The Bruise of Science

While teaching my Atmosphere and Gases class this week I accidentally taught my students about bombs. I was lecturing on liquid nitrogen and filled the "Geyser of Science" with water and liquid nitrogen to demonstrate a point; I secured the spout and let the geyser do it's thing. While it was going off one of my students asked me a question. Distracted by the question, I hadn't noticed that the geyser had become clogged with ice and tipped on it's side. The pressure built, the stopper was pushed off, and the bottle shot across the counter straight into my leg. I took a deep breath as my students shouted about how cool it was.
This is what my leg looked like that afternoon; a mirror image of the bottom of the bottle. Should I use this as an example in my print making class?

Young Love

This week I was approached by a group of our youngest campers, the eight and nine year old boys. They had decided that they liked the eight and nine year old girls and that they wanted to do something for them. After chasing the girls around the meadow failed to work, the boys asked their counselor what to do, and their counselor asked me if I could help them make flowers to give the girls. I agreed to help and before I knew it there were six little boys in my room struggling with tissue paper and pipe cleaners. I had some extra marbled paper for them to use so they used that as well. Here are some of the finished projects.


Here are the boys leaving my classroom with all their projects in hand. The girls were pretty freaked out by the boys' advances, but were happy to receive the cards and flowers; they thanked them for their efforts but politely declined any declaration of relationship status.

Empty Rooms and Empty Chairs

If I were in Ottowa I would go see this, a whole exhibit of vacant rooms and chairs. Oh senior thesis, how long will you haunt me?

Awesomely Awkward

This website is wonderful, Awkwardfamilyphotos.com.

Day Hike!

Today, another instructor asked me to take his day hike and I jumped at the chance. I had been inside all morning and hiking sounded wonderful. There were clouds to keep me from burning, and the wild flowers were all in bloom. I took my group up May Valley, and at the top they all became consumed with their solitary time, so I became consumed in mine too. Such a beautiful day.

Shenanigans!!!

While looking through the collection at the Legion of Honor during my recent trip I spotted an odd portrait. The credited artist is Jacques-Louis David, my immediate response was "What?!?! No way! It's not even close to the Neoclassical history paintings he's famous for! Some forger told a good story to get that thing in here." My reference for style is David's "Oath of the Horatii" 1784, a painting that I wrote multiple essays on in college. Notice the clear gender roles; the men strong and angular, the women weeping and wilted by the wall. Most notably there is also a solid story line, thus the title given to David of "history painter."


Most of his paintings have a clear story line and are finished with tons of detail; here are some more stylistic examples.






Then there is this. The question remains in my mind, what? Compared with his other works, this one is almost Fauvist.

Note the large, unfinished, sections of color fields.



Not that Fauvism is bad, though it was the term which translates to "Wild Beasts" was initially intended to be an insult. I just don't understand how David went from being a leading Neoclassical painter to mimicking Matisse. Also, I can see the defense that he probably painted more than just history scenes in his life, which he certainly did. As an example, here is a portrait that is confirmed to be a Jacques-Louis David. I see some similarities with the other portrait, in composition at least, but the technique is so different it's ridiculous.



The plaque next to this painting explained that after his exile from France, he rebelled by developing an entirely new painting style, but his final painting is so much like his early work that I find that hard to believe. Bellow is his final painting, 'Mars Being Disarmed by Venus', completed at the age of 75. Of it he wrote, "This is the last picture I want to paint, but I want to surpass myself in it. I will put the date of my seventy-five years on it and afterwards I will never again pick up my brush." This does not sound like a man who would have been happy with a painting like the one I saw at the Legion of Honor; I call shenanigans.

More Trip Photos

I told a friend, whose hometown is Bakersfield, that I would take some photos on my way through so he could remember the glory of the central valley. I did stop, and had hoped for some vast, brown, farm scene. The clouds were so pretty though, so they became my focus. So here it is folks, Bakersfield.

Classroom Prep

Last night I was experimenting with projects for my art class and decided to venture into the world of paper marbling. I got a little carried away, but the results were beautiful indeed and I feel confident that I can make it kid friendly. Yay! One more project is ready to be taught.

The Legion of Honor

My trip to Berkeley happened to coincide with most of the free days of the Bay Area museums, so it was more or less a necessity to go to at least one. Strangely, I didn't feel inspired to go to most of them, but we did make it to the Legion of Honor; a museum that normally charges $20 to get in. The collection was nice, but also fairly small so I probably wouldn't pay $20 on a normal day to see it. I took photos of some of the highlights. There was an imported Spanish ceiling that reminded me of the rooms at Hearst Castle.

A room of Renoir sculptures was particularly interesting, though this hand was the one piece to catch my attention. I love how it looks so much like a tree.

There was a special exhibit of Max Kliniger and other symbolist illustrators. I was happy to see this spider print by Odilon Redon.



By far, my favorite painting was 'The Pieta' by William-Adolphe Bouguereau. It so obviously draws from Michelangelo's sculpture of the Pieta; the posture and strength of Mary as she cradles her crucified son. Both Bouguereau and Michelangelo emphasize the relationship between Mary and Jesus; this was a mother mourning the death of her son, and the weariness and pain in her eyes is so clear. This was a pain Bouguereau knew full well, having lost a child of his own. I sat in front of this painting for quite awhile taking it all in.

This portrait was also quite captivating, largely because of the attention to detail.




Finally, a portrait of Judith with the head of Holofernes. This is a classic story, depicted by many artists over time; most notably Donatello, Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel, Botticelli, Giorgione, Titian, Paolo Veronese, Caravaggio, Klimt, and Artemisia Gentileschi.

I'm in a blogging slump!

I have so many pictures from my trip to Berkeley, and tales of summer training for Astrocamp, but I am also experiencing many technical difficulties with my lap top so blogging is at a stand still. How is this being posted you might ask? Slow...Astrocamp...compu...ter. Seriously, these things are old, but this is a nonprofit camp so I should be grateful that we have computers at all. Life is crazy busy and the summer season is on the way, though the weather is in denial and I am currently bundled about as much as I was in January. I will blog more when my computer permits, until then check out this cool Jackson Pollock site that my mom told me about.