Dennis Dixon is heading West!: Fall 2018, Day 4 - Figge Art Museum, Sheldon Museum of Art (IL-IA-NE-SD)

Tuesday, August 28, 2018 - Figge Art Museum, Sheldon Museum of Art (IL-IA-NE-SD) - 712 miles today:

It was a BEAUTIFUL morning when I left Monmouth, Il at 9 AM:

I got up to the Figge Art Museum (Davenport, Iowa) at 10:15, after crossing the Mississippi River:

I had visited here once before, in September 2013, on my first trip west. I wanted to get back, and get better pictures!

Favorites include a Tiffany window - "River of Life Window", circa 1905:

Frederich Christian Welsch - "The Majesty of the Mountains", circa 1869:

Thomas Moran - "Welcoming the Return of the Boat", 1859, painted when he was only 22:

Frederic Remington - "Coming through the Rye", modeled 1902, cast 1979:

I find it fascinating that although he died in 1909, this piece was cast in 1979. I have always wondered why we don't "run off" more "copies" of engravings, etc. I know many of the original plates were destroyed to enhance the value of the pieces already produced ("limited run", etc), but they would be fun to track down (?Moran's chromolithographs?, ?Bierstadt's steel engravings?).

And then I headed out onto I-80 West for 342 miles! Looks like a storm up ahead:

I parked in Lincoln, Nebraska at 4:20, and made my way through the University of Nebraska to their Sheldon Museum of Art:

Traffic, and the Total Eclipse, made me miss this place last year.

Edward Hopper - "Room in New York", 1932:

Albert Bierstadt - "River Landscape", 1867:

Thomas Cole - "Catskill Mountains Landscape", circa 1826

There were some beautiful Ansel Adams prints, as well as an Andrew Wyeth watercolor, but unfortunately they are all in glassed-in frames. The glass makes viewing the pieces distracting, and makes picture-taking impossible (with all the reflections).

There is a BIG, FUN piece - Massimo Vitali (born Como, Italy 1944) - "#4876 Tropea Stones, 2015", Chromogenic color print, 2015

Hey, I haven't been to the beach in a while!

Got an oil change at a local Jiffy Lube, and headed NORTH in the setting sun:

Checked into the Super 8 in Mitchell, South Dakota at 10:15:

and bed shortly thereafter. Thank you God for this great adventure day!

Music for today was albums from my big iPod:

I listen to soft music when I write my blog and do my directions. Today it was Herbie Hancock - River: The Joni Letters, his 2007 tribute album

lyrics to "Amelia":

I pulled into the Cactus Tree Motel
To shower off the dust
And I slept on the strange pillows of my wanderlust

Back in the car driving, I kept moving up the "R" albums:

The Perfect album for windows-open, top-down driving:
Bruce Springsteen - The River, 1980

Bruce Springsteen - The Rising (cd single), 2002

Of course, the A-side ("The Rising") is GREAT. But I also think the B-side ("Land of Hope and Dreams") is also great:

I will provide for you and I'll stand by your side
You'll need a good companion now for this part of the ride
Yeah, leave behind your sorrows, let this day be the last
Well, tomorrow there'll be sunshine and all this darkness past

Well, big wheels roll through fields where sunlight streams
Oh, meet me in a land of hope and dreams

Well, this train carries saints and sinners
This train carries losers and winners
This train carries whores and gamblers
This train carries lost souls

I said, this train, dreams will not be thwarted
This train, faith will be rewarded
This train, hear the steel wheels singing
This train, bells of freedom ringing

Bruce Springsteen - The Rising (album), 2002

another Excellent song is the last - "My City of Ruins", which Bruce performed on the 9-11 telecast.

We Are Augustines - Rise Ye Sunken Ships, 2011

These guys opened for Counting Crows on their 2012 Summer Tour. I saw them down at the South Shore Music Circus. Excellent evening.

Van Halen - Right Here, Right Now, 1993 live double-album

Great rap in the middle of "Panama" about all we can be is RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW!!!

The Michael Stanley Band - Right Back at Ya (1971–1983), 1992