Far be it from me to pass judgment on floral arrangements. This one was awarded first prize at Art In Bloom. I like the fact that its gallery has windows overlooking the museum’s central great hall. The painting the arrangement refers to is on the opposite wall, https://www.slam.org/collection/objects/1449/ .
Max Beckmann was an important German artist of the first half of the 20th Century. Like so many others, he fled the Nazis and eventually ended up here. He worked and taught for the last three years of his life at Washington University in St. Louis. Our art museum has a major collection of his work, including a large room exclusively devoted to him. I think the floral arrangement refers to this picture, https://www.slam.org/collection/objects/13448/, not the one shown here.
Not the flowers, actually. I mean, I like flowers as well as the next person but it’s not really my department. The painting on the wall, though, is one of my favorites in the St. Louis Art Museum, a 1908 work by the American Paul Cornoyer, The Plaza After Rain. The place is at the southeast corner of Central Park in New York, looking south along Fifth Avenue. It brings up sentimental feelings for my home town.
It’s become a local tradition. In late winter, our art museum puts on an event called Art In Bloom. Expert floral arrangers are invited to create a design inspired by one of the pieces from the collection. This year there were thirty-some entries. It can be horrifically crowded, but the museum opens to members two hours early on the first morning. It’s the only time worth going.
Turn around from the parade route and look up. The locomotives of a Union Pacific freight train are about to cross the Mississippi, passing just in front of the Arch. Then there is a billboard promoting St. Louis Public Schools. A bit sad that they need one.
Mardi Gras parade participants don’t have to walk the route. Many ride on floats. Alternatively, you could decorate a motorized wheelchair. However, the cigarette won’t help you get back on your feet.
Mardi Gras floats don’t have to make sense. They are supposed to have a theme but the idea is loose and I don’t remember what this one was about (if anything). The yellow-purple-green color scheme refers to the season, although maybe not art school standards. Some people put an awful lot of work into the center of this float.
Recreational marijuana, or cannabis if you will, is legal in many but not all U.S. states. It was authorized here in Missouri by referendum. Pot remains unlawful on the federal level but the rules are not enforced in permissive states. Shops, called dispensaries, are all over. Never dreamed I’d see a sign like this back in college days when little plastic bags were smuggled in the dorm. Strange that I have not smelled it on the street recently. Chemistry, maybe.
You might see someone in an outfit like this prancing down St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans and certainly in Rio de Janeiro. But South Broadway in St.Louis on a late winter day? The weather was wonderful for a parade, sunny, light winds, 42 F / 6 C, not hypothermia territory. I suppose you have to be young and resilient.
The local chapter of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence is a fixture at the Mardi Gras parade, Pridefest and other out-there events. Who are they? See https://www.thesisters.org/ . Never met one who wasn’t happy to pose. If you are dressed like that you certainly aren’t shy.
The phrase is universally associated with Mardi Gras in the U.S. - let the good times roll. I’ve heard that it makes almost no sense to French speakers. Still, there was plenty of fun as the floats rolled through our parade.
Wednesday is the start of Lent in the Christian world, a season of self-denial and repentance. The days leading up to it, not so much. The time is called Carnival in most most places and the day before Ash Wednesday, at least in the U.S., is Mardi Gras - Fat Tuesday. No American city comes close to New Orleans but we have a pretty good party here. The big parade is on Saturday and St. Louis gets wacky, More to come.
Time again for City Daily Photo’s monthly theme day. This month it’s fire. There is no more appropriate example for me and St. Louis than the burning of Our Lady of Artica at the end of the eponymous festival. See conflagration from other members’ cities at https://citydailyphoto.org/category/theme-days/ .
