Chicago photos
Jul. 19th, 2016 12:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerSome photos from my Chicago trip! I went to attend my friend Rachel's wedding shower, and I was worried about it beforehand because a) I didn't know most of the attendees, and b) I spent so much of last week so anxious about my possibly impending health problems; but actually I enjoyed it very much and I think getting away for a bit was good for me.
I feel somewhat less anxious about the possibility of dying of cancer now, largely because the mark that occasioned all this anxiety is mostly gone. (Actually, I shouldn't say I feel less anxious about dying of cancer. I feel less anxious because it seems less likely that I might be dying of cancer. I am still very anxious about the whole dying thing.)
I did eventually start itching, a day or two after I posted about the mark in the first place, and that has not gone away yet. This of course worries me because you know what else is a possible symptom of cancer? ITCHINESS.
But I looked it up on the internet, which for once was helpful and informed me that the most common cause of itchiness is not cancer but stress, and, well, I'm still pretty stressed out, so. And also the itchiness only developed after I read that itchiness is a possible cancer symptom. I hope this means it's psychosomatic.
In any case! On to the photos!
The yards in this part of Chicago are all extremely small and well-kept, which gives the trees an air of abstract topiary - or perhaps overgrown bonsai? They seem like living sculptures, perfectly designed to show off their small spaces.
Just look at that lake, and the skyline.
This picture doesn't show it, but from another direction, Rachel could point out almost all the important landmarks from her last few years in Chicago: that's the dome of her church, that's where she works, this is where her fiance proposed, and the wedding reception will be in that building there... There was something charming about being able to see a map of her life laid out before us like that.
Which was delicious, of course; Rachel is probably my foodiest friend, and she comes from a family of excellent cooks. Not pictured here: the lemon bars, brownies, and chocolate dipped pretzels they kept in reserve for dessert.
The next day, I had time to mosey downtown to the Art Institute of Chicago, which I love and enjoyed very much. They had an exhibit about American Art in the Thirties which I particularly wanted to see, and it did not disappoint; I liked the Edward Hopper paintings in particular, but probably my favorite painting in the exhibition was this one, Philip Guston's
A tondo in memory of the bombing of Guernica, an event now remembered mainly for Picasso's painting - although actually I like this one better, at least as a memorial for a bombing; I think the cubism of Picasso's piece distracts the viewer from the reality of the bombing, the real people dying in agony, and focuses them instead on Picasso's artistry.
I liked the echo between this human arrangement and all the surrounding art: a mother and child in a building filled with mother and child paintings. Mary Cassatt could paint them.
I feel somewhat less anxious about the possibility of dying of cancer now, largely because the mark that occasioned all this anxiety is mostly gone. (Actually, I shouldn't say I feel less anxious about dying of cancer. I feel less anxious because it seems less likely that I might be dying of cancer. I am still very anxious about the whole dying thing.)
I did eventually start itching, a day or two after I posted about the mark in the first place, and that has not gone away yet. This of course worries me because you know what else is a possible symptom of cancer? ITCHINESS.
But I looked it up on the internet, which for once was helpful and informed me that the most common cause of itchiness is not cancer but stress, and, well, I'm still pretty stressed out, so. And also the itchiness only developed after I read that itchiness is a possible cancer symptom. I hope this means it's psychosomatic.
In any case! On to the photos!
The yards in this part of Chicago are all extremely small and well-kept, which gives the trees an air of abstract topiary - or perhaps overgrown bonsai? They seem like living sculptures, perfectly designed to show off their small spaces.
Just look at that lake, and the skyline.
This picture doesn't show it, but from another direction, Rachel could point out almost all the important landmarks from her last few years in Chicago: that's the dome of her church, that's where she works, this is where her fiance proposed, and the wedding reception will be in that building there... There was something charming about being able to see a map of her life laid out before us like that.
Which was delicious, of course; Rachel is probably my foodiest friend, and she comes from a family of excellent cooks. Not pictured here: the lemon bars, brownies, and chocolate dipped pretzels they kept in reserve for dessert.
The next day, I had time to mosey downtown to the Art Institute of Chicago, which I love and enjoyed very much. They had an exhibit about American Art in the Thirties which I particularly wanted to see, and it did not disappoint; I liked the Edward Hopper paintings in particular, but probably my favorite painting in the exhibition was this one, Philip Guston's
A tondo in memory of the bombing of Guernica, an event now remembered mainly for Picasso's painting - although actually I like this one better, at least as a memorial for a bombing; I think the cubism of Picasso's piece distracts the viewer from the reality of the bombing, the real people dying in agony, and focuses them instead on Picasso's artistry.
I liked the echo between this human arrangement and all the surrounding art: a mother and child in a building filled with mother and child paintings. Mary Cassatt could paint them.
