My World: "The Awakening" at National Harbor

The Awakening, a surreal art piece made of five distinct components, dominates a portion of the National Harbor grounds off of the Potomac River. Originally installed in Washington, D.C.'s Hains Point, the sculpture (by artist J. Seward Johnson, Jr.) was moved to National Harbor a couple of years ago. I had never seen the original installation at Hains Point but was thrilled to come upon it at National Harbor.


The ground appears to be barely able to contain the man caught in the act of trying to claw out of the earth. A foot, a palm, an arm and a leg are bursting out of the mud, while the face is contorted - a combination of anger, fierce determination and effort twisting the facial muscles into an evil grimace.

The detail in the musculature, the sinew and the expression is awesome.

Speaking of Hains Point, a dull, dreary and wet Saturday morning found my son, Altoid (a fellow blogger and now friend!) and I making the rounds of the Tidal Basin on foot.

It's easy to miss seeing Washington, D.C. - really seeing it - when you are driving on its congested roads, navigating the countless traffic lights, road blocks and pot holes, when you don't have a choice but to drive in the city for business you need to take care of.

But in the quiet of the morning, with nearly deserted streets, the rain washed monuments standing sentinel over their city and waiting for its denizens to rise, the car riding on slick streets with a whisper of a swish, the street lights casting a halo around themselves and lighting up the misty rain as it fell softly on the ground, in the quiet of that morning, the city was downright handsome, in the tall, dark kind of way.

I leave you with some photographs from the Tidal Basin this past weekend.












This is part of my world. For other My World posts, visit My World Tuesday.

All text and photographs are copyrighted. Please do not copy or use without written permission.