Saturday, March 31, 2018

Mary Cassatt



I saw an article recently that was claiming that there had been no "famous" women painters. Well, some of our favorite painters are women. This is one of my favorite paintings. It was also put on a U.S. Postage Stamp. This image was taken at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Here is a copy of the postage stamp.


Thursday, March 29, 2018

Goliath bird-eating tarantula


The biggest tarantulas in the world, Goliath bird-eating spiders live in the deep rainforests of northern South America. Despite their intimidating name, they don't eat birds frequently. I guess the operative word here is "frequently." Here is the description from the National Zoo website:
The Goliath bird-eating tarantula is the biggest tarantula in the world. The body measures up to 4.75 inches (12 centimeters) with a leg span of up to 11 inches (28 centimeters).
The Goliath bird-eating tarantula lives in the rainforest regions of northern South America, including Venezuela, northern Brazil, Guyana, French Guiana and Suriname. It lives in the deep rainforest, in silk-lined burrows and under rocks and roots.

Wednesday, March 28, 2018

The Endless Escalator


This image is analogous to life itself. We are all on one side or the other of this endless escalator. We cannot get off and we are either going up or down. Unlike this real escalator, we can change sides. If we find ourselves going down, we can, with effort and repentance, move over to the up side. If we try to stand still, the default is to go down.

Tuesday, March 27, 2018

The Contrasting Seasons


The same week we saw the beautiful Spring flowers blooming we also had a heavy, wet snowfall. I guess you can get all your seasons in the same week. The snow didn't last and three days later we were walking around in shirtsleeves.

Monday, March 26, 2018

Spring is Getting Sprung


Despite the cold and snowy weather, we are starting to see the trees get their leaves and a few with beautiful blossoms. We will be going to Washington, D.C. to see the Cherry Blossom Festival, but this is a preview of coming attractions.

Saturday, March 24, 2018

Jerusalem Artichoke Flowers


This painting from the National Gallery of Art is called, "Jerusalem Artichoke Flowers." It was painted by Claude Monet in about 1880. As found in the Wikipedia article. "Jerusalem artichoke,
The Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus), also called sunroot, sunchoke, earth apple, or topinambour, is a species of sunflower native to eastern North America, and found from eastern Canada and Maine west to North Dakota, and south to northern Florida and Texas. It is also cultivated widely across the temperate zone for its tuber, which is used as a root vegetable.
This plant comes from North America and has nothing to do with either Jerusalem or artichokes. 

Friday, March 23, 2018

The Mall in Washington DC


If you read the news, you will inevitably hear about the "Mall" in Washington, DC. This is the scene of hundreds of large and small protests as well as other more benign activities. I thought this image of the Capital Building at a distance was suggestive of my own feelings about the whole Washington situation. If you could read the small red sign, it would say that the area was closed for "turf restoration," perhaps, that could happen with the rest of the city also.

Thursday, March 22, 2018

Brave Spring Flower



This brave little flower is a Franklinia Alatamaha from Southeast Georgia. It is believed to be extinct in the wild. We found it growing in a flowerbed next to the Mall in Washington, D.C. Within a few days, we had a huge snowstorm that covered much of East Coast in snow and ice.

Wednesday, March 21, 2018

Roses by Van Gogh


In a recent visit to the National Gallery of Art, it was interesting to walk from exhibit room to exhibit room. The French Impressionist room was crowded and you had to wait in line to see some of the paintings. At the same time, some of the rooms of the museum were empty. This painting by Vincent Van Gogh was one of the most popular in the entire museum.

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Van Gogh


The highlight of a trip to any large art museum is the opportunity to see unforgettable paintings by artists such as Vincent Van Gogh. As a former Fine Arts Major at the University of Utah, I had an early exposure to all kinds of art. We have always had a Van Gogh print in our home because of my interest. I really enjoyed seeing some of the original paintings in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. This is the "Farmhouse in Provence" painted in 1888.

Monday, March 19, 2018

Adoration of the Shepherds

After Annibale Fontana Anonymous ArtistFontana, Annibale Milanese, 1540 - 1587
Known as The Adoration of the Shepherds c. 1625/1675terracottaoverall: 109 x 57 cm (42 15/16 x 22 7/16 in.) framed: 141.6 x 94.1 x 12.5 cm (55 3/4 x 37 1/16 x 4 15/16 in.) gross weight: 85.73 kg (189 lb.)Samuel H. Kress Collection1939.1.319 in the National Gallery of Art. This is a really impressive and beautiful work. 

Sunday, March 18, 2018

A Veiled Marble Figure

photo by Ann Tanner
This marble sculpture is in the National Gallery of Art, Corcoran Collection is called "The Veiled Nun." It is made entirely of marble. Even up close the veil effect is startling. It is Italian and was possibly done after a model by Guiseppe Croff in about 1863. Here is a short explanation of the sculpture from the Wikipedia article, "The Veiled Nun."
The Veiled Nun is an 1860 marble bust depicting a female figure. Despite the name, the woman depicted is not a nun. Sculpted by Italian artist Giuseppe Croff, it is considered one of the artist's greatest works. The bust was popular with visitors to the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. from 1874 until the museum closed in 2014. The bust is now displayed in the National Gallery of Art.
Here is a further description of the work.
The Veiled Nun is a 20.75 in (52.7 cm) tall marble bust depicting a female figure wearing a veil.[1][2][3] The fine details give the illusion of the veil being opaque and transparent.[4] Because of the woman's stylish coiffure and embroidered veil, she is not a nun, but rather a woman of means or an allegorical figure.[2][3][4] According to photographer David Finn and art historian Susan Joy Slack, "the mysterious nature of the work, its inward focus, and the relative 'foreignness' of veiled figures to American museumgoers caused early visitors to refer to her as a nun, and the appellation has remained."[4] The bust has been described as a "fine example of a detailed rendering of texture and form", a "tour de force of carving" and "carved to make stone look like silk".
It is really one of the most remarkable things we have seen in the museums in Washington, D.C. By the way, the photo was made by my wife, Ann Tanner. 

Saturday, March 17, 2018

First Glimpse of Spring


As we visited the Mall area in Washington, D.C. today, we saw the first flowers of Spring. The Magnolia trees were ready to bloom and there were other flowers starting to add some color to the dark shades of winter. Even though it was cold, cloudy and starting to rain, we had a good time walking around and seeing the sights.

Friday, March 16, 2018

Parrot in a tree


This is probably a Finsch's parakeet or Arantinga finschi. I took this photo in Costa Rica and the bird was quite a distance away. I think that bird photos are among the most difficult. The birds don't usually sit still for a photo unless they are tame or caged.

Thursday, March 15, 2018

Rocks, Waves and Sand


Life is in the details. You can always look, but seeing is in the details. It is the details of life that the world comes alive. We only begin to really live when we see the details of life around us.

Monday, March 12, 2018

The Inverted Jenny


For the first time, I saw a mint block of four of the Inverted Jenny in the National Postal Museum of the Smithsonian. Here is a short introduction to some of the sales of this famous stamp from the Wikipedia: Inverted Jenny.
The Inverted Jenny (also known as an Upside Down Jenny, Jenny Invert) is a United States postage stamp first issued on May 10, 1918 in which the image of the Curtiss JN-4 airplane in the center of the design is printed upside-down; it is probably the most famous error in American philately. Only one pane of 100 of the invert stamps was ever found, making this error one of the most prized in all philately. 
A single Inverted Jenny was sold at a Robert A. Siegel auction in November 2007 for $977,500. In December 2007 a mint never hinged example was sold for $825,000. The broker of the sale said the buyer was a Wall Street executive who had lost the auction the previous month. A block of four inverted Jennys was sold at a Robert A. Siegel auction in October 2005 for $2.7 million. In the wake of the 2008 financial meltdown, prices fetched by Inverted Jennys have receded. Between January and September 2014, five examples offered at auction sold for sums ranging from $126,000 through $575,100. Prices eventually recovered, for on May 31, 2016, a particularly well-centered Jenny invert, graded XF-superb 95 by Professional Stamp Experts, was sold at a Siegel Auction for a hammer price of $1,175,000 The addition of a 15% buyer’s premium raised the total record high price paid for this copy to $1,351,250.
I have been involved in stamps since I was eight years old but never at this level. 

Sunday, March 11, 2018

The Wiseman-Cooke Airplane


This is the Wiseman-Cooke airplane in the National Postal Museum in Washington, D.C. Here is a description of the airplane from the Smithsonian National Postal Museum website:
Pilot Fred Wiseman carried letters from the mayor and postmaster of Petaluma, California, to their counterparts in Santa Rosa. Mechanical difficulties slowed the journey. The trip took two days to complete. The plane's top speed never exceeded 70 mph.

Wiseman took off from Kenilworth Park in Petaluma, California, at 12:30 p.m. on February 17, 1911. He was headed for Santa Rosa, California, a mere 14 miles away by air. In his lap, Wiseman carried three letters, including letters from the Mayor and Postmaster of Petaluma to their counterparts in Santa Rosa, and copies of the local newspaper, the Press-Democrat. Wiseman was able to get his plane up to 100 feet in the air and traveled smoothly for the first four miles. But four and one-half miles out, the engine started to quit. Wiseman was forced to land in a muddy field, breaking one of the planes skids as he landed.

The crew repaired the plane, and covered it with a canvas tarp. The next morning, the tarp was laid out on the muddy field, and used as Wiseman's runway. The plane managed to make the rest of the trip that day, securing Wiseman's place in history as the first plane to carry airmail. A second airmail trip was made the day that Wiseman landed. In India on February 18, 1911, Henri Pequet flew mail a distance of five miles from Allahabad to Naini.

Saturday, March 10, 2018

Watching the Waves


Sometimes what I see becomes an abstract of shapes and colors. I can't define the moment, but I recognize that there is an image. After looking at photos for so many years, I see light and shadow as entities. Here in this image, the sky is merely a backdrop to the shapes created by the waves and the rocks. You can almost feel the way the sand is being moved by each wave as it comes in over the rocks and sweeps around creating the patterns in the foreground. Sometimes it takes me years to really connect with an image.

Friday, March 9, 2018

Ghost Town Window


As I go back through my files, I always find photos that I thought were very interesting at the time but did not upload to my blog. This is a photo of the interior of an abandoned building in Bannack State Park, Montana. This is not a "commercial" pretend ghost town, but a real abandoned mining town.

Thursday, March 8, 2018

Mountain Wildflowers


I guess being in the eastern part of the United States during the winter makes me think about spring and summer in the mountains. I like to remember the beautiful wildflowers. So far here in Maryland we have had a few beautiful days but lots of days with rain, snow, sleet, freezing temperatures and everything in between.

Wednesday, March 7, 2018

Winslow Homer


I have a broad range of interests in art. I started out at the University of Utah as a fine arts major in painting and drawing and my interest in art has never diminished. This is one of my favorite paintings. This one happens to be by Winslow Homer. He was from Cambridge, Massachusetts, where I lived when I was very young. Here is a comment from the Wikipedia article about Homer and the painting.
Breezing Up, Homer's iconic painting of a father and three boys out for a spirited sail, received wide praise. The New York Tribune wrote, "There is no picture in this exhibition, nor can we remember when there has been a picture in any exhibition, that can be named alongside this."

Tuesday, March 6, 2018

Colonial Staircase


One thing that is interesting about visiting old houses is the craftsmanship that went into the details. I found this lovely spiral banister in Hammond-Harwood House here in Annapolis. Things like this always make me think of the time and effort that went into building these wonderful structures.

Sunday, March 4, 2018

Easter Island Moai


This is a real Eastern Island Moai. It is from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. Here is a description of the statue:
The Smithsonian’s two monumental Easter Island stone figures, or moai, represent some of the most popular and intriguing exhibits at the National Museum of Natural History. Since their arrival in 1887, one or both has always been on exhibit. Exceedingly rare, the statues—one a complete statue, the other a head—remain today the only such figures in a public museum in the United States.

These distinctive stone figures are a quintessential feature of Easter Island, or Rapa Nui. Most of them were made between the years 1100 and 1680, and are carved primarily out of volcanic tuff (solidified ash) from the extinct volcano, Rano Raraku. To date, a total of 887 are known to have been made, though many never made it out of the volcanic quarry. Each statue likely represented the deceased head of a lineage, and many were positioned on stone temple platforms facing inland to keep watch over their respective communities. 
These icons of the Pacific have been well known to outsiders since the time of Captain Cook’s visit in 1774. The British collected a very significant statue, known as Hoa Hakananai’a, in 1868, the first statue to be removed from the island. A few years later, Britain’s great rival, the French, also came and carried away a stone figure. Both figures have always been prominently displayed, and are today at the British Museum in London and the Musée du quai Branly in Paris.

Olmec Head


This Olmec Head is in front of the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. Here is the description of the head.
The National Museum of Natural History has had a long and involved research program centered on the Olmec culture in southern Mexico. Outside the museum you will see an exact 1.78m (5.84 ft) tall carved stone replica of Colossal Head #4. This sculpture was created by Ignacio Pérez Solano. He carved the 6 ton head out of volcanic stone, and faithfully replicated the original head carved by the Olmec about 3000 years ago. This replica was a gift to the Smithsonian from Miguel Alemán Velazco, then governor of the state of Veracruz, Mexico. In 1946, Smithsonian archaeologist Matthew W. Stirling excavated the original head, named "San Lorenzo Colossal head #4" after the town near which it was discovered. Now on display at the Museum of Anthropology in Xalapa, Veracruz, it was lent to the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in 1978 for the “Treasures of Mexico”exhibit. During its exhibition here it was displayed on the mall steps, where either the banded iron or the fossil wood can presently be seen.

Friday, March 2, 2018

National Cash Register, Class 51


This is a Class 51 National Cash Register. Here is the description from the National Museum of American History:

National Cash Register, Class 51
DESCRIPTION
In the 1950s Americans increasingly bought groceries in supermarkets, which served large numbers of customers. Consumers selected their own goods, and took them to a clerk who rang up sales. To make transactions as efficient as possible, the National Cash Register Company introduced machines that dispensed coins automatically, avoiding time and errors associated with making change. This change-making cash register went on the market in 1954, with a new model in 1958. This example was given to the Smithsonian by NCR in 1959, on the occasion of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the company.
Reference: Accession file
DATE MADE
1959
MAKER
National Cash Register
CompanyID
NUMBERMA.316702
ACCESSION NUMBER
225455
CATALOG NUMBER
316702
DATA SOURCE
National Museum of American History

Red Lichen


Wandering around in the southeastern part of the United States, I seem to run across all sorts of interesting and unusual plants and few animals. This is Cryptothecia rubrocincta or Christmas Wreath Lichen. Here is a more complete description from the Wikipedia article, "Cryptothecia rubrocincta."
Cryptothecia rubrocincta is a species of lichen in the Arthoniaceae family of fungi. The species is distributed in subtropical and tropical locations throughout the southeastern United States, as well as Central and South America, and has been collected infrequently in a few locales in Africa. The body of the lichen forms continuous, circular crust-like patches on dead wood, readily recognizable by the prominent red pigment. The older, central region is covered with red, spherical to cylindrical granules. Moving outwards from the center, zones of color may be distinguished, the first gray-green, the second white, and finally a bright red cottony rim. The red and green colors of this unmistakable woodland lichen give the appearance of a Christmas wreath, suggestive of its common North American name, the Christmas wreath lichen. The red pigment, called chiodectonic acid is one of several chemicals the lichen produces to help tolerate inhospitable growing conditions.

Thursday, March 1, 2018

Almost Perfect Camouflage


The feathers on these sparrows match the color and texture of the ground cover so closely, they are almost invisible. Can you see all the birds? You may have to click on the photo and look at each part of the photo separately to see all the birds.

Winter on the Potomac



We now live relatively close to the Potomac River. Here are a few facts about the river from the Wikipedia article,"Potomac River."
The Potomac River (/pəˈtoÊŠmÉ™k/ ( listen)) is located within the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and flows from the Potomac Highlands into the Chesapeake Bay. The river (main stem and North Branch) is approximately 405 miles (652 km) long, with a drainage area of about 14,700 square miles (38,000 km2). In terms of area, this makes the Potomac River the fourth largest river along the Atlantic coast of the United States and the 21st largest in the United States. Over 5 million people live within the Potomac watershed.
We live a lot closer to the Severn River and near the Spa Creek. 

Split Rails


Split rail fences are the epitome of reusable resources. Not only are they biodegradable but they can be used for firewood in an emergency. They are labor intensive, but the labor produced at least one U.S. president. The reason why barbed wire took over the fence business so completely has to do with the area that these fences take up on the land. If this fence were a border fence there would be several legal questions. Where is the boundary land? Is the fence entirely on one parcel or is it a shared fence? If it is a shared fence, where on the fence is the boundary line? The questions go on and on and barbed wife solves all these questions and many more.