Tag Archives: art
Octopus Lessions
In honor of My Octopus Teacher winning an Oscar the other night, I bring you some Ray Troll:
Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument
National Park Week, Day V; Today’s Park Theme: Wayback Wednesday
Not far from the confluence of the Yellowstone and Big Horn Rivers, among the rolling hills of Southeastern Montana, the Battle of Little Bighorn was fought on June 25th and 26th of 1876.
As many as 2500 Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors met the 700 soldiers of the 7th Calvary under Lt General George Armstrong Custer. The 7th Calvary lost 52% of its men, some 268 officers, soldiers and scouts were killed in total. It was an overwhelming victory for the Lakota, Cheyenne and their allies.
Custer would fall with his men on what is now known as Last Stand Hill. The soldiers were originally buried where they fell in shallow graves, but most were reinterred around the memorial obelisk that stands at the top of the hill. The grave markers on the hill’s slope, are placed approximately where the men fell. Custer’s marker is the one shaded in black. Many of the officers were reinterred out on the east coast, Custer’s remains were reinterred at West Point. Lt John Crittenden’s body was left buried where he fell until 1932, at the request of his family. Crittenden was reinterred in the nearby National Cemetery when road construction in the Monument came near his grave. Crittenden was 22 years old at the time of his death.
Estimates for Native American casualties during the battle, vary widely. Initially, as few as 36 were named as dead in battle, but Lakota Chief Red Horse stated in 1877 that 136 Native Americans were killed and 160 wounded.
The Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument encompasses just over 765 acres, which includes Custer National Cemetery.
Custer National Cemetery was created in 1879, to protect the graves of those already killed in battle here. There are approximately 5000 persons buried at Custer National Cemetery. The cemetery closed to reservations in 1978, but reservations made prior to that date will still be honored.
Little Bighorn Battlefield NM received 332,328 visitors in 2016.
Iceberger
I thought I’d post a site here that someone recently shared with me. It’s sort of a modern day Etch-A-Sketch for icebergs. There is a blank ocean where you etch-a-sketch in an iceberg to see how your shape would float.
Things to keep in mind: The sketch and canvas are only two-dimensional, an actual iceberg would be 3-D. An iceberg floats with 10% of its mass above water.
The site can be found here:
https://joshdata.me/iceberger.html
Happy drawing.
Pioneer Air Museum
Fairbanks, Alaska
Pioneer Air Museum
It had been several years since I ventured into the Air Museum at Pioneer Park. Since they were experimenting with winter hours, I decided it was time to head back over there and see what was new.
Under The Dome: Inside the Air Museum
The Pioneer Air Museum houses a fairly extensive collection of aircraft and other artifacts mainly pertaining to Interior Alaska and Arctic aviation.
Ben Eielson Display
The first major display is on Ben Eielson, the famed aviator and Alaskan bush pilot. Eielson learned to fly in WWI, with the U.S Army Signal Corps. After the war, a chance run-in with Alaska’s territorial delegate to Congress, led to Eielson heading to Alaska to teach. By 1923, Eielson had started the Farthest North Aviation Company. Eielson was the first to fly air mail in Alaska, and the first to fly from North America over the North Pole to Europe.
In 1929, Eielson and his mechanic died in a plane crash in Siberia. The cargo ship Nanuk was frozen in sea ice off North Cape, and Eielson was contracted by expedition leader Olaf Swenson to fly out personnel and furs. The plane crashed in a storm, cruising at full throttle into the terrain. A faulty altimeter is the suspected cause of the crash. Parts of Eielson’s recovered aircraft is on display at the museum.
1935 Stinson SR-JR
This bright red Stinson SR-JR, the Spirit of Barter Island, came to Alaska in 1940, and was flying the Interior out of Fairbanks in 1953 for Interior Airways.
The Stinson in artwork
This SR-JR carries four passengers, has a cruising speed of 110mph, and a range of 450 miles. It was an Interior workhorse, and well known in the Fairbanks area. The image, “I Follow Rivers”, can be found on t-shirts around Fairbanks to this day.
Stinson V77: Peter Pan
The Stinson V77 is the Navy version of the SR-10 Reliant. “Peter Pan” flew the Kuskokwim and Yukon River mail runs. The Stinson Reliant was a favorite of bush pilots, as the aircraft was equally at ease landing on wheels, skis or floats. In 1949, “Peter Pan” made the flight from Bethel, Alaska to Boston, Mass. It is back in Alaska, on loan to the museum, from the bush pilot’s family.
1943 P-39 Wreckage
The P-39 Airacobra was a common sight in Alaska’s Interior during WWII, as it was a mainstay of lend-lease aircraft to the Soviets. This P-39 only made it to Fairbanks in pieces, as it was involved in a mid-air collision with another aircraft 60 miles east of Fairbanks. Both pilots survived the crash.
1942 ST Type Ryan PT-22
The PT-22 was used for flight training all over the globe. Over 14,000 Air Corps pilots trained in the PT-22. This particular PT-22 came to Fairbanks in 1956 after it was retired out of the military.
The “Huey”
Manufactured by Bell Helicopter in 1966, this UH-1H “Huey”, saw combat in South Vietnam. During a mission in 1969, this UH-1H was hit by a rocket propelled grenade while landing. After the war, it came to Alaska, and was transferred around the Alaska Army bases, finally landing at Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks. It was retired in 1993, and is on loan to the museum from the U.S. Army. The “Huey” is still maintained by Army personnel.
Thomas Ackerman photo
A visitor to the museum several years ago, recognized the Huey’s ID number as the one he flew during the Vietnam War. Sgt Thomas Ackerman was a crew-chief and gunman on this UH-1H. He supplied several photos of the Huey, during its time in Vietnam, to the museum, including the one above. Thomas Ackerman died of Agent Orange related cancer in 2004.
Denali on canvas
This painting is on display at the Fairbanks Community Museum. Photo by Circle to Circle
Robert Frank
Ordinary people, doing ordinary things…
Robert Frank, in his New York home; Photograph by Allen Ginsberg
In 1954, Robert Frank set off across the United States in a used Ford with his Leica camera. He had the idea of photographing America as it unfolded before his eyes. He spent two years on the journey, shooting 767 rolls of film, for over 28,000 shots.
83 of those shots would end up in the book “The Americans”.
Image: “Trolley – New Orleans” 1955, photo by Robert Frank
The Americans was first published in 1959, and it took the photography world by storm. The images were honest and gritty, and most of all raw. It was a masterwork of street photography.
US 285 – New Mexico 1956; photo by Robert Frank
Initially, it did not go over well. America was high on the post war 1950’s. Images showing that not everyone in the country had achieved the “American Dream” were not what the public was shouting for. The book went out of publication after only 1100 being printed.
Rodeo – New York City 1955; photo by Robert Frank
History has been kinder. The Americans has seen several reprints, and few photo books have had as large an influence on contemporary photography.
Frank would go on to make fifty documentary films, but he never abandoned still photography.
Map of Robert Frank’s photo trek
Robert Frank died on Monday; he was 94.
Frederic Remington Art Museum
Ogdensburg, New York
The Frederic Remington Art Museum
When I was in Ogdensburg this past spring, I was lucky enough to get a private, guided tour of the Frederic Remington Art Museum. The main building of the museum was built in 1810 by David Parish. Remington’s wife Eva, lived in the residence after the artist’s death. Eva died in 1918, and the museum was founded in 1923.
The Bronco Buster; 1895
Today, the FRAM houses a large and comprehensive collection of Remington’s work, which includes paintings, sculptures and sketches, as well as many personal belongings.
Frederic Remington
Born in 1861, Remington was 11 when his family moved to Ogdensburg. He briefly attended Yale University’s art school, but left to tend his ailing father, who died a year later. At 19, Remington made his first trip Out West, to Montana. It was from this trip that Harper’s Weekly published Remington’s first work: a sketch the he had made on wrapping paper and sent back East. A career was launched, ever so humbly.
Here is just a very small sampling of Remington’s art on display at the FRAM:
Lasso Cowpuncher
This work just jumps out at me, due to the expression of the horse. Amazing detail here.
The Stampede, 1909
The plaster model of The Stampede had been sent to the Roman Bronze Works just prior to Remington’s untimely death. One of Remington’s final works, he did not live to see it cast into bronze.
The Charge of the Rough Riders; oil on canvas, 1898
Remington became a war correspondent during the Spanish-American War, and was around for the assault on San Juan Hill. What Remington witnessed during that brief war greatly affected him upon his return. His painting The Scream of Shrapnel at San Juan Hill depicts the terror of the unseen during war. It’s quite the visual.
The writer Stephen Crane was also alongside Remington as a correspondent in Cuba. He would return to publish Wounds in the Rain on his war experience. Oddly enough, Crane’s celebrated work The Red Badge of Courage was published in 1895, before he had experienced war first hand.
The Rattlesnake; 1905
The Courrier du Bois and the Savage; oil on canvas, 1891
Coming Through the Rye; 1902
In a Stiff Current; oil on canvas, 1892
The Cheyenne; 1901
In all Remington created 22 bronze sculptures, and over 3000 paintings and drawings. Remington also authored eight books. Frederic Remington died on 26 December 1909 from peritonitis after an emergency appendectomy. He was 48.
The Frederic Remington Art Museum is well worth the time to visit if you are in upstate New York. In all honesty, the area is well worth visiting anyway, so take in a visit to the FRAM as you explore the Saint Lawrence River country.
The Art of the Brick
Buffalo Museum of Science
Buffalo, New York
The Scream
The Art of the Brick is a global touring exhibit by artist Nathan Sawaya. His medium is the Lego. It happened to be at the Buffalo Museum of Science when I was in town.
David, with Augustus of Prima Porta looking on…
Rembrandt self portrait
The Great Wave off Kanagawa
Several of the works were the Lego impression of classic works of art, but the vast majority on display were not based on previous works.
Titled Gray, 23,678 Legos; “Taking a leap was hard… but I always knew there was another me, an Artist Me, lurking inside…” – Nathan Sawaya
Swimmer
Titled Grasp, 17,356 Legos; “No matter where your heart wants to lead you, there will be hands that try to hold you back. Life’s challenge is to find the strength to break free.” – Nathan Sawaya
T-Rex
I saved my favorite piece for last: A 20 foot long, 80,000 plus Lego, of a T-Rex. He gets two photos to show the size of this many-bricked dinosaur.
Rose Berry Alaska Art Gallery
The Rose Berry Art Gallery is located on the upper floor of the Museum of the North. The Alaska Territorial Legislature included the museum in the charter for the University of Alaska in 1917. The museum had its first exhibit in 1929, a collection of ethnological, archeological and paleontological material that had been collected by the famed local naturalist, Otto Geist. The large brown bear at the entrance to the museum’s Alaska Gallery is named “Otto” in honor of Mr Geist. In 1929, the University’s small collection of paintings were also placed on exhibit.
Warning: Do not touch the bear! I think it’s safe to say the bear’s nose gets rubbed for luck on occasion.
The art gallery is home to 2000 years of Alaskan art, from ancient ivory carvings, to contemporary sculpture and paintings.
“The Muries in Alaska”, oil on canvas by M.C. “Rusty” Heurlin
Artwork by “Rusty” Heurlin is displayed throughout the gallery. Heurlin spent several years living in the bush with his Alaska Native friends. The Muries, subject of the painting above, traveled throughout Alaska by dogsled. Margaret Murie was the first woman to graduate from the University of Alaska.
The gallery has over 3700 works of art on display. The current building was completed in 2005. Prior to that, much of the artwork was not displayed. Even with the new space, the vast majority of the collection is not on display. The Archaeology Collection alone has over 750,000 artifacts.
The work ranges from photographs by Ansel Admas, a painting of Denali by Sidney Laurence, to sculptures including the two thousand year old Okvik Madonna which originated in the Bering Sea region.
Walk to the River
In addition to paintings of wooly mammoths, there is a large selection of contemporary art as well. One of the most prominent is a rather large and elaborate outhouse. I did not take a picture of the impressive throne, but I did check to see if it was authentic. It was; it had a styrofoam seat. I did not check to see if it had been used recently.
Admission to the art gallery comes with admission to the museum. Don’t forget to check out the Place Where You Go to Listen. An “ever changing musical ecosystem, giving voice to the darkness, daylight, phases of the moon, seismic activity of the earth, and the dance of the aurora borealis”. It is honestly, quite the experience.
Creative Commons
Circle to Circle is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.Like the Stories & Photos? Help Keep the Rover Rolling.
