Wizarding World of Harry Potter

While this blog is mostly about my art, one Saturday in March I had the wonderful opportunity to go to Universal Studios in Orlando and experience another kind of art. The weather was beautiful, my companions were delightful, and the park exceeded my expectations.

Having read all the books, I confess that I am a “Potterphile”,  but seeing J.K. Rowling’s creation come to life was a real treat. The attention to detail and the architecture of the park was truly a work of artistic genius. I hadn’t ridden an amusement park ride for many years, but the attraction, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey was awesome. Waiting in line was a bore, but once inside the castle, the experience was magical. The talking portraits were every bit as wonderful as Rowling’s books describe, and the holographic images of the movie characters were very realistic. Once the ride began, I was thoroughly enchanted. The 3D effects were astounding,  as we even had the feeling of riding on broomsticks in a quidditch game.
We spent most of our time in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, but enjoyed some of the other parts of the park as well. Here's a photo from Jurassic Park.

March Madness

I had the wonderful opportunity to attend round two of the NCAA basketball championship in Tampa on Thursday. While I don’t always watch basketball with the same intelligence as Tom, I do enjoy a good show.

Here’s my list of non basketball highlights

Best Pep Band

Princeton University’s scramble band wins top honors for costuming, energy and creativity. Here’s one of their percussionists.

 

Best Dance Team

Michigan State had slinky costumes, and great dance moves. These young women were in great shape.

 

Best Cheerleaders

UK’s squad holds more national championships than the basketball team. Their creative use of the mascot gets kudos.

 

Best Mascot

This is tough. I love the UK mascot, especially when he wears his patchwork pants, but the nod goes to “Albert” of the University of Florida. Gotta love a plush gator.

 

Sorry, WVA, your Mountaineer mascot needs a makeover. Either drop the rifle prop or learn to twirl it. Definitely needs more moves than walking around patting the gun. Any ideas on a different prop for him? Moonshine jug? Hmmm…. seems in poor taste.

 

Best Fans

Hands down, University of Kentucky.  Give Cat fans the opportunity to buy tickets, and every game becomes a home game.

What I'm Reading

Faithful Place by Tana French. It's on a few best lists for 2010. It's a murder mystery set in Dublin over a span of 20 years. My brother tells me it is the third in this author's books about a cop in Dublin, Ireland.


Gilead. Started it twice, determined to finish it. I hate to dis a Pulitzer prize winner, but besides from some beautiful prose, the novel went nowhere. She did quote the fourth verse from a beautiful Isaac Watts hymn, O God Our Help in Ages Past.

Time, like an ever rolling stream,
Bears all its sons away;
They fly, forgotten, as a dream
Dies at the opening day.

Country Driving by Peter Hessler--Hessler lived in China when he was a Peace Corps volunteer right out of college. After teaching in a town on the Yangtze River for two years he became the Beijing correspondent for the New Yorker magazine. His first book River Town was about his Peace Corps experience. It was a book I enjoyed. Country Driving may be even better. It is an account of the monumental changes sweeping across China as they move from farm to factory. The first section is about a road trip he takes paralleling the Great Wall. Before taking off hefirst he had to pass a Chinese driving exam. Here are a couple of excerpts from the study book.

After passing another vehicle, you should
a) wait until there is a safe distance between the two vehicles, make a right turn signal, and return to the original lane.
b) cut in front of the other car as quickly as possible.
c) cut in front of the other car and then slow down.

When overtaking another car, a driver should pass
a) on the left
b) on the right
c) wherever, depending on the situation

There are 429 multiple choice questions in the study book and 256 true/false questions, i.e.
In a taxi, it's fine to carry a small amount of explosive material

The conversations with the car rental company he uses are hilarious. It was a very well written book, recommend.

I got pulled in to another Ken Follett novel, Fall of Giants, when my brother loaned it to me a a few weeks ago. It is amazing how fast 985 pages can go. I do have to say that I considered buying some kind of reader after holding this 4 pound book. The book covers the build up to WW1 and the changes that happened in Europe after the war. It was an interesting period, but I didn't like it as much as Pillars of the Earth and World Without End. Fall of Giants is the first in his century trilogy. I'll likely read the others too. I have an idea he will use some of the same characters.

Factory Girls by Lesley Chang. The author, Peter Hessler's wife, takes a look at the young women in China who leave their homes in small villages to come to factory towns in southern China. The book was fascinating from a social science perspective. China is experiencing a huge wave of migration as well as an industrial revolution. I think the author tried to cover too much territory. I would have preferred that she write solely about the women who "go out" rather than weaving her own family's narritive into the book.

The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman. This is a very different book, really a collection of vignettes about the staff of an English language newspaper in Rome. It is very cleverly written, and many of the stories have an unexpected twist. It's the best fiction book in the bunch.

Clayton Valentines 2011 Edition

Well here it is, photos of our family’s annual valentine exchange. Over 20 years ago, our daughters who were then in grade school wanted to purchase valentines to give to the family. Tom and I suggested that we each make a valentine and the idea caught on. Through the years, the valentines have had many messages, heartfelt, poignant, silly, corny, political, cultural, and of course those involving sports. Although not photographed, I heard there was a Justin Bieber themed card this year. Here are some of this year’s editions.



Love the pun and the 3D effect of the Biden figure. It had to come in a special box



Like I said, every theme, even the kitchen sink



My valentines usually show the techniques I am practicing in my studio



I had to alter the front of the card to avoid copywrite infringement



Now the inside, definitely a homemade appeal



More corniness



From our daughter who works with iPads in the classroom



sketchbook practice



front of card


and inside. Those are silly bands attached to the card.

I don’t know how many more years we will do this, but we are still having fun.

Pop-up Valentine card

A friend showed me how to make a pop-up valentine last year, and when I got a call to teach children’s Sunday school last night, I knew I had to use her idea. The children were amazed at how the valentines popped out, and I have to admit, I was too. I was so amazed that I came home and made a Valentine thank you card for the friend who taught me how to make them.

Here’s how

Take an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper (cardstock is good), and fold in half both lengthwise and widthwise.

Fold in half lengthwise and position a half-heart template on the bottom half of the card.

Making sure the center of the heart template is on the fold, you will cut your heart shape from the top and from the bottom to the x’s on the template. Don’t cut all the way around, or your heart will just fall out. It needs to stay attached to the sheet of cardstock.

Open the card flat again

Then fold the top half to the back along the widthwise fold line, and gently pull the heart out away from the body of the card as you close it. When you re-open it, the heart pops out.

I cut my cardstock in pink and glued one of my zentangle hearts to the pop out heart

and wrote a simple message on the front, to thank my friend for the idea.

Tarpon sculpture dedication

It’s done! The city held a lovely dedication ceremony yesterday. it was a beautiful day, and everything went well. The local paper had published a nice article the day before.

 

 

 

 

Many friends and family were present, the artist spoke about his vision for the artwork, and we had an opportunity to express gratitude to our parents and the community that was important to our formative years.

 

Here are the four siblings.

Valentines ala Alisa Burke

After reading the talented Alisa Burke’s blog post on Friday, I decided I had to make some of her valentines. I’ve already made my valentines and they are in the mail, these were just for fun.



I cut the valentines out of construction paper, then drew on them with a fine Pitt artist pen, colored them with Derwent watercolor pencils, then to finish, painted them with water. when the water hit the pencil marks, they became much more vibrant and intense. They were fun to do, almost like a Zentangle valentine.

Art of Paul Baliker part2

Installation day. The tarpon arrived on a truck, tied down and lying on a pillow. The artist, Paul Baliker is in the blue jacket.



Straps were attached and the fish was lifted off the truck and driven 50 yards to the site.



It took teamwork to get it in place





Just add water and let the fountain play. 



The city workers were very efficient. While one crew installed the tarpon, another crew was laying down new sod. The whole process took less than two hours. When we left for the day it was only going to be a few hours before the tide came in and filled the pond again.  It should be completed by Saturday.

The Art of Paul Baliker

When my mother and father died, we had memorial services, their bodies were cremated, their ashes were scattered in places where they enjoyed spending time. Those were their wishes, but there were no headstones, no markers, no cemetery records, nothing to commemorate their lives. To honor them and recognize the contributions they made to their community, my siblings and I decided to fund a piece of public art in the city of Ormond Beach, Florida, my parents home for many years.
We met with city officials and engaged a local artist, Paul Baliker. The city agreed to do all the preparatory work, and we agreed to commission and pay the sculptor. Paul’s design is for a leaping tarpon that springs from a pond on a popular riverfront park. A fountain will be installed to give the illusion of movement of the tarpon.

First the city drained the pond



Then they began the concrete and plumbing work



Here’s an overview of the setting for the tarpon



The city will continue concrete and plumbing work this week and on February 3rd, a crane and the tarpon arrive. The artist will supervise the installation of the sculpture and fountain. There is a wedding in the park on Saturday, and the city plans to have the sculpture and fountain fully operative and all landscaping completed by then. My two sisters and brother and our spouses will celebrate our parents’ lives this weekend.

I’ll post some more pictures later in the week.

Ephemera and Closet Cleaning

Every January I do a bit of clearing out. Thrift store, Friends of Library sale, consignments shops and the curb are where items go that I no longer need. This year I opened a trunk that has been stored in the attic or garage for at least 40 years.
Here’s a sample of what I found
A Beatles Concert ticket stub from their Philadelphia concert in 1966 (yes, I was there)













75 of so Beatles trading cards like this gem from 1964

Fan magazines galore

And a program from an Independence Day address by President Kennedy that I attended in 1962.

and a menu from the same day

This year I have a new outlet…Ebay!
I suppose the Beatles items are copy write protected, but feel free to use the others in your artwork.
I’ve got a lot more clearing out to do, so I won’t be doing much artwork until I make my valentines.

Sketchbook Challenge Entry

Here it is, my sketchbook challenge entry for January. I drew the camellia with a #2 pencil, then colored it with CARAN d’ACHE Neocolor II watercolors. They are a lot of fun to work with. You color your picture, much like you would color in a coloring book, then take a wet paintbrush and paint the crayon marks. They blend and take a look much like watercolors.



The theme for the January sketchbook challenge is “Highly Prized”. I don’t have the skills to draw those people in my life who are highly prized, so I picked a flower that was highly prized by my late father. Camellias are blooming in Florida now, I need to plan another trip to Leu Gardens in Winter Park.

Wizardly Cookery

Today I had the fun of spending time cooking with my friend Franky. She and I share a love of all things Harry Potter, so we had to try some recipes from her new Harry Potter cookbook.
She selected Pumpkin Juice, a favorite with the Hogwarts crowd and Knickerbocker Glory, a treat enjoyed by Dudley Dursley.
The pumpkin juice was a blend of three fruit juices mixed with baked pumpkin strained through a sieve…juice part was easy, but scooping the baked squash (we couldn't find pumpkin)  and sieving it required some persistence.
 

 
My friend Joanna joined us for part of the fun

We put the pumpkin juice in the refrigerator and took a break for lunch. Then we tackled the custard for the Knickerbocker Glory.
It was a basic custard recipe but required some kitchen skills like separating eggs (Franky’s way is easier than mine) cooking sugar, cornstarch and milk and adding the hot milk mix slowly to the beaten eggs. I had forgotten that the term for this is tempering.
While the custard chilled, we watched some football with Tom, (Franky’s team won, not Tom’s).
Then Franky prepared the whipped cream with my new Christmas present, a stick blender with a whisk attachment.

Next step: assembly. Ice cream in the bottom of the glass, followed by strawberries, jello custard, nuts, chocolate syrup and whipped cream. Can’t say I ever had jello and chocolate sauce in the same recipe.


We set the table, used crystal for the pumpkin juice and enjoyed our afternoon snack.

It was delicious

and clean up was easy