View allAll Photos Tagged dedicated
this photo was taken by ancient camera - nikon coolpix 4300.
This cathedral is one of the most beautiful over world. I think that I will obligate to you to try realize which place I took this photo. This was taken in July 2006 somewhere...
I dedicate this photo to Stavros - www.flickr.com/photos/markop who like architecture. See those awesome pinacles! But I saw much more beautiful cathedral than this one. Then you can ask me which...
-- Then I will show you other photos I took with canon coolpix 3100, even more older than 4300 (that is not my camera.) I didn´t use tripod to take this photo.
thank you all.
Dedicated to the designers, developers and engineers who build the world’s most engaging user interfaces. From the community, for the community.
Impro
Dedicated to Keith Johnstone
Every day I eat a slice of floor
with a thick layer of the window
Afternoon I drink a cup of moon
and take a nap on my mirror
Before I go to sleep I pray to dog
save the spoon have mercy on my ceiling
In my dream I walk without my door
and wake up to start from the beginning
(•) – The Lockheed Martin HC-130J Hercules The Combat King II is the U.S. Air Force's only dedicated fixed-wing personnel recovery platform and is flown by the Air Education and Training Command (AETC) and Air Combat Command (ACC). This C-130J variation specializes in tactical profiles and avoiding detection and recovery operations in austere environments. The HC-130J replaces HC-130P/Ns as the only dedicated fixed-wing Personnel Recovery platform in the Air Force inventory. It is an extended-range version of the C-130J Hercules transport. Its mission is to rapidly deploy to execute combatant commander directed recovery operations to austere airfields and denied territory for expeditionary, all weather personnel recovery operations to include airdrop, airland, helicopter air-to-air refueling, and forward area ground refueling missions. When tasked, the aircraft also conducts humanitarian assistance operations, disaster response, security cooperation/aviation advisory, emergency aeromedical evacuation, and noncombatant evacuation operations.
Features
Modifications to the HC-130J have improved navigation, threat detection and countermeasures systems. The aircraft fleet has a fully-integrated inertial navigation and global positioning systems, and night vision goggle, or NVG, compatible interior and exterior lighting. It also has forward-looking infrared, radar and missile warning receivers, chaff and flare dispensers, satellite and data-burst communications, and the ability to receive fuel inflight via a Universal Aerial Refueling Receptacle Slipway Installation (UARRSI).
The HC-130J can fly in the day; however, crews normally fly night at low to medium altitude levels in contested or sensitive environments, both over land or overwater. Crews use NVGs for tactical flight profiles to avoid detection to accomplish covert infiltration/exfiltration and transload operations. To enhance the probability of mission success and survivability near populated areas, crews employ tactics that include incorporating no external lighting or communications, and avoiding radar and weapons detection.
Drop zone objectives are done via personnel drops and equipment drops. Rescue bundles include illumination flares, marker smokes and rescue kits. Helicopter air-to-air refueling can be conducted at night, with blacked out communication with up to two simultaneous helicopters. Additionally, forward area refueling point operations can be executed to support a variety of joint and coalition partners.
Background
The HC-130J is a result of the HC/MC-130 recapitalization program and replaces Air Combat Command's aging HC-130P/N fleet as the dedicated fixed-wing personnel recovery platform in the Air Force inventory. The 71st and 79th Rescue Squadrons in Air Combat Command, the 550th Special Operations Squadron in Air Education and Training Command, the 920th Rescue Group in Air Force Reserve Command and the 106th Rescue Wing, 129th RQW and 176th Wing in the Air National Guard will operate the aircraft.
First flight was 29 July 2010, and the aircraft will serve the many roles and missions of the HC-130P/Ns. It is a modified KC-130J aircraft designed to conduct personnel recovery missions, provide a command and control platform, in-flight-refuel helicopters and carry supplemental fuel for extending range or air refueling.
In April 2006, the personnel recovery mission was transferred back to Air Combat Command at Langley AFB, Va. From 2003 to 2006, the mission was under the Air Force Special Operations Command at Hurlburt Field, Fla. Previously, HC-130s were assigned to ACC from 1992 to 2003. They were first assigned to the Air Rescue Service as part of Military Airlift Command.
General Characteristics
Primary function: Fixed-wing Personnel Recovery platform
Contractor: Lockheed Aircraft Corp.
Power Plant: Four Rolls Royce AE2100D3 turboprop engines
Thrust: 4,591 Propeller Shaft Horsepower, each engine
Wingspan: 132 feet, 7 inches (40.4 meters)
Length: 97 feet, 9 inches (29.57 meters)
Height: 38 feet, 9 inches (11.58 meters)
Operating Weight: 89,000 pounds (40,369 kilograms)
Maximum Takeoff Weight: 164,000 pounds (74,389 kilograms)
Fuel Capacity: 61,360 pounds (9,024 gallons)
Payload: 35,000 pounds (15,875 kilograms)
Speed: 316 knots indicated air speed at sea level
Range: beyond 4,000 miles (3,478 nautical miles)
Ceiling: 33,000 feet (10,000 meters)
Armament: countermeasures/flares, chaff
Basic Crew: Three officers (pilot, co-pilot, combat system officer) and two enlisted loadmasters
Unit Cost: $66 million (fiscal 2010 replacement cost)
Initial operating capability: 2013.
Dedicated to Thomas Lautenschlag !
Guessed in the Guess Where Berlin Group by Thomas Lautenschlag !
Francisco Aguabella Cubacan 2002
VEAN/SEE VIDEO youtu.be/qWJkTwmbQDA
Release Date May 21, 2002
Duration01:02:47
Genre, Jazz
,Latin, Styles
,Cuban Jazz
,World Fusion
,Latin Jazz
,Cuban Traditions
Review by Stewart Mason
A 2002 session by percussionist Francisco Aguabella, a fixture on New York's expatriate Cuban music scene since the late '50s, Cubacan is refreshingly free of the Buena Vista Social Club cash-ins that marred so many Afro-Cuban jazz records of the late '90s and early 2000s. Instead, Aguabella concentrates on his own conga-led Latin jazz, with emphasis on the latter. The set list includes no fewer than three of Dizzy Gillespie's Latin compositions -- "Fiesta Mojo," "Dreaming," and "Tin Tin Deo" (actually a co-composition with the legendary Cuban congero Chano Pozo) -- as well as two standards given the Aguabella touch, "My Favorite Things" (a restrained version which owes little to Coltrane's famous reworking) and "Autumn Leaves" (given a more successful, almost bossa nova tinge). The heart and soul of the album, however, is in the two tracks dedicated to Aguabella's friend and mentor, Tito Puente. The reflective "El Agua Limpia Todo" is a lovely ballad that Aguabella had written in the '50s at Puente's behest, but the rollicking "Mambo for Puente" is a joyous celebration, remembering the bandleader with the passion with which that he lived and played. Nearing his seventies, Aguabella plays with the vitality of a man less than half his age, and the all-star band supports him perfectly. This is a remarkable album.
Track Listing
Sample Title/Composer Performer Time Stream
1
My Favorite Things
Oscar Hammerstein II / Richard Rodgers
Francisco Aguabella
6:05 Amazon
2
Felukin
Francisco Aguabella
3:34 Amazon
3
Guajira Para los Pollos
Papo Lucca
Francisco Aguabella
4:55 Amazon
4
Fiesta Mojo
Dizzy Gillespie
Francisco Aguabella
4:50 Amazon
5
La Costa
Natalie Cole
Francisco Aguabella
7:37 Amazon
6
Aqua Linpia Todo
Francisco Aguabella
5:45 Amazon
7
Tin Tin Deo
Gil Fuller / Dizzy Gillespie / Chano Pozo
Francisco Aguabella
6:15 Amazon
8
Noche Azúl
Francisco Aguabella
5:13 Amazon
9
Mambo for Puente
Francisco Aguabella
4:59 Amazon
10
Yesterday's Dreams
Don Sebesky
Francisco Aguabella
7:02 Amazon
11
Autumn Leaves
Joseph Kosma / Johnny Mercer / Jacques Prévert
Francisco Aguabella
6:32 Amazon
Dedicated to the memory of Jamie Leigh Meyer. This one is for you, Kim.
(4126candlesforjamieleighmeyerBIGnooilembobrtcontniceRIT)
Corcoran Gallery of Art
Washington, DC
Happy Totally Texture Tuesday!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corcoran_Gallery_of_Art
Looks better on black ... just type "L" for Lightbox
Dedicated to my dead TPS.
I tried to be as LOW-tech as possible and used many preset parts(and white shapes).
took me about an hour to finish, if I count out the time it took to build Winchester 1300 receiver.
Well, that's about it.
the FN Tactical Police Shotgun. 12 gauge
This is a recreation of a real weapon.
Code:
One of my wonderful contacts, "fromky" , and her husband, Hadley, are going through a courageous battle with cancer and these Irish butterflies are posted in their honor!!!
When I saw these lovely butterflies in Ireland I couldn't help but think of Nancy as I know how much she loves butterflies....Enjoy!!!...You are both an inspiration to all that know you...prayers and hugs!!!
Visit her lovely photostream at: www.flickr.com/photos/fromky/ .
Small Tortoiseshell - Aglais urticae, seen in the gardens at Adare Manor of County Limerick, Ireland. This is a very common butterfly in Ireland which regularly frequents gardens, particularly favouring Buddlea bushes. It is mainly reddish-orange with black markings and blue spots around the border. In contrast, the underside is quite dull. It can be found sometimes hibernating in houses. For more info see: www.irishbutterflies.com/small_tortoiseshell_butterfly_of...
First International Conference on Nuclear Law: The Global Debate, held at the Agency headquarters in Vienna, Austria. 26 April 2022
Special Session
Codes of Conduct: Evolution and Practical Effects –
The Way Forward
A special session is dedicated to the history of various codes of conduct adopted under the IAEA auspices, including on the safety and security of radioactive sources, as well as any emerging issues in the areas.
Photo Credit: Dean Calma / IAEA
Keynote:
Abel Gonzalez, Senior Advisor, Nuclear Regulatory Authority of Argentina (ARN)
Moderator:
Wolfram Tonhauser, Head, Nuclear and Treaty Law Section, OLA, IAEA
Dedicated to Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus, and built in Baroque style between 1626 and 1650, the Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola at Campus Martius functioned originally as the chapel of the adjacent Roman College, that moved in 1584 to a new larger building. Although the Jesuits were gifted the land in 1560, they did not get any money from her for completing the church. Budgetary restraints compelled them to hire their own architect. Construction of the church was taken over by the Jesuit architect Giovanni Tristano. Built entirely by Jesuit labor, the Church of the Annunciation was first used for worship in 1567. A three-aisled church dedicated to the Most Holy Annunciation was built by the Collegio Romano between 1562 and 1567. The Church of the Annunciation was enlarged in 1580 when Pope Gregory XIII expanded the Collegio Romano itself.
The old church became insufficient for more than 2,000 students of many nations at the college at the beginning of the 17th century. Following the canonization of Ignatius of Loyola in 1622, Pope Gregory XV, a former Collegio Romano student, suggested to his nephew, Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi, that a new church dedicated to the founder of the Jesuits should be erected at the college. Ludovisi chose the plans drawn up by the Jesuit mathematician, Orazio Grassi, professor at the Collegio Romano. Four years after construction began in 1626, a delay was caused by a section of the buildings belonging to the Roman College requiring demolition. The old church was eventually demolished in 1650, the same year the new church was completed.
Andrea Pozzo, a Jesuit lay brother, painted the grandiose fresco that stretches across the nave ceiling. It celebrates the work of Saint Ignatius and the Society of Jesus in the world presenting the saint welcomed into paradise by Christ and the Virgin Mary and surrounded by allegorical representations of all four continents.
LEGOLAND Windsor a theme park dedicated to children aged 3-12 years old and of course big kid adults.
An inspirational land where the kids are the hero and adults relive their childhood.
The fun never stops and imagination knows no bounds, a family attraction like no other.
Set in 150 acres of beautiful parkland, LEGOLAND Windsor is a unique family theme park with over 55 interactive rides, live shows, building workshops, driving schools and attractions.
It's amazing what can be built with LEGO bricks - nearly 55 million of them!
From comical camels to fearsome fire-breathing dragons, world landmarks to musical pirates, young and old alike will be fascinated by the incredible LEGO models throughout the park.
Fun Facts about LEGOLAND Windsor
There are 34 LEGO pieces in an average Miniland figure.
The largest model in Miniland is the Canary Wharf Tower which is 5.2 metres tall and took 3 model makers 850 hours to complete using 200,000 LEGO Bricks!
The smallest models are the pigeons in Trafalgar Square which contain 5 LEGO bricks each
So what’s New in 2011
Atlantis Submarine Voyage - Now Open!
Take a deep breath and submerge yourself in an underwater adventure.
Plunge into the depths with this world-first LEGO® submarine ride and immerse yourself in a magical underwater adventure.
The Millau Viaduct is an enormous cable-stayed road-bridge that spans the valley of the river Tarn near Millau in southern France. Designed by the structural engineer Michel Virlogeux and British architect Norman Foster, it is the tallest vehicular bridge in the world, with one mast's summit at 343 metres (1,125 ft). The viaduct is part of the A75-A71 autoroute axis from Paris to Montpellier. It was formally dedicated on 14 December 2004, inaugurated the day after and opened to traffic two days later.
Dedicated to Isolano For organizing today's Portuguese Flickr friends meeting held at Regaleira, Sintra, Portugal.
When nobody else will listen to you,
I will hear every word.
When nobody else will talk to you,
I will say it all.
When everybody else looks right through you,
I will look into your eyes with a smile.
When everybody else laughs at you,
I will remain by your side.
When others hurt you,
I, too, will feel the pain.
When noone else in this world looks up to you,
I will place you on a pedestal.
When you are hungry,
I will give you my last piece of bread.
When you are thirsty,
I will give you my last drop of water.
When you feel as though you are drowning,
I will swim out to save you.
When noone else seems to need you,
I will always love you.
When you feel as though you are being torn into pieces,
I will give you my heart.
(Heather Cacciatori)
(•) – The Lockheed Martin HC-130J Hercules The Combat King II is the U.S. Air Force's only dedicated fixed-wing personnel recovery platform and is flown by the Air Education and Training Command (AETC) and Air Combat Command (ACC). This C-130J variation specializes in tactical profiles and avoiding detection and recovery operations in austere environments. The HC-130J replaces HC-130P/Ns as the only dedicated fixed-wing Personnel Recovery platform in the Air Force inventory. It is an extended-range version of the C-130J Hercules transport. Its mission is to rapidly deploy to execute combatant commander directed recovery operations to austere airfields and denied territory for expeditionary, all weather personnel recovery operations to include airdrop, airland, helicopter air-to-air refueling, and forward area ground refueling missions. When tasked, the aircraft also conducts humanitarian assistance operations, disaster response, security cooperation/aviation advisory, emergency aeromedical evacuation, and noncombatant evacuation operations.
Features
Modifications to the HC-130J have improved navigation, threat detection and countermeasures systems. The aircraft fleet has a fully-integrated inertial navigation and global positioning systems, and night vision goggle, or NVG, compatible interior and exterior lighting. It also has forward-looking infrared, radar and missile warning receivers, chaff and flare dispensers, satellite and data-burst communications, and the ability to receive fuel inflight via a Universal Aerial Refueling Receptacle Slipway Installation (UARRSI).
The HC-130J can fly in the day; however, crews normally fly night at low to medium altitude levels in contested or sensitive environments, both over land or overwater. Crews use NVGs for tactical flight profiles to avoid detection to accomplish covert infiltration/exfiltration and transload operations. To enhance the probability of mission success and survivability near populated areas, crews employ tactics that include incorporating no external lighting or communications, and avoiding radar and weapons detection.
Drop zone objectives are done via personnel drops and equipment drops. Rescue bundles include illumination flares, marker smokes and rescue kits. Helicopter air-to-air refueling can be conducted at night, with blacked out communication with up to two simultaneous helicopters. Additionally, forward area refueling point operations can be executed to support a variety of joint and coalition partners.
Background
The HC-130J is a result of the HC/MC-130 recapitalization program and replaces Air Combat Command's aging HC-130P/N fleet as the dedicated fixed-wing personnel recovery platform in the Air Force inventory. The 71st and 79th Rescue Squadrons in Air Combat Command, the 550th Special Operations Squadron in Air Education and Training Command, the 920th Rescue Group in Air Force Reserve Command and the 106th Rescue Wing, 129th RQW and 176th Wing in the Air National Guard will operate the aircraft.
First flight was 29 July 2010, and the aircraft will serve the many roles and missions of the HC-130P/Ns. It is a modified KC-130J aircraft designed to conduct personnel recovery missions, provide a command and control platform, in-flight-refuel helicopters and carry supplemental fuel for extending range or air refueling.
In April 2006, the personnel recovery mission was transferred back to Air Combat Command at Langley AFB, Va. From 2003 to 2006, the mission was under the Air Force Special Operations Command at Hurlburt Field, Fla. Previously, HC-130s were assigned to ACC from 1992 to 2003. They were first assigned to the Air Rescue Service as part of Military Airlift Command.
General Characteristics
Primary function: Fixed-wing Personnel Recovery platform
Contractor: Lockheed Aircraft Corp.
Power Plant: Four Rolls Royce AE2100D3 turboprop engines
Thrust: 4,591 Propeller Shaft Horsepower, each engine
Wingspan: 132 feet, 7 inches (40.4 meters)
Length: 97 feet, 9 inches (29.57 meters)
Height: 38 feet, 9 inches (11.58 meters)
Operating Weight: 89,000 pounds (40,369 kilograms)
Maximum Takeoff Weight: 164,000 pounds (74,389 kilograms)
Fuel Capacity: 61,360 pounds (9,024 gallons)
Payload: 35,000 pounds (15,875 kilograms)
Speed: 316 knots indicated air speed at sea level
Range: beyond 4,000 miles (3,478 nautical miles)
Ceiling: 33,000 feet (10,000 meters)
Armament: countermeasures/flares, chaff
Basic Crew: Three officers (pilot, co-pilot, combat system officer) and two enlisted loadmasters
Unit Cost: $66 million (fiscal 2010 replacement cost)
Initial operating capability: 2013.
Brahmeswara Temple is a Hindu temple dedicated to Shiva located in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, erected at the end of the 9th century CE, is richly carved inside and out. This Hindu temple can be dated with fair accuracy by the use of inscriptions that were originally on the temple. They are now lost, but records of them preserve the information of around 1058 CE. The temple is built in the 18th regnal year of the Somavamsi king Udyotakesari by his mother Kolavati Devi, which corresponds to 1058 CE.
HISTORY
Historians place the temple to belong to the late 11th century as ascertained from an inscription carried to Calcutta from Bhubaneswar. The inscription indicates that the temple was built by Kolavatidevi, the mother of Somavamsi king Udyota Kesari. It was built with four Natyasalas at a place known as Siddhatirtha in Ekamra (modern day Bhubaneswar). The inscription was recorded during the 18th renal year of Udyotha Kesari, corresponding to 1060 CE. Since the inscription is not in its original place, historians indicate the possibility of the reference to another temple, but based on the location and other features specified, it is ascertained that the inscription belongs to the temple. Also, another issue raised by Panigrahi is that the four cardinal temples are Angasalas (associate temples) and not Natyasalas (dance halls) as indicated in the inscription.
ARCHITECTURE
The temple is classified as a panchatanaya temple where apart from the main shrine, there are four subsidiary shrines in the four corners around the temple. The temple on account of its later origin, has perfectly developed structure compared to its predecessors. The vimana of the temple is 18.96 m tall. The temple is built with traditional architectural methods of wood carving, but applied on stone building. The buildings were built in a shape of full volume pyramid, and then they would be carved inside and outside.The basic structure of the Orissan temple has two connecting buildings. The smaller is the Jagmohana, or assembly hall. Behind it is the Shikhara, the towering sanctuary. Later temples have two additional halls in front - one for dancing, and the other for banquets.
The Brahmeswara shows quite a bit of affinity with the much earlier Mukteswar Temple, including the carved interior of the Jagmohana, and in the sculptural iconography such as the lion head motif, which appeared for the first time in the Mukteswara, and is here evident in profusion. There are quite a number of innovations, however, including the introduction of a great number of musicians and dancers, some holding lutes, on the exterior walls. For the first time in temple architectural history iron beams find their first use.
On sandstone walls there are symbolic decorations and the notion of godlike figures that helps the believer in his meditation. The carvings over the door frame contain beautiful flower designs as well as flying figures. Like the Rajarani, there are images of the eight directional Guardian Deities. There are also quite a number of tantric-related images, and even Chamunda appears on the western facade, holding a trident and a human head, standing on a corpse. Shiva and other deities are also depicted in their horrific aspects.
One of the lost inscriptions stated that a Queen Kolavati presented 'many beautiful women' to the temple, and it has been suggested that this is an evidence of the 'Devadasi' tradition, which assumed such importance in later Orissan temple architecture and temple life.
WIKIPEDIA
Joseph Stella ( 1877 – 1946 )
The Quencher - Night Fires - circa 1919
________________________________________________
Joseph Stella: Visionary Nature
February 24 – May 21, 2023
Italian-born American modernist Joseph Stella (1877–1946) is primarily recognized for his dynamic Futurist-inspired paintings of New York, especially the Brooklyn Bridge and Coney Island. Lesser known, but equally as ambitious, is his work dedicated to the natural world, a theme that served as a lifelong inspiration. Throughout his career, Stella produced an extraordinary number of works—in many formats and in diverse media—that take nature as their subject. These lush and colorful works are filled with flowers, trees, birds, and fish—some of which he encountered on his travels across continents or during his visits to botanical gardens, while others are abstracted and fantastical. Through these pictures, he created a rich and variegated portrait of nature, a sanctuary for a painter in a modern world.
Joseph Stella: Visionary Nature is co-organized by the High and the Brandywine River Museum of Art and is the first major museum exhibition to exclusively examine Stella’s nature-based works. The exhibition features more than one hundred paintings and works on paper that reveal the complexity and spirituality that drove Stella’s nature-based works and the breadth of his artistic vision. Through expanded in-gallery didactics, including a graphic timeline of Stella’s career and a short film, the exhibition digs deeply into the context of the works, exploring their inspirations, meanings, and stylistic influences.
Touring Dates:
Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida (October 15, 2022–January 15, 2023)
Brandywine Museum of Art, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania (June 17, 2023–September 24, 2023)
www.nytimes.com/2022/11/30/arts/design/joseph-stella-flor...
www.forbes.com/sites/natashagural/2022/12/21/joseph-stell...
www.atlantamagazine.com/news-culture-articles/joseph-stel...
If you know the painter Joseph Stella, it’s probably from his famous urban landscapes like Brooklyn Bridge (1921), a futurist interpretation of New York’s dramatic 20th-century industrialization. But Stella was just as captivated by the botanical world as he was by cityscapes, and today, Atlantans can see that side of the artist in vivid color. Joseph Stella: Visionary Nature, an explosive new exhibit at the High Museum of Art, features dozens of his flower and plant-filled paintings and drawings. In Atlanta through May 21, the exhibit travels chronologically through Stella’s lifelong love-affair with the natural world, from an early study of a piece of bark to the epic, intricate Tree of My Life.
Visionary Nature was a joint effort between the High; the Norton Museum in West Palm Beach, Florida; and the Brandywine Museum in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, where it heads next. “They were really focused on [Stella’s] nature works, and we have a great work by Stella here at the High,” said Stephanie Heydt, the museum’s Margaret and Terry Stent Curator of American Art. “It was a great collaboration.”
Stella was born in 1877 in Muro Lucano, a hilly city in southern Italy. He immigrated to New York originally intending to follow his brother into medicine, but after a uninspired stint in medical school, he pivoted to painting. Stella studied briefly under the impressionist painter William Merritt Chase at the New York School of Art and soon developed a reputation as a sensitive interpreter of the urban working class.
The High’s exhibit features of some of these early works, in which the natural world spills out amidst the smokestacks and steel mills of America’s industrial revolution. “This is the Progressive Era at the turn of the twentieth century,” Heydt explained. “And he’s looking at the people in his own community, specifically the Italian immigrants.”
Traveling back in Europe, Stella was inspired by the contemporary artists he saw there: the cubism of Pablo Picasso and early futurism of Umberto Boccioni. He drew on these sources back in the U.S, earning acclaim for his dynamic geometric paintings of the metropolis; several choice selections, including American Landscape (1929), and Smoke Stacks (1921), are on view in this exhibit.
But even as Stella built his career on the towering achievements of urban industry, he yearned for the sunny landscapes of his youth. He frequented havens like the Bronx Botanical Gardens, which opened in 1891 and offered escape from New York’s sooty streets. Walking through Brooklyn one day, he later wrote in an essay, he stumbled across a sapling.
“This little tree is coming up from a crack in the sidewalk, shadowed by a factory, and he sees himself in this tree,” Heydt said. “He says, This is me.”
That encounter inspired Tree of My Life (1919) a florid aria sung to the natural world. A sturdy olive tree—Stella himself—anchors the canvas, surrounded by a vortex of tropical plants, birds, and, in the background, Stella’s native Italian hills. Brandywine Museum Director Thomas Padon envisaged the exhibit after seeing Tree of My Life in a private collection. “I was transfixed,” Padon told the New York Times.
Stella painted Tree of My Life and Brooklyn Bridge within a year of each other, announcing a duality that would define the rest of this career. While he painted flowers throughout his life, it was his moody, futurist treatments of New York that made him an art-world celebrity. European artists fleeing World War I were landing in New York in droves, sparking a new creative fascination with the cutting-edge American city. “(Marcel) Duchamp says the art of Europe is dead, and this century is about America,” explained Heydt. “Stella’s understood to be one of the first American-based painters to figure out . . . how to paint the new modern city.”
But Stella’s love of the natural world—and of Europe—endured. He returned to botanical themes throughout his life, infused with the Old Master styles of the Italian Renaissance. Many works in this exhibit invoke the sun-drenched vistas and towering cathedrals of Italy, overrun by sumptuous flowers that are decidedly not native to the Iberian peninsula. Stella—a native turned immigrant—seems to delight in the contradiction: in Dance of Spring (1924), tropical orchids and calla lilies burst open in a beam of beatific light, like Jesus rising to the heavens in a Raphael. Purissima (1927), part of the High’s own collection, evokes the iconic Renaissance Madonna, here transformed by Stella’s whimsy: the stamens of a lily serve as her celestial crown, while snowy egrets (the Florida kind) grace her sides.
With saturations of color abounding in every room, Visionary Nature enjoys an added depth through words. Stella was a prolific writer, and the exhibit makes canny use of text to explore his passion for the living world. “My devout wish,” reads one such diary segment on view, “That my every working day might begin and end . . . with the light, gay painting of a flower.” In a unique addition to their exhibition, the High created a short video featuring more of Stella’s own thoughts. “We wanted to end with his voice telling us how he felt about various paintings in the show . . . or his ideas about art,” explained Heydt.
Stella, who died in 1946, spent the last years of his life in ill health, largely confined to his studio. He never stopped painting the natural world; a few of those last works, modest trees still full of flair, are on view here. A few years before his death, his friend and fellow artist Charmion von Wiegand paid a visit to his studio. She found Stella amidst a riot of color, studiously painting his favorite subject. “Flower studies of all kinds litter the floor,” wrote von Wiegand, “and turn it into a growing garden.”