Came across this really interesting article about art forgeries and the science and scientists behind proving that the Perfect Fake is fake, but not perfect.
Of forging and finding
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Tag Archives: science
Newer work #89
“Daybreak on earth”‘s name is inspired by the beauty that I am still seeing in ‘Dawn off my back porch’, and the fact that the Salton Sea is drying up. Some day in the not too distant future there will be no water reflection. And it’s not just here right in our lap, it’s everywhere. Climate change is observable in our lifetime and will eventually render the planet utterly different than we know it. But it is still worth getting up in the morning and seeing what the world has to offer because as far as anyone knows, there are no dawns and sunsets in heaven.
“Daybreak on Earth”, 9×12″ refractured watercolor on panel. $110. The poem written for and painted into this painting is: Daybreak in heaven never looks like this! Heaven has no day and night
Sonnet Challenge #30
I wrote this one a few weeks ago while watching the Orionids meteor shower. Next shower is December 13th.
Shooting stars
It’s in our hears to wish upon a star
that falls to earth, as if heaven had thrown
a penny in the fountain from afar,
thinking to make a wish all of its own.
Astronomers predict the meteors,
a stone’s throw from a passing comet’s tail.
Perhaps they wish upon them too, like us.
I wonder if they’re sad when wishes fail
to fall into their hands, and wonder why
the luck burned up with space’s Molotov
evaporating in the heat of sky,
leaving a streak for what we’re dreaming of.
Fall slow, fall fast, each shooting star a wish,
a hope, a joy, a heaven’s little kiss.
Sonnet Challenge #25
So for a little light bedtime reading, it’s usually a science book or something similar. I recently bought a science reference book (it’s useful to have a periodic table handy when my mind wanders) and read about the accuracy of Cesium clocks and other (mis-)uses of radioactive materials……
Atomic Time
We count the rot of Cesium to mark time;
we are obsessed with measuring the past
as it come at us, from a future cast
quite randomly; yet we strive to align
the whirl of planets circling the stars
above us. Slicing time up like a pie
in pieces with precise equality
so we can note the passage of the hours.
We watch the atoms split, then split them more,
note and love the difference in decay,
and harness it to blow ourselves away,
then realize we cannot close that door.
We know that action made the world a mess
but that’s one thing we couldn’t second guess.
Zooming back
Have been away for awhile so no blogging. This time that I flew to Heathrow, I took United, so I ended up in Terminal 2, whereas it seems just about every other airline that flies out of LA uses Terminal 3. So, on the way home, I had time to seek out some of the artwork at this terminal. Slipstream is a huge sculpture that occupies a massive covered area between the terminal and the buses/taxis area.
“Slipstream”
The associated sign says a little more about it, and there’s yet more information here. I don’t see any information about material, but it seems to be made of aluminum. Or aluminium, if you use the local dialect. Sadly, despite the enticing shape, we’re not apparently allowed to slide on it.
Graphene
Concrete is the most commonly used building material in the world. And now, by adding the invisible wonder material graphene to it, researchers have taken a step towards a more sustainable construction industry. The new graphene-laced concrete is two times as strong and four times as water-resistant as the standard stuff, shows a new study…
via Graphene Can Green Up Concrete’s Act — Anthropocene
Messing about in boats
I have to say that this was one painting (or pair of paintings) executed under the most hostile of weathers. No, not so much heat, but the desiccating wind. I had to stop on the second morning and go back for a short session closer to dawn on the third day, and then it was a struggle. The good news is that once I’d drawn up the letters, I could quickly go from one side to the other, painting layers, knowing full well that that my start point would be completely dry by the time I returned to it in about 25 minutes. At the end of the second day I had to quit because the paint was drying on the brush. The east side of the boat was too hot to work, and the west side, in the shade and wind, I was shivering. And I still had to figure out how to spray with an acrylic glaze with the UV component – in a stiff breeze.
Nevertheless ‘Poseidon’ has its name on its sides and today will be test launched. Eventually this boat will carry a solar powered pump which will pump water from the Salton Sea into the marina ‘fingers’ in Desert Shores, to maintain the water level and mitigate red agae. Launch day is on Sunday.
I would like to recommend….
For those of you who are into science – at least reading about it – can I recommend this blog – sciencesprings. Richard posts a lot of interesting science stuff from earth and around the universe.
From Science Alert: “This Volcano Erupted For 5 Years Straight, And The Photos Are Mesmerising” — sciencesprings
Science Alert 5 APR 2018 SIGNE DEAN You’re looking at a very rare type of lava fountain. (USGS) On 24 May 1969, a deep rumbling started within Kīlauea, the largest of the volcanoes comprising the island of Hawai’i. Looking up the slope of Kilauea, a shield volcano on the island of Hawaii. In the foreground, […]
Salton Sea News
A symposium on community impacts, recent research, and possible solutions
via Shrinking Shorelines and the Salton Sea — Salton Sea Sense
Skyscapes for the Soul - Jeni Bate 