Henri Matisse - La Coiffeur

Art Appreciation

Henri Matisse: La Coiffeur, 1901

When I was doing an internship in Washington, D.C., I spent my Fridays visiting the various museums. One of my favorites, which I visited several times, was the National Gallery of Art.  There I fell in love with art.

I began to appreciate every artist's brush stroke. I looked for patterns. I pictured myself in their painting and tried to feel what they wanted to portray in their work.

I came across La Coiffeur by Henri Matisse. I couldn't take my eyes off of it. I pictured myself, a 21 year old kid from South Texas, in that room watching a beautiful woman fixing her hair in front of a vanity.

I soon became a fan of Henri Matisse and to this day look for his work when visiting other museums.

Born in Nord, France on December 31, 1869, Henri Matisse was a post-impressionist artist known for the dissonant colors in many of his paintings.

His wife, Amelie Noellie Parayre, appeared in a lot of his paintings. Given that they married in 1898, I would make a safe guess that the lady in the painting, La Coiffeur, is Amelie Noellie.


Source: http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/matisse_henri.html; http://www.arthistory-famousartists-paintings.com/HenriMatisse.html; Wikipedia

Tenochtitlan

According to legend, Tenochtitlan was founded when an Aztec tribe saw the prophetic image of an eagle perched on a nopal cactus eating a snake. 

Located on an island in Lake Texcoco, Tenochtitlan became the capital of the Aztec empire. In the mid-1500s, Tenochtitlan was destroyed and leveled by Spanish conquestadors. 

Lake Texcoco was eventually filled. The Aztec temple dedicated to the principal deity Huitzilopochtli was destroyed. The stones were then used to build the Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary. 

Because of its massive size and due to the clay foundation and water table below, the cathedral is slowly sinking. Recently, while constructing an underground subway, city workers came across remains of Tenochtitlan. You can read another Aztec legend HERE.

Source: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenochtitlan

My son the entrepreneur

Cadillac Ranch

West of Amarillo off Interstate 40 along the iconic Route 66, stands 10 classic Cadillacs buried nose-down. These brightly painted metal monuments, which was originally installed in 1974 by a group of underground artists known as Ant Farm, is a roadside attraction. It's also perhaps one of a few public art installation where tagging and graffiti is encouraged.

When we visited, the outside temperature was about 45°F, but with the strong winds, it felt colder. To add to the experience, the ground was muddy after a week of rain.

Photo taken on March 11, 2012 using a Canon PowerShot A400 camera.

Source: Wikipedia

Eat more fruits and vegetables

Ultramarathoner Scott Jurek offered leasons learned when switching to a plant-based diet in the February 2012 issue of Competitor magazine.

1. Avoid junk food and processed food and eat more fresh fruits and vegetables
2. Learn how to cook and prepare your own food
3. Try new recipes
4. For endurance, eat more whole grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables
5. Enjoy the long term health benefits

Source: Scott Jurek, "The Long Run: Fueling the Engine," Competitor, February 2012, Pg. 80.

William-Adolphe Bouguereau

Art Appreciation

Born on November 30, 1825, French painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau was at his time considered one of the greatest painter in the world. 

Bouguereau, a well educated artist, practiced under the movements of Neoclassicism and Romanticism known as Academism.

His paintings were mostly modern interpretations of mythological and biblical stories.  He was admired for the accurate rendering of the human body in his paintings.

L'amore et Psyche, 1890

Boucle d'oreille, 1891

Pieta, 1876

Childhood Idyll, 1900

The Birth of Venus, 1879

Source: Wikipedia

Jan van Eyck

Art Appreciation

Johannes de Eyck is considered one of the best European artist of the 15th century. The Flemish painter was known for his oil paintings of religious subjects and portraits.

Virgin and Child with Canon van der Paele, 1436

Arnolfini Portrait, 1434

Sources: http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/eyck/; Wikipedia