Category: Chrono

Concrete

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The List Art Building, home to Brown’s Visual Arts and Art History departments is a love-it-or-hate-it work of art in reinforced concrete designed by Philip Johnson, in sharp contrast to his glass structures.

Completed in 1971.

Brown University

Providence, RI

November 24th, 2018

Gradations

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of light

The First Baptist Church in America.

Lovecraft, who had decided to quit the church by age five and had become an atheist by age eight, “Hated this church, but… loved this building.” [source]

Not surprisingly, it was there that the 2015 NecronomiCon Providence, the celebration of the work of H.P. Lovecraft, kicked off its convention.

November 24th, 2018

 

 

Walking in Providence

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Following H.P. Lovecraft’s stepsThe majestic Union Trust Company Building, once home to the homonym Providence-based bank, now in the National Register of Historic Places, still a commercial building, but the upper floors have been converted to residences. 

The massive Art Deco ”Superman” Building, aka Industrial National Bank Building standing empty since 2013! 

The ”John Carter House”, in 21 Meeting Street, aka ”Shakespeare’s Head” since colonial times when the building was used as a print shop and post office by John Carter, who had trained with Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia. The enterprises were advertised by a sign featuring the head of Shakespeare on a pole outside the building. This is where the city’s first newspaper, The Providence Gazette, was printed until 1793.  

A lovely dedication to the firefighters who lost their lives on duty – 9/11/2001

What Cheer Garage is now a studio for RISD. ”What Cheer” refers to the Narragansett Indians’ greeting to Roger Williams on his landing at Providence (a contraction of “What cheer with you?,” the seventeenth-century equivalent of “How are you?”). Many Rhode Island businesses perpetuate the historic greeting. [source]

The Old Brick School House, 1769 (PPS Office & Meeting Hall)

Climbing Meeting Street

H.P. Lovecraft’s last home – still standing. Originally located at 66 College Street, it was moved to 65 Prospect Street to make space for an expansion of Brown University.

Brown University. Lovecraft walked among it’s buildings most of his life. 

The John Hay Library at Brown University, home to the largest collection of H. P. Lovecraft materials in the world.

Providence, RI

November 24th, 2018

Good Taste || Bad Taste

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Good Taste – In the Arcade 

Built in 1828, it is the oldest indoor mall in the United States, home to an array of lovely small shops with a vintage feel, a cafe, a couple of eateries and – most importantly – The Lovecraft Arts & Sciences Council. Checking in obligatory, satisfying weirdness guaranteed.

Three Heroes – Queens of Doughnuts 

The Associated Press clip reads:

NEW YORK, Oct. 25. – Three American Y.M.C.A. women have worked under fire in the open frying 10,000 doughnuts a day for the victorious American troops thruout this week, a cable to the United War Work Campaign Headquarters, made public here today, announced.
The women are Mary Bray, Pawtucket, R.I.; Mary Holliday, Indianapolis, Ind., and Mrs. Edith Knowles, Phoenix, Ariz.
The work was done over an open bonfire, and when regular supplies ran short skillful substitutions were made.

The article refers to Mary Bray, obviously meaning her daughter, Gertrude Cottrell Bray (1888-1975).

Gertrude Bray posing below in her daily work outfit.

Bad Taste – The other side of the Arcade

Bad Wolf

For the Doctor Who fans among us (don’t blink)

Providence, RI

November 24th, 2018

Time and Space Divide

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A flight of steps with iron rail,
A belfry looming tall,
A slender steeple, carv’d and pale,
A moss-grown garden wall.

Thy twinkling lights each night I see,
Tho’ time and space divide;
For thou art of the soul of me,
And always at my side!

Words:
From the poem ”Providence”, by H. P. Lovecraft

Providence, RI

November 23rd, 2018

Ennui

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Jacques-Luc Barbier-Walbonne (1769-1860)
Portrait of Antoine-Georges-François de Chabaud-Latour and His Family, 1806
Oil on canvas

Portraiture and history painting come together in this tribute to family devotion. Tenderly instructing his daughter and son, Antoine-Georges-François de Chabaud-Latour gestures toward a monument to his own father, a distinguished military man and engineer. The carved epitaph—he lived and died without reproach—provides a lesson in virtue for the following generations. Chabaud-Latour’s wife, Juliette, stands beside him, nursing their infant son, demonstrating the importance of maternal strength to the future of family and nation. The portrait is situated in the landscape of Nîmes in southern France, home to both the artist and the Chabaud-Latour family. – Museum label

… and a bit of eye-rolling demonstrating that kids will forever be kids (and that boredom is a privilege).

RISD Museum, Providence, RI

November 23rd, 2018

A Moment of Zen

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The Buddha, a little shy hippopotamus and a dream robe.

Japan
Buddha Mahavairocana (Dainichi Nyorai), ca. 1150-1200
Cryptomeria wood

This sculpture was originally the main figure of worship in a temple, surrounded by other Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and guardian figures. Visitors would have come to pray or attend rituals and sutra readings performed by monks. The RISD Museum acquired the statue in the 1930s. Records state it was the principal image of Rokuon-ji, a Shingon sub-temple in Hyogo Prefecture, along Japan’s Inland Sea. Legend has it that the temple was destroyed by fire hundreds of years ago but that the statue was stored in a nearby farmhouse until 1933, when it was brought to the U.S. by the Japanese art dealer Yamanaka. The largest wooden Japanese sculpture in the United States, it was constructed from 11 hollowed and carved pieces of wood. Its simple surfaces and serene expression are representative of the late Heian Period.

Egypt
Middle Kingdom to Second Intermediate Period, Dynasty 11-13
Hippopotamus, 2040-1638 BCE
Faience

China
Robe, 1800s
Silk tapestry weave (kesi) with handpainted decoration and applied compound-weave ribbon

RISD Museum, Providence, RI

November 23rd, 2018