…let the oppressed go free…

Timothy Schmalz is the sculptor of the Matthew 25 set of five Jesus sculptures in Cleveland. Rome is the only other city with all five. Timothy has made two sculptures of "Let the oppressed go free" (Isaiah lviii. 6).  One is in Cleveland through March in front of the Tom Johnson statue on Public Square. The other is in Schio Italy. The sculpture is of St. Josephine Bakhita *c.1869, 1947† releasing the enslaved of all sorts. She was a slave sold several times. She became a Canossian sister, and was at the convent in Schio for 42 years. Mother Josephine Bakhita of Sudan was canonised on 1 October 2000.

St. Josephine Bakhita

This bronze work is some 20 feet long, and three tons. Schmalz sees his art as visual prayers. It will eventually be at Catholic University  Washington D.C.

see: https://www.communitywestfoundation.org/lettheoppressedgofree

slave with barcode

The term now used is 'human trafficking'. Slavery is of many sorts. Some people are used as labor; some are slaves to pay off debt, some people are used for sex; children are stolen, kidnapped, sold, and forced to become soldiers, forced to become brides.

Jesse Owens

Jesse Owens *1913, 1980†

Owens was the youngest and tenth child of sharecroppers in Alabama. After WWI they went north to Cleveland. As a student at East Tech, he tied the world record for the 100 yard dash at the 1933 National High School Championship. 

The 1936 Olympics was in Nazi controlled Germany.  Hitler wanted to showcase Aryan supremacy. Avery Brundage, president of the American Olympic Committee, was considering a boycott in 1933. In '34 he opposed the boycott, and later called it "a Jewish-Communist conspiracy".  Jeremiah Mahoney, president of the Amateur Athletic Union, led the case for a boycott. Brundage won, and though some Jewish athletes from several countries refuse to participate. It was an active question if black, and some other Americans would boycott. NAACP wanted a boycott by black athletes, Brundage called them "un-American agitators". Eventually, no country boycotted. Owens did go. He won four gold medals, and was the most heralded athlete at the Berlin Summer Games. This was a sports story that was a political history event.  

 

Jesse's almost exact contemporary, Joe Louis, was born in Alabama, his family migrated to a northern city (Detroit). Louis was a heavyweight boxing champion who defeated the champion boxers from fascist Italy and Germany. Both, Louis and Owens, were examples of pride for all Americans, especially black Americans; and they showed Aryan/Nordic/white supremacy as a fiction.

Over this summer, Angelica Pozo installed the Jesse Owens Olympic Oak Plaza in Cleveland's Rockefeller Park. She is an artist that specialises in ceramic tiles. There is a 200 meter loop, and a podium bench/wall around a grafted sapling from one of the four trees given to Owens from Germany to plant. The distances symbolises the distances Owens ran, and jumped.

Well, that was the issue then too. Getting the idea from a quote of Owen's, Pozo had people write notes, which she put on tiles.

from Jesse Owens

#1 100 meters

#2 long jump

#3 200 meters

#4 4x100 relay

Karma and Argos going into the lists.

There is a fishing pond that has been there for years.

visit to Lake Anna

Barberton's Mum Fest theme was Hallowe'en, This purple bat reminds me of the 1960s Batman.

Canon de 155 Grande Puissance Filloux modèle 1917 was a French weapon. It was manufactured in the US from 1918, and used to 1945. It fired 95 pound shells, and had a range of 12 miles. This one, M1918MI (Bullard #149), has moved about Barberton, it is currently by Lake Anna's war memorial. It has returned just before this summer. It had also been at Anna Dean Farm's piggery, and at a park a short distance from Lake Anna.

"soyez bons pour vos freins", "be good to your brakes"

2023 Miscellany #13 — mostly about University Circle

 

Playing at the museum's fountain.

appealing curves at a building with continuous construction

Ruckeroo sits with his architect companion.

serious high voltage electrical equipment, west side Cleveland

at main entrance Cleveland Art Museum

At the moments when August 24th turned into August 25th a tornado was travelling on Euclid Avenue, it hit Calvary Presbyterian. Charles Frederick Schweinfurth was the millionaire's builder on Euclid Avenue. This was his church as the architect, and a congregant. He knew how to use stone.

grease, sand, chalk

Victory, Saint Rocco's greasy pole climb

Buono Festa! Perhaps my favorite event in Cleveland. First one in four years, like the Olympics, well not quite. There were four teams this year, the victory came to the first team in the third round. They were quick. 

There again was not much grease on the pole. Only one fellow slapped grease down. It was 88°F this Labor Day afternoon. Sometimes in the past, with a heavy coat of grease, the grease would slide and tumble down by itself. Before there were more teams competing, which means more people climbing. With each climb, grease is transferred to the climber. Climbers sling grease off to be able to get an easier climb in the next round, and this benefits the next teams too. People want to see a winner, a winner is not guaranteed, so the amount of grease on the pole helps determine the outcome. Also some guys like to splatter the crowd. People try to scatter, and back up when the slop comes their way. Here were first time viewers, they were surprised. I had an opportunity to move up, i chose not to, thinking the angle of sight was too high. I forgot about people sticking their telephones up high. I should have moved up.

The rules are announced over a microphone in the rectory, which this time was unintelligible. Don't think there was much change. Who ever grasps a metal support on top wins, and it's over. Each team has five members. In the past, only four are allowed in round one. Guys climb over each other until all five are up. If they are all standing on the lower guy's shoulders, they are still one body length short. The fourth guy usually climbs over the fifth guy, i also remember seeing the third guy climb the other two. Sometimes a climber or two "locks in", while hugging the poll, his body length contracts, allowing him a stronger hold. At this point, he becomes separated from the lower fellows, and they can slide down. If they all slide down, the turn is over.

The spectators had more room this year. The social hall was demolished, and this gave more space. Between two years of coronavirus, and the demolition, this was the first greasy pole since 2019 [click].

Carl Jara is an artist. His medium is sand. His art is easily received by the public, which allows him to get commercial contracts. Organisations feel confident in hiring him to create a sculpture.There are lot of different art forms, and styles. Not everything is popular, or appreciated. Certain pieces are only for niche audiences. That audience can come from anywhere on the spectrum of taste. Some tastes garner approval only within that segment of beholders. Some things that have to be admitted to is accomplished craftsmanship. I detect dismissive and/or self-important snobbery. I discount what is 'hot' and in vogue, and creativity championed by self-appointed experts, and the avant garde. Beauty counts, ugliness and weirdness detracts. Then again, like what you will; but ease your pretend authority.

Art of chalk and sand are usually temporary. Enjoy it now, it will soon be gone. It compares to a philosophy, and experience in living. This here one supra was at the Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds for Oktoberfest. 

 

Writing before going to see the chalkings. There is an art institute, and college students nearby. Would be surprised if some did not participate in Cleveland Art Museum's sidewalk chalking. Youngsters often draw cartoon, and comic book characters. We were discussing what recent such movies have come out. Expecting to see Barbie, the newest Little Mermaid, and Guardians of the Galaxy. Football, and soon scary season will be in the air. On Labor Day there were houses with outdoor Hallowe'en decor already up.

Mandalorian (?) Madonna by Hannah Jameson

Well, viewing after the start of the second day, i find myself mostly wrong in guessing. A popular subject was some of the Star Wars spinoff subscription teevee characters. I saw the movies, but none of the cable stuff. My nephew pointed out that this Madonna blended a character from the show. Well, a chief subject of the Renaissance sidewalk drawings were Madonnas.

migration and bloom

sunflowers in Avon Ohio

sunflower with bunny ears

with grasshopper

monarch butterfly migration

monarch caterpillar

good mother daughter outing

coreopsis field Bay Village