Clonalis House, Carrick on Shannon and Drumcliffe

Heading for the home stretch of our Ireland vacation saw us continue to explore the northwestern part of the country, with three more stops.

First was Clonalis House, an historic manor built in 1878 by the O'Connor family, direct descendants of the last High Kings of Ireland.

The house is filled with historical correspondence, heirlooms, objet d’art and portraits.  We were led on a lovely guided tour, but Taryn and I quickly lost interest.  So we headed outside to wander the grounds a bit.

No pictures were allowed inside the house, which is too bad because it did have some interesting rooms and items.  But the outside of the Victorian structure also has visual appeal.

Next was Carrick on Shannon, where many members of our group decided to take a river cruise.  We opted instead just to hang out in town, grab some lunch and relax.

The River Shannon runs right through town, at 224 miles the longest river in the country.  It's named after Sionna, a Celtic goddess.

Our final stop was St. Columba's Church of Ireland church in the small town of Drumcliffe, final resting place of the poet William Butler Yeats.  This isn't his grave; it's just one I thought looked especially interesting with the moss and other plants growing on it.

A sculpture of a crouching man and a memorial with a line from Yeats' poem "Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven" can also be found at the site.

This cat had the right idea for how to spend the afternoon -- napping in a warm window, where she could reflect on the world outside if she chose.

A Celtic high cross on the site reportedly dates back to sometime between the ninth and 11th centuries.  It depicts Adam and Eve, Cain slaying Abel, Daniel in the lion's den and Christ in Glory on this, its east face. 

My Field Trip to the DAM

I'm not a huge art guy, but I like a little culture once in a while. So I went to the Denver Art Museum yesterday to see the Inspiring Impressionism exhibit with my mother-in-law.

Editor's Note: My mother-in-law is actually very, very cool. Moved here from Texas when we had our daughter a few years ago. And she's an artist herself. And she's a DAM member, so I got in free. So quit snickering.

The exhibit had a couple of works by Claude Monet, who's always been my favorite painter for no particular reason. Like I said, I'm not a huge art guy. He's my wife's favorite artist, too. Her mom says that's because impressionism is so "approachable." I think that's her way of saying that it's like the Coors Light of art movements. Thanks for shattering my carefully crafted self-view of being somewhat cultured, Nana.

The exhibit was pretty neat. I liked the concept of showing impressionist paintings next to earlier works that may have inspired them. That provided some nice context.

After we were done with that exhibit we went and checked out the rest of the museum's new building. There were some things I liked, such as a painting of aspens from the Herbert Bayer collection on the lower level. On the one hand it must be pretty cool to have an entire museum collection of your works. On the other, it must say something when they put it in the basement.

There was also a piece of art by a guy named Robert Irwin that was pretty interesting. The best thing to call it would probably be a sculpture, except it wasn't just the physical piece itself that made it art. It was hung and lighted in such a way that it cast some really intriguing shadows that were part of the work. The museum labeled it as using acrylic for the medium. I thought they should have said acrylic and light. Maybe that's why I'm not a curator.

There were, of course, some things that I just couldn't relate to. Like a piece titled something like "Large Red Slab" that was -- you guessed it -- a large, red slab. And some sort of video that included sound effects and dialogue from Star Trek with footage of the artist, a young kid and some old guy on a moonscape set. The old guy was lip synching to a female voice. The whole thing reminded me of a Sprockets skit. I guess these would be like the Achel Trappist Extras of the art world.

The lesson, if any, is probably that art is subjective. There's nothing wrong with working that part of your brain once in a while and wrestling with what makes something "good" or "bad." The exercise has value regardless of your conclusion. Unless, of course, it makes you miss the UEFA Champions League final...

Yes, I'm still bitter about that.