The odd and the beautiful are photos taken from the streets of New York City, our commutes, and our travels. Sometimes humorous, often times unusual, they offer a taste of life in the big city and beyond.

Audience Participation

Tu Books Editorial Director Stacy Whitman went to the National Museum of American History in Washington, DC. There was an actor at the museum playing one of the students from a 1960s Montgomery, Alabama, lunch counter sit-in. He explained why sit-ins and non-violent protests were important in bringing about social changes in our country. The young boy at the bottom left is answering the actor’s question about why just sitting at the lunch counter was important. The boy had a great answer too: “because we’re all equal.”

Julio Torres, Intern

Wayne Sandholtz is a Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Irvine. He’s the author of European Integration and Supranational Governance and co-edited The Institutionalization of Europe with Alec Stone Sweet and Neil Fligstein. In his most recent book Prohibiting Plunder: How Norms Change, Sandholtz chronicles the history of war plunder and how norms and regulations have changed through the ages. The book examines events from before 1800 to the recent case of the Iraqi National Museum, tracing how current anti-plundering norms came to be.

In the following excerpt, Sandholtz recounts the relevance of art plunder in Napoleonic France. Seizing the art of conquered territories for the Musée Napoléon was of great importance to Bonaparte, who even appointed art specialists to go with his army to the territories—a title that was part curator, part pillager.

Napoleon began his illustrious career in art plunder as general of the French forces in Italy. Both the general and the Directoire in Paris assigned art experts to accompany the army. Napoleon’s commission to Jacques-Pierre Tinet named him “agent attached to the army of Italy charged with gathering, in the conquered lands, paintings, masterpieces and other monuments of antiquity that will be judged worthy to be sent to Paris” (Gould 1965, 45). The art requisitions in Italy differed from those in Belgium and the Rhine Cities in that they were generally formalized in the treaties imposed on the various Italian states. Subsequently, the French could claim that the flow of masterpieces from Italy to France was proper because the Italians had assented to it in legal documents.

The haul from Italy was commensurate with the extent of the treasures to be harvested: immense. In early May, Bonaparte had requested a list of the paintings, sculptures and other collections to be found in Milan, Parma, Piacenza, Modena and Bologna. The armistice with the Duke of Parma (May 1796) required him to turn over 20 paintings, to be chosen by the French commanding general. The Duke of Modena was obligated to offer 20 paintings plus 70 manuscripts from the library. Bologna lost 31 paintings, 115 prints, 546 manuscripts and some Etruscan antiquities. The treaty with Venice (May 1797) stipulated 20 paintings and 500 manuscripts. In addition, the French carried away the four bronze horses of St. Mark’s cathedral and the lion of St. Mark’s square, though the treaty had made no mention of them. Milan, Verona, Perugia, Loreto, Pavia, Cento, Cremona, Pesaro, Fano and Massa all rendered to Napoleon his artistic tribute. By the treaty of Tolentino (February 1797), Pope Pius VI agreed to hand over 100 treasures from the Vatican, to be shipped immediately to France (Müntz 1895, 385-92; 1896, 481-502).

One of the art commissioners in Italy, Thouin, wrote a letter urging that the treasures from the peninsula not be unloaded on the quai du Louvre like so many boxes of soap and proposing a triumphal procession. The ensuing celebration in July 1798 included a parade of art treasures—including the Apollo Belvedere, the Laocoön, Raphael’s Transfiguration, the Saint Jerome of Correggio, and paintings by Titan and Veronese—on 29 carts, accompanied by troops, dignitaries, a military band and wagons with caged bears, lions and camels. Preceding the carts was a banner whose inscription explicitly placed France alongside the

For all my Seattle area readers I thought I'd post some links to various museums that honour Free First Thursdays.  A lot of galleries and museums in other cities have special free events and times so check out their websites, or call to find out.

So far we've visited:
Seattle Art Museum. open late 1st Thursday 10am - 9pm Our visit
MOHAI Museum of History and Industry 10am - 8pm Our visit
Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture  10am - 8pm Our visit

Still to come...
Experience Music Project 5pm - 8pm 
Henry Art Gallery 11am - 8pm  
Museum of Flight 5pm - 9pm 
Northwest African American Museum 11am - 7pm 
Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame 5pm - 8pm
Seattle Asian Art Museum 10am - 9pm Near Volunteer Park
Wing Luke  10am - 8pm
Other free days and places nearby -
Free Everyday
Olympic Sculpture Park
Yukon Gold Rush National Park

Free Other Days 
Bellevue 
The Bellevue Arts Museum is free the first Friday of each month from 10am - 9pm
Tacoma
The Museum of Glass has free admission on the third Thursday of each month from 5pm - 8pm
Tacoma Art Museum also does the free third Thursday as well from 10am - 8pm
Other local Art resources 
Art Guide NW
First Thursday Info
Seattle Art Blog

There might be more, so if you know...let me know!  I'll keep this list updated....

http://www.thejewishmuseum.org/exhibitions/curiousgeorge

I've finally started my winter painting for 2010! Off to a slow start because I'm busy with other deadlines but here it is. "Into the Atom Age"... which was from a sketch I had and was going to make a graphic novel about it but there was another idea that was way more pressing. I'm coming to the last stretch of doing the art for that and thinking about a few other stories I'm working on.
As always, this painting is available as a print on www.imagekind.com along with a bunch of other art that I do. Check it out!

Have you ever heard of Augmented Reality?  If not, Augmented Reality is a computer based software that uses 3-D tracking.   To simplfy that even more, by using a sheet of paper with a desired icon, the camera can spot the icon, and replace it with a 3-D computer made icon.  Some people even animate the icon, so that when you move the paper to it’s side, the icon will respond with some sort of action.

You may still be confused about what Augmented Reality is, so I will continue to explain what it is through out this article.  Currently, there is a museum that uses Augmented Reality to show everything.  Augmented Reality is currently being geared towards kids, so throughout the tour, kids can put on the special glasses and see the books come to life.  How?  Just like the computer, the glasses spot the icon, and then replay what is in it’s memory.  Say for instance a child is reading a fairy tale, once they turn the page, that page’s story begins to play out before the child. 

If you do a search on the internet and type in ‘Augmented Reality’ you can find many downloads where you can try it out.  Many car dealerships have started using Augmented Reality as a marketing tool.  They definetly got me hooked.  If you are into 3-D modeling and animation, you can download the free trial of Augmented Reality to test it out. 

Over all, Augmented Reality will be part of your future.  This is not something you will want to miss out on.  Check it out today!

Have you ever heard of Augmented Reality?  If not, Augmented Reality is a computer based software that uses 3-D tracking.   To simplfy that even more, by using a sheet of paper with a desired icon, the camera can spot the icon, and replace it with a 3-D computer made icon.  Some people even animate the icon, so that when you move the paper to it’s side, the icon will respond with some sort of action.

You may still be confused about what Augmented Reality is, so I will continue to explain what it is through out this article.  Currently, there is a museum that uses Augmented Reality to show everything.  Augmented Reality is currently being geared towards kids, so throughout the tour, kids can put on the special glasses and see the books come to life.  How?  Just like the computer, the glasses spot the icon, and then replay what is in it’s memory.  Say for instance a child is reading a fairy tale, once they turn the page, that page’s story begins to play out before the child. 

If you do a search on the internet and type in ‘Augmented Reality’ you can find many downloads where you can try it out.  Many car dealerships have started using Augmented Reality as a marketing tool.  They definetly got me hooked.  If you are into 3-D modeling and animation, you can download the free trial of Augmented Reality to test it out. 

Over all, Augmented Reality will be part of your future.  This is not something you will want to miss out on.  Check it out today!

Seven Stories is the first museum in the UK wholly dedicated to the art of British children’s books.

October 3, 2008–April 5, 2009
http://www.cooperhewitt.org/EXHIBITIONS/wallstories/

And through March 28th -- Illustrators 51: Advertising, Institutional, and Uncommissioned

The Paris Years

I've recently posted another inspiring interview over at Design Inspiration. Chris Gardner is the illustrator at House Industries. I've been a big fan of his work for years and was thrilled when he agreed to an interview. Check out his interview here.

http://www.houseind.com/
http://store.house33.com/
http://chrisgardnerart.blogspot.com/