Category: Artsy/Creative

Ft Wayne – Celebration of Glass

RJ Walters

I was recently at the Ft. Wayne Museum of Art and came across a fabulous collection of glass. If I remember right it was on loan from the New York Museum of Modern Art. I have always been fascinated by glass art and this was the best I have seen.

I can’t leave you with just one example so here is a gallery of other pieces. Click on any pic to see a larger view.

Seeing The Possibilities

RJ Walters
Tomorrowland

I am definitely a SciFi guy. I love watching almost anything in that genre. The Mad Max movies and that type of doomsday stuff is neat but I really get off on the things that show humanity on a positive note. I guess that maybe started with “Robbie the Robot” in the 1956 film Forbidden Planet. By the time the Jetsons cartoon series rolled around I was totally hooked. I just love thinking about future possibilities.

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In Once Great Majesty

RJ Walters

Just a simple picture for a dewey/foggy Friday morning. It was taken looking out my Study window. The maple tree on the right has definitely seen it better days. When we came here twenty years ago I thought of cutting it down. But I have since grown to appreciate her in her mature years. She is full of holes where large branches once resided that have now morphed into homes for many of the neighborhood squirrels. She is missing her leaves on top, but so am I.

Greek-ish Salad

RJ Walters
Greekish Salad – RJ Walters

RJsCorner is meant to be a very diverse place. I cover many topics because I am a guy with many labels. One label I haven’t shown you here is my chef side. I spent five years in college working in a dormitory cafeteria serving about 600 people three meals a day. I started that time washing pots and pans and ended up running the entire student waiter staff of about fifty people. I learned many things about cooking and such in addition to how to be an engineer during those years.

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Cars, Cars, and More Cars…

RJ Walters

No I am not talking about the Los Angeles freeway, I am talking about the GoodGuys Car show in Des Moines Iowa I recently attended. I think you know by now that I am a car guy. The shelves of the study are lined with 1/32 scale models of them. When I’m too lazy to do anything else I am usually watching a car show on the Motor Trend channel. I am a car guy.

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Introducing Augmented Realities

RJ Walters

Augmented Realitiesis a new category for me here at RJsCorner. It is meant to allow my creative side a little more leeway in my life. Most of the posts in this category will be where I take some of my favorite photos and expose them to artistic apps to turn them into “art”. Of course art is in the eye of the beholder, so I will wait for your judgement on whether I am doing a good job.

The first installment is a picture of me taken at a cafe attached to the Westside Market in Cleveland. It was taken last year during our trip to see Punxsutawney  Phil. A full post on that soon. 🙂

An enjoyable breakfast in a small Cleveland cafe.

Poetry at RJsCorner??

RJ Walters

I have always been fascinated by poetry. But in my early years I was taught that poetry was for sissies and no young boy wants to be a sissy. As typical with many young people, I was introduced to poetry by Edger Allan Poe and particularly “The Raven”. The words of that poem certainly painted a vivid picture. Most of Poe’s works were dark in nature, but as I learned that is not what poetry is necessarily all about.

It’s hard to put a definition on poetry. It seems there are about as many definitions as there are poets. Some want to put strict rules for writing, and some say you make your own rules. There are also a myriad of types of poems. Some rely on cadence, some on rhyme, some by just content.

If you want to give me your idea of what a poem is I will certainly welcome it. But to me “The rules of poetry are in the eye of the beholder”. So, here are my general rules:

A Poem

  • Is painting a picture with words.
  • Focuses on one primary emotion
  • Has an identifiable cadence
  • Has more than 15 words on a line
  • Has 4 lines to a stanza.
  • Has around seven stanzas.

At least getting started, I am trying to live by my rules. The type of poetry I will primarily be attempting is called “free verse”. That means it doesn’t necessarily rhyme.  

My first, and only poem so far here on RJsCorner brought on some concerns about my level of depression. That was exactly the picture I wanted to paint, so I guess I was successful. The poem was meant to be depressing, but not necessarily at my current my depth.

What I mainly like about writing poetry is that it demands a greater level of thought. At least starting out, I am going to use a photo from my portfolio as the focus. The poem will paint in words what I give you in that corresponding picture.

I don’t know how successful I will be but I am going to give it a serious try. Of course, you will be the judge of my accomplishments in the new endeavor.

Poetry is painting a picture in words

Spider Attack!!

RJ Walters

For this “Outside the Box” Saturday I give you a picture of when I was attacked by a giant spider!  Well, not really, but it was a 30 ft or should I say a 10-meter high sculpture of a spider. This photo was taken in Ottawa Canada when we visited there a few years ago.  The sculpture is called Maman and is located at the National Gallery of Canada.  There are so many sites in Ottawa to see. We spent four days there but that really wasn’t enough.

Crystal Bridges

Crystal Bridges

RJ Walters

Crystal Bridges is an art museum in Bentonville Arkansas created by the Walton Foundation. It gets 3 million visitors a year and is free admissions.  It is a celebration of American artists including significant contributions from Native Americans.

For this Artsy Saturday, I want to give you some photos of the buildings themselves. They are works of art and deserve their own accolades.  If you visit the musuem I suggest you do so during a weekday. The crowds on the weekends are almost insufferable, at least to a guy with some Aspie traits. 🤣