DANCING IN THE LANDSCAPE

Athena Tacha's belief that art should be enjoyed by everyone has led to the creation of over thirty public sculptures in twenty-five years. Nearly all of them, from Alaska to Florida and New York to Arizona, are reproduced full-page in the book "Dancing in the Landscape:the Sculpture of Athena Tacha" - the second book on the artist to appear in the last couple of years ("Cosmic Rhythms: Athena Tacha's Public Sculpture", 1999, is equally inclusive but stresses more her biography and early work). Tacha's lucid documentation of her executed sculptures, as well as of fifty "finalist's proposals" for other competitions, accompany over 200 color illustrations.

As a pioneer of "site specific" sculpture in the 1970's, Tacha completed her first two public works in Ohio: Oberlin, where she taught sculpture at Oberlin College, and downtown Cleveland. Other commissions followed quickly. Most of them resulted from winning competitions, and she is as candid when she writes about losing a competition as when she wins. Few proposals were made in the abstract. Nearly always, Tacha's consideration of the site and its use is the impetus for the design.

"Connections", commissioned for the City of Philadelphia in 1981 and completed in 1992, is, I believe, an ideal manifestation of her art. Probably one of the first parks designed as an environmental sculpture, it covers an entire city block. Tacha writes, "I modeled the land through terraced planters, while coloring and texturing it with flowering ground-covers, trees and rocks." Various neighborhoods surround the park and Tacha's goal was to connect them with a "park that will offer a quiet atmosphere for relaxing, picnicking, jogging and playing. More than that, I hope it will offer a magical and healing environment within the stressful fabric of an inner city."

The book is divided into sections, one for each category of her large, creative production: Waterfronts, Parks and Plazas, Steps and Pathways, Waterfalls and Fountains, Mazes, Arcades and Colonnades, Memorials. We, the public, are participants in Tacha's sculptures. We can walk around them, sit on them, or wander through them. In doing so, the sculptures may obfuscate our sense of time, space and gravity. And although the book doesn't say this, the sculptures are fun. From personal experience I can say that Tacha's public art has given me more pleasure than any marble politician on a plinth or bronze hero on a horse.

Harriet Senie's essay introduces the reader to Tacha's background and the evolution of her work. Senie also addresses the tragedy of the lack of care and destruction of public art. Some of Tacha's thoughtfully conceived, carefully constructed work has been damaged or completely destroyed. This reason alone makes the book an invaluable record of her public art.

In an interview with Glenn Harper, Tacha explains what her work means to her: "I always want to get away from typical art that goes in museums and collections. That's why I do public art, to escape the consumerism and contextualization of art. It goes against the grain to follow Duchamp's principle that whatever you put in a museum is art. To me, it has to be made or intended as art. I don't care if people call my work art, but I make it to communicate something."

Harper's interview is of special interest because it dwells on Tacha's private art. There have been only a few exhibitions of these small and personal sculptures created from ingredients as unexpected as the works themselves: abalone shells, wine corks, feathers, discarded thread, pine cones, broken glass from automobile accidents, and expanded sprayed foam found in a London construction gondola. The small but lovely reproductions in the interview show us what has emerged from this motley assortment: helmets, armor, masks and shields stemming from reality and ending in the realm of fantasy.

They are at once ironic and ambiguous: in Double Sided-Shield for Ellen, Tacha explains, "the abalone shells are stuck on window screening, so it is a flexible shield, and the back is coated with broken glass from automobile accidents. It is both scratchy when you hold it, and it can't protect you because it's floppy. Again it pursues the built-in contradictions of these works." Many of these small pieces are dedicated to dear friends who have died from cancer. They are little memorials to "the vulnerability of the human body that nothing can protect."

If nothing else, the private sculpture reveals the cosmic scope of Tacha's irrepressible imagination. But more than that, it tells us a lot about the depth of her feelings, her caring for friends, and allows us glimpses into the secret places in her mind. Although this is a small portion of the book, it tells us a great deal about the woman who creates the public sculpture and whose verbal gift crystallizes her ideas here in Dancing in the Landscape.

In spite of its small print (its only fault), this handsomely illustrated and designed volume is a highly fascinating and informative reference for students, teachers, landscape architects, historians and anyone interested in today's environment.

Elizabeth McClelland

When a snowstorm cancels their Christmas plans, a New England couple finds the spirit of the holiday in spontaneous generosity to their neighbors. The resulting old-fashioned celebration illustrates that people of every class share the same basic needs.

Engines Afloat: From Early Days to D-Day, Volume 1: The Gasoline Era by Stan Grayson (Marblehead, MA: Devereux Books, 1999.)

Reviewed by Scott M. Peters, Collections Historian, Michigan Historical Museum, Lansing, Michigan

Stan Grayson's book Engines Afloat, Volume 1, is a great example of industrial history at its finest. The story of the marine engine manufacturers has usually been treated somewhat as a sidelight to the automobile industry, and now they get their due in fine form. Grayson presents wonderfully complete stories of the early pioneers of the engines such as Clark Sintz, the ingenious inventor with unfortunately minimal business sense, for what they really were.

Capturing quotations from retrospective views from industry giants adds immeasurably to the starting dates, model introductions and other data. One from C. B. McCuaig of the Buffalo Gasolene Motor Company written in 1917 about the maturation of the industry could easily be adapted to the computer industry today. "He likened the industry in 1910 to a 'noisy, bumptious, self-opinionated' youngster who, by 1917, had become 'mature, quiet, self-reliant and inclined to take both the present and future seriously.'"

What Grayson excels at is establishing the context for the manufacturers, one example being the importance of standardization of parts. Joe van Blerck, one of the important builders with a gift for mechanical excellence, virtually built each of his early engines different from the previous one. The result became a service nightmare for repairing and replacing parts.

Among the engine manufacturers is a great geographic diversity that Grayson captures. While most manufacturers were located in the Midwest and East Coast, he covers in detail manufacturers such as Hall-Scott of California, which was perhaps best known for their aviation work but certainly had a large impact on motorboating.

Grayson devotes an entire chapter to Gray Motor Company of Detroit, led in its early years by the marketing genius Ora J. Mulford. Mulford, with his passion for motor boats, carried on the business of building excellent marine engines during the roughest years for the industry. Mulford made each race won with a Gray motor an opportunity for the boating press to mention the firm, and advertised the company so intensively to the point that it was recognized as one of the factors in establishing the pleasure boat market. Coverage reflective of the later years of the era emphasizes the constant improvement in speeds achieved and engine durability. The designs become virtually totally enclosed, and the power-to-weight ratios improve dramatically.

Grayson's book might be a disappointment to people looking for specific information on how to restore a particular engine, but the importance of the contextual stories he records about the formation and maturing of this most significant industry far outweigh the negatives. The book has a large number of illustrations derived from catalog cuts and charts that can help with identification of the age and possibly the manufacturer of engines.

Engines Afloat should find a place on any marine historian's bookshelf.

Scott M. Peters January 6, 2001

I really enjoyed this one. A farmer (the author) leaves his comfortable farm life and decides to just "walk" and go on a journey. It takes place in America around the turn of the century. He meets various people along the way and he has moments of insight with nature and humanity. This story reminded me of a combination of Tom Sawyer and Thoreau. I read this in a time in my life when things were very hectic and stressful. It brought me back to the simple things in life that really matter: Nature and our relationship with fellow human beings. After just completing such a journey myself I can only say that this book is still strong in my mind. Occasionally his insightful words would pop out of the page and I would exclaim, "Oh, that's right!" as if I had forgotten some great secret to being happy. We should all take the time to read this book when we are looking for comfort and direction in this new world that sucks all our time and leaves us stressed out and haggard.

Francesco decorates his little San Damiano church for Christmas and his animal friends work to create gifts for Francesco, but in the end share the gifts with people in need and learn the true meaning of Christmas.
Parents of children under 7 should add this to their list of Christmas favorites. Younger children will respond to the adorable animal illustrations and the representation of the joy of giving.

I have been using this book since I received it as a high school graduation gift from my mother in 1993. My mother didn't cook when I was growing up, so neither did I . . . until I got this book. I have used it so much that every page in the book has come unbound. Everything I have ever made from this book has turned out perfectly. The step by step instructions make it easy to follow along. The best part about this book in my opinion is the color photo section. Every single recipe has been prepared and beautifully photographed, so that you can see what it SHOULD look like! I would highly recommend this book to anyone who likes to cook, beginners and more advanced cooks.

This little book is a scream. The writer obviously enjoys himself a little too much and tends to overestimate his talent -- but not by much. Not quite the greatest, but it's definitely funny and will make you smile and maybe laugh.

Ridenour's saga takes the reader back in time, the way things used to be, at least for one remarkable Kentucky family. The author has practiced the art of history well; the book is researched meticulously and written beautifully. No arcane tome written for dry as dust academics, THE GREENS OF FALLS OF ROUGH will appeal to the lay reader interested in the history of Kentucky. The book was one of only ten books nominated for the Governor's Award by the Kentucky Historical Society, given for the best book written on Kentucky history in the last four years.

This book was written in simple terms, making it useful to people of all walks. I found the explanations to commonly asked questions (at the end of each chapter) very useful. The questions that followed enabled me to search my heart even further. This is a wonderful book to use with a small group or support group.

In this work, David Grayson Allen examines how Puritan communities brought the economic and social structures of towns in Old England to towns in New England. Allen details how different English communities rebuilt themselves in America. Allen then briefly outlines what factors ultimately encouraged a degree of homogeneity among these distinctive New England towns.

For even more statistical and personal detail on the migration to New England, see Roger Thompson, Mobility and Migration: East Anglian Founders of New England, 1629-1640. See also David Hackett Fischer, Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America, which examines the transference of four different regional cultures of England to four different regions of America. Fischer studies Puritan Massachusetts as the seedbed of one such regional American culture. On the Puritans, consult any number of books on the subject by Edmund S. Morgan.