Daily Archives: July 11, 2024

Jul11

The Gate of Dawn

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Sunday, 16-June-2024


Quick post, here. A neat aside from my adventures in Vilnius.

Something that I simply adore about Europe is the history surrounding everything. Statues from centuries back, streets that were first laid down hundreds of years ago, sometimes even longer. Buildings that have housed people, seen then grow, and walls that have listened to hopes and dreams for longer than the United States has even existed.

Along with all that history, the names. “The Barbican Gate”, “The Clay Tower”, interesting landmarks with deep history surrounding them. I mean, sure, in Portland we had Overlook Park and Wilsonville had Memorial Park, but…


Well, they don’t quite stack up to “The Gate of Dawn”.



The Gate of Dawn.

I mean, that’s a cool name, regardless of history. And when you add in the history, that this gate anchored an entire sect of Christian belief, inspired miracles, and was visited by the Pope… Well, it’s pretty cool.



Link to more history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gate_of_Dawn

Jul11

The Lithuanian museum of art

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Sunday, 16-June-2024


So… The art museum in Vilnius wasn’t quite as large as I was expecting. Nor as broad-reaching. Which was, honestly, quite a bit of a surprise to me… the rest of the city was so expansively beautiful, with so many placards and beautiful storefronts, universities and churches, I had it in my mind that the art museum would be a similarly centric part of the city.

That’s not saying that it was bad, of course! Just that, as far as city art museums go, the collection was quite a bit smaller than I’d expected, and didn’t give me a particularly strong sense of the history or culture of Vilnius.

Instead, it was a really interesting deep dive into a specific artist – Boleslaw Rusiecki.


Personally, I resonated quite a bit with this exhibition. Or, more accurately, with the artist being exhibited – Boleslaw was a skilled painter, to be sure, but one of the key takeaways I got from the exhibition was that he wasn’t a standout, and instead helped to advance artistry as a whole… while not standing out himself. I like that idea – working to advance the overarching state of the art, while not drawing too much of a spotlight on the self.

It was an interesting exhibition, and one that I really enjoyed. I wasn’t expecting a dive into a specific artist, but I’m quite thankful that I was given the opportunity to see it!