VODOU SPIRITS AT THE FIELD MUSEUM

Vodou God Danblewoum, 10 x 6 inch ink drawing by George C. Clark    AVAILABLE

Yesterday I went to Chicago's Field Museum to see the exhibition "VODOU: Sacred Spirits of Haiti," and I sketched some of the objects on display.  This was a polychromed wood carving of the god Danblewoum about three feet tall with a real metal machete. 

Vodou Spirits, 10 x 6 inch ink drawing by George C. Clark    Available

Most of the objects in the exhibition were anonymous folk art created by various hands.  However, there were a number of these 4 foot tall effigies of stuffed fabric painted mostly red and black with pieces of broken mirrors embedded in them for eyes and elsewhere that struck me as being the work of a single artist, although as near as I could tell hardly any artists were credited.  They were strong and alarming images and I sketched a few of them, here and below.  

Vodou Gods, 10 x 6 inch ink drawing by George C. Clark    AVAILABLE

These are the gods Legba Kita Bizango and Baron La Croix.  All these vodou drawings are pages from my sketchbook.

T-REX FOSSIL SKULL AT THE FIELD MUSEUM

T-Rex Fossil Skull "Sue," Field Museum, Chicago, 6.5 x 10 inch ink drawing by George C. Clark

Last winter I attended an evening function at the Field Museum and sketched "Sue," the most complete tyrannosaurus-rex fossil skeleton yet found, displayed in an action pose in the museum's Stanley Field Hall looming over the coffee service of the evening's buffet.  I posted that drawing from my sketchbook on this blog back in March of 2013.

I was at the museum again a couple of weeks ago and this time I sketched "Sue's" skull displayed in a glass case on the museum's mezzanine overlooking the action pose skeleton.  The action pose skeleton is held in place and supported by an unobtrusive steel framework.  However, a framework strong enough to support this 600 pound skull out on the end of "Sue's" long neck vertebrae would not be unobtrusive, so the real fossil skull is displayed upstairs while the action pose skeleton sports a lightweight replica.  Also displayed in the glass case are teeth found with the scull that couldn't be replaced in the jaws because of distortions caused by being trapped in layers of limestone for 65 million years.     

DINOSAUR AT THE BUFFET

Dinosaur at the Buffet, 10 x 6.5 inch ink drawing by George C. Clark

The last three lengthy posts have been about art that I created over thirty years ago.  Let's look at something more recent.  Last Tuesday I was invited by friends to Members' Night at the Field Museum (Chicago's natural history museum).  I had a chance to see the new "Creatures of Light: Nature's Bioluminescence" exhibit and to do some sketching in the collection.  The evening included a very nice catered buffet supper served in the museum's big central Stanley Field Hall.  Coffee was dispensed under Sue the Tyrannosaurus Rex, as I recorded above in my sketchbook.