Study Time in Westminster, Colorado

Hyland Hills Golf Course in Westminster is home to a little girl too busy reading to look around (I'm betting you know how that is). She is the work of Randolph Rose Collection Artists and is a gift of family and friends of Vickie Landgraf and Don Ciancio to the park.

Mark Twain in Trinity Park

If you're ever in Ft. Worth, TX visit the Trinity Park and watch the river for a bit with Mark Twain.
The life-size bronze statue of the great writer was "Given to the families of Fort Worth for the pleasure of reading together" by Red Oaks Books (Red Oak Foundation) and was placed on a bench overlooking the river in 2007. It was dedicated on June 28th of that year and remains a popular spot for children and adults alike to sit a while and read a page from Huckleberry Finn with Mr. Twain.

* Photo by Barbara Schmidt © 2010

Art - Sculpture: Aleksandr Pushkin

Growing up my grandmother was my reading companion. We shared an affinity for the chivalrous times of crinolines and duels and literary salons. We reread Pushkin's novel Dubrovskiy time after time, sitting on the worn red couch in the living room and talking about the characters when we were done. It was our perennial favourite and the two volumes of Pushkin's works were the first books my parents sent me after I moved to the States. Those two volumes with their red cloth covers and yellowing pages are filled with memories. They are memories, really.
Pushkin was one of the greatest poets and writers in Russian history. Eugene Onegin is his most internationally acclaimed work but he wrote many other poems, plays, short stories and fairy tales. Ballets have been written based on his works, music was written for his poetry resulting in operas and songs, and my generation grew up watching children's movies and cartoons based on the stories he created.
The sculpture you see in the picture was created by M.K. Anikushin and was unveiled in the Arts Square in St. Petersburg in 1957. It stands at almost 26 feet tall and is my favourite monument to the poet.

Special Feature - Sculpture: Dr. Seuss

The Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden at the Springfield Museum commemorates one of Springfield's most famous German-American residents, Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as the famous children book author Dr. Seuss. Did you know that the creator of Cat In The Hat was an immigrant? Neither did I. There's an interesting article about the community he came from on the STCC website and you can find it here.
What is your favorite Dr. Seuss story?

[ Photo by Richard Norman, Ph.D. used on the STCC website with the permission of the Springfield Museums. ]

Elementary, my dear Watson!

Who in this world doesn't recognize the deerstalker hat and cape of the great detective? It's difficult to imagine that such a person exists. Growing up I loved reading and re-reading all the Sherlock Holmes novels and short stories and watching the Russian adaptations of his and Watson's adventures time and time again. And yes, I still prefer the detective and good doctor I grew up with to every other portrayal out there.
There are plenty of monuments around the world commemorating the master of deduction but this bronze statue at Picardy Place in Edinburgh is most interesting to me because of its location: it stands close to the house where his creator, Arthur Conan Doyle was born. Sculpted and cast by Gerald Ogilvie Laing at Kinkell Castle in Sutherland in 1989, it is today one of Edinburgh landmarks.
Now I want to re-read The Study In Scarlet... That's how it all began after all!

P.S. Did you know that Sherlock has never actually said the much-quoted phrase that is the title of today's post? Yep, apparently he never even got close. Who would've thought!

"Once you shut yourself inside a wardrobe, you can imagine anything."

Back in 1998 the good citizens of Belfast, Northern Ireland commemorated C.S. Lewis's 100th birthday by unveiling a life-sized bronze statue titled The Searcher that depicts Digory Kirke, C.S. Lewis's alter ego, entering Narnia through the magic wardrobe.

C.S. Lewis was born in Belfast and many believe that the world of Narnia was inspired by his childhood in Ireland. He spent majority of his adult life in Oxford, writing and teaching at the Magdalen College. In addition to his scholarly work, Lewis wrote a number of popular novels, including his science fiction The Space Trilogy and his fantasy series the Chronicles of Narnia. The Chronicles is Lewis's most popular work, it has sold over 100 million copies in 41 languages and has been adapted for TV, radio, stage and most recently, and most famously, a series of movies.
In 2008, The Times ranked him eleventh on their list of "the 50 greatest British writers since 1945".

One for all and all for one!

Did you know that the valiant d'Artagnan wasn't just a product of Alexandre Dumas' imagination? Did you know also that Athos, Porthos and Aramis as well as Monsieur de Treville, the captain of the King's musketeers, also existed? I didn't, not until today when I started looking up whether one of my favorite literary heroes was considered deserving of a statue. Why not, I reasoned, after all Captain Nemo has a monument in Nantes.
Luck is on my side and I found a very interesting article about the real d'Artagnan, Charles de Batz-Castelmore, his service to the French crown and his death in a battle at the gates of Maastricht in Holland. It was the most interesting and informative article and I urge you to read it here. Wikipedia also has an interesting entry about d'Artagnan and his life. The two complement each other nicely.
Once I was done reading both articles I thought about how I started the Special Feature posts because I loved the idea of literature inspiring artists to paint and sculpt, but d'Artagnan is just one example of real people inspiring artists and writers centuries after they lived and died (did you know there's a new Three Musketeers movie awaiting release this fall?).
Now I'm off to find out more about the other three musketeers. Wish me luck!

William Shakespeare, should I read your plays?

Growing up I didn't like Shakespeare much. Poetry in a difficult to understand language was just not very appealing and the fact that Romeo & Juliet was part of the school program did little to entice me to read it. As I grew older however and read quotes of Shakespeare's sonnets and plays in various books and articles they made sense and the language didn't seem so odd or difficult any more and I even began considering reading his works.
A while back while at a second-hand shop I glimpsed a stout volume with a cover embossed in gold. Complete Works of William Shakespeare it said. It was so beautiful and the price was so right that I bought it and lugged it home. It's still sitting on my book shelf but after leafing through Interred With Their Bones the other day after announcing the giveaway I started thinking about Shakespeare again. May be I'll start slow, with the sonnets. Who knows, I might even like them.
Central Park is the perfect place to go if you're looking for open air and some impressive artwork. This particular statue was commissioned in 1864 as a celebration of the tricentenary of Shakespeare's birth in 1564. Funds were raised by a performance of Julius Caesar where Edwin Booth took the lead role, with John Wilkes Booth playing Mark Antony. The statue was designed by John Quincy Adams Ward. (Source)

The Little Mermaid in Copenhagen, Denmark

When I started thinking about today's post it almost immediately seemed fitting to look up the most famous mermaid of them all. Sculpted by Edvard Eriksen and unveiled in 1913 The Little Mermaid is a symbol of Copenhagen. Copenhagen’s Royal Theatre primaballerina, Ellen Price, modeled for the statue's head but refused to pose in the nude so the sculptor’s wife Eline Eriksen modeled for the body. The statue only stands 1.25 meters tall (a little over 4 feet) but consistently attracts large number of tourists and is often copied around the world, which sometimes results in litigation since it's still under copyright.

Jules Verne and Captain Nemo

      

The statues of Jules Verne as a child and Captain Nemo by Elisabeth Cibot were unveiled on 18 December 2005 on the Butte Sainte-Anne near the Jules Verne Museum in Nantes, France. (Source)

Alice lives in Central Park

I love to see how literature influences other arts, painting, sculpture, for example. Artists all over the world are inspired by the characters many of us love and here's one delightful example:





The dedication plaque reads
"Alice In Wonderland
In memory of my wife
Margarita Delacorte
who loved all children.
GTD"

George T. Delacorte Jr. was the founder of Dell Publishing Company, one of the largest publishers of books, magazines and comics during its heyday. He donated the money for this sculpture as well as the sculptures of The Tempest and Romeo and Juliet that are also located in Central Park. The sculpture was created by Jose de Creeft and was dedicated May 7, 1959. Tt is known as Alice In Wonderland as well as the Margaret Delacorte Memorial in the honor of Mr. Delacorte's first wife.

Special thanks to the creators and contributors of Wikipedia for the information found here and here