Departed Monuments

 While the statues of Stonewall Jackson, Jefferson Davis, Matthew Fontaine Murray and others have been removed and graffiti erased, there are blank and empty pedestals.

What will Monument Avenue in Richmond Virginia look like in the future?                                         Will this city, and others, be able to forge a new creative vision that unites its Black and white heritage in powerful and artful ways?

Robert E Lee Monument is Still There, November 2020

 As of November 2020, the Robert E Lee statue on Monument Avenue in Richmond is still up.

The base has been covered with graffiti, there is a continuous presence of BLM and it has become a gathering place for the curious and the  committed.

Its fate is uncertain.

November 2020 Flowers

 

Fall blooming Witch Hazel tree blooming happily in the November sun.

Mahonia, or Oregon Grape, also blooming happily.

On a different note, an inside arrangement of hothouse Lilies and Winterberry.

Thanksgiving 2020

 After lots of clearing and cleaning, we could actually see the living room floor.

A hearty meal to celebrate - the table had not yet been organized.

November 2020 Trees

 

Sweetgum, above,  and Red Oak, below, at Pennypack Environmental Restoration Trust.

The Beech above has  lost its top in a storm long ago.  This fall, it lost its leaves early.

Below, the White Oak to the left and Black Locust to the right are dance partners.

Even the Beeches with leaves of yellow to brown are glowing beautiful in the sun.

Landscape Politics

 

I hate to say that the politics of the owner can be guessed by the landscape, but....

There is a small yard sign by the tree at the left driveway entrance - Trump.

When elections come around, the yard signs provide an easy way to compare different landscape styles.

Dawn of a New Day

 

Lines on Election Day morning at a suburban Philadelphia polling place.

Gatherings along public streets to support counting the vote turned into joyous street parties about noon on Saturday after the election.

Fall 2020 Work on Meeting Landscape

 Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting Landscape Committee works together to support

Meeting use by the larger community, 

being a polling station for the election,

and also a space for contemplation and health.

Divine Authority

 There are all sorts of ways to communicate power.  Below are three images from the Metropolitan Museum and a fourth from VA Museum of Fine Arts exhibit on ancient Egyptian treasures (profiled below in Sept and July 2020).

  

   Body Mask from the Asmat people of Papau New Guinea.  mid 20th cent.  Fiber, sago palm, wed, bamboo, feathers, seeds, paint.

"These imposing examples below of Maya, Khmer, Roman, and European sculpture assert a connection between the human and the divine, linking rulers to otherworldly powers or connecting worshippers with divine support.  Sculptors transformed large blocks of stone into monumental images of gods and rulers to adorn public spaces, royal quarters, and places of worship.  Working within distinctive traditions, they created objects whose size, placement, forms and materials communicated complex ideas about political and spiritual power."

The god Horus, shown as a falcon, protects the pharaoh and imbues him with divine powers.

How do our politicians today strive to communicate power?

Halloween 2020

 

On the Halloween before the 2020 election, I do not know what is more scary, this house or the political situation.  Oh wait, no comparison.  One is fake scary and one is really scary.

Gingerbread Prison