joy magnetism: Four Seasons




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Showing posts with label Four Seasons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Four Seasons. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Is it Winter yet?

Magnet #865 - Tiffany's Autumn

Winter,* the final of my Four Seasons VMFA Tiffany magnetset, from the Tiffany exhibition.

It's gonna hit about a hundred today, and I know in a few hours, I'll be in the subway, giggling over the seasonal differences down under.

Right now, when you walk down the stairs into the subway, you're immediately assaulted by the waves of heat wafting through the station, with our only air current the trains ripping through the tunnels.

You enter the cars, and with any luck (especially now with all these budget cuts), it's air-conditioned, and it's filled with half-dressed people, just trying to beat the heat. Tank tops and flip flops, long hair pulled into a clip, and makeshift newspaper fans desperately trying to make a breeze. There's less people, but the folks left seem to just be trying not to touch each other's sweaty limbs.

In the winter, we all crowd into the subways with our heavy, heavy coats and our boots and gloves and hats, and we're all just happy to be warm and in from the cold and wind. Less people fit in the cars, by virtue of all those heavy coats bunched up against each other. Yet, gloved hand after gloved hand dot the rails along the top of the cars, and it's all we can do to sway as a group whenever the cars take an abrupt turn or brake suddenly.

I dunno, it just always strikes me funny when I'm staring down at either flip-flops or boots to remember how different we are come winter or summer, and what a difference a season makes.

* Morse Museum of American Art's Four Seasons PDF guide
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Monday, July 5, 2010

Season of change

Magnet #864 - Tiffany's Autumn

Autumn,* third in my Four Seasons VMFA Tiffany magnetset, from the Tiffany exhibition.

I won't lie - these four magnets are so small that it's hard to make out the content of the stained-glass design. But when you put the four of them together, just as magnets, it's so, so pretty. Just imagine how majestic the whole window must have been.

Fall's one of my favorite times of year, mostly because it's not too cold, not too hot. And also because, more than an actual calendar new year, it always feels like a time of new beginnings. New school years, new people, new hopes. Just new change, I guess.

Oh, and let's not forget, new television, too.

What? I just finished off seasons 3 and 4 of Friday Night Lights, after a delayed gratification of not watching either season so I could devote a weekend to it. Now that that's done, I need it and Coach Kyle to hurry on back. Thanks.

* Morse Museum of American Art's Four Seasons PDF guide
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Sunday, July 4, 2010

Spring into Summer

Magnet #863 - Tiffany's Summer

Summer,* the next season in my VMFA Tiffany magnetset, from the Tiffany exhibition. Picked this today for July 4th, only because it's the start of a mid-summer heat wave, and I'm sure I'll be busting out the popsicles soon.

Can I tell ya'll, it was a hard decision picking out just a few magnets from millions they had in the shop. Ok, fine. It wasn't millions, but man. I wanted to run screaming through the building, Pretty maaaaaaaaaaagnets!!!!!

Most of them were from the Morse Museum of American Art's Tiffany Collection, and all were so gorgeous. So I only walked away with these Four Seasons.

And that was total restraint on my part.

I mean, If you don't count the other three that I picked up in the other VMFA shop. And the fact that I was desperately searching for a Faberge Egg magnet, too. Heh.

* Morse Museum's Four Seasons PDF guide
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Saturday, July 3, 2010

Four Seasons of Winter Park

Magnet #862 - Tiffany's Spring

Well, I guess a trip to Winter Park, Florida, is in order, if only to see their crown jewel of the Morse Museum of American Art's Tiffany Collection - Four Seasons.

These were just four of apparently 16 leaded-glass panels that he designed as part of a larger piece (from the Morse), one of his greatest and favorite achievements. In fact, the only reason he designed it was because he saw this other guy, John LaFarge, win all these awards in 1889 in Paris, and Tiffany wanted the same recognition for himself.

So he designed the Four Seasons, and poof, won several awards for it in the 1890s, and ended up taking the Gold Medal at the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris, landing him on the international stage.

That's actually why I selected this magnet set from the VMFA's gift shop - because tucked away on a wall at their Tiffany exhibition (of which they're the only U.S. museum to host it), there's a black and white picture of the window in all its glory, hanging at that world's fair. And, even in black and white, back in 1900, you can see how this work of art must have been absolutely gorgeous.

You can learn oh, so much more about this vanity piece through the Morse Museum's Four Seasons PDF guide. Spring is just the beginning of my little set of four. Totally gonna marathon them!

In the meantime, I need to figure out when my trip to Winter Park will be. Don't laugh. It's totally a side-trip for Disney. Hmm, now I have to figure out my next trip to Disney.

Ok, fine. Now you can laugh.
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