Virtual Brush Box

Training Journal

 

 

We have two more shows scheduled for the year. I almost bailed on them.

Gasp. Clutch the pearls. Me missing a horse show?!

I know. I can barely believe it myself. They are both dressage shows. While Rodney & I have come a long way in a lot of areas, our dressage-specific skills are unchanged from what they were in August [Words].

I do not need more bad dressage in my life.

Yes, I have huge amount to learn in dressage. No, I do not need any more experience with a simple circle-reverse-circle-halt-salute test. As a building block for the horse? Sign us up. As a building block for the rider? Have the t-shirt, bought the book, saw the movie, rented the DVD, streamed the series.

So, Rodney not ready. Me, over it.

My marvelous groom – in both senses of the word – brought up a good point. Rodney and I need practice going to shows. Doesn’t matter what kind: another obstacle challenge trip, a hunter flat class, or a super-basic dressage test. We need to work on our mental game. Me coping with show agitation. Rodney coping with show agitation. Me coping with Rodney’s show agitation. Rodney coping with my show agitation.

Bad dressage. Good team building. That’s the plan.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Discovering Art

 

 

 

 
Not sure what I’m up to? Hint

Process Notes
Letters made by stretching computer-generated Arial font. Result is clever rather than artistic. But then, so am I. Colors chosen to represent blue sky and long roads. What colors would you associate with travel?

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

From The Bookshelf

 
General intro: Imagine we are in a bookstore. I wander up to you, hand you one of these books, say ‘Have you read this one?’, then wander off. Whereupon you look at the cover, turn it over, look at the back cover, read the blurb, flip through the book, and decide for yourself if you are interested. It’s like that. Enjoy. Previous [Have You Read This? Graphic Novel Edition]

Specific intro: I prefer my travel narrative to be light on memoir. I don’t care a used ticket stub about the author’s inner life. I care about what author is doing as my proxy.

Road Fever
Tim Cahill
(Random House 1991)

“Tim Cahill reports on the road trip to end all road trips: a journey that took him from Tierra del Fuego to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, in a record-breaking twenty three and a half days.” Penguin

Mentioned on the blog ” … but my vacation slides don’t rivet as do those of travel writer Tim Cahill.” [Peregrinatio in Stabilitate]

Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster
Jon Krakauer
(Villard 1997)

“In March 1996, Outside Magazine sent me to Nepal to participate in, and write about, a guided ascent of Mount Everest.” Books

Mentioned on the blog, “I’m never going to climb Mount Everest. Reading Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer is as close as I’ll ever get.” [The End of the Road, In Which I Consider the Price Of Living Vicariously].

Crusader: By Horse to Jerusalem
Tim Severin
(Hutchinson 1989)

“In these astonishing true stories of his expeditions, Tim tells of how he recreated famous historical and legendary voyages and adventures, including sailing across the Atlantic in an accurately reconstructed sixth-century leather boat, and journeying on horseback from Belgium to Jerusalem retracing the route of 11th century crusaders.” Expeditions

Mentioned on the blog [Letter Art, AlphaBooks: S is for Severin]

The Lunatic Express: Discovering the World . . . via Its Most Dangerous Buses, Boats, Trains, and Planes
Carl Hoffman
(Broadway 2010)

“So off he went, spending six months circumnavigating the globe on the world’s worst conveyances: the statistically most dangerous airlines, the most crowded and dangerous ferries, the slowest buses, and the most rickety trains.” Books

Mentioned on the blog, “I am more likely to read for vicarious experience of something I would never do, for example …” [Referral Saturday: Horseback Reads], [Check Out My New Page].

Scanner broken. Cahill, Krakauer, Hoffam covers off the Internet; Severin from files.

What do you have for me to read?

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Random Images

 
Intro, week: Do you feel like traveling? I feel like traveling. Let’s hear it for vicarious travel.

Intro, today: More from Amy Vanderryn [Archives]. Welcome Amy.
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One of two seahorse statues in the Praça do Império (Empire Square) in the Belem section of Lisbon. Wiki calls them Hippocamps. Artist, António Duarte. Wiki: Praça do Império

Random Images

 
Intro, week: Do you feel like traveling? I feel like traveling. Let’s hear it for vicarious travel.

Intro, today: Blog contributor & globetrotter Amy Vanderryn has once again come up aces [Archives]. Welcome Amy.
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According to Amy, “It’s a very important part of Portugal’s history and one their people take with them when they have neighborhoods in other countries. Many many buildings are tiled all up the outside etc – it’s everywhere. Now they even have stick on ones so people can make their stuff look like it (so my friend says).”

Museu Nacional do Azulejo
Museu Nacional do Azulejo – English

General story on tiles, this is one of the illustrations. BBC, The story behind Lisbon’s beauty

“‘O Casamento da Galinha’ (The Chicken’s Wedding) – this is the most enigmatic tile panel in the museum, and perhaps of all time. Created in 1665, it depicts a chicken in a carriage on its way to a ceremony…” If you go over to this blog, click on the painting for the full caption. Dom and Jo’s travel adventures – Portugal 2016, Lisboa – Museu Nacional do Azulejo

A general article on tiles that I scanned briefly before the site asked me to register, this is the lead illustration. The Economist, Art Squared

“The habit of portraying your life through images you have approved has been around for centuries … António commissioned the seven panels … for his manor house on his estate in Póvoa de Santo Adrião, a small village on the northern outskirts of Lisboa. It was here he also built his hat factory. Becky in Portugal, The story of the milliner

“As opposed to the customary working methods of Portuguese azulejo painters, these panels were painted directly with no reference to engraved iconographic sources.”
Google Arts & Culture, The hat maker panels

“This tile panel depicting the t(h)reshing of wheat using animals originally covered the wall of a bakery in Lisbon.” Museum With No Frontiers, Tile panel ‘The Threshing of Wheat’

“The 20th century is represented by works produced by … Jorge Barradas …”
Museu Nacional do Azulejo, Explore the MNAz, Portuguese Tiles

Plus two spotted in the wild:

Atlas Obscura, Sao Bento Station. Be sure to scroll through the slide show at the top of the page. I was particularly taken with the wide shot of the lobby. Tiles everywhere.

Portugal Visitor, Rossio Station Lisbon

This is making me want to go to Lisbon.

Links
Museu Nacional do Azulejo National Tile Museum website. Border color from here.
Museu Nacional do Azulejo – English
VisitLisboa, National Tile Museum
BePortugal, Tiles in Lisbon: The History and Tradition of Our Iconic Art