Easter 1958?

I love this photo---I think I still have that book even. I saw some dresses in the store last week that reminded me so much of that dress I was wearing. I'm thinking Jane and I got those crosses for Easter.

I'm not sure why we had these photos made, but I do remember that they were made by Uncle Bill Wassmund in our basement with a bedspread hung behind us. Above is Grandma Wicker (Vennie), Dad (LeRoy), Grandpa (Wes) and Mom (Louise)

My sister Jane (above) with a flair for the dramatic went on to become a teen model for Boyd's clothing stores---can't you see it!Although, I definitely have the better dress (Jane probably wore it a few years later), the only thing in my future was braces on my teeth!
Here's another photo of Grandma and Grandpa---this might be one of the last photos of the two of them together since she died in 1962 and he died in 1965. Knowing Mom, she wanted one last photo of them before they died. What amazes me is she is only 55 years old and he is 60 in this photo---they had some hard living!

Although Easter was usually a Long event with eggs, lots of cousins and wild Easter egg hunts, it was also sitting quietly with my Grandparents Wicker in church. The best of all Easters---quietly worshipping and craziness with cousins.

"Soccer Net"

Last Fall, I bought this soccer net at end of the season clearance at Target. A beautiful day this week inspired me to assemble it---it was a tad more challenging than I thought it would be. . .
Eli was helping. Why did he always seem to have the pieces I needed? Here he's playing golf----the hockey stick at his feet didn't do it?
This is a Star Wars Light Saber!
And, now a gun. . .are boys born this way? I'm sure his parents don't work with him on making random objects into guns.
Finally, I had to wait until he took his nap to assemble it, but. . .
I think he knows what to do with it.

Citygarden

One beautiful day last week, we had to get outside. Everyone else headed for Forest Park where there were traffic jams, but we went to the Citygarden, a new sculpture garden in Downtown St. Louis.
It is basically two city blocks between the Civil Courts Building and the St. Louis Arch area. Double click to enlarge the map above---handicapped parking is along Market. The red building to the right is a cafe with outdoor seating.



It has been built in three levels mirroring the topography of the area (double click to read the about the three bands: Northern River Bluffs, Middle Floodplain, Southern River Terrace).
Here you can see the "bluffs" with a screen that shows movies at night.
This is a moving sculpture similar to the one by our library. This is called "Four Rectangles Oblique" by George Rickey.
I tried to tell Dave this looked like a yoga position----I was close: "Tai Chi Single Whip" by Ju Ming.
This is probably my favorite piece---it looks like it's from some ancient statue. It is the "dismembered head of Eros, the Greek god of Love by Igor Mitoraj. I should have taken the photo when people were inside waving through the eye sockets.
Looking back, I could see the Old Courthouse and the Arch. I like how one of the legs of the arch is a reflection in the glass building.
There are two moving LED displays. This one is" Kiera and Julian Walking" by Julian Opie.
This is "Kindly Geppetto" by Tom Otterness---hammering a puppet like he did with Pinocchio.
And speaking of Pinocchio, this is called "Big White Gloves, Big Four Wheels" by Jim Dine.
Above is "La Riviere" by Ariste Maillol: "the personification of water".
Nearby was "Femmes au Perroquet" by Fernand Lenger.
There are 23 sculptures including the untitled rabbits above by Tom Claassen. They range in age from 1952-2009 and are by artists from Netherlands, United States, England, Italy, France, Japan, Belgium, Taiwan, Poland, and Wales. The park has water features which the children can enjoy in warm weather and "dance chimes" which a group was having fun with when we were there.

St. Mark's Sanctuaries

The first sanctuary of St. Mark at the Claymont location is now Fellowship Hall. The irony is that those of us who worship on Saturday nights are worshipping in it again.

The colored glass in the back and the front are almost obscured by the dropped ceiling that was later added.
The beautiful wooded and ceramic cross was recently added by a Saturday night worshipper who is a gifted potter.But, when we started worshipping at St. Mark in the late 1970's, this was our sanctuary. Although I loved the pastors and the church community, there were several things I didn't like about this sanctuary. First, it was very dark illuminated only by panels of stained glass windows (see below) and overhead lights. It is currently used at the narthex for food and fellowship before and after worship---it is a wonderful use of the space!Second, it did not have a center aisle and with daughters (2 and 5 at the time), I wanted them to have a wedding with a center aisle. By the time they were married, we had our third sanctuary which is the one we worship in on Sunday mornings.
In addition to a beautiful stained glass window, there were three triangular windows in the steeple which add natural light. As my family will attest, in the summer this window creates "hot spots". The girls (when seated in the choir) would watch as the sun would stream down on one lucky person causing him to sweat, take off his jacket, loosen his tie.
But, the stained glass in the window dominates the sanctuary. If you look carefully at the windows of the the narthex sanctuary, you can see that the style and colors of those windows inspired the new window. The new window is filled with symbols important to Christians.
Above is wheat, a fish and a nail.

This one also has green grapes in addition to the fish. These panels, by Emil Frei Studios also illustrate how the windows create pictures with different colored glass rather than the painting on glass which is the Munich-style.

My favorite photo in front of the window is Rachel and Kyle sharing a moment before their wedding. And, by the way, happy 10th Anniversary!

Emil Frei Studios Part II

One of the reasons we were interested in taking this tour of Emil Frei Studio stained glass windows is because our church St. Mark has an Emil Frei window which we love. It is so spectacular, that brides are discouraged from over-decorating for a wedding because the window has such a presence.

Whereas our morning was spent viewing Munich-style painted glass (above) done around the turn of the century, the afternoon featured medieval-style glass done later in the 20th Century. The medieval-style uses each piece of glass to "paint a picture" with some etching, not painting, for details.
The church above is St. Mark's Episcopal in St. Louis Hills--very Art Deco for a "Gingerbread House" neighborhood!
The walk to the church consisted of paving stones from the St. Louis riverfront when the Arch went in.
The architects were Dunn and Nagel. One of the windows (above) depicts Dunn pounding on a giant nail---Nagel is the German word for "nail" so it's a bit of a joke.
Although many churches have Old Testament windows on one side and New Testament on the other, this church has windows depicting the life of Christ as told by St. Mark on one side and secular windows of the period on the other side showing Christ's presence in modern times.

The Bibical windows were on the left. . .

Of course, one featured St. Mark with the lion at his feet.
But, the secular windows were very interesting---the one above depicts several struggles: racial and labor struggles are featured.The one above depicts "Money is the Root of all Evil", I think.
This church reminded me of some Frank Lloyd Wright homes in which everything was a work of art and was designed specifically for that building. Even the light fixtures were designed for just that church.

When they replaced the organ, the pipes were designed to match the building including the red dots that are present above each window also.


The window above depicts the "Holy Innocents" which was the name of the first church in that area of St. Louis. Holy Innocents closed its doors in 1935, but this new church was built on money and with members of that church. Although all of the windows were done in shades of blue, green, purple and grey, this window had the only red seen in a window. To me, this was the most interesting church. Even a small addition built for handicap accessibility was beautiful---all glass and modern which matched the architecture of the building.



The next church was Hope United Church of Christ which was the favorite of many on the tour. The windows above and below depict each day of Creation.
The window above shows the birds of the air and fish in the sea and then the creation of man.

All of the windows had a background of greys and blues (a cloudy day made them darker)

Going from right to left: Moses staff and serpent, burning bush, trumpets, milk and honey. Our third church was St. Gabriel the Archangel which we couldn't really get a tour of since people were inside praying.
We were able to sneak in and take a few photos. Three banks of windows around the walls looked like the one above.

But, another grouping of windows was very high by the ceiling. I thought they were very unusual and beautiful.

I got up close to one. The black shading was really etched--not painted. Many of us who went would love to go again---hopefully we could see them with some sunshine!
But, I still like the Emil Frei Studios window we have at our church St. Mark Presbyterian.