Field Trip! An outing to the Delaware Art Museum

I had the great opportunity once again to travel a few hours up I-95 to engage in what's known in military circles as "PME," ("Professional Military Education").

One of my great mentors, though of course I've never met him, is the great artist and illustrator, Howard Pyle. Pyle is one of the greats of the Golden Age of Illustration during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The Delaware Art Museum is the center of the Pyle universe, being the premier holder of the works of Howard Pyle, and having been founded to hold his works in the first place.

"Who Shall Be Captain?" by Howard Pyle, 1911.

Detail of pirates watching from "Who Shall Be Captain?"

"An Attack on a Galleon," by Howard Pyle, 1905.

I also got to see a great series of Pyle's black and white illustration work, including a great piece about Blackbeard:

"Blackbeard's Last Fight," by Howard Pyle, 1894.

There also in the gallery, along with his illustrations, stands Mr. Pyle's drawing desk on display-- the design of which I'm really drawn to (I love a good pun!).

I was able to get the measurements of it, and intend to craft a desk similar to this great piece, which is in itself a work of art (from the Arts and Crafts era, I assume?)

MET, MOMA; at the Guggenheim

My Ode to Norman Rockwell's piece, "Abstract and Concrete"

Hey, almost forgot the great time I had with my wife a couple of weeks ago, right when I got back from Afghanistan, when we went to NYC.

As an artist, this was almost a religious obligation-- New York has been Art Mecca since WWII.

We visited the MOMA, the Met, and the Guggenheim. I saw so much art-- and I mean good, "hey I've seen that a thousand times in text books" art.

The only negatives of the whole experience were 1) the cost of admission. Each was $18 to $20 per person...! and 2) the MOMA was at first a total diappointment when I toured the first few floors, which showcased all of the contemporary, "hey, I got a piece my art in the MOMA and all that I did was scratch color on a piece of copy paper" type of modern art. Pointless, useless --except as a nice joke in a lower-level art or design class.

The upper two floors more than made up for it though, as I saw Picasso, Dali, Wyeth, Van Gogh, and other really excellent true Modernists that I'd only seen in books up to that time.