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Posts tagged ‘Washington DC’

Jul 31

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New Stikmen in Boston

yellow stikman, Boston, MA

After a drought of sightings, I found two new stikmen around Boston!  Last weekend, I was walking through Cambridge and found two new and very fresh stikmen who had not been there the week before.

Harvard stikman, Cambridge, MA

It was maybe 5 years ago in Washington DC that I saw my first “stikman”.  Stuck to the road inside a cross-walk was an 8 inch robot or alien looking creature made of white industrial vinyl.  It was an interesting little figure, but I thought it was a one-off piece of street art.  Then I started noticing stikmen all over – in Georgetown, in Dupont Circle, and down the National Mall.  It seemed like a well coordinated but subtle urban art campaign.  I assumed it was a DC phenomena because there were so many of them.  (At the time, I missed this Washington Post article noting 150 stikmen in the DC area.)  I was shocked to then spot more of these alien-robots in New York City, Boston and Seattle.  Turns out stikmen have been found in Indianapolis, Toronto, and even Denmark!  There is an extensive Flickr collection of stikmen sightings.

yellow stikman in crosswalk

The road stickers are just one aspect of the stikman project that was started 20 years ago.  The artist “Bob” (who has remained anonymous throughout) had a solo exhibition at pandemic gallery in NYC this past Spring.  The stikman project began with 3D stick figures (hence the name) affixed to city elements and has since branched out to stencils, hidden components in posters and, of course, the road stickers.

After I first noticed the stikmen, I would mention them to friends or pointed them out whenever one popped up.  No one claimed to have seen them before.  I think that’s why I like the stikmen.  They are right there on the road, thousands of people walk over them, and yet no one notices them.  These awkward, but endearingly primitive little figures are silently watching city life go by.  Over time, traffic and weather warps and wears away the stickers.  While their degradation makes for some beautiful effects, it does mean that the stikmen don’t last very long.  The first Boston stikman I found by South Station disappeared years ago.  Maybe that’s why I am so excited to see some new stikmen in the neighborhood!

So have you ever seen a stikman?  Keep your eyes open; you never know where he’ll turn up!

**UPDATE – I spotted a wooden stikman in Chicago!**

Feb 21

George Washington's only complete set of false teeth on display at Mount Vernon
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The Face of George Washington

US 1 dollarThanks to the US $1, George Washington has one of the most recognizable faces in America.  This President’s Day, I got to thinking about that portrait and two excellent exhibits I saw a few years ago at Mount Vernon and the National Gallery about the real likeness of George Washington.

Gilbert Stuart – “George Washington (The Athenaeum Portrait)” 1796, Museum of Fine Arts Boston and National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

The dollar and a large number of contemporary and future Washington paintings are based on an unfinished portrait done by Gilbert Stuart in 1796.  At the time of the sitting, George was 64 and retired to Mount Vernon.  His teeth had been a constant source of pain since the first one was extracted when he was 22.  When he started his presidency, only one real tooth remained in his head.  Several sets of dentures were made for Washington over his life by incorporating human teeth and carved bone or tusk teeth into a metal cage.  None these were reported to have fit well and must have caused him considerable discomfort.

George Washington's only complete set of false teeth on display at Mount Vernon

George Washington’s only complete set of false teeth on display at Mount Vernon (Photo: Mount Vernon Museum)

On the day Washington sat for Gilbert Stuart, he was struggling with a set of false teeth.  Stuart notes, “When I painted him, he had just had a set of false teeth inserted, which accounts for the constrained expression so noticeable about the mouth and lower part of the face.”  Look back at Stuart’s portrait. Washington’s jaw does appears to be clenched, pushed somewhat forward and bulky.  This immediately recognizable portrait is likely not the most realistic.

Jean Antoine Houdon - George Washington mask

Jean-Antoine Houdon “Life Mask of George Washington” 1785 (Photo: The Morgan Library and Museum, New York City)

Eleven years before the Stuart portrait, sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon met with Washington a made a life mask – a process in which plaster is applied to a face for an accurate sculptural model.  This likeness seems less tense and the jaw line less protruded.

Many Faces of George Washington

Cover of “Many Faces of George Washington” by Carla Killough McClafferty describing the Mount Vernon portrait project

This life mask and the bust Houdon made from it were used by Mount Vernon to create “the real George Washington”.  Through an interesting forensic anthropology project, the sculptures an other artifacts were scanned, analyzed and used to construct three wax faces meant to represent George Washington at 19, 45 and 57 year of age.  Life-sized figures were created by examining existing clothing and written descriptions of the Washington’s posture.  (You can watch a short video about the process done by the History Channel here.)  The end result is incredibly impressive.  The three Washington figures were one my favorite parts of visiting Mount Vernon as they help piece together a more life-like representation an American legends.

Young George Washington

A George Washington we are not used to seeing – 19 year old likeness reconstructed from historical and scientific evidence by Mount Vernon

Dec 25

Merry Christmas (with Giotto)

Madonna and Child by Giotto (circa 1320/1330) National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

Madonna and Child by Giotto (National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC)

To celebrate Christmas, here is one of my favorite Madonna and Child paintings by Giotto, done between 1320-1330.  Despite the fact that baby Jesus resembles a little man, there is a delicacy and sensitivity in how both figures are holding or reaching for the flower.  The painting to me is one of the first Renaissance works and a lovely, peaceful image for Christmas.

Aug 24

Photo of the Week: National Cathedral Damage

Sad to see a little damage to the National Cathedral in Washington DC caused by the 5.8 earthquake Tuesday.  The East coast of the US doesn’t expect this sort of thing!

Angel down at the Washington National Cathedral (Photo: Connor Simpson, The Atlantic Wire)

For more photos summarizing the damage, see the Cathedral’s photo gallery and the  Atlantic Wire gallery.

Aug 22

Martin Luther King Jr Memorial Dedication August 28th

The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial opened to the public today and will be dedicated in Washington, DC next weekend.  Information and concert tickets can be found on the official event website: Dedicate the Dream.

26 Aug 2011 UPDATE: The official dedicate date has been moved to an undeclared date in September or October due to the arrival of hurricane Irene in DC this weekend.  Friday and Saturday morning events are still planned.

At the time this was proposed, the World War II memorial had just opened and there was some groaning in DC that the Mall was too crowded for anything else.  To me, the National Mall is both an expansive green space and a record of our history, culture and heroes.  I am glad a nice spot of the Tidal Basin was set aside to honor MLK Jr. specifically and in a broader sense the US civil rights movement.  (An African-American History and Culture Museum is slated for the Mall in 2015 which is good because the only Museum remotely dedicated to the same subject matter was in Anacostia before – way, way off the beaten tourist path.)

One main features of the MLK site is a large bolder cut and opened in the middle called the “Mountain of Despair”.  The removed piece is set closer to the water and is called the “Stone of Hope”.  It is 30 ft tall and features a standing portrait of MLK emerging from the stone with arms crossed.  Flanking around the tidal basin, out from the Mountain stones, are slowly tapering stone walls engraved with quotes by Martin Luther King Jr.  Given the position of the monument on the Mall and its open lay-out, this seems like a very accessible and engaging space.  I see people picnicking and chatting in eye-sight of MLK Jr. along the Tidal Basin.

You get a good sense the site from this fly through video produced by the National Memorial Project Foundation:

As you would imagine, there has been the obligatory criticisms of the statue: it was made in China by a Chinese man, it’s not a good likeness, he looks confrontational, whatever.  The critique that I find the oddest is that the statue is too tall.  In fact, the MLK figure is just about as big as his nearest neighbors on the Mall: Lincoln with pedestal is ~30.5ft and Jefferson with pedestal is ~25ft.  MLK seems so much larger because he is not in a temple like those other two which defines a visual space and makes the figure seem smaller.  Likewise, you can go right up to him and so your viewing perspective changes to a more extreme angle.  I will concede that the stone block itself is pretty huge when viewed in the round.  For scale, here’s how some of my favorites on the Mall compare: (Gandhi is technically in Dupont Circle in front of the Indian Embassy but I thought he belonged here.)

Martin Luther King Jr. statue size relative to some of the notable DC memorial statues and a 6′ tall person which gives a better sense of scale.

To me the most powerful memorials are personally engaging and this often means that the elements exist on the viewer’s level.  For example, imagine how awesome it would have been to put a life-size statue of MLK Jr. on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial!  You could stand next to him and look out over the Mall while reading his “I Have a Dream” speech.  At least the newly constructed MLK Jr. Memorial lets you wander through his quotes and stand amid the literally and metaphorically looming mountain stones.

More than anything though, I hope that the MLK Jr. Memorial in person conveys his deep religious convictions and self-sacrifice.  As Martin Luther King Jr. said reflecting on how he wanted to be remembered, “Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter.”

I’m looking forward to visiting DC soon to see this new Memorial in person and hope you get a chance to check it out too!

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