A Forum for Diary Entries, Essays, Observations, Poetry, News, and Reviews
April 12th, 2024
Central Park is a great work of land art in its own right, which during the course of time has become a showcase for memorial statues honoring literary, cultural, and political figures famous in the public eye and other sculptures including ones of animals inspired by the park as a setting for display or famous in the popular imagination as characters in children’s stories. READ MORE >
March 12th, 2024
Consider Central Park to be something more than New York City’s prime recreational open space but also, as is the case in this website’s current series of postings, a showplace containing works of art that have been assimilated into a landscape that is a work of art in and of itself. When we think of the various parts of the park that have acquired sculptures and other forms of focused display as well as historic preservation and restoration projects that preserve their original appearances, we inevitably turn to the heart of an American masterpiece in its own right and find the Bethesda Terrace, Arcade, and Fountain over which an Angel with outspread wings presides as a symbol of both the healing of sickness, injury, and infirmity following divine intervention and the blessing sent via the Croton Aqueduct since its opening in 1842 upon all residents and visitors to New York City who drink pure water from a supply system emanating in upstate New York. READ MORE >
February 23rd, 2024
Public space is often considered as a desirable receptacle for memorial monuments and artistic sculptures created for outdoor display. While being a work of art in its own right, Central Park can also be considered as an outdoor museum with four additional wings – Frederick Douglas Circle at 110th Street and Central Park West; Duke Ellington Circle at 110th Street and Fifth Avenue; The Maine Monument plaza at Columbus Circle; and Grand Army plaza at 59th Street and Fifth Avenue. READ MORE >
February 3rd, 2024
Historical reverence begets memorials of persons of patriotic and moral leadership, political righteousness, valor in military battle, and figures of religious influence and scientific genius. Before and after the Civil War drastically altered the social, economic, and cultural conditions of the nation, American artists, many of whom were trained in Italy, adopted individual styles in which naturalism played a role not only in sculptural portraiture but also with regard to animals, creating an entire genre of beguiling beasts in bronze. READ MORE >
January 26th, 2024
To be in Central Park is to enjoy one of the world’s greatest and most beautiful outdoor recreational arenas, savor the changing scenery of the four seasons of the year, observe varieties of wildlife and annual events of bird migration and botanical blooming, and take routine walks with your pet dog and stroll randomly with family members and friends. Over the years, as in the case of other regular Central Park goers you will have numerous non-living acquaintances like the ones you pass when walking down the great hallway lined with bronze sculptures by Rodin on the second floor of the Metropolitan Museum.
To put things on a pedagogical level, I have begun to write about the bronze animals and monuments of deceased persons of fame to be discovered if you follow me along Literary Walk on the Mall and elsewhere within Central Park. Please allow me here to be your docent as we examine the evidence that makes Central Park an urban outdoor museum.
READ MORE >
December 11th, 2023
The creation of independent works of art within the context of a great work of land art, whether as integral architectural design embellishments or independent selected art works on temporary display is a recurring theme in my recent journal postings. The current entry is an examination of how a permanent, outdoor, all-weather electrical installation can be considered a work of art whose design is thematically governed by beauty in the geometries of form and line exemplified by nature. READ MORE >
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