Michener Museum Here We Come

First we get our chores done.

My ornamental grass was flying across Neighbor Bill's lawn, so I cut it down with clippers and dumped it into the little woods behind my house.

Will I be able to do this for the next 20 years? I wondered, with my aching piraformis muscle.



This is one of the exercises I do for it every day.

And I did have surgery for my sciatica in 2011, same year as my kidney transplant.

Look what I found in the back yard on the way to dumping the debris! Jonquils popping up from the ground that took such a beating this winter.

Who doesn’t want springtime?
Whose bones are not in a state
of perpetual cold stiffness, yet moving
chiefly because we hold an imaginary whip
to make them creak or groan aloud
with their tight muscle cronies
that have taken over our bodies lately?

 Iris Arenson-Fuller, from a longer poem on her blog

Scott and I drove down at 1 and just got home at 3:45.

He's getting our Sunday nite pizza ready. We're both starving so we're eating early. We'll watch this movie as we chomp:

Dietrich plays Catherine the Great of Russia. Her own daughter, who's now in her 60s, plays her daughter in the film.

Scott is looking over a beautifully painted Mule, part of the Outdoor Sculpture Gallery.

About 8 years ago, artists were painting mules for exhibition at various sites in Bucks County.

 Robert Whitaker, born 1924. I have a postcard of his artwork on my fridge.

 George Nakashima Room. As we were leaving the tiny room, 8 people marched in. Luckily we escaped with our lives.

 Colorful desk I'd never seen before.

 The glorious colors don't show up in my photo.

 More Nakashima, who, as an American-born-Japanese in the WWII years, was interned in Idaho. It proved a good experience. He refined his woodworking technique after meeting a fellow woodworker there.

I always stop in to see James Michener's office.

On the way out, a photographer was taking a pic of a dramatically embracing couple.

Standing before a George Anthonisen sculpture. Born in 1936, he bequeathed all his artwork to The Berman Museum at Ursinus College.

One of my favorite interviews I did when I worked for Art Matters was with Muriel and Phil Berman. He was chairman of Hess's Dept Store in Allentown, PA. Licking my lips now after eating their famous strawberry shortcake. 

Phil told me he had just spoken to Henry Moore that morning.

The Michener Museum used to be a prison. This sign explains the philosophy of the prison system that was used. "Lock em up and throw away the key?" No. A place to meditate and repent. Click twice and possibly you can read it.

Several views of the simulated prison cell.

How'd you like to live in a space this big? Get down on your knees and be thankful you don't.

Red sculpture against the prison wall.

Mercer Museum directly across the street.

Will show you a few more exhibits we saw but weren't allowed to photograph.

Where Children Sleep by James Mollison. Click this link.

This traveling exhibition is NOT TO BE MISSED. Check out the link.

Another exhibit was Art, Science and Medicine in a Relationship. 



I'm so happy we went.

Now, something dramatic just happened. As I'm working here on my living room couch, I heard a THUD, possibly on my front window.

When I opened the front door, I saw this scene.

Hard to make out, but a sparrow was lying wounded or dead on the ground. Three or four of his friends joined him, making a great cheeping commotion.

I just checked, and the wounded sparrow is gone!