The Magic, Miracles and Joy of an Artist: Rise Up Roanoke

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Rise Up Roanoke

The Roanoke Star is the world's largest freestanding illuminated man-made star, constructed in 1949 at the top of Mill Mountain in Roanoke, Virginia. It was the largest star ever assembled until the El Paso Star was completed in El Paso, Texas. However, the Roanoke Star still holds the claim to the world's largest illuminated man-made free-standing star, as the El Paso Star lies flat on the ground. After construction of the star, Roanoke was nicknamed "Star City of the South".

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I wanted to give you some background information on the Roanoke Star before telling you about our trip to the Taubman Museum of Art. Yesterday, I took my mom and sister there to see the installation that is currently being built in the lobby. The installation is titled: CHARLIE BROUWER: RISE UP ROANOKE. It is a collaborative, site-specific installation built from ladders lent by the Roanoke community, creating a metaphor of all of their individual dreams and aspirations leaning on and supporting each other, rising up together in the museum atrium to form Roanoke's Star. Any company or individual could lend a ladder to be part of the installation. From the photos I took, you can see some painted ladders and some decorated ladders. There is a variety of shapes and sizes to the ladders. It was interesting and fascinating to watch. Once the installation is complete, I will take a photo of the completed star of ladders. The man in the photo several photos down is Charlie Brouwer.

Charlie Brouwer

5 comments:

Anne Huskey-Lockard said...: How cool! All the different ladders (even little Budgie Ladders!) and the paintings and then putting it all together...WOW!
Can't wait to see the finished product! (it would all be falling on me.....)

XXOO~~♥
Anne; March 3, 2011 at 5:16 PM
Caterina Giglio said...: that last photo with the small ladder is priceless!!; March 3, 2011 at 5:59 PM
Anonymous said...: Fantastic exhibit. Love the painted ladders and the star. Thanks for the history lesson too. xox Corrine; March 4, 2011 at 7:02 AM
yoborobo said...: Wow! I love that big old star. :) And the ladders are amazing (I like the skelly one!). Happy weekend, Audrey! xox Pam; March 4, 2011 at 7:36 AM
Jan said...: I've never seen so many ladders in one place in my life! How can someone make sense of all of this? leave it to an artist.......thanks for sharing.; March 6, 2011 at 2:09 AM

For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come!

I AM A "SEARCHER"

"I am one of the searchers. There are, I believe, millions of us. We are not unhappy, but neither are we really content. We continue to explore life, hoping to uncover its ultimate secret. We continue to explore ourselves, hoping to understand. We like to walk along the beach, we are drawn by the ocean, taken by its power, its unceasing motion, its mystery and unspeakable beauty. We like forests and mountains, deserts and hidden rivers, and the lonely cities as well. Our sadness is as much a part of our lives as is our laughter. To share our sadness with one we love is perhaps as great a joy as we can know - unless it be to share our laughter. We searchers are ambitious only for life itself, for everything beautiful it can provide. Most of all we love and want to be loved. We want to live in a relationship that will not impede our wandering, nor prevent our search, nor lock us in prison walls; that will take us for what little we have to give. We do not want to prove ourselves to another or compete for love.

For wanderers, dreamers, and lovers, for lonely men and women who dare to ask of life everything good and beautiful. It is for those who are too gentle to live among wolves."

~ James Kavanaugh

I am THE LOVERS Tarot Card

Motive, power, and action, arising from Inspiration and Impulse. THE LOVERS represents intuition and inspiration. Very often a choice needs to be made. Originally, this card was just called LOVE. And that's acually more apt than "LOVERS." Love follows in this sequence of growth and maturity. And, coming after the Emperor, who is about control, it is a radical change in perspective. LOVE is a force that makes you choose and decide for reasons you often can't understand; it makes you surrender control to a higher power. And that is what this card is all about. Finding something or someone who is so much a part of yourself, so perfectly attuned to you and you to them, that you cannot, dare not resist. This card indicates that you have or will come across a person, a career, challenge, or thing that you will fall in love with. You will know instinctively that you must have this, even if it means diverging from your chosen path. No matter the difficulties, without it you will never be complete.