Imbolc Waning Wild Moon
Gosh, my numbers have shrunk this last week. I know I’ve neglected this space in an attempt to keep up with other blogging, like the Sierra Club and the Star Tribune weather site and I apologize.
Not to mention that I fell into a bit of a slump with the retreat followed by vertigo and a week of feeling sub-par after that. No excuses, just the truth, Ruth.
This morning finds me once again alert and awake, feeling on top of my game. ‘Bout time, if you asked me.
Today the textile tour for Anne will come together, aided in part by an insight I got yesterday at the research workshop. I learned about the directories function on the MIA website. It shows a complete list of objects on display by type, artist and location. This makes it easy to plan a tour route knowing exactly what’s on exhibit. No time wasting trying to figure it out. The information is just there.
The On Dragon’s Wings tour for Friday will also get assembled today. I have an 8 dynasties tour, an idea created by Bob Marshall. In this tour I go through the Shang, Zhou, Han, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties using one object from each. As Bob suggested, I try to select the finest example of the most well-developed art form in each of those dynasties. That means starting with the bronze vessels of the Shang and Zhou, moving to a Han ceramic piece, perhaps then to a Tang three-color glaze, then either a Song dynasty landscape painting or a ceramic piece, for example.
I have dynastic maps and a precis’ of the dynasties character. This allows for a quick over view of Chinese history and associating with each dynasty a particular art form, one that reached its height at some point during that dynastic period.
At 5 p.m. Kate and I will head out to Roseville for another Chinese New Year celebration with the Collection in Focus guides. I look forward to this each year because it is often the only time I see some of my old colleagues from that program.