Michael Sherrill and other linear floral forms

 At the Asheville Art Museum

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At the Black Mountain Center for the Arts

Then an extraordinary floral arrangement! details below...

Flowers at Art in Bloom 2025, Center for the Arts, Black Mountain NC

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At the Asheville Art Museum...

Sorry, another crummy photo. Michael Sherrill's "Black Medicine, 2014" is below. An amazing artist's branch of life-like Elderberries.

While thinking of linear art...

Interesting screen-work in the cafe' on the top floor of the Asheville Art Museum. Delicious side salad for $3...which was a stand-alone for Helen's vegan lunch. My cheese sandwich added to mine (just $7 more!) There were more pricy items too!

Sculptures on the roof, and a view of a hotel as well as distant mountains in the Blue Ridge. Noon that week meant sitting only in shade, and so we stayed in the air conditioned part of the cafe. The one shady table on the patio side had already been taken.

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Today's quote:

Constant apologizing can be a sign that you are not feeling that you have much self-worth.

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Today's old photo:

The Heyms in 2018...visiting near Tampa FL. L to R: Michelle, Audrey, Caroline, Russ, Kate, Doug, Millie, William and Marty.  My ex is Doug, and his wife who passed away a few years ago was Millie. Marty and Russ are my sons. Michelle is Russ' wife. The rest are grandchildren!!

Sharing with Floral Friday Fotos

Van Gogh and ---

 

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And from the Asheville Art Museum:

Exhibition on Screen Series | Van Gogh Poets & Lovers

Two hundred years after its opening and a century after acquiring its first Van Gogh works, the National Gallery, London is hosting the UK’s biggest ever Van Gogh exhibition. Van Gogh is not only one of the most beloved artists of all time, but perhaps the most misunderstood.

This film is a chance to reexamine and better understand this iconic artist. Focusing on his unique creative process, Van Gogh: Poets & Lovers explores the artist’s years in the south of France, where he revolutionized his style. Van Gogh became consumed with a passion for storytelling in his art, turning the world around him into vibrant, idealized spaces and symbolic characters.

Poets and lovers filled his imagination; everything he did in the south of France served this new obsession. In part, this is what caused his notorious breakdown, but it didn’t hold back his creativity as he created masterpiece after masterpiece. Explore one of art history’s most pivotal periods in this once-in-a-century show. Made in close collaboration with the National Gallery.

Preview from YouTube above.

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My shots from the show. Apologies to those sitting behind me, I only held up my iPhone for these 4 shots.
 

Well, maybe a couple more which I missed completely. 

The show meant sitting for an hour and a half, not a bad way to spend a hot afternoon. But when you think of all the other movies in much more comfortable seats, with sound systems that wouldn't make it very difficult for me to understand the narrators...the cost was not quite worth it.

Did I learn anything new about Van Gogh? Maybe his love of yellow? Nah, I already knew that.

I observed his most prolific period was from the hospital in 1889  (the year before his suicide.) Or were these just the gallery's collection for that show? It was thorough and thoughtfully narrated by art experts. 

But films of paintings don't really do justice to the art. I've taken too many art history courses with slides and overheads to not have that opinion. So my visit to the Art Museum in Asheville was best enjoyed by seeing art on the wall.

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Today’s quote:

Haters, like parrots,

talk much

but cannot fly. Dreamers,

like eagles, say nothing but

conquer the skies.

 Matshona Dhliwayo

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Old photos:

Myself at 3 and maternal grandmother Mozelle Munhall, Dallas TX. She was a seamstress and made my lovely tan wool outfit with dark brown velvet trim at the collar.

In the style of...

From Art in Bloom 

I apologize for not capturing the name or description of the florist's work.

This painting seemed very familiar. The artist, Cheryl Keefer posted a similar reproduction on her web page

Cheryl Keifer works in Black Mountain. But the reason both my friend Helen and myself said "we'd seen that painting" is that Cheryl posted it on Facebook, and she's a FB friend of another Black Mountain friend artist, Robert Tynes. Robert has retired now from being the painting professor at UNCA (University of North Carolina Asheville.) He definitely had a different style of painting.

But let's jump into the art at the Asheville Museum again.

This super realism painting reminds me of Robert Tynes' work...who did a lot of trompe l'oeil. I saw a retrospective of his work in 2021, and shared some on my "art blog" Alchemy of Clay.

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Good day yesterday...met with Doc and accepted that meds aren't the answer to the finger shakes. I suggested chiropractor for my neck pain, and he agreed. I brought it up mainly because that had been the major symptom that I had prior to (or result of) my heart attack 5 years ago. Now my neck pain is mainly from bending my head forward reading in one position (like the iPad) at this time. Hopefully that's all. It does respond to Tylenol!

I had lunch with an old friend who'd recently been to a "celebration of life" for her ex-father-in-law. He had been 90. It was good for her to see so many old friends/family...as well as her son who's stationed in Australia with the US Navy...near Ayers Rock. He had traveled 35 hours to be at the family gathering for just a couple of days, then turned around and returned to duty. He used to be stationed in DC, so she had seen him several times in the last year. It reminded me how glad I had been to have talked with my sons over last weekend by phone.

I continue to feel better daily with the cough still a constant evening companion. But I'm aware of the preciousness of each day. I'm determined to live a life, rather than "waiting around to die." I noticed the Doc looked at me intently as he said good-bye, a similar look I've had just a few times. It's as if they are thinking they won't see me again. Perhaps that's true. The next time I notice it I'll ask someone.

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Today's quote:

Ride the winds of change, unafraid.

Dr. Larry Ward ----------- Rabbit rabbit for a great July everyone! by Elena Shumilova --------------------------- Old Photos: And happy birthday to the father of my 2 eldest sons...who is celebrating completing his 86th journey around the sun. Who would have thunk it! Doug Heym in 1973. Sharing with Wordless Wednesday on Tuesday (well almost!) ------------------- Happy Canada Day to my friends who celebrate it!

Monday murals and then some

 

Flowers at Art in Bloom 2025, Center for the Arts, Black Mountain NC

Some words of wisdom from Facebook.

Sunday last Helen and I went to a free art museum trip in Asheville. Zoom tickets are available to lots of venues in Asheville, through our Buncombe County libraries. This one was for an air conditioned trip, and a pass lets two people in. We also signed up for a Van Gogh movie, taken from an exhibit at another museum, complete with docents talking about the paintings. It was pricy, but after all, we'd obtained the entrance tickets for nothing.

Around noon thirty in downtown Asheville, there was a Vegan-Fest. Too hot to go strolling for me, however.

I had to enjoy this lady's body art, who checked us in at the front desk.

A wonderful mural in the lobby of the Asheville Art Museum

Layers of wood, cut into a Black America. (My son Tai Rogers would love this, as he made many white map-like sculptural forms.)

Detail of "My Big Black America"

Today's quote:

Life, what an exquisite privilege.

Katie Rubinstein

And an environmental quote from Katharine Hayhoe:

“it's OK to grieve over the things we've lost and will lose, grief isn't the same as despair. We need to be brave enough to do the right thing."

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Early coffee at Four Sisters Bakery (where we also found day-old croissants available!) with Suzanne, a dear old friend yesterday morning. Well, I got a decaf Americano, while she brought her own Chai tea. She's trying also to downsize things and finds it hard to do. We discussed briefly the need to get accurate news, and I referred her to BlueSky. She's an artist that has breast cancer, and has given away and sold a lot of her supplies...but still has a good easel for some aspiring talented person. Her interests are similar to mine in many ways. We plan to meet more Sunday mornings and sit in the cool fresh air and chat. She's interested in that Podcast about the Trickster, which I posted about on "Inner Workings" blog. And like my friend Teresa, she's enjoying doing "slow stitching."

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We spoke highly of Thom Tillis (one of NC's Senators in Washington) who'd voted against the Big Ugly Budget Bill. And then later I saw he'd announced his not running for another election.

"After Trump attacked him yesterday for not supporting the budget reconciliation bill, Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) has announced he will not run for reelection next year, indicating his unwillingness to face a primary challenger backed by Trump. This puts the seat in play for a Democratic pickup.

In a statement, Tillis said: “In Washington over the last few years, it’s become increasingly evident that leaders who are willing to embrace bipartisanship, compromise, and demonstrate independent thinking are becoming an endangered species.” He wrote: “I look forward to having the pure freedom to call the balls and strikes as I see fit and representing the great people of North Carolina to the best of my ability.” 

Tonight, Tillis told the Senate: “What do I tell 663,000 people in two years or three years, when President Trump breaks his promise by pushing them off of Medicaid because the funding’s not there anymore, guys?... [T]he effect of this bill is to break a promise.”

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office today said the tax cuts in the budget reconciliation bill the Republican senators are trying to pass will increase the national debt by $3.3 trillion over the next ten years despite the $1.2 trillion in cuts to Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other programs over the same period. Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA) called the measure “Robin Hood in reverse…stealing from the poor in order to give to the rich, this massive transfer of wealth from the bottom to the top…. This is socialism for the rich.” 

Heather Cox Richardson 

Daylilies at Four Sisters Bakery

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My Old Photos:

4.21.48 Galveston TX, my father, George Rogers Jr, grandmother, Ada Rogers & Uncle Chauncey Rogers, myself, Barbara & little sister, Mary Beth. Mother was the photographer. We called it soapy water!

The Gatherer

 

An extraordinary ceramic sculptural tea pot...

The inspiration for this floral basket...another piece of art!

Flowers at Art in Bloom 2025, Center for the Arts, Black Mountain NC

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From the current display at the Asheville Art Museum...

Friends who added smiles to a decorated elevator. The other elevator was too chaotically decorated for a photo!

Sorry about my ghostly yellow blouse and the whole gallery intruding as reflections. It was a lovely photo but the details kind of got lost.

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Sunday morning:

Foggy out and 65 when I opened the windows at 7. Took my Fosamax with water, which requires waiting an hour before enjoying coffee. That's for the osteoporosis, which was diagnosed based upon my age, more than the actual density of these bones. However, I've only ever broken one, my coccyx, when snow sledding in the Smokies, and again landing on it from standing on a table which tipped. 

Going to meet an old friend for coffee by the lake in a few hours. I'm back on the antibiotic (at half the dose), so will take the anti-vertigo pill as well, and avoid being in sun, as well as use my walking stick and wear my walking shoes which are like having duck feet, wide, light weight, stable, ugly!

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Today's quote:

One will rarely err if extreme actions be ascribed to vanity, ordinary actions to habit, and mean actions to fear. -Friedrich Nietzsche, philosopher (1844-1900)

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Now a new feature for a while (who knows how long!) My very  old photos - just one from whenever, and if I know who and when and where, I'll add such info too. If not, they can remain just old photos.

My grandfather, George Elmore Rogers Sr., with his first son Elmore, and his mother Bette Bass Rogers, 1906.  Poppy built their house in Galveston, 1209 Broadway. Elmore lived only until he was 12 and drowned, when his little brother, my father, was just 2 years old.  And looking at the dates, my father's sister was born Oct. 9, 1916, when Elmore died Oct. 23, 1916. 

But I love this photo because of the dapper outfit my grandfather was wearing, as well as it being the only photo of my great great grandmother.