It is a good thing that we have a large house and a big yard because we can not seem to stop buying all kinds of art. Some are souvenirs that we have picked up on our missions but most are an accumulation of things that we have seen and just could not pass up buying. It can happen at any time and any where. Some have monetary value but most just have memory value. I decided to post some of the art you will find if you ever come to visit us  and wandered through the house and yard. But this is just a sample – you will have to come see us if you want to see all of it! We give guided tours with commentary!

 

The project started with my taking a picture of a display of giraffes that we have collected on our missions. The big one came from my aunt’s home, the smaller one to its left is from Indonesia, The tall bright colored one was bought in Joburg, the smaller one was a gift from sister Mann, and the one nibbling on it’s leg was bought while we were serving in Richard’s Bay. The picture of the family of giraffes was bought in Potch. The bell is one of many you will see here and was a gift to me from Mary.

 

It is a good thing we have big walls because these two paintings are quite large. The one on the left is by a fairly famous artist and the one on the right is by a teacher at the University of Utah. Both were bought because we fell in love with them. Two of our many such purchases. Table in front of the Rosamond has our collection of artificial apples. We have picked them up all over the world. The big dark red one on the extreme left is the latest addition and was bought in South Africa on our mission. The ceramic unusually made up lady sculpture has been part of the family  for over 30 years – her name is Rose.

The picture on the left includes a large painting from Indonesia, a mask from South Africa, a small painting from Florida and a black and white print from Bali. I need to put something up from our last mission. For some reason we are big on bells and chimes. The bell by our fireplace  came from exotic CostCo – and I have a hard time keeping the top supports straight. If you look past the edge of the fireplace you can see two masks from Indonesia.

Almost everyone talks about having a door bell but most of them have electrical chimes. We have a real doorbell but few people use it. I decorated it for Christmas 2013 and forgot to take it down. It will be right in season in just a couple of months. Many know and have seen gargoyles, some know that their purpose was to scare away evil spirits, but hardly anyone has one on their front door – we do. It was made for us by a student from the Y – he also did Rose.

Next to our front door we have these four friendly faces from Indonesia- or was it Africa? They are door knockers and you can see the stick to beat them with hanging from the second one from the left. As you look down our drive way  – it is 150 or so feet long – from our front porch you will see one of our kinetic wind sculptures that we bought at a fair in Salt Lake. It takes a good wind to get all the levels moving but when they do it is poetry in motion.

As you walk in our front door you are met by ‘Charlie’ – what I call him ‘Art’ as Cindy calls him or ‘Gypsy Undertaker at the Watch Tower’ which his official title. What ever you may call him he is about 6 feet tall on his pedestal, made of fired ceramics with different textural feeling. He has a very bad overbite and four feet – two where they should be and two on the inside of his thighs. Outside near the front door is another sculpture by Dennis Deegan. It is a bronze and is called Lukan Post – in honor of his son. When you come to visit we will tell you about Luke’s special feature – besides his winged head that is.

Wander through the paths in our yard – there are a number of them and you will see sculptures, chimes – about a dozen or so large cast bells, and fish of all sizes. I had not noticed how many fish in different materials we had until I took these pictures…they turn up all over the yard.   

Bells, Chimes – we love it when the wind blows and secret places with interesting displays can be found through out the yard.

Just off our lower patio you will find a strange sculpture that I have never figured out what it is supposed to represent and the artist was no help at all. It kind of looks like a weird angel with tattered wings. When you see it you can give me your take. Another CostCo purchase was this wonderful Torren copper bird feeder. When we get settled in a little more I will start feeding the birds again. The small triangle bell in the lower left of the photo was a gift for Mary – it needs a little work.

Big noisy bells are the best. These two were made from old gas cylinders by a couple of true artists. The North part of our yard is steep and has three terraces. You can see some two more of our kinetic wind sculptures and a lot of plants that need pruning.

The Summer before we left on our last mission we went to the arts fair in Salt Lake and bought this interesting sculpture o five different size metal disks on rods. I put them in a planter we had and when I left there was a solar light in the middle but seems to have got lost along the way. One final wind chime .

This is what you see standing at the NorthWest corner of our garage. In summer it is beautiful and green while in the winter it is beautiful and white. This is the head of a sculpture that got destroyed when the folks cleaning up some of our trees dropped a big limb right on top of it. Some day I hope to get the artist to re-connect everything.

Three CostCo birds are being carefully watched by the cat behind the bush. My son Tom gave me the center metal sculpture and I cleaned it up and painted it black, blue and brown. The fish were a close out we bought somewhere, the really ugly frog comes from Oregon while the snail – can you see him – came from another trip to the SL art fair. We really should stay away from that show.

These two tree gnomes protect a part of of our yard. One of our grandsons would not come up the driveway if they were around – he has grown out of that so they can now check out each of our visitors as they approach our door. This is the scene looking straight out our front door lots going on and that is how we like it. That is the end of this abbreviated tour – hope you will come to visit and enjoy an full one.
As I work at my computer – as I am dong right now – and look to my right, this is what I see. Some personal art, part of the 2500 classical cds I have collected and a few small art objects.