If Calder could know how much pleasure his sculpture gives, he’d be happy. It’s quite poorly named. The thing, in most lights, has few of the flamingo’s qualities. With its squat, heavy base and monumental scale it more resembles an aardvark, or perhaps an anteater. And the red makes one think of the Fire and…
Bert was here
In virgin forests
A short drive from the city, southwest Michigan is home to several forests that have remained undisturbed throughout recorded time. There, trees grow enormous and fall, pushed by strong winds or swelling streams, by the shift of a bank that has been shifting for decades. Lightning strikes.
In the bay
Now that the weather is warming up, the willows around the driving range are beginning to green, its bays full of urbanites intent on improving their swing.
Nature and civilization
Why, you may wonder, is Celia angry about the city’s decision to fell a few old trees? Here, in the north garden of the Art Institute, we may find an answer. For, on one side of the garden—just steps from Michigan Avenue—, are two improbably aged, enormous, gnarly, overreaching trees. They are not decorous, they…
Clear-cutting for Maggie
Though strapped for cash and indeed wallowing in red ink, the City of Chicago has found the money to clear-cut an existing park and create a new one that will be named after a member of the Daley family. The project involved cutting down 877 trees that had lived on the site, including mature ash,…
Mod woodlands
Just back from a weekend away in Michigan. . . in the meantime here is a color variation on one of my pictures of the forest floor.
In the modern wing
The view out may be the best feature of the Art Institute’s new modern wing. The greatest artistic treasure seems to lie outside, where (come to think of it) admission is free.
Forever twenty-one
In this photograph, their wish come true.
A park comes alive
The park around the North Pond is coming alive with the return of spring. Soccer players practice, the playground swings, and happy dogs revel in the newly green grass.
A welcome difference
On a block of dull beige and red-brick apartment buildings this one stands out, with its florid details and cool aqua glaze.
North Pond birding
Because of its location on Lake Michigan’s shore, Chicago lies along a major bird flyway. As unlikely as it seems, the city’s parks are lousy with unusual birds in the fall and spring. In recent years, the city has done more to develop bird sanctuaries, creating new sites and improving others (like the Magic Hedge)…
