1. Christy, Carol, and I agreed in December that we would do our best to go on a sibling outing once a month in 2025. Carol spearheaded this plan by making a calendar that assigned each of us a month and location to travel to together.
May is Christy's month and Carol assigned her South Hill Spokane.
I think the three of us agree that these assignments are flexible and today's outing exemplified this.
In April, Carol was in charge and she took us to the Museum of Northwest Art and Culture in Spokane.
Upon seeing on Facebook that we had gone to the MAC, Kenton Bird wondered if we had been to the Jundt Art Gallery on Gonzaga's campus and seen the Fletcher Martin murals he painted for the Kellogg Post Office, one that the city rejected and the one that was deemed appropriate and acceptable.
We hadn't and Christy decided we would visit the Jundt Gallery for our May outing -- not quite in the South Hills, but we'd get up there eventually!
So, after a round of espresso drinks at Silver Peak Espresso in Smelterville, Christy drove us to the southwest corner of Gonzaga's campus and we spent time taking in the exhibition entitled, "Art U.S.A.: One Hundred Works on Paper, 1925-1950".
2. I mentioned last month after we'd seen a watercolor show at the MAC that I enjoy art the most that veers away from naturalism or realism and that is more expressive, even abstract. I have also always enjoyed portraits and art that explores social criticism.
This exhibition at the Jundt is eclectic. It features a wide variety of mediums, subjects, landscapes, portraits, social criticism (some through pointed Biblical analogies), with, I thought, a special emphasis on everyday life in the USA from 1925-50, whether work, home life, recreation, sporting, or entertainment and whether rural and urban.
At best, I probably took in about 15 to 20 percent of this exhibition. Knowing I wanted to absorb more of it, I bought the very handsome hardback book featuring all the artwork and the commentary posted by each work.
I'm also thinking that I might go back to Spokane this coming week and return to both the Jundt and the MAC. I want to take in more of the "Art U.S.A." and, especially because I'm currently reading a history of Spokane, I want to return to the exhibition at the MAC focused on fire and revisit the room dedicated to the Spokane fire of 1889.
This was only my second visit to the Jundt Art Museum. Like the MAC, it's an exquisite place. The building itself is elegant and the exhibit rooms are airy and peaceful. There's a seating area with huge windows looking out on the Spokane River and a stroll down a hallway off of this seating area leads to more windows and a view of Lake Arthur, a small lake and registered wetland area I'd also enjoy exploring one day.
3. Our minds and spirits could only absorb so much at the gallery. We all enjoyed what we did take in, but it was time to head a few blocks east to Indigenous Eats for delicious Indian tacos on fresh fry bread, loaded with terrific ingredients. I opted for a bison taco.
We piled back into Christy's Sube and drove up to E. Bridgeport and saw how things look at the house Grandma Woolum lived in for about forty-five years. The house has been worked on and it looked like an improvement project was ongoing on the front porch. That neighborhood has seen some rough times over the last thirty years or so and today, at least from the street, it looked like a mixture of houses cared for well and others that were run down.
We sorted out E. 717 Bridgeport memories as we then headed up to Manito Park.
We strolled to the Lilac Garden.
It's not in full bloom, but enough of the lilac trees were flowering to make our stop enjoyable.
Just being in the park was relaxing and peaceful, so while we didn't get to enjoy the full splendor of peak lilacs, we did enjoy the early blooms and the majesty of walking in the natural beauty of the the part of the park we visited.
We had a chatty and uneventful drive back to Kellogg.
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