On October 15, I had surgery on my right hand called suspension plasty. I was bone-on-bone in the lower thumb joint causing that joint to be out of socket and very painful. The days following were a bit painful but manageable with small doses of prescribed pain meds.
On the 29th, 10 days later, I had the cast removed. Regaining full use of the thumb and wrist will take weeks and some physical therapy and the pain continues as nerves continue to regenerate. So far this has been the most painful surgery long term that I have had. But, I am pushing and doing what I can to bring back mobility on my own terms before I turn over the therapy to my therapists.
That explains why I have not been active on the blog and why today I am persevering and putting those fingers back into use.
The last blog I posted was a recap of our first morning in Bentonville, AR following the wedding of our Granddaughter Emily.
Bentonville is well known for its 23 parks and 25 trails. But did you know that it is also highly recognized for its cycling races? Our breakfast companions explained that because two of the Walton grandsons are big bikers, there are intricate and complex biking trails right there in the town. And it just so happened that there was a large race going on that very weekend. It was the annual Epic Ride for mountain bikers that covered at least 50 miles.
I captured a few of these muddy and weary finishers and even got a future racer in the middle of a huge jump.
After watching these guys take the final hairpin curves and climb to the finish line, we were exhausted.
We were determined to see all we could put into the afternoon so off we went on our own trail walk to discover the Crystal Bridges Museum.
This path includes all sorts of large sculptures and art exhibits.
It is only about about a 1 mile walk and includes beautiful scenery and sounds of rushing waterfalls.
I will cover the actual museum on another day but these are some views of it from outside.
We realized that to see the museum and its contents would take more time than we had this afternoon, so we bought tickets (for a featured exhibit) for a full day Monday excursion. And we were so glad we did.
On our walk back to downtown, we were treated with this beautiful real-life creature.
Who can find the deer?
She was very patient while I converted to my zoom camera lens.
Such a beautiful and majestic creature.
We had made dinner reservations for us and Granddaughter Cassidy (the Maid-of-Honor) and her friend Kevin who had stayed over to spend the day with the newlyweds. They did the sweetest thing. The wedding party met for brunch then took all the wedding flowers to a nearby nursing home. I thought that was so thoughtful. But, that is our Emily.
Outside is the first "art piece" named "Making Change."
This 1962 Fleetwood Cadillac limousine is covered with thousands of nickels, dimes and pennies and commemorates the year the Walmart company was founded in Bentonville.
The inspiration for the coin motif comes from the original Walton Five and Dime, still located on the Bentonville town square.
Because it is said that Walmart influences pricing on a national scale, the company saves every household $952 annually and this is the exact amount represented by the coins on this limousine.
Another outdoor sculpture is this large-scale object called "Orange Tree." This is quite interesting but once you know it's background, it makes sense. It is a metal tree sprouting basketball hoops and surrounded by basketballs, and has been exhibited in New York, Philadelphia, and Shanghai. Pepsi-Cola incorporated Orange Tree as part of the company’s “Bronx Flavor Campaign,” an initiative designed to promote awareness of health issues in the Bronx borough of New York.
Now, lets go inside this hotel/art museum.
The title of the exhibition currently on display is "Refuge" and can be read about at this link:
I will not go into detail about the pieces I will show, but I do encourage you to read about them if interested in more information.
The topic has to do with migration and societal issues around the world.
This is a large wall arrangement entitled "Citizen" made of a tangled web of painted birch branches and twigs showing single-file lines of miniature refugees, carrying their young children and possessions on their backs and heads. A few ride donkeys, other push carts and wheelchairs. It brings to mind the biblical flight from Egypt and centuries of people who have fled their homeland for something better. These intricate figures are made from paper.
This was an interesting piece. It is called "Puzzle Hotel." The artist took photographic images of buildings in his hometown of Havana, Cuba, that years of neglect and effects of storms and earthquakes have left in disrepair. Many are crumbling such as the one in this picture. The artist then had the black and white picture printed on puzzle layout, laminated and then crumbled like the actual building. What an interesting concept.
Roberto Diago is also from Cuba and used scrape pieces of wood, textile, rubber, metal and single-channel video to show the plight of many Cubans trying to find shelter. These small structures represent makeshift houses from neighborhoods outside Havana.
This part of the exhibit was a change from the previous section and yet carried its own beauty in sadness.
Italian artist Fabrano Parisi, began photographing abandoned asylums in 2007 as part of his study of psychology. This ignited his interest in photographing deserted locations and he has traveled the world searching for places preserved in time. He captures the magnificence and grandeur of these locations rather than capture their dereliction. The result is something that captures both the eye and the viewers sense of balance. Each one has a way drawing the viewer into the picture. This captivated all of us.
There were others but I'll let you discover them for yourself.
Our dinner was delicious and our time spent with Cassidy and Kevin was absolutely delightful. They are mighty special young adults and we treasure our time with them.
We ended our night and time together with cups of hot chocolate and desserts from The Press Room.
