Category: Art / Architecture / Museums

Museum Mondays: Kobell’s Siege of Cosel, a study in breaths of gray

The Siege of Cosel, which was painted around 1808 is like a woman covered in veils. Gossamer layers of gray, recede ever fainter as he paints the foggy battle scene. Textbooks do not show this well. Even though the painting is massive — larger than a wall in most homes — these figures are sometimes as small as the head of a pin, only visible less than a foot away from the canvas. Seeing them makes the average museum guard nervous as you move scant inches from the canvas.

The Washington Memorial as seen from the Lincoln Memorial

Iconic Washington

No matter how many images are taken of Washington, D.C., people are always impressed. Being here in person is a hundred times more powerful. I walk past amazing structures nearly every day and yet, they never fail to imbue me with wonder. How lucky am I to live […]

Remembering John Rehm

On June 23rd, 2014, John Rehm passed away. Though it has been two years, I still think of him often. He was a mentor and friend who died much too young and much too painfully. Please join me in remembering him via this post from back then. Too […]

Julia Child: A Spy in the Kitchen

Most people don’t know that Julia Child’s kitchen was painstakingly deconstructed and rebuilt within the sacred halls of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Most people also don’t know that Julia worked for the OSS, the precursor of our present day CIA. Julia is a role model for […]