This cemetery is well worth the trip to Zakopane, the town’s other virtues aside. It’s not huge, but its mix of folky and modernist memorials — sometimes combined in a single monument — makes it an artistic treasure. Back to Poland index page
Continue readingPolish Churches
It’s no surprise that deeply Catholic Poland has churches aplenty. What’s remarkable is the duality of its wooden country churches — many of them UNESCO World Heritage listed — and the splendor of the baroque religious palaces in the cities. More remarkable is that those old country churches, their modest exteriors beautiful enough, often feature some of that baroque splendor inside. Back to Poland index page
Continue readingRoadside Poland
Like roadsides everywhere, Poland’s history and culture is spread all along the road, from the folky religious shrines of the countryside to the neon that once lit up its cities. Back to Poland index page
Continue readingFrank: A Lakefront Masterpiece
Winged skull Frank, carved into a slab at Morgan Shoal’s Pebble Beach, is the most accomplished rock carving that survives on Chicago’s lakefront, along with Roman Villareal’s mermaid near Oakwood Beach. Clearly a fairly recent creation, I had heard rumors that its carver was still around. Now I’ve finally met him — appropriately enough at one of the city’s community meetings to discuss the future of the Morgan Shoal waterfront. The artist is Luke Muzyka, a lifelong South Sider. Muzyka studied art at the School of The Art Institute and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign before receiving his degree from
Continue readingThe Chicago Master of The Mayan Carvings
If you’ve spent any time looking at the limestone blocks that line the lakefront north and south of Foster Avenue Beach in Chicago you’ve probably noticed the carvings that look like they are from ancient Mexico. They should, since some — and probably all — are based on actual Mayan carvings. These art works are complex, so much so that the imagery can take careful study to decipher, just as it does in the actual Mayan ruins. There are skeletons, gods, birds and jaguars, as well as a variety of other shapes and forms as well as multiple instances of
Continue readingThe Rock Carvings at Fullerton Avenue
Although there are only about two dozen carvings to be found just south of Theater on the Lake at Fullerton Avenue, many are spectacular. These carvings reside on rocks that were relocated in 2016 when the old limestone revetment was replaced with concrete and the parkland was extended slightly into the lake. Many carvings were lost in the course of the reconstruction, but these survived intact, saved at the request of the project’s landscape architect. This map is both printable and interactive — each carving links to its image. Or scroll down for a gallery of all the carvings at
Continue readingBooth Tarkington — Good Enough
I got interested in Booth Tarkington via the credit Orson Welles gave him at the end of his Magnificent Ambersons film adaptation. As spoken with Wellesian richness, there seemed something enchanting about the name behind this powerful story. Even in its studio-truncated form, Welles’ Ambersons was, well, magnificent, and I wanted to understand the source of this masterpiece that was both visually stunning and highly literate. A good deal of Tarkington remained in the movie, particularly the way he used bittersweet nostalgia to set up a cold-eyed assessment of advancing modernity. I proceeded to read dozens of his books. Between
Continue readingIt’s All About Bobs
Bob is the winning identity along Chicago’s Lake Michigan shore, beating out Tom, John, Jim, Bill and even Joe for the most prolific name carved into the rocks there. I’ve counted about 80 Bobs surviving along the lakefront, though there were certainly many more before miles of limestone blocks and their carvings were torn out in the shoreline protection projects of the early 2000s. So let’s celebrate Bobs, wherever they may be. Read more about Chicago’s lakefront carvings.
Continue readingBizarre Bazaars
$35.00 The book of weird, befuddling and just plain embarrassing business names. Here are 600 fabulous head scratchers. Description The roadside is littered with ordinary places bearing odd names — sometimes very odd. Here are 600 fabulous head scratchers, funny names for stores and businesses ranging from Armegeddon Carpet Cleaners to Sam-n-Ella’s River Club. Additional information Weight 9.8 oz Dimensions 10 × 8 × 1 in Publisher interestingideas.com (March 03 2021) Pages 92 Illustrations 149 ISBN-13 978-1034551157
Continue readingLakefront Anonymous:
Chicago’s Unknown Art Gallery
$40.00 Thousands of magnificent stone carvings lie hidden in plain sight along Chicago’s Lake Michigan waterfront, a collective work of art and a spontaneous monument to good times by the lake. These carvings are unique in the world and lavishly illustrated in this first book-length treatment. Description One of the world’s most remarkable outdoor art treasures lies hidden in plain sight along Chicago’s Lake Michigan waterfront. Lakefront Anonymous: Chicago’s Unknown Art Gallery tells the story of the thousands of stone carvings by unknown creators that line the city’s shore but have remained mostly invisible to the public. All together it
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