Prague

 

(Above:  Prague as seen from the Clementine Astronomical Tower.  Click on any image to enlarge.)

Neither Steve or I had ever been to Prague and it wasn't even high on our bucket list until last fall when Dan Brown's thriller Secret of Secrets was published.  We bought it immediately. Steve read it first with me impatiently waiting for him to finish.  The novel is entirely set in Prague.  Both of us consulted Google Maps and other tourist websites to enhance our visualization of this magical city.  From that moment on, Prague was at the top of our travel plans.  While traveling, I took nearly 900 pictures.  Writing this blog post was hard!  I had to really scale them back!

(Above:  The entrance to the Prague Castle complex.)

We were excited to book flights to Vienna and a train to Prague.  So, when we arrived, we weren't jet lagged at all.  Our first destination was the Prague Castle complex ... not to visit it but to pick up our pre-ordered, five-day official Prague tourist passes.  Honestly, no one could possible visit all the free sites covered with these passes in just five days, especially since they included English speaking guided walking tours.  We immediately signed up for three of them.  One started within a half hour.  It took us around the outdoors of the castle area and filled us in on plenty of Czech history, local customs, architectural styles, and other introductory information.

 

(Above:  St. Vitus Cathedral.)

On another day, we returned to the castle to tour St. Vitus Cathedral and St. George's Basilica.  The lines were long but moved quickly.  The interior of St. Vitus was truly elaborate and filled with artwork from various centuries.

 

(Above:  One of the many niches in St. Vitus Cathedral.)

 

Each niche was filled with sculpture, frescoes, stained glass, and ornamental details. To look at all the amazing artwork is quite contemplative for me.  Almost none of it was made by an artist known today.  Thousands of artists worked to create all these beautiful things.  I can't help but to think of the things I make.  Will any of it matter in a hundred years? Probably not but maybe something will find a permanent place like all the creations in these cathedrals, a place where future eyes will appreciate the effort, the talent, and the unknown legacy of it maker.  That is my hope.

  

The sheer amount of gold and silver was stunning.  The maintenance must be a forever ongoing project.  There was scaffolding in one area and several places that were likely next to be restored.  Yet, more artwork has been added ... more modern pieces.
 

In front of the exterior of the 14th century Golden Gate was definitely a newer creation. The open grill was designed by Jan Sokol with bronze vignettes depicting zodiac medallions and seasonal reliefs by Jaroslay Horejc (1930-1955).  Of course, I didn't know the details at the time.  I had to look it up later ... but I knew I would!  After all, one of the units reminded me of my Dad's favorite Hungarian quotation:  "Nem kényszer a disznótor".  It means, roughly, "No one is forcing you to go to the killing of the pigs".  This bronze represents a rural Bohemian winter tradition, much like I'm sure my relatives once did in rural Hungary!  

No one was forcing us to go out into the rain either ... but we did!  Thankfully, we only experienced one day of light sprinkles and then were rewarded with a rainbow!

Even in the rain, the Charles Bridge is a delight. It is closed to traffic. All sorts of languages drift on the air and boats are always floating by on the Vltava River.  Steve and I went on one boat ... at night.  It was beautiful and the trip was included on our Prague passes.  In fact, there were two other boat excursions that we could have taken!

We climbed the all three towers guarding the Charles Bridge.  Two are on the the western side of the Vltava River. One is on the eastern side.

We even walked across the bridge on a night that was scheduled for some sort of movie filming.  A big barge was docked in preparation of "something".  Plenty of movies have been shot in Prague due to the outstanding architecture that lends itself to historic eras ... including Amadeus (1984), Les Misérables (1998), The Illusionist (2004), Mission Impossible (1996), The Bourne Identity (2002), etc.  Right now, Dan Brown's Secret of Secrets is being filmed.  Was the barge a part of it? I don't know but we did see almost a dozen trucks with parking passes indicating they were part of Birdwatcher's film crew!  I don't follow Hollywood or movies in general and hadn't heard of this movie but I'll now be watching for it!

I will also be on the lookout for information regarding the Czech protest that we saw! A crowd filled the main plaza to voice their concerns over a controversial government bill to overhaul the funding of public broadcasters.  Another rally is scheduled for later this month.

On another day, we took a guided tour of the old city's underground area.  Our guide was absolutely excellent.

 He was also our guide for the walking tour of the city center and the Jewish quarters.  Again, he was great.  He told us where to show our Prague passes to gain free entry to all the synagogues and the Jewish cemetery.  He also helped us find a proper grocery store.  Steve and I stayed in a nice one-room with full bath furnished apartment near the castle.  We cooked almost every day!

Returning to visit the synagogues was amazing.  Each one was totally different from the others.  They dated from various eras.  The architecture went from ancient Romanesque to Moorish designs.  Several had exhibits regarding the Holocaust.  

The Jewish cemetery is unlike any cemetery we've ever visited.  Because it was impossible to enlarge over the centuries, graves were covered over in order to bury more and more people.  The result is an oscillating jumble of stone markers that span hundreds of years.

The Jewish Cemetery is a quiet place of deep contemplation, especially after the exhibits and artwork honoring those who died during WWII.

We always gravitate to places of worship regardless of the religion.  Interestingly enough, citizens of the Czech Republic aren't especially religious ... or at least don't indicate any affiliation.  Most polls show that the percentage of nonbelievers or those who don't declare a belief is as high as 68%.  Those between 16 and 29 years of age are 90% unaffiliated.  Yet, their churches are many and beautiful.

One of the most ornate was the Loreta pilgrimage chapel.  We heard the late 17th carillon bells and walked through the treasury with its bejeweled monstrances. Mozart once performed here ... and elsewhere in Prague.

Steve and I also took a guided tour of the Clementine Astronomical Tower and Library.  The view from the tower was fantastic.

The view from the balcony at the Lobkowicz Museum was equally grand.  This museum featured twenty-two rooms of artworks owned after generations of the Lobkowicz family's collected everything from armor to porcelain to glass work to furniture to musical manuscripts to paintings ... including works by Diego Velázquez, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Lucas Cranach the Elder, and Canaletto.  Most of it had been seized by the Nazis.  Heroic efforts after 1989 managed to have the works returned. 

From the balcony, we could look down on the city with its red roofs in every direction.  

The Lobkowicz Museum is very near the Golden Lane in the Prague Castle complex.  The row of tiny houses was restored to illustrate some of the various people and their professions that lived there over the centuries ... including an apothecary, a seamstress, a fortune teller, and one of the places that Kafka lived.

House Number Twelve was once the residence of amateur film historian Josef Kazda, who hid and preserved underground reels of Czech films during the Nazi occupation.  

A short walk from House Number Twelve is the Daliborka Tower and scary dungeon.  Steve and I had quite a good time looking into all the beautifully curated dwellings.

We also went to Kampa Museum.  This place housed +the collection of Jan and Meda Mládek, who during their stay in exile in the second half of the 20th century, actively supported Czechoslovak non-conformist artists working under the communist regime.  Neither of us were that enthralled. Yet we couldn't get over the floor in one room featuring work by Vladimír Kopeck.  This was his painting studio floor.  Steve spotted a razor blade on it and bent down to pick it up.  Fake floor!  Absolutely amazing vinyl covering.  It looked totally real.  I hope the artist liked it.  He died at age 94 before the official reception for this exhibit but he did get to see it.

 Steve and I like the Museum of Decorative Arts much better, especially the exhibit showing women's fashions through the ages.  It wasn't really the dresses that made the show great.  It was the fact that behind the row of garments was a row of the undergarments worn beneath each selection!  We laughed and laughed ... even though most of the bras and panties from the 1960s onward weren't really that funny in my memory!

I liked some of the other costumes a lot ... especially the over-the-top embellishments!

Yet the museum we liked best was DOX.  We only went there in order to navigate on the trams (which were also free using our Prague passes) to an industrial area on the outskirts of the city and because this wooden blimp called Gulliver's Airship looked cool on our brochure! We had no idea that the exhibits would be so outstanding or that we could actually go inside the blimp!  This was an unexpected delight!

Many things were unexpected in Prague ... like how difficult it was to read anything in Czech!  Some things, however, were clearly aimed at English speaking tourists ... like the store Ducks of Prague.

Believe it or not ... there were other stores selling all sorts of rubber duckies!

Perhaps the rubber ducks inspired the thirty-four yellow penguins flanking the Vltava River near the Kampa Museum.  They were made from recycled yellow bottles and are mean as a creative statement warning against the dangers of climate change and plastic consumption.  I'm sure Steve and I missed lots of other sites but we sure saw plenty while visiting Prague.  We'd recommend this city to anyone who loves an adventure!  

Large Lancet Window XII

(Above:  Large Lancet Window XII.  Custom framed: 51" x 21".  Layers of polyester stretch velvet fused to recycled black packaging felt with free-motion machine embroidery and melting techniques.  Click on any image to enlarge.)

Today I plan on sorting through the hundreds of photos I took while visiting Prague.  I plan to write a nice, long post on the fabulous experience. Blogging about travel is something I absolutely love to do.  It makes sense out of all the images.  It allows me to think about all the inspirational artwork I saw.  It allows me to share the trip with others ... but ... it has to take a backseat to my normal studio practice.

 

(Above:  Detail of Large Lancet Window XII.)

Every day since arriving home, I've been working!  I promised the Grovewood Gallery four Large Lancet Windows by the end of the month.  It's a lot of work but thankfully, I'm on schedule!  I just finished the first of the four.  By "finished", I mean constructed, stitched, melted, mounting, framed and photographed.  The second piece is in process.  So far, it's been constructed and stitched.

 

(Above:  Detail of Large Lancet Window XII.)

While this deadline is not a firm one, it is a challenge. (There's nothing holding me to the promise!  I didn't have to say anything at all ... much less a deadline!)  It is also extremely nice to know that the gallery representing me wants more of my work!  

 

(Above:  Me with Large Lancet Window XII.)

So it makes sense to put a blog post on the trip to Prague on the back burner ... but ... I have a couple hours later today.  Perhaps the post will be ready by tomorrow!

Vienna

 

(Above:  Steve and me at the Hundertwasser Haus in Vienna. Click on any image to enlarge.)

Both Steve and I have been to Vienna before but we could go again and again!  We truly love this vibrant city, especially the Hundertwasser Haus.  This crazy genius' contribution to architecture was my inspiration behind my In Box Series.  At the bottom of this very long blog post, I'm including a blurb I recently wrote to provide customers with the my In Box story ... but for now ...

... this unique building will always bring a smile to my face and will continue to inspire me.  I've often said that it looks like Dr. Seuss' characters might live here!  For more information, please visit the Wikipedia page! 

 

(Above:  Inside the Hundertwasser Museum ... officially called KunstHaus Wien.)

Steve, however, had never been to the nearby museum ... with its appropriately undulating tiled floors and dozens of paintings by Friedensreich Hundertwasser.  We had a wonderful time looking at the happy compositions, vivid palette, and unique motifs.

I will never tire of Hundertwasser's work.  His concept of individualism truly resonates with me.

Of course, we went to several other tourist destinations, especially the many churches in Vienna.  Stephansdom (St. Stephen's Cathedral) now has separate ticketing to the nave, the tower, the museum, and the catacombs.  We'd been there before too ... but the catacombs weren't open then.  So, we bought tickets to only this underground area.  I think the last time I peered into the pits of bones was in 1976 ... but the skulls still look the same! LOL! Photography wasn't permitted out of respect to the dead.

I took pictures of every soaring cupola we saw ... until I no longer know which church is depicted in this shot!  It was, however, the best one of the bunch.

This was the best interior shot too.  Every church seemed to be hosting a classical music concert.  We could have listened to Handel, Mendelssohn, Vivaldi and ... of course ... Strauss and Mozart but we had other ideas!

 We'd already bought online seats to the opera!  We sat in a cushy, red velvet box for Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail. The performance was updated to a more contemporary setting with fun characters and great costumes.  The singing was spectacular.  The orchestra was so good that it sounded as if a perfect recording.  Yet, this wasn't the only thing we saw in the opera house.  We stood in line for a standing room ticket to John Neumeier's ballet, Nijinski. Little did we know that standing room tickets were individual spots assigned in rows.  Because we were the sixth and seventh people in line, we were right in front.  Frankly, our view was better than many sitting in the orchestra!  The performance was absolutely stellar.

 

 

 

It's been at least twenty years since either of us toured the Hofburg, the royal palace.  Honestly, neither of us remembered much of anything about it.  So, we went again.

Every room was gorgeous.  I took loads of pictures of chandeliers, fabric wall coverings, curtains, and other furnishings.  The dinner table was spectacular ... and all the utensils were lined up to the right of the plates!  Each place setting included about seven different glasses for the wine that went with each course!

Recent mini-series featuring the Hapsburgs has once again heightened interest in this dynasty, especially regarding the beautiful and tragic Sisi.  There's even a Sisi Museum but it was closed for renovations.

Why not be interested in a lady who lived in this room!

On another day, we went to the Kunsthistorische Museum, a place I've been several times but Steve had never visited.  We went to see the Bruegels ... painting I've loved even long before studying them in college. (Click here for a Wikipedia page.) As a kid, my family had an intricate puzzle ... Bruegel's Children's Games.  We also had a book of "masterpieces" that included The Hunters in Snow.  This piece was one of six seasonal paintings depicting peasants in various seasons.  One five still exist.  Four are in Vienna.  At the time we visited them, we didn't know that we'd see the fifth one in Prague!

 I didn't take a single photo of the Bruegel's.  They are LARGE and behind museum glass.  Instead, I snapped all sorts of details images of other beautiful works, some in ivory like this mythological scene.

I also took photos of fancy textiles ... like this lady's sleeve in a painting by Cranach ...

and this lace sleeve in another, later painting.

We went to one other museum, a place neither of us had ever been.  The Albertina!  We wandered through an excellent collection of mid-19th century photography, through Victorian styled rooms that were being transformed for a fancy evening event, through uncomfortable (and often truly grotesque) paintings comparing Picasso to Francis Bacon, and into Shara Hughes' colorful world in her solo show Sink In.  The diversity between these exhibits was stunning.  What a wonderful place.

Of course, we had weinerschnitzel one night but our favorite meal was at a Sicilian pizza parlor called Il Forno Pizzeria! It was definitely a local's place.  Only about sixteen seats were available in the small space.  We were seated just inside the door and literally beside the place were pizzas were made. Bicycle deliver drivers showed up every fifteen or so minutes in addition to those who picked up their online orders. I asked our waiter how many pizzas were made on an average night:  500.  Yes, it was delicious! 

Hopefully, I'll blog about Prague tomorrow!  We went by train from Vienna to Prague.

Now ... here's the blurb about how Hundertwasser inspired me:

In 1964, my parents started a study abroad program to Salzburg, Austria. Every summer students would attend German classes and other courses related to the location for college credit. My younger sisters and I went every year. On weekends there were extra trips to places like Venice, Mad Ludwig's castles, Switzerland, and ... of course ... Vienna. But for some unknown reason, my parents stopped taking me after I got married! LOL! Steve and I were living in Columbus, Ohio and had a subscription to the Smithsonian Magazine. In the April 1986 issue was an article called "The Straight Line is Godless, Immoral and Uncreative". It was written by Harry Rand and coincided with the grand opening and international media coverage of the newly completed Hundertwasserhaus public housing complex in Vienna. I was in awe. I told my family all about this amazing architecture and this incredible artist who designed the structure. For several years afterwards, I received postcards and souvenirs from family members who went then there. To this day, there’s a gift shop.

Finally, Steve and I were able to travel to Vienna and see it. By this time, I knew all about Friedensreich Hundertwasser ... how he hated straight lines, saw no reason why all corners in buildings had to be ninety degrees or why floors had to be perfectly leveled ... and how he lectured about individuality and eco-friendly ways to live. He thought people ought to decorate outside their own windows as far as their arms could reach in order to let those outside know just how special the people who lived "in that box" really were. In his 2D artwork, he used all the colors all the time. He thought balconies should all have a potted tree and that roofs should be covered in grass to lessen the impact cities have on nature. He thought that the only way man would ever live in harmony with nature was to first learn to live in harmony with one another.

After returning from Vienna, I started my In Box Series as a reflection of Hundertwasser and the housing complex I still absolutely love. My work is designed as if an aerial view to an imaginary Hundertwasser city. The layout is NOT like Manhattan or Washington DC. Hundertwasser would have hated that! My palette is his: all the colors all the time. The free-motion stitched motifs are to represent the unique individuals living in each box. The thread connections represent the way the community is living in harmony. The fringe is the hope that more people will join this lifestyle.

Over time, I started using white felt instead of the recycled black synthetic felt that my friend donated to me. The black felt was once the packaging material that protected a kayak or canoe being shipped from a manufacturer to my friend’s outdoor shop. I also started hand-stitching the boxes. There’s still other ideas for me to explore. The future will probably see some of them unfold.