Whimsical Windows - Our favorite little art gallery

Entrance of Gallery@37, Elizabeth Street, Derby, Connecticut

Toby hosts the fun Whimsical Windows/Delirious Doors, where we look for portals of seriousness or mirth. My post today includes pictures from yesterday's small town (13,000) Derby Day street festival. The subject is the lower Naugatuck River valley Gallery@37, the showplace for the Valley Arts Council. I'd say that an @ symbol makes the door a bit delirious - and elicits a smile :)

We are also members, and this unpretentious gallery makes it a fun group. Patti in fact has started a blog to showcase the artists and personalities that sometimes inhabit the space. Art is not just available in the toniest districts, but also in our midst!

Shadow Shot Sunday - Jersey Shore

The scanned and archived is for this week's Shadow Shot Sunday 2.The time is 1956, the place 23rd Street in the seaside island hamlet of Brigantine New Jersey. 

The house was small, guessing about 925 sq ft (86 M sq). It was one block from the bayside beach, three blocks to the Atlantic. Grandpa always lamented that he should have bought the house for vacations (the grandkids these days, looking for an inexpensive holiday today, would not have minded if he had :)

The cast today includes Michele (2-1/2 years), myself (1-1/2), Aunt Terry (14) and the timeless photo impresario grandfather (ageless). The playtime outside was provided by Terry, watching the kids at play while interlopers stopped by to chat...

After a day at play, the kids are dressed and hopefully winding down to slumberland, soon hopes the parental units. Grandpa was ready to chronicle the sleep ready children, the smiling kids equally...I chose to not crop out the date stamp on one picture - as if the era really needed description.

The home might have been small - but plenty big for toddlers...

The photographer is shown in the front of many long gone hotels in nearby Atlantic City sans casinos...

This was the casual gentleman dress with a wool sport jacket, plaid shirt (buttoned), wool driving cap and Exa SLR. Stylish and refined manor with a satisfied look that meant this family visiting to NJ was a great trip - with shadows inside and out. Thanks for this fun meme to all our hosts!

Tina's Pic Story - Clouds

United 108 in 1984, perhaps over Nebraska

Tina’s Pic Story arrives for the week – Tina kindly supplies the weekly theme and we provide a picture that explains our take on that theme – which this week is Clouds...

This is a scanned view from 1984 on my way home from the L.A. Olympics on a United DC-10. Here is between LAX and Chicago. Only about 100 passengers, two aisles, a seat by the door, no bathroom lines, you could buy something from the bar cart at the bulkhead. It was undoubtedly the best flight ever.

I chose this cloudy view because the ride was so smooth because the clouds were down there - not up here (fewer clouds = better ride).  With the Pentax on hand all those years ago, I captured a frame that meets the weekly theme in 2012. Thanks for the memories :) 

Ruby Tuesday - Wheel

Ruby Tuesday 2  returns this week, and we become detectives as we look for red themed subjects - a lot or a little of this hue is all it takes. 

Last week's bicycle festival in Ansonia had more than just bike riders, there was art too. From the large mural to this painted wheel.

I believe it to be a wire spool that once held steel wire from a local wire mill. A unique work of art that adds and old industrial character in this industrial city. Some red here, the brick wall of City Hall with even more red...See rubies from all over at the fun RT2!

Whimsical Windows - Floaters

Above the Connecticut State Senate Chamber, State Capitol, Hartford

Toby Hosts the always fun and perhaps artistic meme Whimsical Windows/Delirious Doors, where we look for those portals of style, artistic and fun. From my recent trip to the Connecticut State Capitol (completed in 1879), I noticed this.

I titled it as I did since the cheap point-and-shoot I used cannot capture nuanced details in marginal lighting conditions. Yet, any design drawback in the camera leaves the old window pair appearing as if they float in space. An interesting yet unplanned capture that brings a bit of levity to the meme...