Virus

There is a virus among us.

Place sensible distance between.

Listen well – do not fuss;

The likes of this, has never been seen.

Shelter in Place,

You are not alone.

Be in your own space,

Just stay at home.

Equipment requests denied;

Personal protection;

They said the president lied.

In spite of this spread of infection!

It’s up to all of you;

Follow the rules;

Whatever you do;

Don’t act like fools.

These are tricky times;

Cover your face;

Avoid grocery lines;

So much at stake.

Wash your hands;

Carefully disinfect;

Objects and surfaces can

Be safer if you inspect.

Little things are big.

Big things become small.

You couldn’t give a fig,

Like it doesn’t matter at all.

Flatten the curve.

Research, data, science...

Collect some nerve.

Get into compliance.

Do as you must;

One nation, one world;

In God we Trust;

As a pandemic is unfurled.

Pray for peace.

Lord, how long will it last?

With faith, love, and hope believe

This too shall pass.

After the fact, you want to say you tried.

Look back, make no mistake,

People suffered, people died.

So much sadness left in the wake.

This time is a very good one,

If we but know what to do.

You’re under the gun,

We are thinking of you.

All for one and one for all;

Stop. Put everything on hold.

Use caution, avoid the fall;

Blessings to young and to old.

Laumeier: Follies 2020

Memory Box by Mark Dion at Laumeier Sculpture Park

Laumeier Sculpture Park is proud to present Mark Dion: Follies. Mark Dion has fashioned a world-wide reputation as an innovative sculptor and installation artist whose points of departure include the intersections of the historical and the contemporary, as well as the man-made and natural worlds from February 15 through May 24, 2020. Mark Dion: Follies presents many of the artist’s architectural works, ranging from hunting blinds and storage sheds to mobile carts and shacks. These structures serve as fictitious bases for the enjoyment of nature and the study of natural specimens by scientists, botanists and naturalists. Visitors will experience sculptural installations such as Hunting Blind (The Glutton) and Hunting Blind (The Dandy Rococo), Dion’s elaborate takes on the outdoor protective structures used by hunters, as well as The Memory Box, a shed filled with dozens of keepsake objects stored in individual containers that suggest the ways that inanimate objects are associated with treasured memories. 

Laumeier's exhibition Mark Dion: Follies is here from  Storm King Art Center, a 500-acre outdoor museum located in New York’s Hudson Valley where Mark Dion: Follies exhibition was featured this past year.

 

Mark Dion was born in 1961 in New Bedford, Massachusetts. He initially studied in 1981-2 at the Hartford Art School of the University of Hartford in Connecticut, which awarded him a BFA (1986) and honorary doctorate in 2002. From 1983 to 1984 he attended the School of Visual Arts in New York and then the prestigious Whitney Museum of American Art's Independent Study Program (1984-1985). He is an Honorary Fellow of Falmouth University in the UK (2014), and has an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters (Ph.D.) from The Wagner Free Institute of Science in Philadelphia (2015).

The Mark Dion Follies was held over until September due to Covid - 19.

Man with a Hoe

The Man with the Hoe by Edwin Markham (1852-1940)

Bowed by the weight of centuries he leans
Upon his hoe and gazes on the ground,
The emptiness of ages in his face,
And on his back the burden of the world.
Who made him dead to rapture and despair,
A thing that grieves not and that never hopes.
Stolid and stunned, a brother to the ox?
Who loosened and let down this brutal jaw?
Whose was the hand that slanted back this brow?
Whose breath blew out the light within this brain?
Is this the Thing the Lord God made and gave
To have dominion over sea and land;
To trace the stars and search the heavens for power;
To feel the passion of Eternity?
Is this the Dream He dreamed who shaped the suns
And marked their ways upon the ancient deep?
Down all the stretch of Hell to its last gulf
There is no shape more terrible than this —
More tongued with censure of the world's blind greed —
More filled with signs and portents for the soul —
More fraught with menace to the universe.
What gulfs between him and the seraphim!
Slave of the wheel of labor, what to him
Are Plato and the swing of Pleiades?
What the long reaches of the peaks of song,
The rift of dawn, the reddening of the rose?
Through this dread shape the suffering ages look;
Time's tragedy is in the aching stoop;
Through this dread shape humanity betrayed,
Plundered, profaned, and disinherited,
Cries protest to the Powers that made the world.
A protest that is also a prophecy.
O masters, lords and rulers in all lands,
Is this the handiwork you give to God,
This monstrous thing distorted and soul-quenched?
How will you ever straighten up this shape;
Touch it again with immortality;
Give back the upward looking and the light;
Rebuild in it the music and the dream,
Make right the immemorial infamies,
Perfidious wrongs, immedicable woes?
O masters, lords and rulers in all lands
How will the Future reckon with this Man?
How answer his brute question in that hour
When whirlwinds of rebellion shake all shores?
How will it be with kingdoms and with kings —
With those who shaped him to the thing he is —
When this dumb Terror shall rise to judge the world.
After the silence of the centuries?

Inspired by the painting L'homme à la houe 

by Jean-François Millet. 

This poem is in the public domain.

Sowing the Seeds of Modern Art

Jean-François Millet: Sowing the Seeds of Modern Art places Millet’s paintings, drawings and pastels in the context of a large number of 19th- and early 20th-century international avant-garde artists, who were inspired by the French painter. Jean-François Millet: Sowing the Seeds of Modern Art is the result of collaboration between the Saint Louis Art Museum and the Van Gogh Museum. (Opened in February and due to Covic - 19 it was held over until September 7,2020)

Jean-François Millet (1814-1875) is widely considered as one of the most important Barbizon School painters. He influenced many generations of artists. The exhibition Jean-François Millet: Sowing the Seeds of Modern Art illustrates just how progressive the work of Millet was in his own time and how important he became to modern artists after him, such as Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet, Winslow Homer and Salvador Dalí. This is the first exhibition to explicitly focus on the international impact of the modernity of Millet’s work.

Jean-François Millet took a poetic and emphatic approach to painting, in which he chose everyday themes from peasant life, particularly the relationship between man and nature. Never before had peasant scenes been depicted in such a monumental way and with such deference. Instead of focusing on industrialization and urbanization as hallmarks of modern times, Millet concentrated on the hardships of peasant life. His deep understanding of this social class and his radical painting technique went against the norm.

Later artists appreciated not only his peasant themes, but also his nudes and landscapes – works that are nowadays less well-known. These artists also admired Millet’s anti-academic approach, inventive technique and use of materials. Into the 20th century, Millet’s renown extended from Europe to America and Russia, and he inspired artists such as Vincent van Gogh, Georges Seurat, Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Camille Pissarro, Claude Monet, Winslow Homer, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Edvard Munch and Salvador Dalí. Notably, Millet was an artistic hero of Vincent van Gogh. In the final year of his life, Vincent van Gogh even painted a striking series of 20 ‘copies’ of works by Millet.

Sower by Millet circa 1856-66 and Sower by Vincent van Gogh 1888 and (at podium) Saint Louis Art Museum curator of modern and contemporary art Simon Kelly. 

The exhibit has 100+ works on loan from Musee d'Orsay/Paris, Yamanashi/Japan, Getty/LA, Museum of Fine Arts/Boston...Pittsburgh, Buffalo, New York and more. Amazing collection on view at this show. Bravo. 

Leonardo da Vinci at the Science Center

Leonardo da Vinci: The Biography, by Walter Isaacson and published by Simon and Schuster, is a mere 525 pages. I read it (well listened to the audiobook) prior to learning about the Da Vinci exhibition at the Saint Louis Science Center. Over the holidays, I listened to more than seventeen hours about the life and work of the original Renaissance man, Leonardo da Vinci. I am an art junky and thoroughly enjoyed that use of time over the holidays. Naturally, I was compelled to see the exhibit as well. The opening of the 7,000 square-foot special exhibition that follows the Renaissance master on a journey of innovation, creativity, science, and wonder was developed by Aurea Exhibitions and produced by Imagine Exhibitions. It is a great way to add to your appreciation of the original Renaissance man. 

Da Vinci’s role as an inventor is displayed as to-scale recreations of da Vinci’s most renowned paintings, including some controversial works traditionally attributed to him but not yet authenticated. Visitors can study the artistic mastery behind such works as Mona Lisa, The Last Supper and St. John the Baptist through stunning replica reproductions on view. His lifelong devotion to science and his fascination with nature, extensive exploration of anatomy and in-depth explanations of famous studies on subjects such as the golden ratio and Vitruvian Man are complemented by enlarged examples of the artist’s sketches.

Leonardo was a vegetarian, flamboyant in dress, erratic in his work habits and astute when it came to self-promotion. He could not become a notary (a sort of lawyer of the period) because it was  a profession not open to sons born out of wedlock. His lack of a formal education was not a handicap however, because as he was largely self-taught. At 14, he was apprenticed to the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio, who must have been astonished by his talent. Leonardo collaborated with the master before producing at least two early masterpieces, The Annunciation and Ginevra de’ Benci.

Da Vinci The Exhibition is a hands-on examination of da Vinci’s life, research, and intellectual mind that went well beyond his art. Featuring more than 60 fully built, life-size replicas of inventions, more than 20 recreations of his major paintings and fine art studies and dozens of stunning concept displays, you learn about the complex beginnings and lifetime achievements of da Vinci. The exhibition is at the Saint Louis Science Center from January 11, 2020 to mid April 2020. (Held over through 9/27 due to Covid -19)

Ask Your Doctor

It may not surprise you that a lot of money is being invested by pharmaceutical companies these days designed to get consumer “pull” through distribution channels to you. Chances are the advertising messages are falling on deaf ears if you are a commercial zapper who watches programs you have recorded or if you are more likely to visit the refrigerator during commercial breaks. The pharma industry will spend over six billion dollars on drug advertising this year according to Nielsen. The lion’s share (over 5 billion) will be spent on television. I guess you’ve got to pay attention, especially as your doctor appointment approaches.

Most of the brand names look like they are in another language or made up of a jumble of random letters. A handful of companies manufacture and market the products. Chances are you have little or no recall of why pro golfer Phil Mickelson wants to tell you about arthritis, or why grandpa can relate to the big bad wolf’s breathing issues or what drugs to ask your doctor about if, in fact, you need to quit smoking, manage your type 2 diabetes or your bipolar disorder or whatever ails you.

If you are scoring at home. Here are some of the top pharmaceutical companies, some of the brands they market (and for what they hope to provide treatment). I know you will pay close attention to the television advertising prior to your doctor appointment so you can ask smart questions when the time comes.    

Pfizer - Chantix (smoking cessation), Xeljanz (arthritis); AbbVie - Humira (arthritis); AstraZeneca - Symbicort (asthma and COPD), Nexium and Prilosec (heartburn), Crestor (cholesterol); Eli Lilly - Cialis (erectile dysfunction), Cymbalta (antidepressant), Trulicity and Jardiance (diabetes); Johnson & Johnson - Xarelto (blood thinner), Stelara (psoriasis) Remicade (anti-inflammatory), Olysio (hep C); Bristol-Myers Squibb - Eliquis,( blood thinner), Opdivo (cancer); Merck & Co. – Keytruda (cancer), Januvia (type 2 diabetes), Dulera (asthma inhaler); Sumitomo Corp. - Latuda (antipsychotic for bipolar depression), Aptiom (anti-seizure); Amgen - Embrel (psoriatic arthritis).

So, big pharma is betting more that FIVE BILLION BUCKS on tv to trigger meaningful and actionable conversations with doctors that will ultimately justify the commercial success (profitability) of these brands.  

Louisa May Alcott

Louisa May Alcott (November 29, 1832 – March 6, 1888) was an American novelist, short story writer and poet best known as the author of the novel Little Women (1868). Alcott's family suffered from financial difficulties, and while she worked to help support the family from an early age, she also sought an outlet in writing. She began to receive critical success for her writing in the 1860s. Published in 1868, Little Women is set in the Alcott family home, Orchard House, in Concord, Massachusetts, and is loosely based on Alcott's childhood experiences with her three sisters, Abigail May Alcott Nieriker, Elizabeth Sewall Alcott, and Anna Alcott Pratt. The novel was well-received at the time and is still a popular children's novel today. It has been adapted to film several times.

Writer-director Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird) has crafted a Little Women (2019) that draws on both the classic novel and the writings of Louisa May Alcott, and unfolds as the author's alter ego, Jo March, reflects back and forth on her fictional life. In Gerwig's take, the beloved story of the March sisters - four young women each determined to live life on her own terms -- is both timeless and timely. Portraying Jo, Meg, Amy, and Beth March, the film stars Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, Eliza Scanlen, with Timothée Chalamet as their neighbor Laurie, Laura Dern as Marmee, and Meryl Streep as Aunt March.

George Cukor directed this classic adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's sentimental novel with a shimmering lavishness that is a prime example of the classic Hollywood (1933). The story concerns the lives of four New England sisters -- Jo (Katharine Hepburn), Amy (Joan Bennett), Meg (Frances Dee), and Beth (Jean Parker) -- during the time of the Civil War. Jo desires to leave home to become a writer, but decides to stay to help the family. But Meg announces her plans to get married, so Jo leaves for New York City. As she settles down to a writing career, she meets Professor Fritz Bhaer (Paul Lukas), who helps her with her work. While Jo is away, Amy falls in love and marries Jo's old flame Laurie Laurence (Douglass Montgomery). But Jo is forced to return to New England when she discovers Beth is dying. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Alcott was an abolitionist and a feminist and remained unmarried throughout her life. She died from a stroke, two days after her father died, in Boston on March 6, 1888.