Iowa & Nebraska

This post may be corny!  😊

 

 

Iowa: "Land Where the Tall Corn Grows"

Des Moines:

Des Moines is the capital of Iowa:

As you know by now, we really love sculpture!  The John & Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park is a lovely park in downtown Des Moines that is enjoyed easily by locals walking to and from work every day! As we entered the park, we were greeted by these sculptures:

Moonrise.east by Ugo Rondinone

This work gave us pause to contemplate!

Thinker on a Rock by Barry Flanagan

Here are a couple of other interesting sculptures:

Nomade by Jaume Plensa

Untitled (Three Dancing Figure, version 3)

by Keith Haring

 

I also liked this work by Nara:

White Ghost by Yoshitomo Nara

The Des Moines Art Center is a noteworthy collection of architectural design by Eliel Saarinen, I. M. Pei and Richard Meier.  The buildings enhance the Museum’s collection of art and provides a natural flow.

It’s difficult to select just a few of the wonderful works for my posts – here are 3 that I especially enjoyed!

Samurai Tree (Invariant 1)

by Gabriel Orozco

Figure by Isamu Noguchi

Christ Learning to Read

by Henry Ossawa Tanner

Nebraska: "The Cornhusker State"

We stayed in a unique Airbnb in Omaha.  The apartment was in an old renovated school! And we had our own garage, not very common with an Airbnb!  

Omaha:

Omaha is a lovely city with lots of fun things to do.  Of course we went to an art museum, and they have a terrific zoo that we couldn’t resist.  This is also the home of the famous Boy’s Town where we found a very unusual object!

Joslyn Art Museum:

The interior of the Joslyn Art Museum is absolutely stunning.  This striking Art Deco building features marble throughout -- I wish I could have taken a picture to do it more justice:

And surprisingly, this contemporary Chihuly piece enhances the design even more:

Chihuly: Inside & Out by Dale Chihuly

Check out this Self-Portrait in Lego by Ai Weiwei:

Part of his Circuit series, Stella named this piece for a city with an auto racetrack:

Nogaro by Frank Stella

Since I love the work of Canaletto, this beautiful work caught my eye:

The Pearl of Venice by Thomas Moran

Henry Doorly Zoo:

We truly love zoos and taking pictures of the different animals.  Here are a few different ones than we’ve featured from other zoos, plus some funny faces!  Climbing among the cliffs inside the Desert Dome are these adorable klipspringers:

Klipspringer

Yellow-Footed Rock Wallaby

How fun are these artistic interpretations of the Japanese racoon dog popular in Japanese folk-tales:

Tanuki by June Kaneko

Peacock

Gorilla

African Lion

And of course, I have to include my favorite – the Red Panda!

Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum:

This museum has preserved many artifacts depicting the history of the Strategic Air Command (SAC).  SAC was a part of the U.S. Air Force and was chiefly responsible for the deployment and maintenance of nuclear-armed bombers and missiles during the Cold War.

 

Atlas ICBM Launch Control Console

(ICBM = Intercontinental Ballistic Missile)

This image of Earth’s city lights was created with data from NASA’s Earth Observatory and NOAA National Geophysical Data Center:

This memorial to the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center Towers uses neckties to represent the lives lost in the collapse of the North Tower.  The sculpture measures 28 feet tall.

Tie Towers by Greg Laasko

 

Father Flanagan’s Boys Home – the Original Boys’ Town:

“Believe it or Not”, according to Ripley, this is the World’s Largest Ball of Stamps!  Created by the boys at Boys’ Town, this is a solid ball that is 32 inches in diameter, weighs 600 pounds and consists solely of 4,655,000 postage stamps.

Lincoln:

Our journey through Nebraska includes a quick stop in Lincoln, home of the University of Nebraska Lincoln campus.  Where the City Campus and downtown Lincoln merge, a sculpture by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen cleverly expresses icons from the State of Nebraska.  In addition to being metaphorical, the sculpture represents the artists' aesthetic process.  Wherever they go, Oldenburg and van Bruggen would carry spiral notebooks to jot notes on.  While visiting Nebraska, they used this method noting “wind”, “goose”, “clouds” and phrases like “desert ocean of grasses”, “dancing cranes”, etc.  Many of the words and phrases in their notebooks were cut into the aluminum pages of this work.  The spiral binding, with the torn pages, depicts a tornado skipping across the plains.

Torn Notebook by Claes Oldenburg

and Coosje van Bruggen

 

This Nebraska storm was a bit scary!

Hebron:

A good friend (and neighbor) suggested that we visit Hebron to see the World’s Largest Covered Porch Swing.  This swing can hold 25 adults – as you see here, there were not many people around to swing with us on this rainy day!

As we “swing” out of Nebraska, we continue our journey across the plains to Kansas….

Minnesota & Wisconsin

Moorhead:

On the other side of the river from Fargo is Moorhead, Minnesota.  Here the Hjemkomst Center houses two wonderful Scandinavian-inspired structures!

The Hjemkomst Viking Ship was built by Robert Asp, a descendant of Norwegian immigrants.  His dream to return to the sea began in 1971 and on August 5, 1980 he realized this dream when he sailed the Hjemkomst to the harbor of Duluth, Minnesota.  Sadly Asp died before sailing to Norway.  However, his family and friends pursued the dream, setting out from the Great Lakes in May 1982 and reaching Oslo, Norway on August 9, 1982.

The other structure is the Hopperstad Stave Church built by Guy Paulson in the 1990s.  It is a full-scale replica of the original church that is located in the town of Vik, Norway. Paulson did all of the carvings by hand.

 

Cloquet:

We made a quick stop to see the only gas station designed by Frank Lloyd Wright!  The stepped cement blocks support a copper canopy which extends out 32 feet.  A glass-walled observation lounge anchors the cantilever while a tower reaches from the polygonal roof to a height of 60 feet.

Lake Superior: Grand Marais, MN

We spent a night in Grand Marais, on the north side of Lake Superior. Besides beautiful views of the Lake from our room, we also spotted this red fox. 

Here are a few lake view pictures:

 

Split Rock Lighthouse

Lake Superior: Port Wing, WI

The southern part of Lake Superior is actually in Wisconsin.  We visited part of Wisconsin last year but I want to include a bit about this area around Lake Superior.  Our Airbnb was a farmhouse on an apple orchard near the town of Port Wing, Wisconsin. 

 

This was a great location for exploring the South Shore from Port Wing to Sand Bay and Red Cliff, where we could view the Apostle Islands.

 

 

Minneapolis:

Minneapolis has lots of wonderful art museums!  I’ll just share a few of my favorites from each of the museums we visited:

Minneapolis Sculpture Garden:

Back of Snowman by Gary Hume

Without Words by Judith Shea

Hahn/Cock by Katharina Fritsch

Spoonbridge and Cherry

by Claes Oldenburg & Coosje van Bruggen

Walker Art Center:

 

As a librarian, I really appreciated this book of laser die-cut pages:

Your House by Olafur Eliasson

Break time!  We needed a diversion from the museums so we decided to explore the Mall of America!  Plus I needed some new tennis shoes!

 

Amusement park with roller coaster in the Mall!

Huge LEGO store!

Minneapolis Institute of Art:

Irises by Piet Mondrian

Zenshin’an Tea House (full-scale replica)

Musical Still Life by Theodore Roszak

Weisman Art Museum:

The Weisman Art Museum is part of the University of Minnesota.  The building was designed by Frank Gehry:

This stunning sculpture just inside of the Museum is also by Gehry:

Standing Glass Fish by Frank Gehry

#27, Giverny by Charles Bierderman

Canon Synchromy (Orange)

by Stanton Macdonald-Wright

I especially liked this work by Alan Shepp.  The artist is from California and when he made a trip to Minnesota he decided to capture the misty feeling of the North Shore, Lake Superior.  He has used natural materials – painting on slate and with an inlay of ash wood for the oar.

Self Portrait by Alan Shepp

Owatonna:

Thanks Margaret C. for telling me about this beautiful Wells Fargo Bank building that was designed by Louis Sullivan!  Sadly we were traveling through on a Sunday and could not go inside. ☹

I love this mural painted on the side of the building next to Wells Fargo:

Blue Earth:

A fun stop on our way out of Minnesota!

Jolly Green Giant

 

Sprout

Next week I’ll feature 2 states, related to corn!