It's true that in an earlier post we reported on the marriage of Brendan Healy and Melissa Rabelhofer, our nearest and dearest friends, and for all intents and purposes, family. They committed their lives to one another in a lovely wedding. Happily, they ignored the legal paperwork in preference for a terrific party. The delightful result is that we could celebrate their union once again! This time, in Timothy Bradshaw's courtroom.
Melissa, Judge Timothy Bradshaw and Brendan
[Spoiler ALERT] They were both down with all the stuff Bradshaw seemed to have questions about!
News & Notes
Moments before the marriage ceremony, we met Brendan and Melissa outside the King County Court House. If they were anxious about the momentous step they were about to take, they sure didn't show it! The Judge, after helping them tie the knot, took the official picture of the happy couple with their four - count 'em - witnesses: Nat, Sann ... L and J. There can be no denying that they're officially married!
What Exactly Is A Nuptial?
We traveled to Chicago to see Dave and Megan for a few days. It was a fantastic visit! It included a tour of Dave's urban farm, dinner with friends, enjoyable stops at several art venues, etc. Mostly, it was just quality time from breakfast to the night cap enjoying each other's company.
Dave & Megan
Dave showed us the new extension to his largest garden, which brings it up to 2 acres within site of the Chicago downtown. The soil will be worked into tidy rows, and in a very brief time his teams will have it producing fresh veggies for Chicago's food pantries. Notice, by the way, the enormous 'mailing tube' in the background. (It's probably left over from when Picasso mailed his artwork to the mayor.)
Dave, Out Standing In His Field
We had three very enjoyable 'art experiences'.
A couple of months ago we began thinking about which artworks at the Art Institute of Chicago were the most iconic: works that are widely known, beloved, deeply associated with the AIC, etc. Having made our choice, we tracked down the five epic paintings, our picks for the Art Institute's 'greatest hits':
Grant Wood's American Gothic (1930)
Edward Hoppers's Nighthawks (1942)
Georges Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1884)
Henri Matisse's Bathers by a River (1917)
Gustave Caillebotte's Paris Street; Rainy Day (1877)
We've posted on Rainy Day previously. Also, we are indebted to our friend Sarah Burns for pointing out that Bathers is essential to the list.
We stopped in at Project Onward, a favorite studio featuring the work of Chicago residents with developmental limitations. Though we saw new work by some of our favorites, such as Stephon Doby, we met Andrew Hall, who just completed a commission for the Chicago Transit Authority that was transfered to glass (in Bavaria) and decorates the 47th Street Station of CTA's Red Line. The work is titled Portraits in Time: From Bronzeville to Back of the Yards, which refers to two black neighborhoods in Chicago established following the Great Migration. The 47th Street Station is located between those two neighborhoods.
Andrew Hall, Artist
At the Museum of Contemporary Art the new exhibit is a retrospective of work by Doris Salcedo, a Columbian master who's art memorializes the victims of political murders, massacres and state violence. Her work is extremely moving, especially her public art, which she describes in an excellent video. Her largest installation at the MCA is called Plegaria Muda, and is created from coffin-size tables, half of which are upside down with [real] grass growing from them. The grass, she explains, is her statement of hope following the massacres.
Plegaria Muda by Columbian Artist Doris Salcedo
- Old link -- http://www.snydersR.us
- New link -- https://www.snydersR.us
Coordinates Is Now Encrypted
The tech community is pushing to increase the use of encryption on the Internet. You can help by changing your bookmark for this page:
That little 's' is the change. It will cause the connection between your computer and our Web page to be encrypted and unreadable by others. We have nothing to hide, of course, but in a small way we increase the amount of Internet traffic that is scrambled and off limits to snoops. You won't notice any differences. Our page will be just as inscrutable as it has always been.