Sun Voyager (PPAC #10)

Since I posted photos from Reykjavik for this week’s Lens-Artist photo challenge, I thought to continue the theme this week with public art. But also it happens to be the 10th PPAC! I decided every 5th and 10th PPAC for my blog would be public art outside of Los Angeles County just to break it up.

Anyways, if you leave the Harpa Concert Hall in Reyjavik, you would find this sculpture of what looks like a boat — it’s not a Viking boat! It is however a dream boat representing “a promise of undiscovered territory, a dream of hope, progress and freedom.” Viking boats are much larger — though this boat could have been a scale representation.

Sailing to uncharted territories

PPAC10

Catching the light

For this week’s Lens-Artists photo challenge, It’s All About the Light, I immediately thought about Reykjavik and its two main landmarks: the Hallgrimskirkja church and the Harpa Concert Hall. I love the way those buildings capture light.

Hallgrimskirkja church – at eight in the morning…on a November day.

Harpa Concert Hall early in the morning.

Harpa Concert Hall later in the day when the sun was high. Looking at the above photo, there’s this cool transition where on the right side, it almost looks like a pencil drawing. Quite a cool effect. There’s no filter needed.

See you next time, Iceland.

The Great Wall of Los Angeles (PPAC #1)

Cee Neuner and Marsha Ingrao are co-hosting a Photographing Public Art Challenge which explores public art and how to define public art. This challenge totally excited me because I have taken A LOT of photos of public art around my hometown and around the world. I remembered many years ago after college, my friends and I started blogging as a medium to keep in touch. I guess we thought we were too cool for Facebook.

Anyways one of the things we shared on our blogs was public modern art found in business parks. It sounds random for a lot of people, but for us it was our inside joke. A lot of the sculptures just did not make any sense. We started working our first jobs at the time, so naturally we wrote a lot about work and the “quarter-life” crisis.

For these challenges, I would like to start sharing public art found around my hometown, Los Angeles. First up is the Great Wall of Los Angeles. This mural can be found in the Tujunga Wash. I posted this mural originally in May 2017 when I was doing the 52 hike challenge that year. I loved they made this neighborhood wash a trail.

Though the definition of public art is fuzzy, I believe one of the qualities for art to be public is that it recognizes a piece of a city or town’s history whether it is good or bad. The Great Wall of Los Angeles is one of the longest murals in the world illustrating the history of Los Angeles starting from pre-historic Los Angeles and La Brea tarpit to the Olympic champions in 1984. Here’s a detailed breakdown of the mural from the National Park Services site. I intend to return to take better close-up shots of each section. Maybe that will be my summer project. I’m still designing my summer.

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Some public art around the blogosphere:

– Our Other Blog: Two Sisters and Two Points of View: lovely roadside art in Tasmania.

– WoolyMuses: Portraits on a cement work site

– MV Obsessions: I love that mural on the side of the house.

– Nowathome: That pink giraffe looks so much fun!

Go Wild in Los Angeles

Yup, another hiking post. When I first started this blog, it was focused on hiking trails around Los Angeles. But knowing myself, this blog eventually became a place where I wanted to write about things I like aside from hiking. I just could not stick with a niche for too long Anyways, this is one of my favorite trails and it’s located in Encino which is less than 15 minutes from my home. For those not from the area, it’s right off the infamous 101 and 405 freeway.

I am standing on a trail enjoying the wild rolling green hills on one side.

Look the other way and you get a view of this polished golf course and some large homes. Plus there’s the 405 freeway, Brentwood, the Getty Center, and Bel Air.

Lens-Artists Photography Challenge #150: Let’s Get Wild (host: Dianne)

Here are some wild photos I came across the blogosphere:

• jazziBeeblog – A lovely collection of Scottish wildlife!
• Space Stories by Gift – A 110,000 year old lake in Hokkaido, Japan. It’s like their Lake Tahoe there.
• Slow Shutter Speed – Experience the Totality Solar Eclipse without those special sunglasses.
• scillagrace – A wonderful collection of American wilderness. It takes me back to my teen years when my family and I would roadtrip every summer.
• Travels and Trifles – Features a lovely photo of Patagonia which is on my travel bucket list.
• Travel with Me – Torres del Paine National Park — more of Patagonia.
• TBL – A lovely floor of swamp marigolds found on the trail. They’re such lovely ground cover I’d consider getting some of my front yard.