That's Gneiss! #179 ~ The Wacky World of Easter Bonnets
Plus: JABBED! and alternate history with Mary Robinette Kowal
I’m keeping it short today - it’s an holiday of sorts, and while we don’t celebrate Easter per se, we do have a nice dinner planned.
Michael and I both got our first vaccinations this week. The obtainment of them made for a few hectic days. I drove Michael up to Oak Harbor for his on Wednesday afternoon, and I caught wind of a drive-through clinic on Friday at the Monroe Fairgrounds (not nearly as far away, thank goodness). My understanding is that the county had doses of Moderna that were about to expire. I’m very grateful for the opportunity. I feel like some sort of progress has occurred.
In looking for something fun to share with you, I ran across pictures of very absurd Easter bonnets worn by women and girls over the years. It appears that in some places there was a bit of competition to see who could devise the most over-the-top bonnet.
Check out the Easter Hat Parade from a school in Iowa in the early 70’s…
I have never run across this activity in my life.
I don’t know if this is a good thing, or a bad thing…
The tradition continues in New York City, or at least it did until the pandemic. Anyone with a head on their shoulders is welcome to participate these days, and some of the bonnets are very clever!
Some of them bring to mind the words “art cars for your head.”
Click here to see more glorious headwear from the 2019 Easter Bonnet Parade.
I hope everyone has an excellent day. I’m going to watch eagerly out the window for FedEx to bring my order of art supplies from Blick - “on truck for delivery” are some of my favorite words these days!
Cheers!
Tidbits
Visit the Louvre without visiting Paris - the entire collection can be viewed online
The Spherical Cow Projection - scandal in the map world!
a loose essay in figures - an interesting collection of statistics
Google Web Fonts Directory - a library of 1048 free licensed font families and APIs for conveniently using the fonts via CSS and Android.
Go Beyond the Grocery Store With These Seven Innovative Spice Companies - hard to find spices for international cooking
Making: Sketchbook Revival has ended, sort of. The videos are available through the 18th, so I’ll be going back to a couple and catching some I haven’t watched yet. I particularly enjoyed “Exploring Shapes by Printing and Stamping in Watercolors” with Esté MacLeod, though my results were nothing like the end product she was showing. I used my high flow acrylics, and so enjoyed the splattering effect caused by a tension bubble that formed at the end of the tube. A few days later I used some of my watercolors to paint the shapes, which was a great way to see how they mix. The group on the left are some new paints from AvisWatercolorWorld, and the group on the right if the National Park paints.
Reading: still working on Rough House, by Tina Ontiveros. Got my hands on a copy of A Book of Surrealist Games, which was recommended by Shelley Klammer during her workshop on automatic drawing.
Art Zone
If you follow the nature journaling world at all, you’ve probably heard of John Muir Laws:
John (Jack) Muir Laws is a principal leader and innovator of the worldwide nature journaling movement. Jack is a scientist, educator, and author, who helps people forge a deeper and more personal connection with nature through keeping illustrated nature journals and understanding science. His work intersects science, art, and mindfulness. Trained as a wildlife biologist and an associate of the California Academy of Sciences, he observes the world with rigorous attention. He looks for mysteries, plays with ideas, and seeks connections in all he sees. Attention, observation, curiosity, and creative thinking are not gifts, but skills that grow with training and deliberate practice. As an educator and author, Jack teaches techniques and supports routines that develop these skills to make them a part of everyday life.
I was thrilled when I saw the he would be leading a workshop in the Sketchbook Revival series. His session was called “This is Your Brain on Paper: Attention, Curiosity and Creativity,” and it’s available to watch through April 18th. Even if you have no intention of picking up a pencil and paper to draw the world around you, I highly recommend watching the first part of the video to listen to John talk passionately about observing the world around us (one of my favorite subjects). He sketches anything that grabs his interest, including the progression of a moldy orange he found in his kitchen!
John’s website is a wealth of information for anyone who would like to take up sketching the world around them - no experience or skills necessary to begin! He provides resources for educators, and encouragement to everyone to slow down and take a good look at nature, which can be found right outside our front doors.
John is very generous with his time and expertise, including free weekly lessons on a variety of topics that can be found on his YouTube channel.
All of the Sketchbook Revival workshops can be accessed for free through April 18th. If you’re interested in trying something out, I encourage you to take a look them. You don’t need a lot of fancy supplies for many of them - just some paper and a pen or pencil can get you started.
Video of the Week
We’ve been hosting virtual author events, and this recent visit from Mary Robinette Kowal is worth your time. She was a wonderful, fascinating presenter, and her green screen sorcery puts all others to shame. She talked about her Lady Astronaut Universe series, and how she creates her alternative histories by thinking about the people who have been left out of the historical accounts we’re taught in school.
Current Temperature: 47.8 F (8.8 C)
Current Humidity: 71%
Wind (max gust): 9.2 mph
Precipitation: 0.05 inches
Thanks for the link on John Muir Laws - right down my alley. And for those other artsy links!