When I first took a tour of the Cleveland State campus on my HR orientation day nearly three years ago, I remember distinctly regretting not having a camera on me. The art deco style of Fenn Tower caught my eye right away.
Fenn Tower - The first building on the Cleveland State campus (then Fenn College)
Detail of Fenn Tower
Despite passing numerous amazing buildings in downtown Cleveland by bus throughout my employment at Cleveland State University, I rarely made the time to take pictures of the structures I had grown to know and love. After deciding that I would leave my job at Cleveland State to pursue graduate studies at UNC, I always planned on having a week or two to spend simply taking pictures and enjoying Cleveland after resigning. This plan did not pan out as I hoped, but I did manage to spend an afternoon taking pictures after my last day of work. Included in this post are a few of the pictures from that bittersweet day. Oddly I was asked three times during those few short hours if I was a tourist. I proudly told these individuals that I was not a tourist and that Cleveland was my home.
Taking photos around downtown made me notice things I never had before even though I had seen many of these buildings too many times to count. I had never truly looked at the semicircular mural paintings in the entrance to Tower City. I had also never realized that figural designs were included in the surface treatment of the buildings behind Tower City on Prospect Ave. Like sketching, photography also forces you to inspect things more closely than one might otherwise.
Inside Tower City
Ceiling in Tower City
One of seven murals in the entrance way of Tower City
Rockefeller Building entrance - 614 W Superior Ave.
Rockefeller building
Rockefeller building
Robed men in art deco style that I never noticed on Prospect Ave. behind Tower City
Deco doorway on Prospect Ave.
E-Line Trolley with Trinity Cathedral in the background
I was not able to visit all of the buildings I love in the few short hours I had. One notable exception was Cuyahoga County Juvenile Justice Center. I also didn't get to the Westside Market, of which I have very few pictures. There are so many other sites in Cleveland I wish I had seen again before moving, but I guess this gives me a good reason to visit soon.
I finally made a visit to the
Museum of Divine Statues a few weeks ago. It is located right in my
own backyard in the city of Lakewood, OH. Over the past few years in
Cleveland a plethora of Catholic churches have been shut down because
many are considered redundant. The Museum of Divine
Statues made one of these churches, St. Hedwig, its home. Its creative
reuse of the building is especially appropriate because the museum
houses statues from other churches in the Cleveland area that have been
closed. In this way the museum not only preserves
one particular church, but has also saved many beloved statues that
would otherwise be lost.
St. Hedwig
St. Hedwig historically had a primarily Polish
congregation, as did many of the other churches in the area due to the large number of immigrants from Eastern
and Central Europe that came to Cleveland. In addition
to St. Hedwig, other closed Polish churches include St. Adalbert, St.
Casimir, St. Hyacinth, and
St. Stanislaus. Note that there are multiple saints with the same
names and that there were even several churches in Cleveland named after
the same saints that were closed. In the end, 29 total parishes were
closed and there were 18 different mergers. For
pictures of specific churches that were closed, visit Patrick Richard’s
blog
Closing Catholic Churches in Cleveland or search the
Cleveland Memory Project. For the complete list of churches affected by the closings and mergers, click
here.
Beyond the museum’s connections with the extensive
church closings, it is a great space in its own right. One of the most
interesting things about the museum to me was the opportunity it gave
visitors to see many different versions of the
same saints at the same time. I was especially struck by
the vast number of Mary figures I got to see in one place. Because there
are so many different aspects of or titles for Mary, having numerous
statues of her is
a great way to compare these various aspects. There were also at least
three different statues of the Child of Prague, who is a very common
representation of Jesus in Cleveland due to the large Czech population
in the city and suburbs.
Mary - Our Lady of Perpetual Help (St. Margaret of Hungary - Chagrins Falls)
Of all the statues, my favorite was the one of Joan
of Arc. The statue was so well done and the marble eyes had a deepness
to them that the other statues did not. Compositionally the statue was
engaging because of the sculpture’s sensitive
tilting head and the presence of the banner and the sword. I’ve also
always simply loved Joan of Arc and her story and took her name for my
confirmation name.
If you live in Northeast Ohio, I would highly
recommend that you visit the Museum of Divine Statues. Lou McClung, the
founder of the museum who restores many of the statues, seems genuinely
passionate about Cleveland religious history.
His mother, who you’ll likely meet when you buy your ticket ($8), is
also deeply invested in the museum and extremely friendly. My only
complaint about the museum is that its hours are too short, though I
understand that being open more would be costly. The
museum is only open from noon until four on Sundays. If you have a Sunday afternoon free though, you should take the time to stop by.
This past week I had the pleasure of listening to Maya Lin speak at Oberlin College. If you’ve heard Maya Lin’s name before, in all likelihood you know that she created the Vietnam War Memorial and the Women’s Table at Yale University. I still remember first learning of Lin’s work in an introductory art history survey course my freshman year of college. As survey courses typically go, we only brushed upon her two major career highlights. Lin’s presentation was intriguing to me because it introduced me to all of her lesser-known work and her intentions behind her creations. In particular, her work seemed to focus on the themes of memory and landscapes.
A number of her series, including her current show “Here and There,” combine these two interests by showing the disappearance of natural features. The works that best represent this idea in her present show are her “Disappearing Bodies of Water” that include sculptures of Lake Chad and the Aral Sea over time. In many ways these sculptures look like topographic maps. Her collaborative web memorial "What is Missing?"and her film “How to Unchop a Tree” also deal with the loss of the environment over time. Lin's website seems unique to me because in a way it redefines what is considered a memorial because of its virtual nature. Instead of having to visit a physical site to honor something or someone that has passed, clicking on a link is now the equivalent of a journey of remembrance.
A statistic that she mentioned a few times during her presentation that
similarly drove home the idea that there is (or has been) so much on
earth that we cannot see is that the island of Hawaii is actually 500
ft. taller than Mount Everest. Like the huge volume of water that has
vanished from the earth, the massiveness of the mountain that forms the
island of Hawaii is also unseen.
By pure coincidence, I also had the
opportunity to see one of Lin’s created landscapes in person this past
week. While I was down in Athens, OH, to run a half-marathon and visit
my little brother who goes to the university there, I got the chance to
explore her piece “Input.” The work is composed of a series of
rectangular indentations and projections that are supposed to represent
IBM punch cards. Her brother, Tan, composed a poem for the piece. The
words of the poem are found on the concrete edges of the rectangular
boxes. While I did not love the piece, I found a lot of the text
intriguing. I especially enjoyed the phrases that were related to
mapping, though I haven’t quite figured out the meaning of the piece as a
whole. She mentioned several times that the work is in a way her own personal tribute to Athens. I was surprised to learn that Lin is a native of Athens and that her parents were both professors at OU. In the end I think the piece's purpose is to memorialize Lin's childhood and adolescence in the town of Athens.
"Input" in Athens, OH, on the grounds of Ohio University
"I wanted to draw a map of memories"
"like the photograph of a landscape"
"carved out to resemble rectangular bits of binary code"
When I visit Las Vegas for my first, and probably only, time
this May with my sisters, I hope that I’ll get to stop into MGM’s
Mirage and see Maya Lin’s rendition of the Colorado River in silver.
Listening to Lin speak about her fascination with the natural world
definitely made me appreciate her work more and think more about my own
obsession with the way people interact with their environments.
In October of this year I flew out to visit my sisters in Los Angeles. Along with seeing my second oldest sister's apartment and meeting her two cats, Rosalie and Esteban, I also took the opportunity to see as much art as I could. Some of this art was found in a typical museum setting at the Getty, but I also saw quite a bit of interesting art while wandering downtown LA.
Other sites included several theatres, the LA public library, Angel's Flight, and the Eastern Columbia Building. I really enjoyed the bright colors and unique fonts used on all of these buildings.
Since arriving home, I was recently reminded of my trip while watching an episode of the Office online. The unforgettable bright turquoise Eastern Columbia building was featured prominently in a Lexus commercial I saw while watching the episode. Included below is one of the commercials that shows the building.
Eastern Columbia building
The fact that the Eastern Columbia building is included in an advertisement for a luxury car speaks to the current popularity of Art Deco. Apparently it is "cool" enough that a frame of the Eastern Columbia building can fit seamlessly into an advertisement that highlights partying and cruising on a Friday night. From athletic shoes to women's fashion, retro is currently in demand.
Building included at the end of the commercial
What is troubling is that the images of downtown LA included in these commercials are probably not recognizable to many people, even those that live in Los Angeles, because the downtown area in LA is not the social center it could be. While the downtown definitely has nightlife, during the day I saw that many of the city streets were inhabited prominently by the homeless. In some ways the anonymity associated with the buildings downtown works well for the commercial because it makes it so that the audience does not immediately connect the car to a very specific geographic region. This allows viewers to identify more closely with the commercial and the product. Including more iconic buildings, like the Empire State building, would immediately limit the ad.
Still, while the relative obscurity of edifices like the Eastern Columbia building serves the purpose of the commercial, it it does not bode well for the city itself. If these buildings are unfamiliar to most, that means the downtown area is not often frequented by visitors and residents. In the field of urban studies, much has been written about how the downtown areas of many cities are dying and the negative effects that come with this trend. One well-known publication on this topic is Robert M. Fogelson's Downtown: Its Rise and Fall. Much needs to be done to resuscitate America's downtown city centers.
In my opinion, historic buildings have the potential to revive activity in downtown areas that are no longer thriving by promoting tourism and creating interesting and beautiful environments. It seems that the city of LA agrees with me on this because on their tourism website they include several posts on architecture that visitors might want to see. Most notable is their current post on buildings featured in the film (500) Days of Summer. The Eastern Columbia building is one of the edifices that makes an appearance in the film, but it can only be seen for a mere second or two. As the home of Hollywood, it makes sense that much of Los Angeles tourism is connected to film.
In a small way, the inclusion of architecture from downtown LA in commercials can also help promote and build the city center. Yet, for the commercials to succeed in doing this, the landmarks included must be recognizable. I personally do not believe that images of downtown LA are yet ubiquitous enough to be easily identified by the typical American, but I hope that one day soon they will be. I greatly enjoyed my trip to LA and hope that visitors and residents alike are drawn to its historic buildings in the future.
At the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law Library, I work among a sea of KF call numbers. I always have to hold back a laugh whenever a new law student or university student comes up to the circulation desk to ask where they can find KF call numbers because books with KF on their spine are what fill up the majority of our library. Library materials with KF call numbers can be found on every one of the library's four floors. In case you didn't know, KF is used in the Library of Congress system to identify books on American law. The letter "K" on its own simply stands for law.
In order to make the multitude of books and other materials with KF call numbers a little more accessible to our patrons, I decided to create a display for one of our bulletin boards on the atrium level of the library that has stood empty for too long. Sue Altmeyer, one of my coworkers, initially proposed the idea of filling the bulletin board with information on where to find particular legal topics (such as bankruptcy or federal practice) in the library. I decided to go with the idea and develop a display made out of cut paper that highlighted fifteen different legal topics.
Even though I really enjoy working with colored paper, the decision to use paper for this project was largely based off of convenience. Marie Reihmar, the employee who used to create all the displays for the library before she retired, left me and the rest of the librarians at Cleveland State an enormous supply of colored paper in almost every hue you could possibly imagine. Since it was already there and would not cost the library any money, I decided to utilize it. There were times when I was cutting out very tiny intricate designs that I questioned this decision, but overall I enjoyed working with paper.
Despite consciously attempting to avoid spending any money on this project, I didn't think ahead on everything. There was one complaint that I was using too much glue for this project and that the library couldn't afford to supply me with glue sticks, but luckily this didn't turn out to be too serious. I used two of the library's glue sticks, which probably cost us a total of three dollars. Since the glue sticks the library has are purple and caused me a lot of issues with craftsmanship, I ended up bringing in my own glue sticks anyway after going through the first two.
Below are included some images of my individual paper designs as well as a picture of how the display looks now that it has been assembled on the atrium of the law library. The only possible alteration I am still thinking about is lamination. I'm sure that some people are going to find the project a bit juvenile, but I hope that some of the law students will not take things so seriously for once and just enjoy the colors and designs and the bit of information the display conveys. If any of the law students are feeling particularly carefree, they can also play a matching game with the display. There is a space allotted on the bulletin board for when the images are not matched up with a law topic heading. Students can take take the images from this space and pair them with empty headings.
I'm glad I had the opportunity to make this display and have a little fun with paper. Today at work Linda Herman, one of our past Research Assistants, told me that she would love to have a job like mine that would give her the opportunity to make art. It was nice to get some positive comments about the project. Even though making displays is not found anywhere in my job description, I am glad that my job is flexible enough that it allows me to put some of my art skills to use.
Finally, please note that this entire display was made while I was helping patrons at the main circulation desk.
In case some of you aren't familiar with Cleveland, the transit system used to represent urban planning is Cleveland's rapid transit train system. This was one of the images that made me question how sensible using cut paper was. I had to cut out and glue very tiny pieces of paper for that design.
Here is a picture of how the bulletin board looks when all of the pieces are correctly matched with their topics.
This photo shows what the board looks like when all of the images are waiting to be paired with their headings.
For additional information on the call number ranges of particular legal topics, see Northwestern's classification guide on U.S Law Call Numbers.
Even though I can't be in England to see the Olympics as I had originally planned, I am still very exciting about the upcoming games. Unfortunately not having cable is going to make seeing a number of the events pretty difficult, but I will at the very least get to see the opening ceremony tomorrow night at a friend's house. Below are pictured some frosted graham crackers I made in honor of the event.
My little brother is going to be graduating from high school in just a few short weeks. Over the last few years I've done a number of quick ads for show choir programs and the yearbook for him and I felt that now would be an appropriate time to share them. Since I am the only person in my family that knows what Photoshop is, these little projects were given to me to complete.
The first two were for the Piqua Invitational Show Choir program. The designs that "frame" the ads are based off of the set design for each of the shows. Although all of the ads have a cheesy message, the funniest has to be the text in the second ad: "Be Indestructible!" This was the title of my brother's show that year, so I felt that the cheesiness was appropriate.
Enjoy the ads below.
Congrats Isaac on your graduation:) I can't wait to see how well you do in the Photojournalism program at OU.
