RMW Ramblings

  Campaniles A campanile is a free-standing bell tower.  The most famous is St Mark's Campanile in Venice, towering over the square at 325 feet.  The centerpiece of the campus of my graduate school, University of California at Berkeley is Sather Tower, usually called simply the Campanile, stands at 307 feet. But we have a campanile of our own here by Wilmington, the DuPont Carillon at Nemours, at 210 feet. Here's a sketch comparing all three...     Construction of St Mark's Campanile was begun in about 940, but continued slowly over a long period.  It was extended, modified, and repaired several ties over the centuries.  It finally succumbed to gravity and collapsed in 1902.  It was rebuilt, completed in 1912. [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Mark%27s_Campanile] St Mark's Campanile appears as a small detail in a panoramic painting I did of the Venice Canale Grande that serves as a crest over a doorway at our cottage.       ...

  More California Poppies A Berkeley Panorama On a recent post ( https://rmw-ramblings.blogspot.com/2023/05/california-poppies.html ) there was a painting of California poppies and Mt. Shasta.  An earlier painting with foreground poppies, Fiat Lux, is this panorama overlooking Berkeley, California.   Fiat Lux is the motto of the University of California, Berkeley.  The painting is on a panel that I inset in a bookshelf/peg-strip at our cottage.

  Handel The Messiah  For Unto Us An important part of the Christmas season for me is The Messiah , the oratorio by  George Fredrick Handel [ Georg Friederich Händel].   In the 1950s I was part of the chorus in performances of The Messiah for several years with the Wilmington's Capella Club at Grace Methodist Church in front of their magnificent stained glass window by Louis Comfort Tiffany.    My painting above, For Unto Us, shows Handel, with an organ pipe rank halo, conducting a small chorus and instrumental ensemble,  on a gallery wrapped canvas with a baroque crest  (see this blog August 03, 2021.) I retained my worn and annotated  Schirmer score and paid for a new replacement for the Club.  A few years later I hand rebound my copy with scrounged materials.  The black cloth was scrap from blackout fabric in our Berkeley lab where we were doing research requiring darkroom conditions.  The framed title was assembled from t...

  International House The Goines Posters The Thanksgiving through Christmas season is the time when we remember what we are grateful for as we send end of the year charitable contributions.   My educational opportunities were a blessing for me and my family.  A part of this was the year I lived at International House in Berkeley. (https://ihouse.berkeley.edu/), a remarkable institution which I support annually.   For the 50th and 75th anniversary of I-House, the talented graphic designer David Lance Goines produced and printed limited editions of commemorative  posters for the occasions.  As both an I-House supporter and a graphics design affectionato I purchased each when issued.     I didn't know if either I or Goines would be around for a 100th anniversary poster, but last year a 90th anniversary poster was produced as a fund raiser for International House by Goines and I bought it.      I encourage you to learn more about Intern...