Public art is which encompasses any form of art you see in a public place, large or small, statues, murals, graffiti, gardens, Christmas lights, even buildings or bridges. The art should be visible from streets, sidewalks or outdoor public places. I chose to post photos from the list below.
Graffiti
Statues and Sculptures
Murals
Transportation
Car Shows
Artistic Construction (Bridge, benches and buildings)
Wall Art
Bridges…George Washington Bridge and the Brooklyn Bridge
Statues…Upper left, the Field Gallery (Martha’s Vineyard) – Upper right, Marquis De Lafayette, Colonel Alexander Hamilton, General George Washington (Morristown, NJ) Lower left, Atlas (Rockefeller Center, NYC) – Lower right, Martha’s Vineyard.
Cube and sculptures at Grounds For Sculptures, Hamilton, New Jersey
Statue at Eagle Rock Reservation, West Orange, NJ honoring the search and rescue dogs of 9/11…
Clockwise from upper right: tree sculpture in PA – easels in windows – statues and metal cows at the Field Gallery on Martha’s Vineyard – sidewalk art – mural in NJ – piano in Greenwich Village, NYC.
My daughter and I are deeply into our genealogy and have been visiting cemeteries where our ancestor are buried. I’ve always found cemeteries to be interesting places, especially the older ones where grave stones and markers are indeed works of art. We have several ancestors buried in Mt Pleasant Cemetery in Newark, New Jersey, which is Newark’s oldest cemetery and in my opinion the most beautiful and interesting one. The cemetery has a special section for the firemen of Newark and that is where my great, great grandfather is buried. The unexpected art connection to me are the fire hydrants that surround this section.
After spending the night in Waterville, Maine we headed to Portland. It was too cold and windy to meander around so we went to the Portland Museum of Art which was lovely.
Good-bye to Portland and onward to Kennebunkport where meandering was a little warmer and less windy. First stop was a coffee shop where we had tea and shared a delicious piece of blueberry crumb cake. Kennebunkport is quaint and sweet, lots of nice little shops to poke around in should you be so inclined.
Leaving there we headed back to Ogunquit for our last night in Maine. We stayed this time at the gorgeous Gorges Grant Inn. The room was lovely and our decision to have breakfast in their restaurant ‘Raspberries’ was a smart one. Yum.
After a good night’s rest it was time to say good-bye to Maine and head home to New Jersey. But wait… who said we had to go directly home, how about a stop in…. Salem, Massachusetts. Woooooooooo.
First stop… the Salem Witch Museum which I found very interesting (and not scary at all) 🙂 Second stop… Jolie Tea Company. The little cafe was a gem of a find, the tea was excellent as were the pastries… the staff was friendly and informative, we really enjoyed our short time there. Did bring home some tea and also ordered more from them.
This trip was all I hoped for and more thanks to my daughter Deb ❤
Memorial Day was borne out of the Civil War and a desire to honor our dead. It was officially proclaimed on 5 May 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic. “The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land,” he proclaimed. The date of Decoration Day, as he called it, was chosen because it wasn’t the anniversary of any particular battle.In 1971, Congress established Memorial Day as the last Monday in May and as a federal holiday.
On my mother’s side of the family, my paternal great grandfather, Joseph Littlefield fought in the Civil War and died because of his wounds. He was wounded in the Battle of the Wilderness in 1864. He was sent home to Maine to die. He died of typhoidal pnemonia on Sep 30, 1864, he is buried in Rome, Maine. Unfortunately his wife and his 3 oldest children died of the same thing shortly thereafter, leaving my grandfather, Charles Littlefield at age 10 the oldest of the four remaining children.
Below is a photo of the veteran’s section in the Fairmont Cemetery in Newark, New Jersey, where, on my father’s side of the family my great great paternal grandfather, Stephen Freeman is buried. Stephen did not die in the Civil War but was wounded in the battle of Antietam in 1862. He was sent home, lived another 29 years and died on May 30, 1891, which ironically was Memorial Day.
Take a moment to remember the original reason for Memorial Day and the men and women who fought for, and gave their lives for our country.
Have a great Memorial Day and enjoy the weekend whatever you’re doing.
Newark, New Jersey is where I was born and grew up. As you can tell by the clock it’s a timeless city 🙂 Last week my daughter Deb, our cousin Kris, our friend Dawn and I went off on our adventure
.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Our family, the Freeman’s go back to the original founding fathers of Newark. My 8th times great grandfather (not sure of the number), Stephen Freeman, along with Robert Treat and a host of other men from Milford and Branford, Ct founded the city of Newark in 1666. It has just celebrated its 350 birthday in 2016. I am the last of our particular Freeman line to be born in Newark as was my father, my grandfather etc.
The monument to the founding fathers fell into disrepair and actually disappeared for many years.
(The 9-foot-tall monument, which weighs 13,000 pounds, was lying on its back underneath a tattered blue tarp in a city lot at the city’s Division of Traffic and Signals. Without further inspection, you’d think it was discarded junk.The marble base was detached. The wooden pallet that held the monument was in standing water between a trash bin and a gaggle of inoperable traffic lights.Not exactly what Newark’s stakeholders had in mind when they gave it to the city in 1916 to celebrate its 250th anniversary.) You can read more of that article by CLICKING HERE…
Thankfully it was restored and put in its new location in 2016 for Newark’s 350th anniversary.
There is also another founding fathers statue which is located in Fairmont Cemetery. Just so happens many of our ancestors are buried there but that will be in another blog post.
My daughter Deb, myself, our cousin Kristan.
Newark NJ founders statue (Robert Treat)
We headed to the Court House to see the ‘Seated LIncoln’ statue of Abraham Lincoln sculpted by Gutzon Borglum who was the creator of the Mount Rushmore sculpture of Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. CLICK HERE to read about the Seated Lincoln statue in Newark.
The main reason I wanted to visit this sculpture was to try and recreate a picture my mother and grandmother had taken in the 1920’s.
My grandmother and mother Me with daughter Deb.
Court House – Newark NJ
Surprising to many who don’t know much about the city of Newark, it has some beautiful parks in it. Washington Park, Lincoln Park and the newly revitalized Military Park. CLICK HERE PLEASE…
Military Park
The newly revitalized park reopened in June 2014. There are outdoor tables, walking paths, statue of John F Kennedy, ping-pong tables, nice umbrellas which my group utilized to get out of the 87 degree heat the day we were there, and the Liberty Pole.
Military Park- Newark NJ
JFK – Military Park – Newark NJ
*From Wikipedia — Military Park is a 6-acre city park in downtown Newark, New Jersey. From 1667, when the city was planned, until 1869 it was a training ground for soldiers. In 1869 it became the town commons.*
The most impressive thing in Military Park is the ‘Wars Of America’ sculpture by Gutzon Borglum (who also sculpted the above mentioned statue of Lincoln).
*From NJ.com -The bronze masterpiece consists of forty-two human beings and two horses and commemorates America’s participation in the Revolution, War of 1812; Indian Wars; Mexican War, the Civil War, Spanish American War and World War I.
It is in Military Park, which dates back to 1667–when the park was a training ground for soldiers and, later, a drill field for the Colonial and Continental armies–where the colossal Wars of America statue stands in striking relief. It is the centerpiece of the park.
Thus ends my latest trip back to Newark. Since we’ve been delving into our family ancestry and our connection to the city I come from we’ve been back to Newark more times in the past two years than I had been in the last maybe 30 years. I have a feeling we’re not done yet 🙂
The Breakers – if you only have time to see one mansion/summer cottage, this the THE one to visit.
From wikipedia: ” The Breakers is a Vanderbilt mansion located on Ochre Point Avenue, Newport, Rhode Island. The Breakers was built as the Newport summer home of Cornelius Vanderbilt II. The Breakers is the architectural and social archetype of the ‘Gilded Age’ a period when members of the Vanderbilt family were among the major industrialists of America. Vanderbilt was the President and Chairman of the New York Central Railroad, and was the grandson of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt. The Commodore made the family fortune in the steamship and railroad industries.In 1895, the year of its completion, The Breakers was the largest, most opulent house in the Newport area.”
This was the original Breakers which was destroyed by fire in 1892. A modest summer cottage…
Vanderbilt commissioned famed architect Richard Morris Hunt to rebuild it and insisted that the building be made as fireproof as possible and as such, the structure of the building used steel trusses and no wooden parts.
And this is the Breakers in 1895… somewhat different from the original, wouldn’t you say.
Great hall …
Around the ‘cottage’… 2 sitting rooms – music room – library – bathroom – dining room.
In the library the fireplace, taken from a 16th-century French chateau bears the inscription “I laugh at great wealth, and never miss it; nothing but wisdom matters in the end.”
Back of grand staircase – ceiling – gilded door – portrait – platinum wall paper – chandelier.
‘The kitchen, unlike others in the time period, was situated on the first floor away from the main house to prevent the possibility of fires and cooking smells reaching the main parts of the house.’ You can understand why after the original Breakers burned down that they’d want the kitchen further away. This kitchen is gorgeous, it could even tempt me to whip up a cake or something. Maybe.
The grounds … you never know what you might see out there 🙂
The Breakers is amazing… not just in its beauty and opulence but in the thought and foresight that went into building it.
.
MV Obsession 