Tag / arts

by shannonchance

Thankful

Today I am so thankful for so many different things.

Dave is one I am ever so thankful to have in my life.  He’s turning 40 this Saturday, and I’m sad to be missing it. Here’s a little tribute to the love of my life.

Dava and Shannon in Sidi Bou Said, Tunisia. Once upon a time.
Dave and “baby” David, November 2012.
Shannon, Dave and Heather, Christmas 2011.
Dave in Bayeux, France.
Dave documenting WWII sites in Normandy, France.
Dave at the Eiffel Tower.
Dave documenting doors.
Reflecting Shannon and Dave.
Dave with his French espresso.
Dave and Shannon on Lourmarin, France.
Dave and Shannon.
Dave in southern France, 2012.
by shannonchance

Becoming

The crowd mulling over meanings posited by the curator of Alice’s retrospective exhibition, titled Becoming.

The Irish artist Alice Maher was once a Fulbright to California. She has accomplished enough over the years to be featured in the “Prominent Alumni Lecture Series” event held last week.

The event (coordinated by the Ireland United States Alumni Association and hosted by the US Embassy in Dublin) highlighted Alice’s exhibition, Becoming.

The exhibit is currently on display at the Irish Museum of Modern Art on Earlsfort Terrace. (If you want to visit it, please note that it is not located at the Royal Hospital site–which is closed for renovation.  Alice’s work is across town in the rear of the National Concert Hall.)

During last week’s event, the curator of the exhibition walked guests around the museum. He shared his thoughts about Alice’s work and explained how the various pieces were selected and displayed.

I particularly enjoyed hearing Alice talk about the context of her work. I also enjoyed meeting the museum’s Head of Education and Community Programmes (Helen O’Donoghue) and catching up with the staff of Fulbright Ireland (Colleen and Joanne) and the current Fulbright scholars who attended (Bob Trumble and his wife Ann, Scott McDonald, and Matthew Baker).

Since the actual home of the Irish Museum of Modern Art is under renovation, the exhibit is housed in the former classroom area behind the National Concert Hall.

This is a close up view of an installation Alice created to highlight decades of graffiti on the old University College Dublin (UCD) desks.

by shannonchance

A Welcome Home with Designer Toast

Georgie, Peter, Jox, and Joan enjoying a crisp fall day in their Dublin home.

It’s not often you get the chance to visit other people’s home when you’re traveling the world.

In Ireland, I can recall being in the home of Elish and Con O’Hanlon in 2003 and, more recently, in the home of Glen’s friends Carol and Connor O’Malley (who run a B&B but treated us like family on our September 2012 visit).  I can’t remember visiting anyone else’s home here yet.

Joan’s beautiful entryway.

So today was a rare treat!  I had the pleasure of brunching with architect Joan Cahalin at her favorite cafe in the outskirts of Dublin and then visiting her family’s beautiful home.  I didn’t expect I’d be able to share photos of this visit, but the family didn’t seem to mind at all when I asked if I could take some photos for the blog.

Joan is currently studying business management at University College Dublin and she also has degrees in architecture, philosophy and linguistics (if I remember correctly). Her husband, Peter Twamley, is also an architect.

Their daughter, Georgie, is studying fashion design at the National College of Art and Design (NCAD). Georgie is a remarkably bright young woman who is full of insight into sociology and culture.  As I did every summer when I was in college, Georgie spent the warm months working on the staff of a summer camp in the USA. We’ve had many experiences in common, yet she seems so much wiser about the world than I was at 20. And she’s got a good sense of her many options for the future.

You can view the photo gallery to see Georgie’s method for making grilled cheese sandwiches using a regular toaster.

I really enjoyed discussing Dublin planning with Georgie, her two architect parents, and her younger brother, Jox who is in high school. He’s at the point in his studies where students spend a year learning subjects, in six-week blocks, that they haven’t covered before. In between these blocks, they have three periods where they are required to work in internship positions. With a bit of help from his mom, Jox found an internship at LinkedIn. It sounds like he has a truly outstanding mentor at LinkedIn.

The internship requirement seems like an great idea.  Many of my friends waited until after they earned college degrees to have the type of experience Jox is getting in high school. And unfortunately, so many of my friends discovered, after graduating, that they didn’t actually like the line of work they’d trained for in college!

After discussing Saturday’s edition of the Irish Times, Joan and Georgie and I jumped into the car. They dropped me at the apartment on their way to visit Joan’s mom in what was left of our daylight hours.

Joan’s beautiful entryway.
The neighborhood has the feel of the area east of the Capital in Washington DC. This is Joan’s home.
The ground floor is spacious and sun-filled. It’s a place I’d love living!
There’s a community vegetable and herb garden inside the community square. Joan’s prized artichokes are shown to her right.
We walked past the birthplace of James Joyce on our way to brunch at a neighborhood cafe.
Joan’s daughter, Georgie, took a break from her college work to say hi and grab some lunch. I learned something new–see the toaster bag?
The bag Georgie used keeps the cheese from melting onto the toaster and it is especially useful for people who can’t eat wheat, because it cuts down on wheat contamination in the toaster.
Georgie’s well-designed lunch.