Summer thoughts

I may have gotten more vitamin D in the past month than I have in the past five years here in the Northwest. (We're not used to multiple, consecutive sunny days... it confuses us.) Just drinking in the sun, thinking about art.

My family was definitely immersed earlier this summer, when we were fortunate enough to visit the Louvre and the Musée d'Orsay. The trip also got me thinking A LOT about museum etiquette: OMG don't get so close to the artwork/ 250-year-old paintings don't like flash photos/ how do you NOT know how to behave in a museum?!

Vincent van Gogh, "Self-Portrait," 1889

After a certain point I found myself playing a mental game of "find a European artwork that includes black people." Medieval and Renaissance-era artists did depict people of African descent occasionally, and not always as servants, possessions or "noble savages." But even those sculptures make me think: this is still a black body rendered in a couple tons of marble, by an artist who died more than a century ago.

Ernest Barrias, "The Alligator Hunters, or the Nubians," 1894

And it's worth remembering that most museums allow you to borrow their air conditioning for hours at a time. Depending on where you live, summer really is cooler at the museum.

Work-in-progress: diving in

It's been a bit of a shock here to feel heat (that is, "summer") every day. What does one do when it's hot outside?

Semiahmoo Bay. Photo: Lisa Myers Bulmash

Ah yes, large bodies of water. I understand one sometimes dives into them.

The original vintage image of the diver was part of a stereoscopic pair. I set her, and part of the background, against waves on a Japanese art paper. Then I added a handmade paper sky, at the back of an altered book niche.

You might remember back in the day -- like, waaaay back in the day -- this kind of swimsuit was considered scandalous. 

More power to you, for doing what makes you happy. I think Calamity Jane said it best:

I'm leaning toward the title "Legendary." Still need to mount the book and do a couple of other tweaks, but it's getting there. Next week, I'll be showing her to an interested collector who's been following this work-in-progress on Facebook.  

The month of gratitude: day 15

Day 15

I'm a night owl, so I'm grateful for the dark and dim places. It's easier for me to sneak up on my ideas and capture them that way.