Say Oh Say #16: Muses
Hello again! So glad you could join me in my newsletter. Please, pull up a chair next to the fire. Yes, that's it. Would you like some hot chocolate? There, now you can get all warmed up––you're dripping wet! How's the work been going this week? I see, well that's certainly something. And the family? Mm-hm, just like them isn't it? Oh don't mind old Daisy there, she loves a good scratch behind the ears. How have I been, you ask? Well…
I Indulged in the Visual
I was browsing the Public Domain Review’s archive, like y’do, when I stumbled onto The Baby’s Own Aesop, a simplified retelling of the traditional fables which was published around the turn of the 20th century. It’s possessed of some of the most gorgeous illustrations I think I’ve seen in any book anywhere.
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Setting our sights a thousand years or so back to the 9th century, I also learned that the Book of Kells has recently been digitized and is now entirely available online. I know very little about Celtic art, but just thumbing through and gawking was plenty entertaining.
Also, I had no idea until I looked at this that the text of the Book of Kells is simply the Gospels of the New Testament–– I’d vaguely thought it was some kind of exotic treatise full of magic.
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Lastly, back in the present day, it’s been a while since I’ve seen any photography projects that have interested me, but artist Dillon Marsh has combined photos of South African mines with 1:1 visualizations of the actual amount of each mineral extracted from those mines. Titled “For What It’s Worth,” below are pictures of copper, gold, and platinum. Can you find the diamond in the last photo?
And one last thing (this one about music rather than the visual arts): In Taiwan, residents know it’s time to take out the trash when they hear the dulcet tones of Für Elise beckoning from the street.
That’s all for now, thanks for asking! Same time next week? I’ll keep the kettle on.