Discovering Columbus

We went up 6 stories into a swanky New York City living room overlooking central park with a statue of Columbus standing on the coffee table.

Artist Tatzu Nishi builds temporary installations around statues and monuments around the world.

It was really cool to get so close to a statue which is usually seen from far below.  The way Nishi seamlessly created the surroundings for the statue was really interesting and very well done.  There was elaborate wallpaper, which I loved. There were various couches and chairs, billowing curtains, a flat screen TV, magazines, newspapers, and a perfectly New York selection of books.  Columbus fit in very well with the decor.

The instillation definitely makes you look at the statue in a different way.

I highly recommend checking it out.  There are free timed tickets available from the Public Art Fund.

Also, take a look at Tatzu Nishi's other projects.  I particularly love the incorporation of clock towers into living rooms and the room created in a museum to place a Picasso painting into a person's kitchen.  Really great stuff.

Cylinder Seals

After many trips to the MET were spent admiring the collection of seals, Ben and I finally tried to make some of our own.  A cylinder is engraved so that it can be rolled into clay to make a recurring picture in relief.  Whatever you carve in will stand out in the clay.

This is an example of a Syrian seal where you can see the cylinder and the image it produces when rolled in clay.  

We spent an afternoon carving our seals out of small cylinders of wax. 

Ben had a very detailed idea for his seal.  He made a scene in an open book of two people sitting with their backs to a tree.  I just made kitties on mine. 

We drilled holes in the finished waxes so that we could string the seals on cords, then had them cast in brass.

They came out really well, and after some finishing work, we made some test impressions in clay. Awesome!!

The Met, notes and doodles

Some notes, doodles and ideas from a recent trip to the Met.

The Twelve Zodiac Animals vs. the Badgers

The MET has an exhibit called Storytelling in Japan.

The Battle of the Twelve Animals scroll was my favorite.  It tells the story of a battle between the twelve zodiac animals against the tanuki which is an animal like a badger or raccoon (translated to badger in the exhibit).  There is a poetry contest between the twelve zodiac animals and the deer is the judge.  When the tanuki sees all the attention the deer is recieving he decides he would like to judge the next poetry context.  The other animals laugh at this suggestion.  The tanuki becomes angry and fights against the twelve but they defeat him.  He attacks them again at night while they are asleep and the tanuki win.  This is the scroll that is in the MET exhibit.  

In the end the twelve zodiac animals defeat the tanuki who is enlightened and becomes a monk.  

I loved the depiction of the animals in the scroll and the clothing they wear, the colors are so bright.  

photos from the NYPL digital archive

We went to MoMA and...

The Society of Illustrators

The Original Art: Celebrating the Fine Art of Children’s Book Illustration

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The Society of Illustrators

Each artist chose a page from their book to hang and they had all the books.

Really great show and interesting to see the original art works and what page the artists choose. 

MoMA Trip

 

 

 

 

visited some favorite paintings, got some ideas for projects, had lunch at the cafe as a special treat, 

made a wish

Storm King

Trip to the Natural History Museum

We had both independently been thinking it was time for a visit to the Natural History Museum.

So we went.

 

We learned about Space.

 

 Saw lots of mammals. 

 

A nautiloid, a squid like mollusk with tentacles and a long shell lived 450 million years ago. 

  

The blue whale

It is always amazing to see the size of it; the largest animal that ever lived.  

 Lots of fossils. 

 Triceratops

 And the always popular Tyrannosaurs Rex. 

I can remember when they used to have it positioned standing up straight with its tail dragging on the ground instead of bent over with its tail in the air. 

And now Birds are dinosaurs! 

There is so much to see we are already planning another trip. 

Natural History Museum