. (Exhibit description, page down.)

I haven’t had a chance to go see it yet. But I have explored the museum sponsored Tree Blog that accompanies the exhibition and asks people to join in celebration by submitting images, stories, descriptions, poems, photos, or any other creative response to an inspiring tree. Definitely worth exploring.

Here are some inspiring trees I’ve found on Libe Slope, within spitting distance of the museum. If I’d have let the frame drift a little to the right in the first one, you’d have been able to see the Johnson in the background.

Simulated tilt-shift looking south from Uris Library.