Pop Quiz Answers

Pop Quiz Answers

Here are the answers to the Pop Quiz at the beginning of the month.  How many did you get right?  Did you cheat?  :)


1.  Start with the sequence of non-zero digits 123456789. Place plus or minus signs between them so that the result of thus described arithmetic operation will be 100.

Answer:   We got one answer

12 + 3 - 4 + 5 + 67 + 8 + 9 = 100

and suggested there existed at least one more. I do not claim to have made an exhaustive search but there appear to be more than just two answers. One of this is

123 + 4 - 5 + 67 - 89 = 100

I am sure there it at least another one. Want to find it?

2. Name four days of the week that begin with the letter "t".

Answer: Tuesday, Thursday, Today and Tomorrow

3. What word has five letters but is pronounced as only one?

Answer:  The word Queue.

4.  I have 2 arms, but fingers none.  I have 2 feet, but cannot run.  I carry well, but found I carry best with my feet off the ground.  What am I?

Answer: I am a wheelbarrow.

5.  What is big and yellow and comes in the morning to brighten mom's day?

Answer: A schoolbus

6.  You are in a room with 3 monkeys.  One monkey has a banana, one has a stick and one has nothing.  Who is the smartest primate?

Answer: You

7.  I am part of the bird that is not in the sky.  I swim in the ocean yet remain dry.  What am I?

Answer: A bird's shadow.

8.  What is half of 2 + 2?

Answer:  3.  Work from left to right (half of 2)= 1 + 2 = 3.

9.  Forward I am heavy, backward I am not.  What am I?

Answer: The word "ton", which backward becomes "not".

10.  What always runs but never walks, often murmurs, never talks, has a bed but never sleeps, has a mouth but never eats?

Answer: A River

My Favorite Artists... and why

My Favorite Artists... and why

I have several artists that I admire and have learned quite a bit about, aspired to be like, and stared for hours at their works.  It is strange to think that I have a certain type of art that I like, and seeing where that line intersects the type of art that I create.  Today, I would like to share with you some of my favorite artists and also why they make my favorites list.

If anyone asked me to name my absolute favorite artist, there would be absolutely no hesitation- to me there’s no match for the work of Salvador Dali.  He is an abstract artist with a penchant for the crazy and you won’t find a single melting object better than his.  I think the reason that I like his work so well is that there are so many different interpretations that you can gain from his pieces.   One of my favorite pieces, “Phenomenon of the Face and the Vase with Fruit on the Beach”.  The reason I love this piece so much is because it leaves so many things for interpretation and there are also a million different scenes within the painting.

Phenomenon of the Face and the Vase with fruit on the Beach, Salvador Dali

Next up on my list would be David Hockney.  I find his images intriguing and the way he places them together unique.  It shows a fragmented reality, what things might look like through a splintered viewfinder.  My favorite piece by him is Merced Valley:

And lastly on my list of my top three favorite artists would have to be Mark Rothko.  The reason that I love his art is because he makes color key.  It is the color that tells the story in the image, and not so much the image itself. 

No. 8, Mark Rothko

It's interesting to think about why these artists are some of my favorites- and how they affect the work that I do personally as an artist.  I find myself drawn to abstract images, filled with bright color and contrast and nothing like their original subject.  I can see my work in bits of all of my favorite artists, and see how they resonate within the art that I create.

Facts We Bet you Didn't Know about Art

Facts We Bet you Didn't Know about Art

Students who study art are 4 times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement and 3 times more likely to be awarded for school attendance.

New brain research shows that not only does music improve skills in math and reading, but it promotes creativity, social development, personality adjustment, and self-worth.

On 3rd December 1961 Henri Matisse's painting Le Bateau was put the right way up after hanging upside-down for 46 days without anyone noticing at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, America.

 In 1658 the first illustrated book for children was published in Germany.

In all of Dali's paintings you can find a self-portrait. That is, if you look hard you will see at-least a silhouette of Dali himself.

Pablo Picasso's full name: Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Clito Ruíz y Picasso. You can memorize that or simply say "did you know that Pablo Picasso had 23 words in his name?"

Salvador Dali arrived to give a lecture at London exhibition wearing a diving suit and diving helmet. Nobody could hear him. Eventually he began to asphyxiate in the suit, which had an airtight seal. The audience, thinking it was just a performance, applauded wildly until somebody finally popped open the helmet.

Leonardo da Vinci spent 12 years painting the Mona Lisa's lips.

When Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre in 1912, 6 replicas were sold as the original, each at a huge price, in the 3 years before the original was recovered.

During his entire life, artist Vincent Van Gogh sold just one painting; Red Vineyard at Arles.  (Support your local, living artists!)

Atmospheric Noise: A Study in Blue

Atmospheric Noise: A Study in Blue

So since this week is devoted to art, for my Atmospheric Noise section this week, I've chosen to showcase my own artwork!  Here is a new series that I recently finished titled "A Study in Blue".  Enjoy!

Be a Better Artist Thanks to the Internet

Be a Better Artist Thanks to the Internet

Thanks to the internet, it is possible to access a wealth of information to help you become better at, well, anything!  This post is designed to help you to become a better artist (in almost any medium).

This first site is devoted to helping you learn how to draw various things. Visit DragoArt to find tutorials on animals, landscapes and much more!

Want to learn how to paint?  Check out the Painting Lessons section at Art is Fun!


Want to learn how to sculpt something realistic and surprise your friends and family?  Try Charles Oldham's learn to sculpt techniques!

For printmaking, I'll send you over to Free Art Classes- but beware, there's much more than printmaking to learn here!

The point of this is, if you want to learn something new, in this day and age of the internet, you don't have to go to a special school and pay out your booty to learn it.  If you're resourceful instead, you can learn it all from the internet.  (It might not make you the best artist on the earth, but it will at least give you enough to get honing your skill)  

As yet another reason for you to think about working on an art skill, many scientists agree that the arts can help reduce stress and anxiety, improve well-being and enhance the way we fight infection.  Art aids in the recovery of post-traumatic injuries, and improves the symptoms of depression.  Remember that the arts are no substitute for medical help when you need it. But they can still bring health benefits. If you enjoy writing or any other art, go for it. You don’t have to be “good” at them for them to be good for you.  
{excerpts taken from http://newsinhealth.nih.gov  National Institutes for Health}

History, You're Doing it Wrong...

History, You're Doing it Wrong...

Night Witches, History you Don't Hear About

Night Witches, History you Don't Hear About

So I was reading some random facts the other day and learned, stunned, that there was a group of women air service pilots during WWII.  My jaw literally dropped.  I had never heard of these brave women, in all the years that I studied and learned about history.  Now, as I'm reading about these women, all of my sources say that the "WASP" (Women's Air Service Pilots) are relatively well known.  I beg to differ, however, seeing as I am certain that I have never heard of them.  Now, the fact that there were woman pilots is not the stunning fact here, but the lack of written history about them is.  Even more interesting than that, and the main topic of this article, are the Night Witches.

Called the Nachthexen, a small crew of female air pilots from the Soviet Union, terrorized the German army for much of the war.  This crew, made completely of women, flew night missions that were of the deadliest kind.  They flew in sub-par planes, planes that the men wouldn't be using, and dropped bombs on army encampments spread all over the soviet union.  Their maneuvers bordered the insane- they would fly in low, cut the engines as they approached and coast in, dropping their payload and firing back up their engines mid air.  They would also utilize the stall point in their engines to perform daring maneuvers and avoid enemy fire.

and if you weren't surprised enough... almost every woman flew over 1000 missions, and their leader never got caught.  They also only had a miniscule number of losses over the 4 years that they flew missions.

Atmospheric Noise: History, Rewritten

Atmospheric Noise: History, Rewritten

So this week, for my Atmospheric Noise feature, I decided to take what (little) I know about history and make it my own.  So sit back, and enjoy...

History, Rewritten

or

"The History of the Great Battle of the Axis and Empire versus the Allies and the Rebels"

Around the time of WWII, the Empire and the Rebels were facing off somewhere in a galaxy far, far away.

(Lucky for us, there was a satellite in space that captured their vast array of soldiers)

Right about this time, the Empire intercepted a message from a planet that was far, far, away.  This message wasn't intended for them, but they decided it was far better prey and picked up and took off away from their far, far, away galaxy and left the rebels behind.  Or so they thought...

Meanwhile, on this other planet, that was far, far, away, where a message had just been lost in space, another war was preparing to take place.  The Allies have just landed in Germany and the Axis is ready to defend their land.

(again, we're so lucky there was a nearby satellite taking pictures)

Then, a strange thing happened.  The message that had been sent that was intercepted in the galaxy far, far, away was answered, not by who was expected to answer it, but by the Empire from a galaxy far, far, away.  Not only that, but the Rebels followed the Empire, and nearing their destination, quickly figured out there was a war and decided to side on the opposite side of the Empire.

The Hutts caught a ride with the Empire...

They immediately assimilated themselves.

The Allies celebrated small victories...

The small victories were short lived, as can be seen by the Massacre on Utah Beach.

                                The Axis and the Empire were quickly gaining a strong lead.

Both sides cheered when this guy died...

The battle was quickly overtaken by the Empire and the Axis.

As soon as they had nearly defeated their enemies, the Empire shot the Axis in the back.

They faced off in every part of Germany.

When the Death Star moved in, the Axis had no chance.

Axis and Allies and Rebels alike suffered the same fate.

        

At the end of it all, the only "men" left standing were storm troopers and AT-ST's.  Darth Vader was left with a whole planet to himself and never returned to that galaxy far, far, away.  Lucky for us, Han Solo, Luke and Princess Leia weren't anywhere near the battle and they stayed back on Kashyyk.  Lucky for them, they no longer have an Imperial army on their back.