Art History Ramblings

My art history classes have provided an interesting insight on how the function and purpose of art has changed over the years. I was fascinated to find out that the popularization of landscape art came about in response to the strict system of patronage practiced in Europe during the 1600s. (And far before, as well) Prior to that movement, landscape had been seen as a lesser art form, secondary to the religious propaganda that the patronage system favored.

However, since Holland was removed from that tradition of strong church control of art, it gave rise to artists being able to sell their art locally, on the street. As a result, works that embodied the familiar; windmills, country scenes, and ect, sold very well, and helped foster feelings of Dutch nationalism. Quite sad to think that now landscape art is seen as sterile and safe, fit only for office buildings and calendars.

Of course, by posting this, I'm going to jinx it...

Today is the first day this winter that I ventured outside in only a t-shirt. In my books, that means spring is officially here! (Some years, spring doesn't arrive until June, but then again, I'm a wimp when it comes to the cold.)

Mind you, if one judges the season by the birds, spring is old news. The geese are back on the river, or more accurately, out at the Forestry Farm, and the sparrows are doing their best to outsing each other for the best nesting spots. I saw a pair of merlins this morning on my way to school doing mating spirals around each other, and the frumpy-looking pair of pigeons that sit outside my window and coo for hours at a time are building a nest under the neighbors eaves. As annoying as they are, I can't wait to see their hatchlings, since the male is a creamy white with bright purple bands, and the female a dusty grey.

And of course, with spring, comes spring cleaning. We managed to get the apartment into decent shape for our guests last week, but we still needed to do a little more just to get all of the winter grit out. Now that it's all done though, I'm quite amazed at how much bigger the apartment looks. I guess that's why we were able to fit almost twenty people in here, though I will admit that it was a tight fit at times. Now for the big challenge: Keeping it that way!

KC: Squishy Angel Goodness!!

A whole flock of Edmonton folk came down for this weekend's Inheritance game, resulting in one of our biggest and most interesting games yet. I could go on and on about how great the game was and why, but I think that the post and comments on Layne's blog sum it up nicely. So, instead, I'm going to subject you all to my gamer-girl ramblings about my character, because god knows I've listened to enough other people do the same. ;)

Poor Mahalia was absolutely run off her feet. Between playing hostess to Manahem's guests, dealing with the fall-out of McBride's demonic aura, wrangling new Reckons, trying to lend what comfort she could to the dying Fortitude, soothing tempers and breaking up fights (she actually had to pull Sykes off of Xaide at one point. Luckily, Sykes wasn't trying all that hard to actually hit him, because if he had, she certainly wouldn't have been able to do anything about it!) she hit a point where if one more person had come asking her to fix something, she would have exploded.

Not gotten mad, mind you, but literally exploded. Poof! Little bits of Charity everywhere. And she would have been perfectly happy to see someone else clean up the mess, too. I suppose that's what she gets for trying to play den-mother to the city's Fallen.

Which isn't to say that there weren't things that managed to get under her skin. Manahem, for instance. At one point, he barked at her to come and talk to him, "NOW!", and if she hadn't noticed that several of the new Reckons were watching her, she would have told him where he could take himself and what he should do there, King or not. (Thanks, KQ, that was one of my favorite moments of the night!)Instead, she sat down and was extremely, severely civil, if somewhat snipeish. I've always seen her as somewhat old-fashioned, and no one snipes like an old-fashioned lady.

The other was Malphas. Now, she wasn't angry with Malphas so much as she was disgusted with the way he decided to whine about the Deistical's "interference" in his big plan to capture the Angel through predmoninating the city. Mahalia knows that plan is a load of bull, and knows that he knows it as well, and is just using it as an excuse to mess with Grace's Domus. However, if he'd shoved her again and kept screaming in her face, I really do think that she would have had to punch his lights out. (That is, if Vatusia hadn't already done so. If Manahem had come downstairs a few moments later, I think Vatusia would have been using Malphas as a door mat. She's a little protective of Mahalia.)

Suffice it to say that even though Mahalia was ready to go home and collapse by the end of the night, I had a wonderful time, and I can't wait for next month's game.

That New Blog Smell

In keeping with the theme of (deva)stating the obvious, I should mention that I have a new blog. Obviously, if you're reading this, you've found it. I congratulate you for having the tenacity to dig through whatever convoluted set of links you did to stumble across it. I would also point out that you have entirely too much time on your hands.