Tasting Life Twice - 12-21-06 to 12-24-06

Thursday, December 21, 2006

"Spruced Up Art Page"
10:30pm

I've been thinking about doing something with the 'all-art' index page that was better than a mere linking to the galleries by name, and tonight I finally got around to it. I made the small image to show how it looks now, for it will no doubt change in the future, as I think of new ways to improve it.

Friday, December 22, 2006

"Thoughts on Age and the Agelessness of Art"
6:36am

I wake with various thoughts. At work, they were discussing being an 'older' mother, and how awful one woman felt at near fifty to be thought her child's grandmother rather than her mother. I thought out loud that I don't look 'near fifty'. But perhaps although my face isn't as lined as it might be, I give my age away in other ways. At age forty eight, I notice a 'subtle' transition in my fit with society. When one is younger, one's foolishness is blamed on being 'young and stupid'. When one gets older, one's foolishness is blamed on being 'old and senile'. All of it, the not keeping up with current fashions, any shy awkwardness one may feel, any characteristerics one has had since grade school, the blame is now shifted.

But when I do art, I feel marvelously free of age constraints. I feel as young as I did in my first art class in college. And in some moments, I feel the 'young and stupid' part, as well. But it's all part of the growth process.

In other endeavors, age may inform me. The joints creak and complain, etc, etc. But in art, I look forward to growth unhindered by age.

The 'point' of art is to keep you young...
(Well, that's just ONE of the points...)

Saturday, December 23, 2006 A

"Impermanence"
5:39am

I wake feeling very grumpy, and I twisted my back weird, just sitting here. I twisted slightly while sitting here in my chair and now my back muscle aches. In fact I am feeling VERY grumpy. But this is a temporary mood.

Right now, the 'Friday Illo' theme of 'Peace' does not inspire me. And the Photo Friday theme of 'weather' isn't inspiring either. Yuma doesn't get much PHOTOGRAPHABLE weather. It can be a miserable 120 degrees in summer, but nothing will show in a picture to indicate that heat. Also, it rarely rains or storms here. I have old pictures from Tucson of 'weather', but nothing recent.

Catalina mountains in the distance, this was in 1995 or 1996 when we lived north of Tucson...

Perhaps the Photo Friday theme inspired me, after all, to find this old picture and scan it. I love the slant of light in this picture. Although it was a lovely place, we did not stay there long. Laura soon had us moving!

Impermanence, yes, indeed. At least the old photo still exists to remind me of that impermanent sky. We are always moving from one state to the next, in emotional state, if not in actual physical place. I like this photo from the LA airport that I took on route to Seattle this early fall:

The reflections from the shiny floor makes these people seem even more impermanent...

They seem as if they are disappearing elsewhere, like on the 'Star Trek' transporter. Life is like that. And so my cloudy mood shall pass away too.

Saturday, December 23, 2006 B

"Night at the Museum"
11:01pm

We went to see "Night at the Museum" and it was even more delightful than I'd expected. It is based largely on the American Natural History Museum, which I saw in May of 2005. Largely, and LOOSELY, for in the movie, they have an 'Egyptian Hall'. What? I missed something Egyptian??? No, I checked. I didn't miss anything Egyptian.

When I was there, I saw mostly the dinosaurs and the meteorites. I'd ran out of floppy disks and could take no more pictures after the butterfly exhibit, however. But at least I have some photos of my time there. Tonight I took a couple very dark photos I hadn't used before and used all my skills with Photoshop to redeem them to visibility:

The dinosaurs in the lobby look a bit skinny compared to the animated one in the movie. I think they used this dino for the model instead. The dino under that link is from a a temporary exhibit, that piece showing biomechanics, how dinosaurs moved. The travelling show is at San Francisco's California Academy of Sciences until February 4, 2007, and will next appear March 30, 2007—September 3, 2007 at Chicago's Field Museum. Lastly, it goes to North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences October 26, 2007 to March 2, 2008.

Sunday, December 24, 2006 A

"More from the Met Museum"
8:06am

While I was reclaiming some of the Natural History museum pictures, I found some from the Met Museum. I was amazed I hadn't put the Hatshepsut sphinx in my Museum gallery:

Sphinx of Hatshepsut, New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, reign of Hatshepsut, ca. 1473–1458 B.C.
Ancient Egyptian
Red granite with traces of blue and yellow paint; L. 11 ft. 3 in. (343 cm), H. 5 ft. 4 1/2 in. (164 cm)
According to the Museum website, this sphinx weighs more than SEVEN TONS!

Here's another worthy of inclusion, this of the false door in the tomb of Perneb:

Tomb of Perneb - Main Offering Chamber, false door
West wall of the chamber, it is where Perneb's KA receives his offerings

While researching info on the above photo, which I hadn't documented at the time, I found a Set sighting:

"Relief of the god Seth from the pyramid temple"
The 12th Dynasty pyramid complex of Senwosret III (r. 1878–1840 B.C.)

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