Happy Birthday, Albrecht!

Today is Albrecht Dürer's 538th birthday!  Known for his prints, paintings and woodcuts, he is regarded by some as the greatest Renaissance artist in Northern Europe.  I first mentioned Dürer in my post of November 20, 2009, in which I mused about his rock star appearance.

http://artslyfe.blogspot.com/2009/11/albrecht-durer-neil-gaiman-and-terry.html

It seems somewhat prophetic considering the first image below, a fusion of Albrecht's self-portrait and Photoshop.  Several "portraits" were generated as submissions for an Advanced Photoshop competition.

 http://www.freakingnews.com/Durer-Art-Pictures---2901.asp 

 

http://www.freakingnews.com/Durer-Paintings-Pictures--2440.asp 

To see more examples from this competition, many of which are rather amusing, please visit the links referenced above.  Included are "portraits" of Barack Obama, Meryl Streep, Bruce Willis, Gollum, Julia Roberts and other celebrities.

International Museum Day

Who knew!  Evidently I've been in the dark for quite some time because this started in 1977!  In 1992, it was determined that a theme would be established annually.  It's date is set as being around May 18 every year in order to accommodate cultural variations around the world.

http://icom.museum/imd.html

This year's theme is "Museums for Social Harmony" with almost 100 countries participating.  Some museums will offer free admission for the day or have extended hours.  Others will have special presentations.  I missed it this year but now I have a whole year to decide which museum I will visit to celebrate next year!

I love the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago :)

Chihuly Exhibit at Frederick Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park

Another awe-inspiring exhibit of Dale Chihuly's work officially opened to the public on April 30 and will continue until September 30th.  The exhibit is distributed at 15 sites throughout the Gardens.

I last saw one of his exhibits in November in the Glass Pavilion at the Toledo Museum of Art.  It was beautiful beyond description.

Chihuly himself is expected to be present at the Gardens on my birthday - what a nice gift! ;-)

 Blue Moon

Red Reeds

 Yellow Boat

Chihuly said he used more red than ever before to create this exhibit.  Red - my favorite color.

GOOD 'Shop/bad 'shop Redux (see also 03.03.2010)

This is a badly-taken picture of little Clarence sitting on an air-conditioning vent.  The picture is quite old as is evidenced by the linoleum and curtains.  Clarence deserves a much more attractive setting, don't you think?  First, let's improve the floor.

I'm not going to be able to fix everything but the curtains will be the next thing to go.  ;-)

The beauty and fun of Photoshop!

Similar Palettes

Grand Canyon, Arizona

 Sunrise by Claude Monet