We just returned from an awesome week in Racine, WI (my birthplace!) to celebrate my parents’ 50th anniversary and my cousin’s 25th wedding anniversary. We stayed up too late, ate a ton of food (including some of Racine’s famous Kringle) and did the nostalgia tour. This involves going to lots of places I remember from my visits to Racine when I was a child (we moved to South Carolina when I was two years old, so all of my memories of Racine are from visiting family, not actually living there). We also drove past my parents’ childhood homes. We loved every minute of the trip.
Here are some iPhone photos. I took a ton of pix with my good camera, but I haven’t downloaded them yet.
This is Wind Point Lighthouse. We spent a gorgeous few hours here, playing on the beach and enjoying the best breeze and sun Wisconsin had to offer that day.
We drove to Wisconsin from Colorado, echoing my trips with my parents as a child when we would make the long haul from South Carolina. We traveled on mostly rural highways and were moved over and over again at the beauty of our great land. Here’s a snap crossing the Mississippi River, right outside of Dubuque, IA.
Quite on a whim, we stopped at a rest area on eastbound I-80 and discovered the most amazing public art installation called “Iowa’s Written All Over It.” The rest area is really close to Iowa City and the famous Iowa Writer’s Workshop. (I am proud to have a rejection letter from the mid-1990‘s signed by Frank Conroy.) The installation was designed by RDG.
Part of our trip included a little jaunt to Burlington, WI where several of my ancestors lived in the 1800’s and early 1900’s. My ancestor Jacob Muth built a brewery in Burlington, which is now a theatre.
We toured the very cool Racine Art Museum which is dedicated to contemporary crafts. The photos I took are not good, but here are a few works that grabbed me.
Mary Smull’s work is genius. Through her Society for the Prevention of Unfinished Needlework (SPUN), Mary rescues cast-off and forgotten incomplete needlework projects. She then finishes the project but with white thread, so you can see her work and the work of the unknown needlepoint artist.
This is Kim Cridler’s Footed Bowl with Apples.
Matt Eskuche’s Eat Your Heart Out Versailles, We Got Wal-Marts.
I am a fiber art junkie, so I swooned over Joanne Kliejunas’ reclaimed damaged quilt and vintage lace pieces. Love!
It’s good to be home, our second grader heads to school tomorrow and our summer is officially over. What are you doing with the last hours of your summer?
I Love Your Work, Jonathan Fenske 