Dontre Hamilton: “Rest in Power”

Posted on November 4, 2015 by Katherine Wikoff

In making the wide circuit back to my office after running an errand on the other side of campus, I decided to swing through Red Arrow Park to pick up a sandwich for lunch at Starbucks.

And this is what I saw.

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Over a year since a memorial to honor Dontre Hamilton was first proposed for the place where he was slain by a Milwaukee police officer (with little official attention since then, possibly because no one wanted to deal with it?), someone has gone ahead and created a memorial anyway without waiting for the wheels of government to turn.

Although I’m sure the official position is that no one should be permitted create a memorial in a public park on their own initiative without going through proper channels, perhaps the county can unofficially sanction this homegrown memorial  by leaving it alone.

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Light Ricochet

Posted on November 3, 2015 by Katherine Wikoff

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It seems the busier I get in my real life, the more difficult it becomes to produce text-heavy blog posts. Language is my living, and I appear to be using up all my vocabulary at work. Words elude me when I’m tired.

At the same time, oddly, images present themselves to me more forcefully than ever. Look at me! they call from the most unexpected places. Take my picture!

So I was walking down State Street after work yesterday, when I was blinded by sunlight. I was in the shade of the office building across the street, so that shouldn’t have been possible. But it was a reflection of sunlight off the windows. And not just a reflection, but a reflection of a reflection—sunlight that had already reflected off the windows of yet another office building. The resulting light was really pretty, kind of soft and warm. As you can see in this photo, it “glowed” off the glass instead of bouncing sharply, suffusing the trees below with golden color.

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Rimmed by Light

Posted on November 2, 2015 by Katherine Wikoff

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Taken with my iPhone this morning on my way to work. Very grainy, I know (there’s only so “close-up” you can get with a phone!), but I loved the sharp rims of white sunlight along the eastern edge of City Hall’s two towers. So for what it’s worth, I thought I’d post and share 🙂

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A lovely, dreary day at Milwaukee’s lakefront

Posted on October 24, 2015 by Katherine Wikoff

I had lunch at the Milwaukee Art Museum’s restaurant today with a group of dear, old friends (going on 25 years!): Jo, Kathleen, and Karen.

The restaurant is a well-kept secret. Well, maybe not that secret, but I’m a museum member, and I didn’t know where it was!

(Shhh! The restaurant is on the lower level of the Calatrava addition. Very good food, with a beautiful view of the lake and the North Point water tower. Let’s keep that info just between ourselves so that word doesn’t get out.)

(And speaking of the North Point water tower, it was 30 years ago this past week that Milwaukee artist Terese Agnew mounted a 350-pound iridescent dragon high on the side of this tower, evoking fairy-tale associations with castles and princesses. Remember that, fellow Milwaukeeans? You can read the old Milwaukee Sentinel story here.)

Here’s a photo I took today as I approached the museum. I liked the way the white of the building blended with the gray clouds in the sky.

Milwaukee Art Museum Calatrava addition on a gray day

Compare today’s photo with the ones I took several weeks ago, on a beautiful late summer day.

Milwaukee Art Museum Calatrava addition with blue sky and clouds

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But here’s the main thing I wanted to post today. As Karen and I walked toward our cars, we passed by the “Wind Leaves” sculpture by Ned Kahn (Wikipedia article on this public artwork here). We stood for a few minutes watching the giant, shimmering leaves turn slowly in the breeze. Usually the leaves look silver against a blue sky, but today they looked more pewter against the gray clouds and the dull autumn colors. And here’s a 12-second video of it that I shot. It’s short, but I hope you like it.

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The Two Towers

Posted on October 23, 2015 by Katherine Wikoff

Neither Orthanc nor Barad-dûr. nor Cirith Ungol, nor Minas Tirith, nor even Minas Morgul. Nope, this is Milwaukee’s City Hall. Again 🙂

Milwaukee City Hall reflected in glass windows

 

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Mark Rothko “Orange and Yellow” with Woman in Jade Green

Posted on October 20, 2015 by Katherine Wikoff

While visiting the “Van Gogh to Pollock: Modern Rebels” show at the Milwaukee Art Museum several weeks ago, I was sitting on a bench about twenty feet away from this painting by Mark Rothko (“Orange and Yellow,” 1956) when a woman moved in front of me to stand directly before the large canvas.

Mark Rothko

All at once, she became part of a new artwork! The colors of Rothko’s painting had already transfixed me, but when I saw this woman’s green outfit merging with the orange-peach shades of the painting, I was delighted by how the original work suddenly morphed into something completely new. For me, anyway 🙂

I quickly (surreptitiously) took this photograph, and it occurred to me that I could crop it a little (someone’s elbow) and post it in hopes that you might see what I did, albeit on a smaller scale and with colors less striking than they actually were.

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Grohmann Museum in October

Posted on October 19, 2015 by Katherine Wikoff

Looking east on State Street in downtown Milwaukee. I love the yellow leaves of the locust trees against the red brick and green dome of the Grohmann.

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Balding on Top

Posted on October 18, 2015 by Katherine Wikoff

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😄

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Slant of Autumn Sunlight

Posted on October 15, 2015 by Katherine Wikoff

Rays at sunriseI thought about cropping the “city” fixtures out of this picture, but I’ve decided I like the traffic light at the bottom right. That one little red dot sort of counterbalances and complements all the varying shades of blue.

What is it about autumn light? These beautiful skies make my morning commute such a pleasure!

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Little Free Library #6 – London Calling

Posted on October 12, 2015 by Katherine Wikoff

This mini-library replica of a British red telephone box . . .

The real thing, installed in front of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, photo by Christoph Brown, via Wikipedia CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication

. . . is at its best during the night, when it is lit up by a focused spotlight. Its red glow can be seen from a few blocks away down the street—like a literary beacon 🙂  My iPhone cannot do justice to its deep, rich color, but I hope you’ll get an idea, at least, of how cute this facsimile is.

Little Free Library No.6 - London Calling

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