Free Republic

Yesterday we went to an exhibit at the Detroit Institute of Art. It was a Claude Monet show exhibiting work from his time in Argenteuil where he developed his impressionistic style (Monet: Framing Life) in combination with a Frederic Church show of his paintings from his time spent traveling the Middle East (Church: A Painter’s Pilgrimage). The Monet show was small, but lovely.Rounded Flower Bed (Corbeille de fleurs), 1876, Claude MonetIt was blessedly free of social commentary, which cannot be said of the Church exhibit which contained subject matter and imagery that curators and art historians found to reek of...

“Year of meteors! Brooding year!” -Walt Whitman A remarkable astronomical event also occurred over the northeastern United States 153 years ago today on the night of July 20th, known as the Great Meteor Procession of 1860. And with it came a mystery of poetry, art and astronomy that was only recently solved in 2010. A meteor procession occurs when an incoming meteor breaks up upon reentry into our atmosphere at an oblique angle. The result can be a spectacular display, leaving a brilliant glowing train in its wake. Unlike early morning meteors that are more frequent and run into the...