Rhine River #4

New Art: 

6" x 4" oil of neighbor's flowers

Art Purchased: You might remember this from our fall re-positioning cruise. Purchased from a waterfront kiosk in Malaga, Spain, the birthplace of Picasso. This fan was done by a local artisan in the style of Pablo Picasso. Finally got it up on my wall in the studio. The "other artists" wall. 

Art Found: 

This was one of my first attempts when I started to paint again after moving to Fort Myers. An acrylic on water color paper, approximately 4 x 6. Wanted to learn how to paint palm trees. Recently had a chance to photograph it when visiting a friend. 

Reading:  Just finished The Widow Spy - period biography of the first female CIA case worker in Russia. But first, her CIA husband was shot down in Laos during the Vietnam War. Interesting journey, light read (meaning not as intense as A Secret Life). Started 12 Rules For Life by Jordan Peterson. I love his uTube interviews; however, the book, for me is really dense, meaning I need to re-read some of the analytical paragraphs 2 and 3 times. Started Apostle, not sure if I will stay with it. The Pope Speaks, Pope Pius XII - I have the book because it has a photo of when the Harlem Globetrotter made their first world tour; my Uncle Joe was on one of three college all star teams that traveled as part of the tour and the book has a photo of the team with PP. You can see Joe in the back right, the blond flattop. Since I had it, I read several sections of his writings that interested me. One in particular was: (and remember that this was written prior to 1957 when the world seemed to be a much tamer place: "To breathe in the corrupt atmosphere of great modern cities and live a Christian life without absorbing their poison, one needs a profound spirit of faith and the strength and resistance of martyrs". Couple of art book re-reads such as John Sloan 1871-1951 - you can see his influence on my Mizzou teacher, Frank Stack; Painting In Oils, and Drawing on the Artist Within.

Remember, you can enlarge/open up the photos by clicking on it. 

Listening To: Italia by Chris Botti; Unmasked - The Platinum Collection - 4 discs of Andrew Lloyd Webber songs; Queen's Live Magic - mostly so I could hear Radio Ga-Ga; and The Crown Jewels - a collection of duets between Aretha Franklin and guest artists. 

Rhine River Cruise:  Continued. During WWII, when you look at strategic cities such as Amsterdam, Cologne, Koblenz, Frankfurt, approximately 80 percent of the structures were destroyed by Allied bombs and in combat. Not only by Allied armies but the Germans destroyed, for example, bridges so they could not be chased. I expected to hear negative comments by the tour guides, it didn't happen, but it dawned on me that rebuilding Europe provided jobs for the survivors for the next 30 years, and we paid for it. Moreover, I, the amateur psychologist, think that it provided survivors the opportunity to think that the old structures were the "old" Germany and they were the new generation, not like "them".  Nevertheless, in these cities there is little of the old Germany. Some buildings were built "in the style of" their predecessor, a few were duplicates of, say a 1935 version of a structure, and especially in Frankfurt, many "modern" styles were used. See the Cologne art museum. While Allied planes tried not to harm historical structures such as the Cologne cathedral, our bombs were not very precise. And, in this case, the cathedral was located next to the train station. Try as they might, almost no damage was inflicted on the train station but you can see in the photos what happened to the nearby cathedral. It was almost like they should have said "Whatever you do, don't aim for the train station!" In closing, I guess what I think is this is what happens when you attack our friends and millions of defenseless Jews, priests and nuns, gypsies, etc. 

Cologne:

Cologne Cathedral, one of the top 3 in the world

Goes up and up, reaches for the heavens

WW II destruction

Interior blown out

The old, and

The new - their art museum next to the cathedral

Koblenz: My father's mother, Dorothy Heidger, was raised in the Valmeyer, Il area. Her ancestors came over from Koblenz during their version of a potato famine, around 1854 according our my records. I found 2 meat market/butcher shops and one architectural firm with the Heidger name in this town of approximately 112,000. Hope to contact them to see if they are family. Long-shot, but hey, I'm retired and have nothing else to do. 

This is how small the town was when my ancestors left. 

Town square

I was the talk of the cruise when I re-boarded wearing my new shirt!

typical street

"Advent" building, each day in Dec they open another window.

Tribute to US troops liberation

Waterfront at conjunction of two rivers

Monument to ...

Next blog I will try to finish up the cruise, and should have many new pieces of art from my recent trips. Will be in Saint Louis in October, looking forward to catching up with friends.