Friday, May 9, 2008

"Professional Musician"
7:17am

I pulled this one out of my photo archives for Photo Friday's theme of Professional:


(Professional musician
Scott Williams at Renaissance Faire)

Saturday, May 10, 2008 A

"Two Sides"
12:28am

We had a lovely evening. After the wine tasting, (all the reds too strong, but the riesling was yummy), we headed over to the arts center for a show opening, one of photography. I made a pig of myself on the treats, and enjoyed the large photos of sea life in the Sea of Cortez, birds caught mid swoop, talons extended, along with sea horses and star fish and scenic boats and...

...Leaving, Julia didn't want to just go home, so we got the DVDs and brought 'em back to Hastings. All good on that batch, ("Copying Beethoven", "Blossoms of Fire", "Being Julia" and Cirque du Soleil's "Corteo"). Of course, we returned home with more. "Klimt" intrigued me, and I hoped to learn more about him. It wasn't merely a 'bio-pic', but a work of art in itself, as multi layered as one of Klimt's paintings.

I couldn't just leave it like that, I had to draw something. But I didn't want to search long. So I put the random word "confident" into the Flicker search. Three pages of results and an intriguing possibility came up, the posing person 'composed and confident'.

I started with that image, then added my own touches. I got the feeling of there being more to that person than meets the eye, to see what was underneath. So I got the idea of turning the paper over and tracing hir face. From there, I let spontaneity dictate the rest of it.

Oh, they want to be colored, and I saw yellow walls in each. I see, too, red sofa, blackish purple dress in the 'sophisicated' one and... However, it is very late, so I shall record them here in process:


Tomorrow, I'll color these tomorrow...

Saturday, May 10, 2008 B

"For Some, It Is a Dream of Sophisticated Indulgence"
10:08am


Scary, decadent, but oh so sensuous...

Saturday, May 10, 2008 C

"A Bit of Research"
2:16pm

Returning to a puzzling image, I decided to learn what I could about it. so I could add it to my little research project.

I scanned this image from a book sometime in July 2004. I didn't save any of the info about it, except this small crop was named "set5th_d.jpg":

So we know it's from the 5th dynasty. The god accompanying Set must be Amun, because he has Amun's characteristic tall hat. Now look at the hieroglyphs:


Nub - gold, nu - town, b (lower leg and foot)- abode, place, set/semt - mountainous land(from Budge's _Egyptian Language_)

This is likely from the town site of Ancient Egyptian Nubt near Naqada. "Its name derives from ancient Egyptian nub, meaning gold, on account of the proximity of gold mines in the Eastern Desert." (source Wikipedia). There's a Temple of Seth there, "which comes from the 18th Dynasty in the New Kingdom. Tuthmosis I and II, and Amenhotep II and several Ramessid kings have built at this temple. Amenhotep III placed a massive faience scepter in Nubt." (source).

"Naqada was the necropolis of the town of Nubt, the town of gold, known in Greek as Ombos. It had been devoted to the god Set, or Set of Nubt, Nubty, as he is called in the Pyramid Texts, and as evidenced by inscribed blocks found at Naqada." (source touregypt.net)

Also, I found an inscription of Pepi I, pharaoh about 3200BCE, on his pyramid:

"If the name of Set, the dweller in Nubt (Ombos) flourisheth, then the name of Pepi shall flourish, and this his pyramid shall flourish, and this his building shall flourish unto all eternity!"
(Source _Egyptian Magic_ by E. A. Wallis Budge quoted at sacred-texts.com

Well, 'all eternity' might be a bit optimistic. His building has at least lasted this far, and with good care, could last as long as the earth lasts, (that is, if the earth gets good care...)

Sunday, May 11, 2008 A

"A Bit More Research"
2:01am

Oh, I am like a bulldog on these matters! Once I grab hold of something, I will not let it go! I found new evidence, for one thing, a text file I'd saved regarding that relief of Set and Amun. And I solved a puzzling little mystery regarding the lovely Set gives life to Horus relief. How come that cartouche had 'an extra word in it'? Ah ha, that cartouche is from a later pharoah, not 12th dynasty, but 18th dynasty! Also, while the Set and Amun relief is not from the Temple of Seth, the 'Set gives life' relief IS!!! I love it when I can solve a mystery!

Now, weary, but satisfied, I shall go to bed.

If I should sleep all day, I wish all you mothers a happy day on Mother's Day!

Sunday, May 11, 2008 B

"Still More Research"
3:18pm

Actually, not so much 'research', but a compiling of a few items into a pdf regarding treasures from the ancient temple of Set at Naqada (aka Nubt town). This is just a beginning, eventually I want to make a pdf of all my findings. (Hmm, it occurs to me people get PHD's for such efforts, or at least MA's.) But I don't do it for any degree, I just do it for the love of it. (However, accolades are not unwelcome! Heh heh heh....)

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

"Two Am - Wide Awake"
3:21am


Three am, wake awake, but going back to bed (I did go to bed like 7pm last night, so that partially explains the 'wide awake')

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

"Lintel of Senusret III"
9:32pm

While combing the web for Set sightings, this image came to me:


Slightly enlarged from
its source at touregypt.net

They describe it as "A Papyrus commemorating Senusret III's Sed-festival" and per their usual, give no proper attribution. Also, I've never seen papyrus that looked like stone!

It appears to be a further development of the theme of Set and Horus giving support to the king, in this instance at his Heb Sed festival. (Basically, it was a festival to show the king's strength, held every thirty years to show he still had the right 'stuff' to rule). With a little search, I found several references to this piece in Wilkingson's _Reading Egyptian Art_. He features a nice clear delineation of that Set figure:


"Seth standard, on lintel of Sesostris III from Naq el-Madamud. Twelfth Dynasty."
Note, too, the 'gold town' "Nubt" hieroglyphs, since he is associated with Nubt, aka Naqada

A look in the back of the book reveals this piece is at the Cairo Egyptian Museum, JE 6189. The Art Dictionary defines "lintel - In architecture, a horizontal beam of any material spanning an opening, usually between two walls or posts." Another lintel of Sesostris III (aka Senusret III, Senwosret III) is at the Louvre.

Wilkinson also gives two other nice linear clarifications of the Heb-Sed lintel:


"Heron standard, on lintel of Sesostris III from Naq el-Madamud. Twelfth Dynasty."


"Palm branches presented to the king..."

The palm hieroglyph repeats through the piece as a visually unifying element, as you can see in the borders. "A branch of the date palm (Phoenix dactylifera), stripped of its leaves and notched annually, appears to have been used as the standard method of recording years in ancient Egypt from the most distant times." "...the palm branch hieroglyph was used in such words as renpet: 'year' and ter: 'time' or 'season,' from Old Kingdom times."_Reading Egyptian Art_, page 119

Thursday, May 15, 2008

"National Electrical Safety Month"
8:52pm

The Friday Illo theme this week is 'Electricity'. It's funny, because a couple of weeks ago, that was the Photo Friday theme. I didn't want to just recycle an old drawing, but could think of nothing earlier. So today, the day before the new Friday theme, while listening to the radio, a safety message aired, and an idea flashed into my mind.

As I was doing a little research, I learned May is National Electrical Safety Month, which probably explains its use as a theme. Although I had a plug from which I drew, I thought on a whim I'd check Wikipedia. There, I learned that electric plugs look different in different areas of the world, but usually of a general enough 3 prong scheme so my sample should be recognizable internationally. Also, I learned that in the United Kingdom, instead of using the term 'grounded', they use the term 'earthed'.

Let's see, how did I do this image? First, I did a line drawing with a micron pen, scanned it, cleaned it up, turned it grayscale instead of bitmap, did 'neon' filter, inverted it, did hue inversion so back to red, then did 'glowing edges' filter. I saved that as a different png. Went back to previous versions, and copy~n~pasted the red bits and the white lettering, and then picked a teal blue and black and did 'difference clouds' to get a sky feel. Also, I did some touch ups to make the lettering over the lightning crack show better, and filled in the cord with a reddish hue.

When you plug into the Power Source, be grounded!

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