Borges' Library

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In Search of Walruses (Notes)



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“Does anyone know where exactly we’re going?” asked a woman, breaking the silence.
We all edged forward, squinting at the map. It was July. But cold enough to wear my puffy jacket.
“ Somewhere south of Port Heiden.” someone ventured…"

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Tundra plane best
Tundra plane best
Tundra plane best

Hunter
Hunter

“M'amour, m'amour
what do I love and
where are you?
That I lost my center
fighting the world
The Dreams clash
and are shattered-
and that I tried to make a paradiso
terrestre.

I have tried to write Paradise
Do not move
Let the wind speak
that is paradise
Let the Gods forgive what I
have made
Let those I love try to forgive
what I have made.”

― Ezra Pound, The Cantos

A million walrusus


A million walrusus
A million walrusus

Walrus naps


Walrus naps


Walrus naps


Walrus naps

 

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Early in the pandemic, I had a dream that I was in Alaska walking across tundra. Looking down at my feet, I saw a wondrous tangle of green and yellow lichen; of moss and red berries; and a variety of dwarf willow and rhododendron, none more than an inch tall. It created a beautiful pattern, like a Persian carpet. Enchanted, I wanted to take off my shoes and feel the spongy earth between my toes.

Removing my shoes, dozens of blue butterflies flew out of my sneakers.

The next morning, I wondered how it was possible that I had not walked barefoot in so long. Even at the beach, I usually keep my shoes on. And not only that, but I had never in my life walked off-trail, much less traipsed across tundra. When I was young, I once camped along the Indus River, in India, but that was so long ago.

How had I become so alienated from wild things?  

Even my fascination with walruses –a childhood favorite animal—had never got me closer to the animal than in a work of art. Albrecht Dürer’s Head of a Walrus had made a great impact on me, along with several of his other pictures of animals, which some people consider to be “better than a trip to the zoo” for the insight they provide into the natural world.

Despite the fact that walruses are rarely seen outside the arctic, some four hundred years before Tolkien struggled with his entry for “walrus” in the OED, Dürer had somehow managed to have an encounter with a walrus. Fascinated with the natural world, the artist had made a special trip to the Zeeland region of the Netherlands after hearing about a whale that had washed ashore.

He was, it should be added, also trying to outrun the plague back home in Germany.

Poor Dürer. Not only was he unable to see the dead leviathan, but in the process of traveling to the region, he caught an unknown disease, which scholars now think was probably malaria. But Dürer being Dürer, he managed to draw an extraordinary picture of a walrus that remains a much-loved work in the British Museum. It is incredible to think that the lush eyelashes framing the creature’s alert eyes, and those thick bristles flanking its brilliant white tusks came solely from his imagination, since he probably never saw a walrus alive.

Walruses in Wonderland. Would they have eyelashes like Dürer drew them?

How had he done it? Perhaps he saw the preserved head of a walrus—and based his drawing from that. Or maybe he studied someone else’s picture? Or had he managed to somehow see a living specimen? We will never know.


Walrus naps

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Alaska Books

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Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait
by Bathsheba Demuth
In what is easily the best book I’ve read this year; Demuth’s Floating Coast is a deep dive into the ways that differing economic and social systems have shaped the land in Beringia. And in Demuth’s telling, there is a stark divide between systems that view the land from far distant centers of power as a resource to be utilized and optimized versus locally based systems where the hunters are stakeholders in the land.

In the first category is Russia and the US. These are specifically, imperial Russia and communist collectivist USSR on one side of the Bering Sea and US-style capitalism on the other. Under these systems, the land and the creatures who dwell within it are seen as resources to be managed and turned into profit—whether for the collective or for financial shareholders. Either way, the name of the game is short-term optimization of the land—not long-term sustainability.

This is in direct contrast to the native communities, who have hunted the land for thousands of years and are stakeholders and stewards of the place. As is well-known, arctic peoples survive mainly on meat. You can’t grow vegetables in the far north and so the peoples there have developed a culture that revolves around hunting animals. This practice revolves around elaborate customs and beliefs that result in hunting that is sustainable and fair. That means, that people don’t take more than they can use (and they use the entire animal). Even now, on federally managed lands, native communities are permitted to hunt walruses. Hunting in Alaska is highly regulated, but as I was told by our guide (an Alaskan big game hunter himself) man remains the walruses’ main predator.
“The government can’t exactly dictate to the native people how and what they can eat when they’ve been hunting here for thousands of years. That would be colonialist.”

I was particularly interested in her focus on energy. As she puts it, “to be alive is to take a place in a chain of conversions.” For Beringians—the Chukchi, Iñupiat, and Yupik —creatures/minerals/ice the world were not transferable sources of profit-- but part of an interconnected world to which they were a part. To which they depended on for survival. Mutual inter-dependence and co-survival. I was really interested in the traditional myths she described in which humans become walruses or whale come forth to be killed when they felt the humans were worthy and deserving of their offering.

The writing is very beautiful. Nature listed it as one of their top science reads the year it came out and I think it has also won writing awards. It is an extraordinary book.

From the New York Times review: “To be alive means taking up our place in a chain of conversions,” Demuth reminds us. “In order to live, something, some being, is always dying.” After centuries of humans’ industrial energy consumption, what will be next to go? This summer, Alaska had its hottest days ever recorded. Seas are rising, habitats are disappearing, and extreme weather events are on the rise. As people act, the climate reacts. Only by understanding that link might we survive.

Feral: Rewilding the Land, the Sea and Human Life
by George Monbiot
In one of the more memorable moments in this book, Monbiot is living with the Turkana people in northern Kenya, Investigating assaults on them by governmental bodies, he befiends a young man and spends time with him off and on over the course of a few years. There is a moment where he feels envy for his friend, whose life is so interwoven with the people of his village and the surrounding environment. Monbiot says that if given the choice at birth to have been born into his life or the life of his nomadic friend, if the choice entailed flourishing in both lives, he would choose that of his friend. He says he is not alone and recounts stories of colonialists in America who were kidnapped in their youth by native peoples. Later ransomed, the men made every effort to return to the native tribes where life was fuller. For all our riches we don't seem happy, he makes the point.

"Rewilding or Conservation?
Rewilding is the restoration of significant areas of land (and sea) in which natural processes are left to shape ecosystems on their own, without human interference. The goal of rewilding is not to reach a predetermined endpoint or ideal ecosystem. George Monbiot contrasts this with the traditional conservation approach, which, according to him, simply keeps the land in a state of heavily managed degradation. He argues that this is partly because we have a false idea of what nature should look like, one that is based on a memory of what these habitats were like in our youth (‘shifting baseline syndrome')." From Mossy Earth

A similar debate went on about the restoration of Chartres. Do we arbitrarily pick a point in time and define that as "original, pristine" or do we let the building age and try to allow for those human and natural changes with a view of minimal interference. See my essay here

This is what is interesting about Monbiot. He is not calling for a return from an imagined time. He is not asking for people to be turned off land, if the land is healthy and productive. What he is calling for is a different relationship between people and the land. One that will be healthier for the people, who are, he says, ecologically bored: “As our lives have become tamer and more predictable, as the abundance and diversity of nature have declined, as our physical challenges have diminished to the point at which the greatest trial of strength and ingenuity we face is opening a badly designed packet of nuts, could these imaginary creatures have brought us something we miss?”

We are not going back to the Stone Age, but....

Is online shopping a repressed urge to forage? And what of our obsession with "clean" food and celebrity chefs?

I do think Monbiot is the most realist thinker we have talking about these issues because he speaks in terms of pushing back and moving targets, which is the way to make change on this scale happen. To push back industrialized farming and land-use in terms of designated areas which are decided by a rationalist approach. This will mean what we already understand needs to happen: no to monocrops in order to save soil health, no to industrialized animal industry but also a hard look at traditional forms, aka sheep. A local focus, a kind of terroir thinking, will necessarily view the land as part of an ecosystem, instead of as capital and that will enable the inter-relational aspects of ecosystems to be better understood since it will be a focus on a particular place. In another wonderful book I recently read by Winifred Bird about foraging and hand-crafted foods in Japan, she interviews an artisan who says, if we live and make use of the land we will be much more apt to protect it, since we personally depend on it. The issues are huge and so I appreciate Monbiot having a laser focus.

The Whale and the Cupcake: Stories of Subsistence, Longing, and Community in Alaska
by Julia O'Malley
"Alaska’s cuisine is one part wild, one part shelf stable, ever practical, seasonal, and inventive, marked by cultural contrast, with ingredients ranging from seaweed to sheet cake to pancit to Tang."

This is a very special book, which I purchased at the anchorage museum and that I will treasure forever. The writing is so lively and engaging and the book is so beautifully produced! It opens with a really evocative chapter on box cake mixes (!!) I bet you didn't see that come? Talking about how in Alaska people rely on cake mixes, O'Malley engagingly describes how people love to pimp up their cakes--like Betty Crocker cake mixes adorned with salmon berries and dolce de Leche. You can imagine how hard it must be to cook without all the ingredients were so used to in the lower 48 --and imagine midwinter in Alaska, especially outside of Anchorage! That was the first chapter and from there it goes on to fishing in the Kenai River-- the most democratic fishing spot in the US-- to spam musubi which I was so surprised to read about! I loved everything about this book--and will treasure this one forever!

The Salmon Way: An Alaska State of Mind
by Amy Gulick

This is pretty much the perfect book-- gorgeous photographs, a wonderful title and engaging writing, it is filled with fishing stories and the latest science on salmon.

Why is Alaska home to one of the last healthy salmon runs in the world? In times past North America, as well as a lot of Europe was home to abundant runs. What happened? How did Alaska do things right? Well a big part of the answer is that what the fish need to survive their habitat remains largely intact. This is the same for birds (see Scott Weidensaul's new book).... and probably for most creatures. It is not a one-to-one species to one habitat but rather a multitude of habitats that support the entire life cycle of the fish from marine to river to lakes... with water temperature being crucial (this is becoming the big issue).

The title of the book, the Salmon Way, hints at another crucial piece of the success of Alaskan salmon: the human element. In dozens of really engaging interviews and stories, Gulick paints a picture of a traditional native Alaskan way of respect.

She asks one native Alaskan, with such a plenitude resources in your homeland, it’s easy to see how your ancestors thrive... to which the lady responds, "Resources? "Mountain goat and trees are not resources. We have relationships with the goat and the trees."

This difference between a resource and a relationship is paramount. How can you relate to lumber of copper wires or fish sticks? Those are resources. Trees and goats--and salmon-- are beings to which we are living alongside in relationships based on respect. In Alaska, everything is hungry someone else says. Bears, fish, eagles... people share the salmon with all those creatures, as well as with each other.

And the pact is this: Because Alaskans live and depend on the land, people traditionally did not take more than they can use. And they use the entire animal. It is a system that is self-regulatory, since if the animals are over-hunted, then people will soon starve.

Quote:
For thousands of years, Alaska natives fished, hunted and gathered as a way of life. Today approximately 130,000 rural residents-- both natives and not natives-- still rely on fish and wildlife, harvesting 18,000 tons, or an average of close to 300 pounds per person a year. Fish account for 56% of this harvest. There is no other places in the United States wild and abundant enough that a significant number of people can still live this way. Most of us are thousands of years removed from the way of life are hunter gatherer ancestors so today’s concept of subsistence is often misunderstood. To those who don’t live this way of life, subsistence can imply a mirror existence living hand to mouth, data day, and whatever one can Scrounge from the land. This is the definition of poor and some societies. The most Alaska to live a subsistence way of life considers themselves the richest people in the world, and they fight hard to maintain the right to continue the customary in traditional ways."

I think this is such an important thing to consider. I also loved this quote:
In today’s world, many of us have lost our connection to the land. We forgot what it means to live among fantastic creatures, jaw-dropping beauty, and real danger. We have forgotten that a community extends beyond our relationships with other human beings. But the salmon people in Alaska have not forgotten. They know that they are part of the community of fish, rivers, oceans, forest, and tundra. They share the salmon with bears, Eagles, seals, Beluga whales and each other they show gratitude to this remarkable fish that they have seen them through times of plenty and times of scarcity.

The happiest day in recent years for me was buying a pair of xtratuf boots in Homer at the Salmon Sisters shop-- and just when I thought this book could not get any better, there is an interview with one of the sisters.... whose Salmon Sisters Cookbook and Whales and cupcakes is also highly recommended!

And speaking of jaw-dropping beauty: her photographs! I LOVED this book!

Rhythm of the Wild: A Life Inspired by Alaska's Denali National Park
by Kim Heacox

 

The road to Wonder Lake.... is the path toward the Good Life. I got a copy of this to prepare for an upcoming trip to Camp Denali, never expecting such fantastic writing! The lyrical and evocative writing was compared by reviewers to Barry Lopez or Aldo Leopold. I would add Terry Tempest Williams, for its totally soulful style.... but add in a strong dash of novelist Tom Robbins... because the book is incredibly humorous and playful. Musical. 1960s.... !!! It's like a time slip.... back to a time when people really questioned "the program"... How did he retain his youthful enchantment with the world, curiosity and refusal to "get with the program?" How did he do it? Well, I guess he moved to Alaska...

"Forget success. Be a healer, peacekeeper, storyteller. Eat homegrown carrots and potatoes. Sleep in a small cabin; let the mountains be your mansion."

“Any fool can destroy trees,” said John Muir, another hero. What’s hard is to stand before the truck, the tank, the big machine, whatever it might be, and say “no more.” You’ve had your run. This is where the folly ends. It’s time to dig deep, get creative, do something new. Ride a bicycle to Honduras; volunteer in an orphanage. Pick papayas. Eat mangos.”


One of my favorite translations projects was working for a philosopher at Hiroshima University translating his papers into English. He worked a lot on the concept of "play" and Heacox's words below really resonated:

"Perhaps the most difficult work before us is to work less, and play more. Creativity is the key. Stay young. Live simply, frugally. Turn work into play. Find what you’re passionate about and do it with great gratitude. The money will follow, maybe. Be a playful worker, a hardworking player, a musician, an artist, a writer, a teacher—the best teacher in town.”

More than anything this book is about resisting "endless growth" and models of productivity and consumption... to just stop. I was humbled by it, since I know how much I have failed to live up to my own life philosophies, forged in my youth...Looking forward to reading his book on Muir and his earlier memoir. And speaking of memoirs, I loved how he mixed the personal content and the story of his life, as filtered by his time in Denali, with long forays into music, books and science.

Saw him on Ken Burns' national parks documentary in Denali segment... soulful.

Also:

Fantastic article in Outdoors: Baked Alaska: Surviving Aniakchak National Monument

Interesting article in the New York Times about the indigenous-big game hunting connection in Canada & AIVIQ: Life with Walruses, photos by Paul Souders
Macaulay Library Walrus Recordings

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Holbein, van Eyck and Kende Wiley

1024px-After_Hans_Holbein_the_Younger_-_Portrait_of_Henry_VIII_-_Google_Art_ProjectHolbein, 1536 or 37. Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool

The King's Painter: The Life of Hans Holbein
by Franny Moyle

Holbein: Capturing Character
Getty Museum Catalogue 

1192px-Simon_George _by_Hans_Holbein_the_YoungerPortrait of Simon George of Cornwall, c. 1535-1540, Hans Holbein the Younger Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main

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Portrait of a Lady with a Squirrel and a Starling is an oil-on-oak portrait completed in around 1526–1528 by German Renaissance painter Hans Holbein the Younger. London.

800px-Christina_of_Denmark _Duchess_of_MilanPortrait of Christina of Denmark, 1538 London

 

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Mantegna's Madonna della Vittoria 1496. Paris 

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van Eyck's The Virgin and Child with Canon van der Paele, 1434–36 Bruge

1280px-Piero_della_Francesca_046The Brera Madonna, Piero della Francesca Milan

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Fresco Piero Rimini

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The Long Disputed Meaning Of Van Eyck's Painting (Waldemar Januszczak Documentary) | Perspective/VIDEOThe Tudors Through The Eyes Of Holbein

Video: A Stitch in Time in the Arnolfini Portrait

Hannah Gadsby: why I love the Arnolfini Portrait, one of art history’s greatest riddles

GIRL IN A GREEN GOWN 
by Carola Hicks

Jan Van Eyck's Arnolfini Portrait: Stories of an Icon
by Linda Seidel

 

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Resurrection

"resurrection" by alma thomas
This acrylic and graphite on canvas painting was done by Alma Thomas, who was an educator and artist in Washington, D.C. for most of her career. She was a member of the Washington Color School. This painting was unveiled as part of the White House Collection during Black History Month 2015 and is the first in this collection by an African-American woman. This painting was acquired for the White House Collection with support from George B. Hartzog, Jr., and the White House Acquisition Trust/White House Historical Association.

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Brooklyn Museum/ Kehinde Wiley Napoleon Leading His Army Over the Alps

Napoleon Leading the Army is a clear spin-off of Jacques-Louis David’s painting of 1800-01 (below), which was commissioned by Charles IV, the King of Spain, to commemorate Napoleon’s victorious military campaign against the Austrians. The original portrait smacks of propaganda. Napoleon, in fact, did not pose for the original painting nor did he lead his troops over the mountains into Austria. He sent his soldiers ahead on foot and followed a few days later, riding on a mule.

The Obama Portraits Have Had a Pilgrimage Effect
One year after Kehinde Wiley’s and Amy Sherald’s paintings were unveiled, the director of the National Portrait Gallery reflects on their unprecedented impact.

By Kim Sajet

The Internet Is Restaging Famous Paintings While Museums Are Closed
The Getty, Metropolitan Museum, and Rijksmuseum have challenged their followers to creatively recreate famous works in their collections. In HYPERALLERGIC by Hakim Bishara

 

Books:

The Obama Portraits
by Taina Beatriz Caragol-Barreto, Richard J. Powell, Dorothy Moss, Kim Sajet, Thelma Golden

Huntington Museum Kehinde Wiley: A Portrait of a Young Gentleman

Kehinde Wiley: Memling

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Calligraphy in the Garden Notes

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A Garden of Words Part One

Exhibition Catalog: A Garden of Words Part One

 

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Qianshen Bai, professor and dean of the School of Art and Archaeology at Zhejiang University, wrote the calligraphy on the title placard for the Chinese Garden’s new art gallery, Studio for Lodging the Mind. Bai spoke about the art of Chinese calligraphy on Sept. 9

Lecture by Qianshen Bai (link below) explores some foundational questions concerning Chinese calligraphy: How did writing become a fine art in China? Where is the boundary between functional writing and visual art?

Some Thoughts on the Art of Chinese Calligraphy

Professor Bai noted that Pablo Picasso famously said, “If I were born Chinese, I would not be a painter but a writer. I’d write my pictures.”


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Wang mansheng

Corridor of Refreshing Sound by Wang Mansheng 王满晟 Running Script

His pictures in brick adorn the studio on either side of door and his calligraphy inscribed on rock in blue below. 


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Garden of the Arts 藝苑 (Yì Yuàn)
Wang Mansheng 王滿晟 (born 1962, Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, China; active United States)


DO01055239Garden Name Calligraphy by Wan-go H. C. Weng, one of the most respected collectors and connoisseurs of Chinese painting in the world, and the great-great-grandson of the preeminent scholar Weng Tonghe (1830–1904).

Heavy forms that seem to take flight, catalog mentions the notable use of "flying white" (see top image)

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Cherney
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Yao Guijin

Yao Guojin Medicinal Garden/Seal Script

"At first glance, the eccentric forms of Yao Guojin's characters appear like extraterrestrial pictographs..." catalog

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Lo Ch'ing corridor

Lo Ch’ing 羅青 [Lo Ch’ing-che 羅青哲] (born 1948, Qingdao, Shandong Province, China; active Taiwan). Corridor of Water and Clouds 水雲廊, 2007. Handscroll, ink on paper; calligraphy written in seal script. Image: 16 3/4 x 36 1/4 in. (42.5 x 92 cm); Mount: 16 x 52 in. (40.6 x 133 cm); Roller: 1 3/4 in. (4.5 cm). The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

Pines

Lo Ch'ing Listening to the Pines

 

 

 

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Birdwatching in Paintings

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Image 1 (Detail from Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights in the Prado)


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Image 2 (Raphael's Madonna del Cardellinoa, in the Uffizi)


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Image 3 (Detail Above)


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Image 4 (Carel Fabritius The Goldfinch, in the collection of the Mauritshuis in The Hague)

 

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Image 5 (Bronzino's Portrait of Giovanni de' Medici as a Child /Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence)

 

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Figures Six and Seven (Details from Bosch)

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Figures 8 and 9 (Antonella's Saint Jerome/National Gallery)

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Image 10 (Mantegna's Madonna della Vittoria/Louvre)

 

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Images 11 & 12 Pups by Carpaccio

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Image 13 Carpaccio's Hunting on the Lagoon (Getty)
Carpaccio _Vittore_-_Hunting_on_the_Lagoon_(recto);_Letter_Rack_(verso)_-_Google_Art_Project

Image 14 Detail
Carpaccio _Vittore_-_Hunting_on_the_Lagoon_(recto);_Letter_Rack_(verso)_-_Google_Art_ProjectImage 15 Cormorant fishing Shuji Sugiyama descends from a long line of master cormorant fishermen—he's now one of only nine left in Japan. COURTESY OF GIFU CITY)

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Image 16 Carpaccio's Two Venetian Ladies (Correr Museum)6a00d834535cc569e201310f37447d970c

Image 16 Carpaccio's Annunciation (Ca' D'Oro Franchetti Gallery)6a00d834535cc569e201310f37447d970c
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Images 17, 18, 19 Details

6a00d834535cc569e2026bdeda32c5200cImage 20 Vittore Carpaccio’s Narrative Cycle in the Scuola Dalmata6a00d834535cc569e2026bdeda32c5200cImage 21 detail

 

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Ciao, Carpaccio

Ciao, Carpaccio!: An Infatuation
by Jan Morris

 

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Belini cycle
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The Annunciation of the Virgin at Galleria Giorgio Franchetti alla Ca' d'Oro 

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My Goodreads Review:

This is pretty much a "perfect book." A jewel. A book to be treasured! Charming, witty, and enlightening, it is a must-read for anyone who loves Venice, Carpaccio paintings or well, I think pretty much anyone in the world would fall in love with this small gem of a book. In fact, I am not sure I’ve read too many books by Jan Morris-- but I have to say, I am now very much committed to reading as many as I can! Carpaccio is one of my favorite painters, John Ruskin was also quite fond of him --though he would declare not one but two Carpaccio paintings to be "the most beautiful picture in the world."

Like Morris, while I don't think he is one of the greatest of the sublime artists of the Renaissance--not one of the "greats" perhaps (Gombrich didn't even include Carpaccio n his famous Story of Art!) Still as Morris rightly says, his paintings are unforgettable. They are gentle, with those glorious Venetian colors, and the bestiary of enchanted animals... Bellini pups! And those pheasants and rabbits; lions and deer... While Ruskin put the Ursula painting as "most beautiful" he later changed his mind and famous declared the Two Venetian Ladies in the Correr to be the finest picture in the world... I myself would probably agree, as for me, the upper part of that picture (in the Getty) of Hunting on the Lagoon, is a painting very, very dear to my heart. Morris, for her part loves St Augustine in his study (still in situ). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Aug...

Her musings about this picture are just delightful.

The book begins and ends with her personal impressions of Carpaccio's paintings. Oh, if only I could write so beautifully about art.

And yes, I must read Calasso's Tiepolo Pink! (With its titled plucked from Proust).

And oh, that little white dog!

As Jim C says below: What she says of Carpaccio, I would say of her own work – that she is an artist of "that simple, universal and omnipotent virtue, the quality of Kindness."

Don't miss this one!

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Bird Books

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Field Guides

How to differentiate between birding field guides? There is the Peterson Guide and Sibley's. The National Geographic Field Guide is the one recommended by the instructor of the Great Courses Birding class, while Audubon is one of the oldest (though I just read that Peterson's is older still). If you really want the oldest, you will have to track down a copy of Birds Through an Opera-Glass, written by Florence Augusta Merriam Bailey (1863 –1948), who was an American ornithologist and nature writer who organized early Audubon Society chapters and was an early activist for bird protection. 

In the end, it seems, it really comes down to personal preference.

While my husband gravitated immediately toward the beautiful illustrations of the Sibley, with their focus on plumage; I liked the simplicity and feel of the Kaufman Guide, which was designed for beginners. I also love Alvarez's Guide to California Birds. This latter one is the only field guide I actually use. Both Alvarez and the Kaufman have better notes on bird calls and songs too.

My new favorite is Hansen's Field Guide to Birds of the Sierra Nevada: with its beautiful descriptions and fabulous pictures!

I also regularly consult the funny Field Guide to Dumb Birds of North America, by Matt Kracht. 

++

Art/Culture

The Book of the Bird: Birds in Art Birds in Art
Hyland, Angus, Laurence King Publishing

The Bird in Art
Bugler, Caroline, Merrell 

An Unlikely Search for Meaning in the World's Most Magnificent Bird An Unlikely Search for Meaning in the World's Most Magnificent Bird
Flynn, Sean, Simon & Schuster

Birds and People
Mark Cocker, David Tipling

Birds: Myth, Lore and Legend
Rachel Warren Chadd, Marianne Taylor

Ciao, Carpaccio!: An Infatuation
by Jan Morris

Carpaccio: Major Pictorial Cycles
by Stefania Mason

Hieronymus Bosch: Garden of Earthly Delights
by Hans Belting

As Kingfishers Catch Fire: Birds & Books
by Alex Preston, Neil Gower

"Carpaccio's 'Hunting on the Lagoon': A New Perspective"
Yvonne Szafran

"A Late Fifteenth Century Venetian Painting of a Bird Hunt"
 George Goldner

"Divine Judgment in Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights"
Author(s): Peter Glum
Source: The Art Bulletin 

Memoirs/Journalism

To See Every Bird on Earth: A Father, a Son, and a Lifelong Obsession A Father, a Son, and a Lifelong Obsession

Field Notes from an Unintentional Birder: A Memoir
by Julia Zarankin

Birds Art Life: A Year of Observation
by Kyo Maclear

How to Know the Birds: The Art and Adventure of Birding 
by Ted Floyd

Life List: A Woman's Quest for the World's Most Amazing Birds
Gentile, Olivia

Kingbird Highway
Kenn Kaufman

Big Year, Biggest States
Lynn Barber

A Most Remarkable Creature: The Hidden Life and Epic Journey of the World's Smartest Birds of Prey
Meiburg, Jonathan

The Thing with Feathers: The Surprising Lives of Birds and What They Reveal About Being Human
Strycker, Noah

Pasta for Nightingales: A 17th-Century Handbook of Bird-Care and Folklore A 17th-Century Handbook of Bird-Care and Folklore
Olina, Giovanni Pietro, dal Pozzo, Cassiano, Clayton, Kate, Macdonald, Helen, 

The Bedside Book of Birds: An Avian Miscellany An Avian Miscellany
Gibson, Graeme, Atwood, Margaret

The Charm of Birds
Grey, Sir Edward,

Living on the Wind: Across the Hemisphere with Migratory Birds Across the Hemisphere with Migratory Birds
Weidensaul, Scott

A World on the Wing: The Global Odyssey of Migratory Birds
by Scott Weidensau

Why Birds Sing: A Journey Into the Mystery of Bird Song by David Rothenberg (2005-04-12)
Rothenberg, David

Into the Heart of Borneo
by Redmond O'Hanlon

 
 

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June is for Juncos

MY "SPANISH" PATIO

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MOMMY AND DADDY GOING IN AND OUT A MILLION TIMES A DAY!

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SCREAMING EVERY TIME WE BREACH THE NEST PERIMETER (IE OUR WHOLE BACKYARD!!(

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THE PERFECT NEST & A PROTECTIVE MOMMA

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BABIES! AND THE WORK BEGINS...

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Leanne Ogasawara has worked as a translator from the Japanese for over twenty years. Her translation work has included academic translation, poetry, philosophy, documentary film, and poetry. Her creative writing has appeared in Gulf Coast Journal, the Kyoto Journal, River Teeth/Beautiful Things, Hedgehog Review, Entropy, the Dublin Review of Books, and forthcoming in Pleiades Magazine. She has a monthly column at the science and arts blog 3 Quarks Daily. Her short story “Bare Bones” won the 2020 Calvino Prize, judged by Joyce Carol Oates.

Leanne

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The High Road to Taos

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From Santa Fe (Willa Cather)

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Lamy of Santa Fe 
by Paul Horgan 

La Conquistadora, by Sue Houser

La Conquistadora: The Autobiography of an Ancient Statue 
by Fray Angelico Chavez

La Conquistadora, Unveiling the History of a Six Hundred Year Old Religious Icon 
by Jaima Chevalier

A Guide} Built of Earth and Song: Churches of Northern New Mexico, by Marie Romero Cash

 

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Below is the Church of San Miguel. It is arguably the oldest continuous place of Christian worship in the United States. Built sometime around 1605, but destroyed during the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. The church has a lot of the post-revolt late 17th century santero art--altar screen perhaps by artist known as the Laguna Santeros. He worked in New Mexico from about 1796 to 1808. A statue of San Miguel (Saint Michael) dating back to 1700 takes pride of place on the reredos. Four oval paintings also adorn the screen: Saint Teresa of Avila, Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Colette of France and Saint Louis IX, King of France.

The old bell dates back to 1356. The story goes that Christians were losing their fight against the Moors, until they vowed to craft a bell dedicated to Saint Joseph. Everybody relinquished their gold and silver-plated jewelry, which was all melted down to make the three-inch thick bell. Writing in 1908, Reverend W.J. Howlett described the bell as embodying “the richness of gold and the sweetness of sacrifice.” The famous bell made a cameo in Willa Cather’s novel “Death Comes for the Archbishop.” 

 

San miguel

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I love anything written by Fray Chavez. His statue stands in front of public library (historical registry) across from our hotel. 

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Because of its extraordinary altar screen paintings, the Shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe is my favorite church in Santa Fe


Guadalupe painting

Altar paintings signed by Mexican artist Jose de Alcibar in 1783. The painting was transported to Santa Fe by burro.


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And tequila at Sazon.


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