Art Without Borders ...

"Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better."
                       ~ Andre Gide
                              ~ 1869-1951

The sky's the limit for creativity at the 30th annual Mayfair Festival of the Arts, held each Memorial Day weekend in Allentown, Pennsylvania since 1986.

This is my creative spin on one of the Mayfair signs at the art and music festival site this year at The Allentown Fairgrounds. 

On The Sidewalks Of New York ...

"East Side, West Side, all around the town ...
We tripped the light fantastic on
the sidewalks of New York."
               ~ "The Sidewalks of New York"
                ~ James W. Blake, lyricist,
                  Charles B. Lawlor, composer
                                 ~ 1894
~ This wonderful Tin Pan Alley tune
was a popular song about New York City
in the 1890s.

This painterly pigeon steps spritely
in spring on an April day on the 
sidewalks of New York City.     

  

Peering Into The Looking Glass ...

"Alice had begun to think that very few things
indeed were really impossible."
                  ~ Lewis Carroll
                              ~1832-1898
        ~"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" 
                               ~ 1865 

New York City streetscapes reflect in an
advertisement for the Disney film
"Alice Through the Looking Glass"
on an April day in Lower Manhattan.    

Sundae In New York ...

"New York on Sunday
Big city taking a nap
Slow down, it's Sunday
Life's a ball, let it fall in your lap.

If you've got troubles
Just take them out for a walk
They'll burst like bubbles
In the fun of a Sunday in New York."
                  ~ "Sunday In New York"  
      ~Composed by Peter Nero
 for the 1963 film  "Sunday In New York"
                              & 
    Recorded by the wonderful Bobby Darin 

It's not Sunday but instead Sundae fun-time
in New York as people line up at a cheery
ice cream truck for shakes, sundaes and cones
on a sunny April day in Lower Manhattan.  
                          

  

Shades of Alleluia ...

"A Christian should be 
an Alleluia from head to foot."
                   ~ St. Augustine
                               ~ 354-430 A.D.

It's a touchstone of faith in the city as banners
joyfully wave a colorful chorus of Alleluias outside Trinity Church at the corner of Broadway
and Wall Street in New York City in April.

The Episcopal parish in Lower Manhattan
was a refuge for relief workers after the terrorist
attacks of September 11, 2001. A sculpture
in front of the church was made out of a giant
sycamore tree destroyed on 9/11.     

Reflection and Remembrance ...

"No day shall erase you 

from the memory of time." 

                ~ Virgil

                          ~ 70 B.C. - 19 B.C.

A portion of the new Oculus sculpture that tops the World Trade Center Transportation Hub joins with other nearby buildings in Lower Manhattan in reflecting on an outside wall of the National September 11 Memorial Museum on a picturesque April day in New York City.

The sculpture is the creation of Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava.

The Virgil quote has been fashioned out of salvaged remnants of damaged World Trade Center steel and is located in Memorial Hall inside the museum, where it will stand in perpetuity at the site of the attacks as a promise that we will never forget those taken from us on that terrible day.

Freedom Takes Wing ...

"Freedom lies in being bold."
                            ~ Robert Frost
                              ~ 1874-1963
                ~ Poet Laureate of the United States
                                 ~ 1958-1959

Like a Phoenix rising, the new Oculus sculpture
that tops the World Trade Center Transportation
Hub in Lower Manhattan, near the Memorial 
Pools, brings to mind bold, inspiring wings
of freedom on a sunsplashed April day
in New York City.

The sculpture is the creation of Spanish
architect Santiago Calatrava.

   

Shine On Freedom ...

"I know that for America
there will always be a bright dawn ahead."
                         ~ Ronald Reagan
                                 ~ 1911-2004
                       ~ 40th President of 
               the United States of America  

One World Trade Center - The Freedom Tower -
gleams as April sunshine wraps itself around
Lower Manhattan on a gorgeous spring day
in New York City.

One World Trade Center is the main building
of the rebuilt World Trade Center complex.
With 104 floors, it is the tallest skyscraper
in the Western Hemisphere and the fourth
tallest in the world. It opened November 3, 2014.     

Strummin' Into Spring ...

"... I hitchhiked all the way down to Memphis ...
Just lookin' for a place to play,
Well, I thought my pickin' would set 'em on fire,
But nobody wanted to hire a guitar man ...

So I slept in the hobo jungles, 
Roamed a thousand miles of track,
Till I found myself in Mobile Alabama
At a club they call Big Jack's,
A little four-piece band was jammin',
So I took my guitar and I sat in,
I showed 'em what a band would sound like,
With a swingin' little guitar man.
Show 'em son ...

Guess who's leadin' that five-piece band,
Well, wouldn't ya know, it's that swingin' little guitar man."     
                                ~ "Guitar Man"
                                      ~ written by Jerry Reed
                           ~ recorded by the great Elvis Presley
                                                           ~ 1967   

This guitar, mounted on the outside wall of
Guitar Villa, Nazareth Pike, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
is strummin' into spring on a sunny day in early April,
reminding me of the great Elvis Presley singing
"Guitar Man," which he recorded in 1967.    

                                

Sage And A Cup of Joe ...

"In wine there is truth,

In coffee there is wisdom."

                       ~ Author Unknown

I spotted this sage advice on the benefits of coffee ~

"Drinking espresso can solve a latte problems"  ~

on a chilly November day on the sidewalk outside the

"Terra Cafe  ~ Coffee, Art and Culture"  in 

downtown Easton, Pennsylvania.

 

And All That Jazz ...

"Come on babe why don't we paint the town

And all that jazz ..."

                           ~ "All That Jazz" (alternatively "And All That Jazz")

                                           ~ opening song of the 1975 musical "Chicago"

I captured this cool mural of jazz silhouettes of musicians on the façade of the Hotel Lafayette, Easton, Pennsylvania as they literally paint the town on a chilly November day. The mural features the shadows of musicians on keyboard, saxophone, trumpet and other jazz instruments against bright colors.

The mural is an Easton Main Street Initiative public art project created in 2012. It is a gift of the Easton Rotary Service Foundation in memory of Ted Pierce, who was the station manager of WEST radio, an outstanding and devoted citizen. He was a generous benefactor of the Easton community and Easton Rotary Service Foundation, as well as an exemplary journalist and key reporter on the Nuremburg War Crimes Trial for the Armed Forces Network. Pierce left a large amount of money for the Rotary Club to use on Easton-based projects.

The mural was designed and painted on the Fourth Street side of the building by the Freehand Mural Group of Easton.