Good and Bad

OK, we got those British folks married off without a hitch, the pomp and majesty of those guys on horseback really do project the power and force the British Empire had in its Power And Force days, and yes, her sister is .... yeah....!

So much for the good of the past few days. Now for the bad.

Take a second look at this photo, taken by Martha Steele, in Ringgold, Georgia. People, there is NO way to run and hide from a tornado -- if it wants you, it gets you. Here in Texas we will be contining to cope with wildfires and the threat of tornados all summer long. Sort of makes you wonder how the early settlers ever managed to survive without The Weather Channel.  As you ponder that, consider a donation to a charity to help those who have lost everything.

And now a brief interruption of art from our past trip to Washington DC. Usually in the spring we make a big three-week Road Trip to the East Coast and had considered this year, thinking to head east about April 23/24. As gas prices went up and my classes took up more time, we decided to do a quick flight instead.  Otherwise we would have been on the road last week, with our driving route taking us driving through Tuscaloosa, Brimingham, across Georgia....

I promised you more artists from the Smithsonian Craft show and they will show up eventually.  In the meantime:

This pot from the permanent collection at the Smithsonian African Art Museum continues to amaze me. It looks like wood but it is ceramic with vegetable dyes.

These are NOT blown glass, they are ceramic pieces from the Qing Chinese dynasty. Amazing. And they didn't even have electric kilns back then.

Senora Sabasa Garcia by Goya.  When Susan was much younger (7 - 10 years old) her family lived in Washington DC. Her mother would drag the three kids to the National Gallery of Art every chance she could get. To this day Susan can, without hesitation, walk into the appropriate gallery and find some of the paintings her mother would often linger by.  It still amazes her that after thinking she had ignored the "Art Lessons" of her mother (not many young kids do pay much attention in art museums), the images of many paintings had somehow stuck in her mind.   This painting was a favorite of her mother's because it reminded her of Susan's younger sister, Linda, who has very large beautiful brown eyes.