Category: Art

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La Muchacha

West End 3rd floor landing balcony, La Muchacha & door to my apartment.

In the dictionary, “muchacha” is just another Spanish word for girl, but in real life Costa Rica it is more; what the young men call a good-looking young lady, like “chick” in the states. My taxi driver in a barrio of San Jose whistled at a couple of teenage girls, looked at me, smiled, and said “Barrio’s Muchachas!” Well, we have one at Hacienda La Jacaranda too – at my front door!
“Muchacha” is what two-year old Matthaeus in the apartments calls the only statue in our building. It is a wood carving of a nude girl (sun worshipping?) that stands on the west end 3rd floor landing right across from my front door and and my neighbor’s door. Hmmmmm . . . you say! Well, it’s just art! Phons, the previous owner, loved nudes! (Has more around his house.) And I didn’t put it there! Wait until you see the paintings he put in my living room! But for now enjoy these photos of Matthaeus’ Muchacha! 🙂 Our wooden chick!
Carved from one piece of wood, dated 2004.

Looks like sun worshipping to me!

You hardly notice it when you walk up the hill.
Today I had lunch with a couple and their lady friend from New Jersey. Tomorrow I’m taking the retired man birding on the Tarcoles River. My first time to get that far away from Atenas for nature photography. I’m looking forward to it. Lots of birds tomorrow!

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Whimsical Art?

There is tile work in several places on our apartment grounds, but this guardhouse just inside the gate is one piece that looks almost Disneyesque or fairy-tale like. And of course it is not used, since we don’t have a guard. Phons probably considers it a piece of art. I pass by it every-time I go to town. Like all photos here, you can click on it to see an enlarged version. Made with my phone.

He has contemporary art throughout our apartments. My two paintings are Picasso-style nudes. One of the third floor stairwell balconies has a nude statue looking out over our view. Interesting!

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Art, Play, or Vandalism?

Art, Play, or Vandalism?   In Sabana Park.

Good, long flight from Nashville to San Jose through Charlotte of all places! Arrived about 1:30 this time which is Central Standard Time (no daylight savings thank goodness) which means in the summer it is like the U.S Mountain Savings Time. It was lightly raining on arrival and at supper time now is raining hard. May through November is “Rainy Season” which is mostly afternoon showers. And yes, I planned to come in rainy season on purpose. If I move here, this is what it will be like, half the year. December to April is “Dry Season” with no rain in most places except the coastal rain forests which have rain year around. The northwest part of Costa Rica, called Guanacaste, is dry year around with some rain during rainy season. It is like some of our American West.

Well, anyway, I was in my hotel by 3:00 in downtown San Jose and with only a mist and my umbrella I walked two blocks to Parque Sabana which is bigger than New York’s Central Park and made a few photos. I promised to just do one a day, so I chose the weird one instead of the cute boys playing soccer, a tree I liked, or the beautiful yellow hibiscus across from the hotel. This monster eating a picnic table next to a slide made of logs intrigued me and maybe I will learn more about it later. The children were playing on the regular playground. So, is it art, play, or vandalism? Click photo to see it larger.