We visit this gallery on the Valparaiso University campus often. This month had two interesting shows. They're both on for another month if you can get by.
Henry Diltz took some of the iconic photos of the sixties. I remember seeing some as album covers. It really brought back the times--photos of the Hog Farm and Woodstock, Zappa, Hendrix, Morrison, Mama Cass, so many people I "knew."
We'd forgotten some of the exuberance and reminded ourselves we need that in our lives.
The second exhibit was a delight. I love finding things like this--that I've seen all my life but never really SEEN. Now I'll see each time I encounter a newel post!
There were two large rooms just full of rows of newels. They were identified by style and period but not much more. Each had been beautifully restored. A portion of a staircase showed them in use. The collection began with Mr. Christopher encountered some grungy old posts in shop basement and they reminded him of chess pieces. He decided to collect a "chess set" (and he did--it's there and very cool). Then he went on to gather more and more of these pieces from demolished buildings. I think it was the massing of them that made it so impressive. A delight.
