The Last Photo from March's Milwaukee Experience: The Printed Fabric Leggings Look..

My first sighting of the trend. On the right person? Sure.    Today I returned from a week or so in the south, with many new photos and experiences.

The Public Market...Scenes from a Saturday Afternoon

The Market is modern, enclosed and full of cheese, wine, candy, ice cream, bratwurst, a good looking fish restaurant as well as boutiques. The photos taken from an upper level where there are tables and chairs for people to bring their food and relax. A nice gathering place for weekend shopping and fun.

An Original, Complete with Ghost Sign...

Toward the southern end of the renovated factory district in Milwaukee, this building has not yet been touched by gentrification. Future site of condos, offices and shops or restaurants? Time will tell, but I hope they retain the ghost sign.

Back to Milwaukee

I still have a few photos of the city's renovated old industrial district; these are two pretty shots of the River Walk, looking north from the east bank (above) and looking south from the other side (below).
It's late afternoon on a pristine, clear early spring day with soft temperatures.

Haystacks and Smokestacks...

A combination you don't usually see in landscape painting. I liked the weird, "starry night", but strange quality of the night-time scene in the middle...

Abstract, yet human and evocative..

unlike modernistic abstract paintings of shapes and patterns, these paintings from inside the factories producing metals in the earlier years of the 20th century place human bodies in the midst of the heat, stench and racket. The middle painting shows men dragging a fiery hot ingot, turning their faces to avoid the radiated heat. No hard hats, no hearing protection, no safety glasses, no shirts!

The Destination in Milwaukee (besides the lunch and the long walk): The Grohmann Museum

Hubsy wanted to see an exhibit of graphic art from the Milwaukee Road Railroad; photography was prohibited in that section, but otherwise, OK. The museum houses the art collection of a Wisconsin industrialist and benefactor to the local engineering college. Mosaics, stained glass and a formidable assortment of industrial landscape paintings from the middle ages to the 20th Century. There is a fun glass elevator to ride. I love glass elevators! More to come. The art in this museum is very thought provoking.

Our Kinda Place...An Early Saturday Lunch at Mo's Irish Pub in Downtown Milwaukee...

Just after 11AM, before lunch crowds; we were hungry since we'd been up early, rode the train and then explored the area on foot for a couple of hours. The company that owns the restaurant will be renovating the stylish little triangular shaped office building (long empty). Interesting. I like to mention it when we have enjoyed the food and service at one of the restaurants on our route.

Milwaukee City Hall--It's Big

The municipal headquarters in Milwaukee is on a grand scale--it registers almost like a cathedral when you see it from a distance. I've never been inside--imagine the ceiling height of the rooms! I suppose it is one of the city's main landmarks. Impressive. Many older buildings in the city center were demolished and replaced by parking garages--1970's madness--glad this building was not torn down.

It was a day like this for our Adventure in Milwaukee...

The sky was crystal clear sapphire, a breeze was brisk but not unpleasant; definitely Spring about to bloom--but still the piles of melting and dirty snow; the river ice breaking up. I know this northern weather from my younger days when I lived in Madison and travelled regularly to Milwaukee. People, suffering from cabin-fever, were out in lighter clothes than you'd think. Me? I was wrapped up in a short winter jacket, hat and light gloves.

We Needed an Airing: the First Adventure in 2015!

Saturday was the first "Spring-like" day this year; in the 40's. It felt wonderful, since our part of the planet experienced a "late", cold, snowy winter! Hubsy and I took an Amtrak train to Milwaukee for a museum exhibit, lunch and a long walk around the city. It is only about an hour on the train, then again to return in the evening. I found a new "motto", discovered some new art and took lots of photos. Fresh Blog-Fodder!