A Saturday in Pasadena ~ PMCA and Corita Kent

Maybe we are less than our dreams,

but that less would make us

more than some gods would dream of.

~Corita Kent

Pasadena Museum of California Art

A few weeks ago, I was hanging out with my friend Karen in Pasadena and chatting. All of the sudden she said, "I have free passes to the Pasadena Museum of California Art." Neither of us had been before and we looked at the clock and figured if we raced over there, we'd have a little more than an hour. So, out the door we went!

Love the moment,

and the energy of that moment

will spread beyond all boundaries.

~Corita Kent

Turns out the main exhibition was of Los Angeles artist, Corita Kent (1918-1986), who was also known as Sister Mary Corita. She was a sister of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and rose to fame during the 60s and 70s, for her serigraphs. Her art is a reflections of her spirituality and her conviction as an activist, often making statements about social justice and what was happening in the world, at that time.

admirable exchange

1951

Someday is Now

The Art of Corita Kent

June 14, 2015-Novemeber 1, 2015

the lord is with thee

1952

This quick video explains a bit about her work.

christ suffering over jerusalem

1951

then feathers all

1958

All the alphabet, done in 1968

(from above piece)

YOUR

NAME

is 

A

golden 

bell

hung in

my HEART

I would

bReAK

my body 

to pieces

to CALL

you

ONCe By

youR

NAME.-

f is for food

1964

(from above piece)

is 

FOR

FOOD

FULL

FINE

FAVORITE

FLOWERS

FUN

FLAVOR

FREEDOM

FRANK

FOUNDATION

FOUNTAIN

FAITH

FRIENDS

help the big bird
1966

only you and i (2parts)
1969

The moment in which light comes

is God

Only you and I can help the sun 

rise each morning.

If we don't it may drench itself out in sorrow.

~Camus

 tiger
1965

if
1965

... Someday when we're dreaming

Deep in love, not a lot to say Then we will remember

Things we said today

Me, I'm just the lucky kind

Love to hear you say that love is luck

And though we may be blind

Love is here to sty and that's enough

~McCartney and Lennon

This is a great little documentary about her, with interviews with people who knew her. In this video I think you get a really good sense of her as an artist and educator. Go ahead and skip to 2:05, if you'd like. That's when it gets going!

new hope

1966

 (from above)

i love you much 

(most beautiful darling)

more than anyone on earth and I like you better

than everything in the sky

-sunlight and singing welcome your coming

although winter may be everywhere

with such a silence and such a darkness

no one can quite begin to guess

(except my life) the true time of year-

and if what calls itself a world 

should have the luck to hear singing

(or glimpse such sunlight as will leap higher than high

through gayer than gayer someone's heart at your each nearness)

everyone certainly would 

(my most beautiful darling

believe in

nothing but love

~e.e. cummings

be, of love, (a little) more careful,

than of everything

1967

 I think this one, above, was my favorite.

After the museum we went to El Cholo in Pasadena for margaritas and appetizers, then walked around a bit and wondered into Pasadena Antique Mall which had various vendors. One of the vendors had these amazing pieces of stone!

Amazing malachite, right? They were 450.00 and 500.00. The Labradorite below was breathtaking and was 240.00.

Heading back to the car, she wanted me to see the beautiful Pasadena City Hall building, with its Spanish Colonial/Mediterranean Revival architecture, which was completed in 1927. It was designed by Arthur Brown, Jr. and John Bakewell, Jr.

Life is a succession of moments.

To live each one is to succeed.

~Corita Kent

video footage of Sister Corita ...

To visit the PMCA (Pasadena Museum of California Art) website, click here.

For more about Corita Kent, you can visit the Corita Kent Art Center website here.

(It located in Los Angeles at the Immaculate Heart High School.)

Creativity belongs to the artist in each of us.

To create means to relate.

The root meaning of the word art 

is to fit together

and we all do this everyday.

Not all of us are painters but we are all artists.

Each time we fit things together

we are creating-whether it is a loaf of bread,

a child, or a day.

~Corita Kent

Blessings and light!

Greek Fest! Pasadena, California!

Life is an unfoldment,

and the further we travel

the more truth we can comprehend.

To understand the things that are at our door

is the best preparation for understanding 

those that lie beyond.

~Hypatia

Greek, 350-415

I can't believe this was almost 3 weeks ago! Anyway, it was blazing hot and my friend Karen and I were looking for something fun to do and it just so happened there was a Greek Festival over the weekend in Pasadena ... which is where she lives! We waited until later in the day, because of the heat!

Pasadena Greek Fest

2015

Turns out it's a fundraiser they do every year for Saint Anthony Greek Orthodox Church. 

Here's a little music to listen to while at the Fest!

After we bought our tickets, we went in and could smell the grill! Yum! I don't eat much meat, but the lamb chops were amazing and too good to resist! Karen had a huge Gyro but I was extremely happy with my choice!

Not what we have

But what we enjoy, 

constitutes our abundance.

~Epicurus 

Greek Grill Master

She had a mojito but I went with the special Greek Cherry Smash, which was vodka, soda, fresh lemon and imported Greek Cherries over ice. Yummy and very refreshing! "Gia' sou!"

You can discover more about a person

in an hour of play

than in a year of conversation.

~Plato

They had different dance groups of various ages, and different live bands play ... this shot below, was later and I think they were just folks from the church. So fun!

 (No we didn't go out on the dance floor. They all knew what they were dong and it was so hot, even in the evening, that it felt like midsummer in Athens!)

Music is a moral law.
It gives soul to the universe,
wings to the mind, flight to the imagination,
and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.
~Plato

We also shared a refreshing cold Greek beer.

Our prayers should be for blessings in general,
for God knows best what is good for us.
~Socrates

Saint Anthony Greek Orthodox Church

There was a guy with the church who gave talks about the church, the meaning of the symbols and icons, their faith, and the origin of the Church. Pretty interesting stuff!

The screen (Iconostasion), separating the nave from the sanctuary, with its full scale icon figures ... and in the sanctuary you can kind of see the mosaic of the Last Supper. 

One who knows oneself, knows God:
and one who knows God is worthy to worship Him as is right.
Therefore, my beloveds in the Lord,
know yourselves.
~St. Anthony the Great
251-356 AD, Egypt

The portrait of Christ, in center of the dome, is in most Greek Orthodox churches. You can also see there are biblical scenes and folks from the old testament. 

On the right side of the church (facing the altar) were icons of male Saints, and on the left side were all female saints which I thought that was pretty cool. 

Wisdom begins

in 

wonder.

~Socrates

Before leaving  ....

We grabbed a bunch of yummy Greek desserts involving lots of filo dough, nuts and honey!

And, of course, I love to theme dress (even in subtile ways) so I wore the sandals my parents brought  back for me from Greece a few years ago, along with my blue and white dress! 

Karen and I, in her hood, at the Greek Fest!

For more about Saint Anthony Greek Orthodox Church in Pasadena, the orthodox church, and as well as their Patron Saint, click here.

For the Pasadena Greek Fest website, click here.

I'm now in need of a trip to Greece!

Of all the things which wisdom provides 
to make us entirely happy,
much the greatest is the possession of friendship.
~Epicurus

Blessings and light!

Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens ~2014

Every moment and every event 

of every man's life on earth

plants something on his soul.

~Thomas Merton

As some of you may recall, I was on a mission to do the big gardens (Huntington, L.A. Arboretum and Descanso Gardens) before the end of spring. Though much had bloomed early, in Southern California, it wasn't too late to enjoy the Spring gorgeousness of the Huntington, in late April.

The Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens

The Chinese Garden

Not long after I arrived, I was already hungry and decided that this time I would eat in the Chinese Garden. There are other options, but the fish and noodle soup sounded good, plus ... look at the view! Outside the building above, is where I sat and enjoyed my lunch!

The Japanese Garden

Japanese House

Elements of the Japanese House were shipped to Pasadena around 1904 and acquired by Huntington in 1911.

I found a perfect spot on some steps to sit and sketch my favorite view of the garden ... (can you tell by the Easter Egg on my nail, the time of year?!) Isn't the Japanese Garden breathtaking? The whole place is gorgeous and kind of swanky ... the best version of what it could possibly be. 

The Rose Garden

Originally created in 1908

Huntington Art Gallery

The Gallery is the former Home of Henry E. Huntington (1850-1927) and second wife Arabella (1850-1924.) It opened as a gallery in 1928.

Of course, I spotted the "History of Rome" on the shelf!

This isn't the famous Huntington Library that has a Gutenburg Bible. That is actually in another whole building, across a rather enormous lawn, from this house that you are looking at now. 

I didn't have time to go into that building ... or the American Collection building, or the amazing cactus garden. Really, the grounds are so huge, and you have to plan and edit your visit, in order to see it all. Maybe if you arrived right when it opened, you could pull off seeing the whole thing. Iffy though, and it wouldn't be relaxing.

The collection of paintings is rather impressive, but the downstairs is full of paintings by old British dudes. Don't get me wrong. They are beautiful and skillful and everything one would want from that genre of painting ... but they are not exactly my cup of tea, so to speak. Not my favorite period in art, but incredible examples of the era and I do appreciate them.

Lady Petre, 1788
Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1833)

... I really love the "costumes" though!

Margaret Cocks, 1787
Richard Cosway (British, 1742-1821)

Lovely, right? Don't we all wish we had rosy cheeks like those?

This next gal, I am a fan of, because of her fabulous get-up. With an influence classical sculpture, she is draped in a fabulously dramatic manner, which I love. Isn't she great? I want that frock.

Jane Fleming, later Countess of Harrington c. 1778-79

by Joshua Reynolds (British, 1729-1792)

Sarah Barret Moulton, 1734
Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830)

Probably the most famous paintings at the Huntington are "Pinkie" and "Blue Boy" who reside in a very long room, at opposite ends. I remember them from my first visit, when I was in Junior High. While I thought they were pretty and beautifully painted, even then they were not my favorites.

The Blue Boy, c. 1770
Thomas Gainsborough  ((1727-1788)

Lady Hamilton was my favorite. And, what I didn't know then, was how scandalous she was! Maybe that's why, unknowingly, I was such a huge fan! 

She was close friends with Marie Antoinette's sister, Queen Maria Carolina, and is known for her affair with Lord Nelson. After blowing the cash left by her husband, Sir William Hamilton, she then lost Merton place, the house of her lover, and wound up penniless in debtors prison. And yes, they made a movie.

Lady Hamilton in a Straw Hat
George Romney (1734-1802)

Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898) and John Henry Dearle (1860-1932) Stained glass by Morris and Co. Titled Humility, Mercy, Generosity, Charity, Justice, Liberty, Truth, Love Faith, Courage (c. 1898)

From a second story doorway, that leads onto a terrace ...

There are a lot of French works (Boucher, Watteau, Fragonard) as well as pieces from the Arts and Crafts period ... but my favorites (surprise, surprise) are by the Italians. I had only 10 minutes before the place would close so I just had to try to suck in all the "Italian-ness" before they made me leave. And I waited until they asked. 

Here are just 3 of the pieces.

Virgin and Child with Saint John, early 16th century
Atributed to Francesco Granacci (Italian, 1477-1543)

Portrait of a Young Woman, c. 1490
Domenico del Ghirlandaio (Italian, 1449-1494)

Virgin and Child, c. 1490s
Sebastiano Mainardi (Italian, 1466-1513)

After that, they told me it was time to go, so I headed out of the gardens, promising myself I would come back and spend more time with the Italians. 

I just checked and apparently I have done 4 previous posts on the gardens, from a visit a couple of years ago. Especially spectacular, was a visit to the Shakespeare garden in full bloom. 

To see those posts, click here. 

To see my post on their American Collection, click here.

For their official website, click here.

Stuff your eyes with wonder,

live as if you'd drop dead in ten second.

See the world.

It's more fantastic 

than any dream made or paid for in factories.

~Ray Bradbury

Blessing and light!!

Happy June!