The Cloisters

 

 The Cloisters

Celebrating the art and architecture of medieval Europe, the Cloisters is located on Hudson River Valley parkland north of New York City. Originally assembled by an American sculptor, George Grey Barnard, the collection was eventually purchased by John D. Rockefeller and is now a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The building, which looks very much like a medieval monastery, was actually constructed in the 1930s using the walls, columns, altars, etc., of real European churches. As a result, the Cloisters provides a peaceful and rather historically-convincing sanctuary away from city life, well worth the long subway or bus ride outside NYC.

The cloisters, themselves, are four-sided architectural features that include a covered walkway surrounding an open courtyard or garden. Despite an unusually cold winter, the gardens were filled with flowers and other flourishing plants. A beautiful day to refresh one’s soul.

 

The central Cuxa Cloister

 

Column detail

 

Smaller over-grown garden cloister

 

Langdon Chapel, constructed with 12th-century

limestone blocks and sculptures from a church in France

 

Lots of statues of the Virgin and baby Jesus

 

Eery half-statue of a religious leader

 

Baby Jesus with apple

 

World-famous 15th-century unicorn tapestry 

donated by John D. Rockefeller

Medieval crypts

 

View of the Hudson River

 

Leaving the Cloisters

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Guillermo del Toro @ LACMA

 

I do not enjoy horror genre, but I am a big supporter of Hispanic filmmakers, so Tim, Karen and I went to see the Guillermo del Toro exhibit at the L.A. County Museum of Art (LACMA), on Tuesday, while waiting for the election returns. The mastermind behind such fantastical films as Pan's Labyrinth and Hellboy, del Toro has been fascinated by macabre images since he was a child in Guadalajara. Indeed, his overly zealous grandmother was so concerned about his nightmarish obsession that she had him exorcised at an early age! Obviously the exorcism didn't work. 

Today del Toro is an uber collector of all things horror, which he displays in a home he calls "Bleak House." Many of his more prized possessions are being exhibited at LACMA as part of "At Home with Monsters," now showing through November 27. (Click on images to enlarge.)

 

Angel (of death?) greets exhibit visitors

 

Artist rendering from Pan's Labyrinth

  

Monster from Pan's Labyrinth 

(depicted above)  

 

Painting: "The Evil Eye" (Chet Zar, 2010)

  

 

Life-size sculpture of Frankenstein's monster

and his bride (Mike Hill, 1996)

 

Life-size sculpture: "Creation" (Mike Hill, 2009) 

 

Enormous mask: "Monster" (Mike Hill, 2011)

  

Monster magazines del Toro collected as a child—at one point,

he apparently had the biggest collection of comicbooks and 

magazines in Mexico

  

Props from the movie Hellboy

  

Tim taking it all in

 

del Toro also loves the dark side of Disney:

Marc Davis's "Medusa" (1969) from Disneyland's

Haunted Mansion

 

Eyvind Earle scary landscape

 

Mary Blair concept art for Disney's Adventures of Ichabod

and Mr. Toad (1949)

  

Eyvind Earle's concept art for Disney's Sleeping Beauty (1959)

 

Nosferatu marionette

 

Life-size sculpture of Edgar Allen Poe

 

Tim admiring del Toro's collection 

CowParade Launch in SLO

 

At the CowParade in San Luis Obispo

 

I was reading the L.A. Times travel section, a couple of weeks ago, when my eye caught a small ad for the launch of the CowParade in San Luis Obispo (SLO), where painted fiberglass cows are being displayed until May. The eight-month-long event will eventually end in an auction, benefiting local charities. Similar "parades," held around the country—and even the world—have raised over $30 million.

On Saturday, the renowned Madonna Inn resort hosted a free preview of all 101 cows before they move on to various locations around town. I immediately contacted our friends, who live a few miles north of SLO, to see if they wanted to go. I'm sure everyone thought I was crazy for wanting to see a bunch of painted plastic cows. But I remember how wonderful it was—and still is!—to unexpectedly run into one of the hundreds of painted fiberglass angels placed around Los Angeles, 15 years ago, as part of a massive public art display and auction. I knew the cows would be just as amazing. And I was right!

Approaching the Madonna Inn from the north, we could already see the cows—and the crowds looking at them—from the freeway. A few of the sculptures stood on hind legs, catching a frisbee or posing like Marilyn Monroe, but most looked like normal ol' cows. Except, of course, they were gloriously covered in beautiful, and sometimes extremely clever, art. Here are just a few of my favorites (click on image to enlarge):

 

Mommy and baby cows

  

"In-cow-dible Hulk"

  

Celebrating local wineries

  

One of several "Día de los Moo-ertos" designs

  

Famous graffiti artist Man One painting a cow 

  

Whimsical look at local breweries

 

Celebrating the central coast's mid-state fair

 

 There were cows covered in foliage

 

And there were patriotic cows

 

Cow-boy on one side

 

And cow-girl on the other

 
Skeletal cows

 
And athletic cows


Blue cows


Madonna Inn pink cows


And yellow cows


"Milk and Honey"


Agriculture


Monarch butterflies


Steampunk cow


"Picowsso"


Van Gogh's "Steery Night"

 
And finally, the "Cowch Potato"