Scary Baby Doll
Join Jennifer’s Color Your World 2018: 120 Days of Crayola, a 4 month (January 1, 2018 to April 30, 2018) blogging challenge event. Each day has a new color theme based on a past or current crayon color in Crayola’s box of 120 crayons.
If you are going to be in Paris before February 20, 2017, I highly recommend you make the time to visit the Fondation Louis Vuitton and view Icons of Modern Art: The Shchukin Collection. The depth of the collection is amazing, and the individual works at times left me spellbound. The exhibition features 130 of the 275 paintings collected by Russian Industrialist Sergei Ivanovich Shchukin between 1898 and 1914. Shchukin fled Russia in 1914, and the collection was nationalized in 1918 and divided between between two museums. From 1948-1956, Stalin banned the collection, and other modern French art, from exhibition. Rarely seen outside of Russia, the Shchukin collection includes stunning Impressionists, Post-Impressionists, Fauve and Cubist works. An entire gallery for Matisse. An entire gallery for Gauguin. An entire gallery for Picasso.
Buy your ticket online. The lines were long and having a reservation time is important. The Fondation Louis Vuitton is an unusual building. It was designed by Frank Gehry, who is not my favorite architect. Unfortunately, it was raining the day I visited so I saw very little of the outside of the building. The interior gallery space is wonderful. Most of the rooms are large enough for easy viewing. Unfortunately all my shots are at an angle. Don’t know if it was me, my smart phone, or a bit of both.
Last week I visited the Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library in Yorba Linda, California. The library recently reopened its galleries after major redesign and renovations. I was impressed, both with the displays and the balanced portrayal of Nixon’s life and career. I was 18 in 1972, and the presidential election was the first time I was able to vote. I am not embarrassed to say I voted for President Nixon. The Vietnam War, Watergate break-ins, missing tapes, and his resignation overshadow many of the positives of the Nixon presidency. Here are just a few of the achievements of his time in office I discovered. President Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to manage the environment and signed the Clean Air and the National Environmental Policy acts. He reestablished diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China and during his 1972 visit to Beijing met with Chairman Mao. His summit meetings with Russian leader Leonid I. Brezhnev produced two landmark arms control treaties: SALT I and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. Nixon’s administration worked successfully to peacefully end segregation in southern schools. On July 20, 1969, during Nixon’s first term in office, Neil Armstrong became the first man on the moon. An estimated 600 million people watched the moon landing.
My sister Cecilia’s Christmas tree is entirely decorated with birds, most of them glass ornaments. When I visit her for the holidays, I love helping to unwrap the beautiful decorations and put them on the tree under the watchful eye of her dolls. I missed out on decorating this year because I will be spending the holidays in North Pole, Alaska,near Fairbanks. No question I will have a white Christmas.
Linked to Silver Threading’s Christmas Trees Around the World
The New 3 Rs: Retire, Recharge, Reconnect 