Joani & David's Travels: Friday, October 23, 2015

Today, we visited Auburn University, a really nice college town about 30 miles down the road in Auburn, Alabama. I think most of the population was wearing orange and blue - clearly a lot of Auburn Tiger fans. We forgot about crossing into the central time zone which made us early for lunch, so our first stop was the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Art.

I know we have seen the birds below at least twice before. The bronze sculptures highlight the sad circumstances behind the extinction of all five species.

The Lost Bird Project, bronze 2007, by Todd McGrain

More Chihuly glass - 600 pieces, weighing more than 2,000 pounds, hanging from the ceiling.

Amber Luster, blown glass, steel 2003, Dale Chihuly

17-foot chandelier

The sculpture below appealed to me for some reason. Maybe I was just mystified by what processes would be required for its creation.

Curvae in Curvae, cor-ten steel 2011-12, by Beverly Pepper

Chinese woodblock prints were technically intriguing, but not really my taste. I found I will never read Chinese - three characters on each print indicated it was part of the Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido Road collection. I could see some similarity, but would never have seen them as the same from print to print.

This was my favorite

46th Station: Kameyama, woodblock print

The realism achieved in the oil painting, below, made it one of my favorites. You could almost believe the sun was shining on the canvas.

The First Communion, oil on canvas 1882, by Birge Harrison

One collection included some strange and unique sculptures created with recycled items including shoes and irons.

The Worrier, bronze 2014 by Willie Cole

Ironmaster/GE Male Figure, Metal iron parts, cord, wood, and wool 1998, by Willie Cole

Outside, a walkway around a lake led us past a number of interesting pieces of art. The one below took us by surprise with its realism. Joani actually thought she saw these guys move.

Self-Portrait as Bunnies (The Bathers), mixed media floating sculpture 2014, by Alex Podesta

Joani found the Auburn University Museum of Natural History on Google Maps. There were no signs outside and even inside the building people were unsure what we were talking about. The door below was the museum's main entrance. We charged right in and checked in with the first person we saw. He explained this was a research lab with some specimens, but really no funding to make it currently presentable, so nothing to see. Back outside we realized we were illegally parked, so we quickly exited the campus.

Now I understand why the "visit the museum" link on their website would never load.

Auburn's iconic clock tower was completely encased in scaffolding so I had to take this picture of a picture to complete the campus record.

Our primary reason for the trip to Auburn was to attend the Southeastern Raptor Center's raptor show (each game weekend Fridays at 4pm). We were hopeful it would be as good as the shows we saw at Callaway Gardens years ago.

It was great! The amphitheater was in the sun and it was plenty warm, but halfway through the show, we were shaded by nearby trees. At showtime, the crowd was more than twice what I captured in the early picture below.

This poor Screech Owl just looked sad. Maybe it was because they did not let him fly free.

These are rescued birds. No mention was made of his eyes, but they look a bit off to me. This sweet little Eastern Screech-Owl, named Groucho, is only about 8 inches tall.

The Barn Owl, below, was quite vocal. We were told it was a lot of owl cuss words, but if it was really upset I don't think it would have perched so calmly on the handlers arm.