Ladies and gentlemen, THAT is a narwhal tusk.

What is a narwhal, you ask?

It’s a sea creature. It is something between a small whale and a large seal. The narwhal has a tusk. It’s actually a tooth gone wild. A front tooth grows like mad and develops into this crazy-long sword. Cartoon images of narwhals show the tusk like a horn, growing out of the creature’s head, but this is erroneous.

This tusk is at The Cloisters in Manhattan. It was on display in the Unicorn Room, a room filled with enormous tapestries of unicorns.

HOW anyone can get a unicorn from a narwhal is beyond me. I’ve heard it said that the “primitive” people got mixed up and thought a narwhal was a unicorn.

But you tell me. Would YOU get these two creatures confused?

Me neither.

So I don’t believe that the people of the past thought that narwhals were sea horses with horns on their heads. I think the unicorn idea is made up, in the imaginations of people, all by their primitive little selves.

The tapestries were lovely, though.

Olana is beautiful. It was the home of the late Frederick Church, one of my favorite painters. He was an apprentice of Thomas Cole, my most favorite painter ever. These painters were part of the Hudson River School, a group of artists that created a distinctive American romantic art movement called Luminism. I studied them in art school, and it was a real treat to see Church’s home and some of his paintings.

This is his home. It’s designed in Persian architectural style. After traveling through the Middle East, Church and his wife were smitten with the colorful designs of Persian and Arabic architecture. I love it.

At the top of the hill, the views were exquisite. This is the Rip Van Winkle Bridge over the Hudson River. We had to cross it to get to Olana. The view from the bridge was well worth the $1 toll charge.

I’ll have more photos and stuff about our trip on my travel blogs. We encountered some really quirky things in Catskill, NY, and had a blast! Stay tuned…. :D

I was an art major in school. I took art history, art theory, art art art. Overwhelmingly, there was this strange fascination with Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. The adoring attention always baffled me. It’s a very nice painting of an unknown lady who plucked her eyelashes for fashion (or so I’ve heard, in one of the gadzillion articles about the painting). WHO CARES. ??

What sparks this post is an article I read on the BBC: Mona Lisa Mystery Could Be Solved By Woman’s Remains. The story reports that an art historian thinks that Lisa Gherardini, wife of a wealthy Florence merchant, may be the lady behind the painting. He would like to exhume her body, extract DNA and rebuild her face. I like history an awful lot, but wow! That’s pretty intense.

Other reports I’ve heard state that there are “hidden symbols” embedded in the the Mona Lisa painting. I don’t know– I’m rather skeptical– hidden symbols?! Come on, is this just fodder for another wacky Dan Brown novel?

Maybe da Vinci was short on paper, and he used the canvas for a doodling pad before he painted the portrait. Or maybe he really did insert hidden symbols– maybe he inserted the following:

“Will you guys quit fussing over obscure details and enjoy the painting already!” Signed, The Little d

What do you think? Do you stay up late pondering the enigmatic mysteries of the Mona Lisa? Or do you nod your head, keep walking, and pass on to see the other stuff at the museum?

Before I start, I want to let you all know that I DID manage to visit every single Meet Me on Monday participant! I left comments on all but three blogs, too! I DID IT!!! It took me three hours, though. I humbly thank all of you who came to visit me back and leave comments. THANK YOU so much! It was a blast!

Now to start!

1. Did you get any Valentine’s Gifts?
Hmm, not yet. I don’t think I will. We don’t really celebrate holidays, except for Thanksgiving and Independence Day (July 4). Of course, if I get a shiny red car with a big bow on top or a billion roses, I wouldn’t object.

2. What is your favorite topping on something toasted?
Eh, butter. I don’t eat toasted stuff all that much, though. As I get older, bread products bother me.

3. Do you pick out your outfit the night before?
Yeah, the same thing I have on today. HAHA kidding! Since I work at home, I don’t ave to dress up. I wear linen or knit pants, a t-shirt or chamois shirt, and flannel shirt. Nice and cozy. I’m definitely a Non-Posh mom. One of the things I disliked about working outside the home was having to wear fancy clothes, especially nylons and heels. YUK!

4. What food item do you absolutely despise?
Lima beans. :rainy: DISGUSTING!

P.S. Java, did you realize that you ask a food question every week?! I am going to HAVE to stop doing this late Sunday night. By the time I’m done posting, I’m starved!

5. Righty or lefty?
Well, depends. I’m not exactly ambidextrous, but I can write with either hand. Actually, when I was in high school, I was friends with a girl who was left-handed, Kelly. We came up with the idea to practice our handwriting with our opposing hands– we would do all our homework with the other hand. The teachers NEVER complained about the poor handwriting, lol! I wonder if they even read what we did…. And in Art class, my teacher had us practice “Drawing on the Left Side of the Brain.” We first drew a pencil drawing with our right hand. Then, we flipped it upside down and drew it again. When both were done, we compared them side-by-side, right side up. The difference between the two was amazing! LOL

So this was fun! I don’t think I will be getting to ALL participants this week, but I can sure try. Please consider following me on Google Friends Connect. I follow back! Thanks! Have a great week, everyone!

Here are some of the colors we concocted, what do you think? Would these be approved by the Crayon Powers That Be?

Roadkill Red

Fly Gut Green

Beaver Breath Brown

Bruise Blue

Pond Scum Green

Potash Purple

Plague Black

Bread Mold Blue

Tapeworm Taupe (Note: after looking for a photo for this one, I opted to spare you any graphic representations. *barf*)

Yukky Green

Barfaroni Orange

Barbie Pink

Poisoned Pumpkin

Oil Leak Rainbow

Puke Yellow

Houndstooth Gray

Hee hee. What colors can you think of?

I love coffee. Mmmmm coffeecoffeecoffeecoffee!

Here’s a video of some pretty amazing coffee art. Yes! Coffee ART! Some young urban folks, with WAY too much time on their hands, used 4,000 cups of latte (dark, medium, light, etc) to make the Mona Lisa. The coffee art was done to launch some festival or something. It’s a pretty cool video.

Isn’t that amazing? But if I was there– clutzy me— one misstep and WHOOPS! Sploooosh!

And… who got to drink all that cold latte when the Mona Lisa was done?

Isn’t this so cool? I don’t think I could ever sit still and keep my hands from wiggling for the time required to paint these creatures, though.

This is a lot what my hands look like all winter long…. :S

And this is very impressive. That eye looks real!

Photos courtesy of Yoke: Incredible Hand Paintings. Go there to see more.

Photos from Artist: Guido Daniele
Body Paintings © Guido Daniele http://www.guidodaniele.com/

Nathan Sawaya’s works of art are currently on tour across North America– the first art tour of its kind– called The Art of the Brick. What a blast that must be! And I’ll bet the cargo trucks are softly padded so the Legos don’t shake apart when hitting the potholes, eh?

I especially liked this one! :D

Nathan Sawaya has a website here, showcasing a gallery filled with amazing Lego art creations. The collection is really stunning!

As we all know, when Matt Groening developed the Simpsons, art critics everywhere hailed his new style as the pinnacle of humanity’s artistic achievement. So great was Groening, that other art styles needed to be redone to conform with His superior vision.

So, I decided to draw a whole gallery of images created in Aviary’s Phoenix, showing what famous works of art would look like had they been created by Matt Groening.

This is my favorite. Have you ever seen that old Norman Rockwell self-portrait? I just LOVE Norman Rockwell art, I have several of his posters around the house. So this is especially humorous.

Funny!

Well, winter is in full force now. I like winter enough, but it gets old about February. I am feeling a little lonesome for my green gardens, though.

I found these photos and thought they’d be perfect for now! Looking at them makes me feel warmer! And the artistry amazes me. HOW can people do this with sand?! I can make a little hill with something that looks like a steeple, but that’s it. These sculptures are really amazing. And the cool thing is, they’ll never run out of material!

These are from the The World Championships Tournament of Sand Sculpture from May 2008, in Harrison Hot Springs, British Columbia.

This was very, very cool.

I like this a lot, too.

The Muppets meet Jurassic Park- funny!

But just think– come the first rainy day, it’s all back to plain old sand. And what do the artists do if it rains and the sculpture is only half completed? :-O

All photos are courtesy of the Harrisand.org site, the official sand sculpture site for the World Championships.