Blue Brontosaurus

I've neglected the blog, as I'm wont to do. Sorry about that. I even have a draft saved from last summer's Artsy Fartsy series, but I'm not going to update that just yet. I promise one of these days I'll finish, but today is not that day. Instead, I want to tell you about something exciting that happened to me this past weekend.

I was disappointed that my finals interfered with MDSW this year, and as always, Stitches South fell just a few weeks before that, so I couldn't attend that, either. So my friend ZC invited me up to visit her just outside of Chicago and go to Stitches Midwest with her. Of course I jumped on that offer! I'd never been to Chicago before, and the only Stitches event I'd attended was South, which is apparently the smallest of the four they hold.

We had a great time at the market Friday. Saturday we were joined by a mutual friend and then followed that with dinner with several people from a certain Ravelry group. I got some ChiaoGoo needles, which I quickly put into use Saturday afternoon and hope to review soon. I also picked up a skein of Cephalopod Yarns Skinny Bugga in Fluorescent Millipede (I might have a slight addiction to Cephalopod. Shhh, don't tell anyone.) and a skein from Twisted Fiber Art, which I'd never seen before. I'm having a hard time deciding what that skein is going to be, so I may just have to design something new for it. It's not the only yarn that needs to have a pattern designed for it, but the other one I'm planning is still in the brewing stages, so we'll see which one comes out first.

Sunday, though. Man, Sunday. When ZC invited me up, I started researching things to do in Chicago. Number one on my list, obviously, was to have some real Chicago-style pizza. I can honestly say that it was fantastic. We even had it with my favorite topping - spinach! But once I found out that Chicago was home to one of my favorite creatures, I just had to go see it. That's how we ended up at The Field Museum.

When we arrived at the museum, I immediately headed to the Evolving Planet area, and its Dinosaur Hall. When we turned a corner and I could see the apatosaurus excelsus through the doorway, I literally could not contain my excitement and began jumping up and down. I had never seen one in person before.

Sorry for the quality, but ZC was covertly snapping pics of my reaction with her iPhone, so this is what you get.

To understand how I felt, imagine falling in love with something at four years old, knowing you can never see a live one, but still loving it fiercely. Imagine planning your future career around it. Yes, at four years old I wanted to be a paleontologist. Now, carry that love with you for 29 more years without ever having set eyes on an actual specimen of the thing you love so much. And then you finally, finally get to come face-to-skull with it.

I was in love.

In awe.

Overcome.

You can tell by the photographs.

At long last, I got to "meet" a brontosaurus. Somehow, I managed not to cry. I'm not sure how. It was touch and go for a minute, there.

I wandered around the Dinosaur Hall for at least a half hour, based on the timestamps of the photos ZC took of me. I could have stayed there all day. ZC's husband pointed out that if I were to take part in one of the "Night at the Museum" events, I wouldn't get any sleep because I'd be staring at the apatosaurus bones all night. He's right. I was entranced by it. In the photo above, you can also see a stegosaurus in the background. That was always my second favorite, followed by the triceratops. The Field's Dinosaur Hall has all of these and more. It was magical.

The Field Museum hypes up SUE, who is "the largest, best-preserved, and most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex ever found." But in my opinion, SUE's got nothing on this baby. That's probably just because I never felt any affinity for the T. rex. SUE's pretty cool, after all.

It didn't even occur to me until I was writing this up that my hair is also currently blue. Therefore, you get both the blue and the brontosaurus part of my blog name in one photograph!

I'm just hoping I can keep from crying next year when I am planning to attend Convergence in Rhode Island and make a quick trip over to Connecticut to visit the only specimen that can accurately be called brontosaurus.

Artsy Fartsy Interlude 2: National Museum of Natural History

I've gotten behind on my posting, and today's entry is about the National Museum of Natural History, which I visited almost two weeks ago. While there was a bit of art there, I'm not presenting it in this post, so this is another interlude in the Artsy Fartsy series.

Let me preface this post by telling you that when I was little, I had two basic passions in life: rocks and dinosaurs. It's a love that still lives on today. I've used dinosaurs in at least three of my art classes so far, and for the longest time you would not find me without a small, pleasing to the touch, rock in my pocket. So you can imagine how much in awe I was when I visited the Natural History Museum, and this was one of the first exhibits I saw:

The stegosaurus was always my second favorite dinosaur, because how could anything be better than the brontosaurus? (Even if it is a junior synonym for apatosaurus, brontosaurus is the favored term amongst most people I know, because we grew up with it. Also, it seems easier and more pleasing to say.) One of these days, I'll find my way to a museum that has a brontosaurus skeleton on display.

When I saw this next creature, my first thought was that it was a wampa from The Empire Strikes Back.

No, that's not the creature I saw, that's the wampa. This is the skeleton on display:

It's a giant ground sloth. They're extinct, so you have no worries about being able to reach your lightsaber to defend yourself from it.

Not all the animals I saw were dead, though. There was a very colorful exhibit of tropical fish. I wish I'd had a clicker to count how many people made Finding Nemo references when they saw this.

I took so many photos of rocks/gems/minerals that it was hard to decide what to include here, so I pulled out only the very best one.

A spectrum of rocks. Glorious to behold, isn't it? I think so, anyway. From there, I moved on to what is possibly one of the most famous gems in the world, the Hope diamond. You hear stories about how big it is, and how pretty, but I was vastly underwhelmed by it.

I was expecting something more along the lines of the Koh-i-Noor as seen in the Doctor Who episode "Tooth and Claw":

You can see in comparison why I was not impressed. What did impress me, though, was this perfect chunk of quartz which formed the largest crystal ball I've ever seen:

Perhaps the greatest lure of the Museum of Natural History, though, is the butterfly pavilion, which is free on Tuesdays. It's basically a sort of indoor greenhouse, filled with flowers and butterflies. You are assigned a specific time, and are allowed to stroll through and linger as you wish, watching the butterflies. Please don't touch them, though. The same rule doesn't apply to the butterflies, probably because they don't speak a human language, and they are allowed to touch you. These guys stayed on my shorts for probably half an hour. You can even see the proboscis of the closer one.

And one lovely Monarch decided to grace me with its presence as well. Hello there!

Next time we'll visit the National Zoo and the National Air & Space Museum.

Artsy Fartsy, Part 4: National Museum of American History

I promised this last week, and I've finally gotten around to sorting through my pictures and paring them down to show you the ones that I like best. As such, and since the National Museum of American History is not an art museum, this post is less arty than others in the Artsy Fartsy series.

I have a feeling that this is the building that most people think of when they talk about "The Smithsonian" in general terms. It doesn't even begin to cover a fraction of everything that the Smithsonian holds, but is a good general overview of American history and culture in general.

If you're there at the right time, you can see (and maybe help with the unfolding/folding of) this giant replica of the Star Spangled Banner written about by Francis Scott Key. The entire building seems to stop for the singing of the national anthem. I have to admit, I'm not much of one for flag-waving, but it was a moving moment.

Some other truly American items on display are the hat that Lincoln wore the night he was shot,

Eisenhower's golf clubs (are those cozies just knitted, or both knitted and crocheted? I can't tell.),

and one of the first Teddy bears named for Teddy Roosevelt.

Something I found interesting was this display of swatches from the Textile Color Card Association of the United States, Inc. The Color Association does the same thing most people associate with Pantone these days, determining the "in" colors.

And keeping with the theme of textiles, this swift from the 1800s is made of ivory and bone, and doesn't appear to be much different from the wooden umbrella swifts of today. Why tamper with what works?

American History doesn't have to mean it's only about things you learn in history class. Pop culture can also have a historical relevance. I bet anyone could tell me whose shoes these are, after all, and the film they were used in was made 73 years ago.

And is there any American under the age of 45 who didn't grow up with this guy?

I think the biggest indicator of change and development in technology and culture in the last 140 years can be summed up in this picture. How much more is the object on the left capable of than the one on the right, and how many more people are aware of it than of its antique predecessor, yet how much more impact did the original model have on the world?

Now, I just have to decide which branch of the Smithsonian I want to visit next. Let me consult my iPhone...

Artsy Fartsy, Part 3: The Renwick

Today's trip took me to Washington, D.C., to the Renwick Gallery. It's the section of the Smithsonian that focuses on American Craft, which is where my interests lie. See? It even handily informs you of what it houses.

The lower level was unfortunately closed so that a new exhibit could be installed, but I did get to look around on the second floor and see some fascinating pieces.

The first room I entered was the Salon, and one of the pieces there almost immediately drew my attention. When I saw who the painter was, I was unsurprised that I liked it so much, as one of my very favorite paintings is by the same artist and hangs in the Parthenon in Nashville. This is The Perfume of Roses, by Charles Courtney Curran.

The next piece that grabbed me was the one below, by Wendell Castle. It is entirely made of wood. No, that is not a sheet on top of it. Entirely made of wood. Yes, really.

The Renwick seemed to have a higher ratio of textile and fiber-related art than the Walters or the BMA did, which I was pleased with. None of the pieces really stood out to me, though, other than this one by Michael James.

But quite possibly my favorite piece is the last one I'm going to show you. I saw it in a magazine just a few months ago and wondered how they'd stiffened the dress to stay in that shape so well. Imagine my surprise when I read the article and found that it was made of glass. I had a newfound appreciation for the medium of glass, thanks to Karen LaMonte, and I'm ever so pleased that I got to see it in person.

In my next post, I'll show you the highlights of my time at the National Museum of American History.

Artsy Fartsy, Part 2: The Walters

It's hot in Baltimore. So hot that I decided I wasn't going to venture outside today unless absolutely necessary. This sort of weather is not made for fair-skinned redheads, so I'm sitting in front of the air conditioner, typing up this post about my latest museum adventure.

Yesterday I continued my tour of the local museums with a trip to The Walters. It's larger and possibly more varied than the BMA, and I saw a lot of things I liked or found inspiring, but surprisingly I decided I preferred the BMA overall.

I enjoyed seeing this piece, a late 18th or early 19th century figure carved from bone and depicting a woman spinning thread. There were surprisingly few textiles at either The Walters or the BMA, so anything related to fibers was a pleasure to look at.

Then there was this piece of armor, and I had to laugh because it looked to me as if it were made for an alien.

Another thing that had me giggling was the wall where a Monet piece was displayed.

Can you see the recently repaired spots on the wall? They look as if they're mimicking the sunlight dappling the girl's dress in the painting.

The Walters has a separate building dedicated to Asian art, and this "garden vessel" (I'm not sure if it's a planter or a fountain or what - it looks like it should be a fountain, if you ask me) was probably my favorite piece in that area, even moreso than the teapots, and I love teapots.

And of course, there was all sorts of woodwork with geometric patterns, which I am absolutely crazy about.

Even the wrought iron on the outside of the windows was in a wonderful geometric pattern.

I think I preferred the BMA to the Walters just because a lot of the Walters' collection is Christian art, and there are only so many paintings of Mary and Jesus I can look at before it gets to be really, really boring. If that's your thing, though, you are set. I did enjoy the ancient art and artifacts, though, and seeing an x-ray of a cat mummy was pretty nifty.

Now I'm going to keep trying not to melt. Stay cool, northern hemisphereans!

Artsy Fartsy, Part 1: BMA

I'm staying with some friends in Maryland this summer, and since I'm an art student, the free museums in the Baltimore and DC areas are a huge draw. I plan to visit several, and will be posting about each one.

Today I visited The Baltimore Museum of Art. I enjoyed the short walk over there, and spent a few hours on the grounds, checking out the art inside as well as the sculpture garden. I even spent a little while knitting in front of an Alexander Calder piece.

Two of my favorite pieces in the collection are these by Claude Monet, one depicting Waterloo Bridge, the other showing Charing Cross Bridge.

There were a lot of other ones that I enjoyed for various reasons (and surprisingly, some of them were modern American pieces, which I'm not typically fond of) but it's hard to beat a Monet.

When I saw this next piece, I had to stop and do a double-take, because we studied it in my Craft History class last semester.

It's a glass vase by Lalique, called 'Tourbillons.' The popular study method for Craft History classes ensures that some pieces of art I can simply look at and immediately know when, where, or by whom they were made, and I looked at this and instantly thought "1925." I guess my brain's doing something right.

Some of the pieces I found most inspiring, though, were from the Antioch Mosaics. Their use of color and shape was wonderful, and I found myself wanting to incorporate something similar into my knitting or weaving.

I guess it's off to the drawing board with me!