BALTIMORE, MARYLAND: MURALS, ART, ARCHITECTURE, AND A GOOD BOOK

One of the best things about Baltimore is its ubiquitous murals. In 1975,  the Baltimore Mural Program was created to beautify the city, create a sense of pride, encourage and employ artists, and put young people to work. The result has been over 250 murals being created all over the city.

The first one we saw (and it was impossible not to see this one) was Migracion/Migration. It's actually painted twice--once on the large wall and then again on the smaller wall to the left.

The artist is a Peruvian who goes by the moniker El Decerto. The man in the mural, who looks like he could be an immigrant, is holding a broken key and a small building. Bird shapes that include parts of the man's face are flying away from him. I'm not sure, but maybe the artist is saying that immigration is not all that great, that promises of a better life are broken. Any other ideas?

Vulpes Vulpes (the Latin word for "foxes") is also by El Decerto. Note the caption: "never bow down."

This mural on the side of an apartment building depicts the seasons in Baltimore: winter, spring, summer, and fall.  Unfortunately, there appeared to be some kind of police raid in progress, so we couldn't go any closer:

Here There Be a Dragon by Jeff Huntington totally transforms a dilapidated building with brilliant hues and intricate patterns. I love the background of scales and  the intriguing way the dragon weaves in and out of the windows:

Here are a couple I know nothing about. I'll name this one Dinosaur Parade:

This one is a jumble of faces . . . 

. . . that is a little more disturbing on closer inspection:

Even the water towers are covered in murals.

I had not heard of the Baltimore Mural Program before this visit. I've since heard that Baltimore is an up-and-coming art center for young artists. If we go back, I'd like to see a lot more of the murals and learn more about the mural program.  Baltimore needs to create a mural tour of some kind--either a walking/driving tour with a map or a bus tour.

Baltimore has many other beautiful things to see, such as this gate:

I was intrigued by this clock tower that dominated the skyline. I knew I'd seen it somewhere else:

I made Bob drive around the block so we could get a better look.  I have since learned that it is the Emerson Bromo-Seltzer Tower, a 15-story structure erected in 1911 and named in honor of Captain Isaac Edward Emerson, the inventor of the antacid Bromo-Seltzer. The factory and main offices of the company were located in the adjacent buildings

And yes, I had seen this design before. It was patterned after the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy:

Picture from Wikipedia

The tower has been renamed the Bromo Seltzer Arts Tower and now houses artist studios. 

Baltimore is the site of a satellite campus of Johns Hopkins University, and we noticed this bust of Mr. Hopkins himself near the campus:

We decided to have dinner in Little Italy, just a short walk from the Inner Harbor area. There is no question where you are when you get there:

We ate at La Scala Ristorante, a very atmospheric and scrumptious dining experience.  I wish I had taken pictures of my meal, which included two of my favorite Italian dishes: divine Gorgonzola gnocchi as the pasta course and delicious veal saltimbocca as the main course.

On our way back to our parking spot we took a look at a monument to Christopher Columbus:

And that marks the end of our 2017 Washington D.C.-New Jersey-New York-Virginia-Maryland Adventure. It was time to set sail to the West Coast. We had a flight to catch at Dulles Airport. It was fun to come upon this view on the last stretch:

READING

I'm a big Anne Tyler fan, and one of my favorite books by her is Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant. There is something about it that reminds me of my own family. Written in 1983 and set in Baltimore (as are many of Tyler's books), Tyler considers it her best work. She was probably right; it was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the Pen/Faulkner Award.

The book deals with three adult siblings, each of whom experiences the same events in vastly different ways. There is also an elderly mother and a father who deserted the family years before the story takes place. One of the siblings owns a restaurant in Baltimore, and that restaurant is at the center of the family's attempts to reconnect with each other.

Funny, intense, thought-provoking . . .  This is a book that has something everyone who is part of a family can relate to.