Texas Weekend - Just Us Two

 It is the 11th of June and I am home with my sweetheart.  That seems to be a rare moment right now so we are getting him out of the house and exploring our state and city a bit this weekend.  Hitting the road bright and early, our first stop is in Lucas, TX for coffee.  Cream and Sugar fills the need but we take them to go today.

Aiming toward Princeton, TX - a farmers market pops up along the route.  Time to see if we can find something to go with our coffee as the place we stopped had zilch for food.

At one end of the park are these beautiful trees with purple blooms.  Mister informs me they are Chaste Trees.  Love, love, love.  He looks at me and laughs --- of course, it's purple.

I just drool on the trees while he checks out a town exhibit.

Back to the car with one quick stop for our treat.

Now to cross the Lake Lavon.  Here's something for you --- I NEVER know whether lake comes in front or behind the name.  I have to look it up EVERY time.  This particular finger of the lake appears to have a ton of snags.

Finding a spot to hang out for a minute --- Bobka is enjoyed.  This one has pistachio and blackberry.

From Princeton to Farmersville.  Time to walk a bit.  It's Saturday, but you sure wouldn't know it.  Apparently NO ONE here gets out before 11.  Only a handful of shops are even open before that.

This dry cleaning drop is fabulous.

Quiet town

Ooh, there's a cool church over there.

Naturally, we can't get in to see.  UGH, you've heard me say this before --- such a crappy American thing.  At any rate, this is the First Baptist Church.  "Fifteen charter members, meeting under a brush arbor at this site on May 14, 1865, organized the First Baptist Church and chose the Rev. John C. Averitt (1818-1895) as the first pastor.  Worship services were held in private homes and later in the Masonic Hall on the east side of the town square.  After a successful interdenominational revival, the Baptists decided to erect a permanent church building.  The congregation bought the site of the old brush arbor and in 1877 built a simple frame church.  A bell installed in the steeple heralded special events to the community.  Another successful revival in 1898 emphasized the need for a larger structure.  More land was acquired and the present church building constructed in 1900.  A combination of several architectural styles, the brick edifice is topped by a roof of pressed metal.  The exterior walls of the sanctuary form a multi-sided projection flanked by  matching towers with steeply pitched roofs.  The bell from the 1877 church was transferred to the north belfry.  Education buildings were added in 1938 and 1955-56."

As we walk about,  I discover THREE yarn shops in town.  Crazy, right?  One of them is actually open so in we go.  Here is the Fancy Fiber LINK so you can share in all that we see and learn.

An open antique mall catches our attention next and, although it has a ton of clocks, we exit empty-handed.  That's odd.  There was one interesting item though --- the resident cat.

Getting back into the car ---- no wonder we're so hot.  Obviously, it's not that hot here, but . . . close.

A stop for a Greek lunch in Sachse then home for awhile to get out of the heat.  Went to OHB in the evening for a bit.

6/12 - Happy Sunday!  Mister has tickets to the Cartier exhibit at the DMA for 11 this morning so a nice breakfast at home and off we go for another day of fun.  Arriving a wee bit early, I get a chance to wander outside and enjoy the "downtown" experience a bit.  I LOVE the sculptures and architecture.  As the light hits one building just perfect - the ENTIRE reflection of the building next to it shows.  Pretty cool, right?

Now, inside for the first exhibit.  Here is the Cartier LINK for all the amazing beauty we see.  I'll share a couple of pics here just to get you salivating.

A second exhibit is next and here is the Bamana Cloth LINK.  This is pretty cool and another chance to learn --- even though the jewelry presentations at Cartier hit that mark first.

Exhibit  number 3 that we hit is entitled "Slip Zone."  The first one that makes me stop and stare is "Stoic Figure" by Maria Luisa Pacheco of La Paz, Bolivia.

Relief No. 262 by Sergio de Camargo of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is another "must look closer."  It is a wood relief.  I'm guessing various sizes of dowels were used.

This untitled piece by Ivan Serpa, also from Rio de Janeiro, teaches me and I love that.  From a plain canvas to a graph to the finished result.

Now for the piece the exhibit is named after.  "Slip Zone" by Jack Whitten of Bessemer, Alabama.  In the 1970s, Jack Whitten developed a method of painting that he related to photographic technology and printmaking traditions, in an attempt to break from the handmade gesture and brushstroke.  He built a "developer," a wooden T-shaped tool with which he could drag and layer large quantities of acrylic paint across floor-bound canvases.  The materials he used - including squeegees, sticks, rakes, and Afro combs - revealed the layers of paint underneath and created surface texture, line, and voids.  The works he produced in 1971, including Slip Zone, were the first in which Whitten used a carpenter's saw, a tool employed by the artist in his carpentry work.  Whitten drew inspiration for his technical improvisations from a range of sources, including jazz, physics, and geology.  The work's title, Slip Zone, comes from the study of earthquakes and tectonics and refers to the horizontal divergence of two masses of earth."

One final stop to see the art of the Mississippian Peoples.  Did you know our area is part of that?   Just barely, I'll grant ya, but . . .  "Mississippian peoples (800-1650 CE) created the largest and most complex ancient society in the eastern half of North America,  Their society was hierarchical and included commoners, warriors, ritual elites, and chiefs.   Chiefs were often considered divine or godlike.  In locations near rivers in the U.S. Midwest and Southeast, Mississippians built highly developed, vibrant communities that included earthen mounds (constructed from earth, timber, and stone) paired with broad plazas.  Sustained by agriculture and hunting, each Mississippian center produced a distinctive art style and exchanged good with other towns and cities.  The journeys, by foot or canoe, between different regional centers could take weeks or months.  In addition to Spiro, other significant centers include Cahokia and Kincaid (in present-day Illinois), Etowah (in present-day Georgia), and Moundville (in present-day Alabama)."

The Sprio Mound is located in Oklahoma and they have excavated MANY artifacts, even after it was looted.

The final item to show today is this basketry mat made from commercial cane.  It comes from Mary E. Smith of Muscogee ---- a skill handed down generations and generations?  I don't know.

Winding down our time in the museum is a stop at the gift shop, where my love finds this cute turtle to take home with us.

The tummies are grumbling ---- we are off to find lunch.   Something new perhaps.  Hinodeya is the ticket and I have to say ---- they delivered.  So, so good.

We follow that up with a stop at the Libertine, where I grab a peach mimosa and Mister has a beer.

I watched a video the other day on how to photograph something differently --- giving it a try here.  I never moved - just manipulated the camera.  Kinda fun.  Well, that's it for our day.  Heading home and out of the heat now.  See you soon, I'm sure.