70 in 70 - Number 9 - Washi Japanese Paper Art Exhibit

 

Quoting from the Longmont Museum’s website describing the Washi exhibit: “For more than one thousand years, Japan has produced some of the world’s finest paper. Japanese paper makers still use the skills passed down through generations to create handmade paper, known as washi. It is used in painting, calligraphy, origami, and other traditional art forms.” The exhibit features the works of nine contemporary Japanese artists – all using washi to create their works “unusual in size, unexpected in texture, and do not fit our expectations of paper art.” A true statement – the works of art were like none that we had ever seen before using paper as its medium for creation.

The works on display included the extraordinarily intricate. Using scissors to cut into black paper the artist, in one piece, actually recreated Voltaire's writing connecting letters with a single fiber! (Voltaire's writing is in the photo on the left below; the photo on the right is of another piece by the same artist.)

 

 

There were works on a grand scale - sailing in the air, nestled on the ground...

 

 Sculptures all made with washi.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Wall hangings - so elegant (photo of the full hanging, photo close-up of the center)

 

 And functional pieces of art! Screen panels and lamps! All paper!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Extraordinary craftsmanship and artistry - all based on a technique passed down through generations of making paper by hand. Mind blowing! This 70 in 70 quest is really waking us up to the wonders of the world!

 

70 in 70 - Number 8 - Museum of Boulder!

Kendall and I had been to the Boulder History Museum when it was housed in the historic Harbeck-Bergheim House. However, the Museum moved to its current location in 2018 and slightly rebranded itself to now be known as the Museum of Boulder. We figured a visit to this new incarnation would most certainly count toward our quest of 70 new adventures in this our 70th years. It proved to be an excellent visit!

A bit of background first: The Boulder Historical Society was founded in 1944 by A.A. ‘Gov’ Paddock, then publisher of the Boulder Daily Camera, to collect, document, preserve and interpret the history of the Boulder area. The Boulder Historical Society was officially organized on October 10th, 1944, when the “Territorial Pioneers” and other interested citizens convened with the intent to establish an organization and a facility to collect, preserve and display the history of the area. Today, the Boulder Historical Society operates as the Museum of Boulder.

On the day of our visit, exhibits included “Voces Vivas: Stories from the Latino Community in Boulder County, Past and Present”, “Boulder Strong: Still Strong, Remembering March 2021” – an exhibit in remembrance of the March 22, 2021 King Soopers mass shooting, and the “Boulder Experience Gallery” which includes displays of everything from Boulder’s origins to entrepreneurs of Boulder’s food industry to Boulder’s athletic endeavors to Boulder scientists and their involvement with a variety of technologies.  Each exhibit unique unto itself - an impressive combination of powerful, moving,  fascinating and enlightening.

Kendall the museologist at the Museum of Boulder

 A few photos from the Voces Vivas exhibit - a very extensive exhibit, teeming with culture and information:

 

The Boulder Strong exhibit is so very moving - with stories from people who were involved with the incident (employees, neighbors, first responders, dispatchers...) and a sampling of the collection of memorial artifacts left along the fence put up around the store after the shooting.

 

The Boulder Experience Gallery is loaded with photos and memorabilia from Boulder's history throughout recorded time. These photos illustrate just wee snippets of the fascinating exhibits in this section of the museum. Naturally the photos I've selected here have to do with food (Boulder seems to be a hotbed of natural food entrepreneurship - I was particularly impressed with the display of the Very First carton produced for Horizon milk), and athletics (Boulder being a mecca of athletic endeavors).

 

 

A dandy visit - so dandy, I am sure we will return!

70 in 70 - Number 7 - Counting Birds!

Kendall and I have become increasingly interested in birds - in part because of the influence of our friends, Mort & Lysa, who are avid birders and in part because we added bird feeders to our back and front yards during the winter of 2020-21 which have become excellent sources of entertainment. Thus when the Great Backyard Bird Count rolled around this year, we did not hesitate to jump on board! 

The eBird folks kindly offered a webinar on how to go about participating in the count - and it turns out that a) it's not limited to your backyard (Yay! We could explore!) and b) a counting period need only be at least 15 minutes in length (Double yay! We could do many mini counts!). 

A little background on the GBBC: it was one of the first online projects to collect information on wild birds (it celebrated its 25th anniversary this year) and was also instrumental in the creation of eBird in 2002. The GBBC creates a 4-day snapshot of bird populations around the world; this year that snapshot took place from February 18-21 and involved 320,000 people posting their sightings from 253 subregions of the world.

Our Vaughan & Miller bird count covered our back & front yards (bird feeder gatherings including house finches and black-capped chickadees in back and downy woodpeckers and hairy woodpeckers in front), Littleton’s Sterne Park (a whole lotta geese & ducks including one hooded merganser), and Boulder’s Bobolink Trail (mostly red-winged blackbirds and black-capped chickadees, one magpie, some Canada geese flying overhead, and two hawks – one red-tail and one too far away to tell).

All in all, a very fine endeavor and a great excuse to get out and about, peer at the sky, scrutinize trees and bushes, and revel in birdsong!

Our backyard feeder

 

Again our backyard feeder - busy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Front yard

 

Cute couple at Sterne Park

 

 

 

Lovely Merganser

 

 

 

Red-tailed Hawk along the trail

One of many Black-Capped Chickadees flitting through the bushes along the trail