Munchies or Days 29-30

Ben, George, George

(Fair tomorrow. Weather, bah!)

Yesterday and today we spent preparing for and then going on a field trip to Raleigh, to the North Carolina Museum of Art. In addition to viewing the permanent collections, we took a 3 mile hike through the grounds to see the sculptures plus saw the exhibition of the prints of Edvard Munch.

sawfish hat from the Niger River delta

This sprung from a recent discussion of why the sky is red in "Scream" (a volcanic explosion half a world away), and how we might react if we woke up to a red sky for which we had no explanation. Lightbulbs went off during that talk, and now George is fascinated with figuring out art.

He has quite strong tastes for which pieces interest him, and he is distinctly not a fan of Untitled as a title.

Untitled

We spent a long time today seated in front of Copley's Sir William Pepperrell (1746-1816) and His Family, an enormous, commissioned portrait of an English noble who was exiled after the American Revolution. The portrait showed the nobleman, his four young children, and his dead wife, painted as if she were still alive, the family intact. George remarked that she looked very pale, as if she wasn't as alive as her children, whose rosy limbs are draped about her in stark contrast. He also pointed out that the wife is seated in the center of the portrait; all others including two dogs surround her. We talked about this portrait a long time and finally decided the nobleman loved her passionately even still.  It was definitely the one that touched us the most, even if we did find the one below very amusing.

Jenga!