Northern River Otters at High Desert Museum in Bend, Oregon
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The Infinity Chair is a marble sculpture created by Pedro Reyes in 2018. It’s on display at the Portland Art Museum in Oregon. Reyes is a multidisciplinary Mexican artist who studied architecture at Ibero-American University in Mexico City. Later, he became interested in sculpture.
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These two well-loved camels are at Volunteer Park in Seattle. Numerous children have climbed onto these large sculptures. Though they may not remember what was inside the museum, they likely have fond memories of their time spent sitting atop these large sculptures. The two camel sculptures flank the doors of the Seattle Asian Art Museum, formerly the Seattle Art Museum (SAM).
Of the nearly 24,000 objects in SAM’s collection, two sculptures have probably had the broadest impact on visitors’ experience of the museum since it opened in 1933.
The original marble camels were created in the late 14th-mid 17th century in China. Due to conservation concerns, in 1991 the originals were moved inside SAM. Today, the well-loved camels outside the Seattle Asian Art Museum are replicas.
Here is a 1933 picture of the Art Deco-style building that shows two camel and two ram sculptures in front of the museum.
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Early 1900s Woman’s Leggings at the High Desert Museum, Oregon
Wordless Wednesday (WW)
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Saber-toothed cat skeleton at University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History
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This Plesiosaur model can be seen at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Montana. This museum has an amazing collection of fossils, articulated skeletons, and models.
Plesiosaurs were always one of my favorite dinosaurs as a kid. Pterodactyls, a flying reptile, were also a favorite of mine. I must have admired these creatures’ ability to travel through water and air, respectively.
Plesiosaurs were 11 to 14 feet long and weighed between 400 to 1,100 pounds. They fed on fish, reptiles, and cephalopods. Plesiosaurs disappeared at the end of the Cretaceous period.
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When I travel along the Columbia River, I usually drive on the Oregon side because it’s faster. Last spring I drove on the Washington side and made a stop at the Columbia Gorge Museum near the small town of Stevenson, Washington. This hidden gem of a museum opened in 1995 and it houses a wide variety of art, historical artifacts, and immersive exhibitions.
Collections at the museum include artifacts from centuries ago to the present. The displays include traditional Indigenous tools, pioneer-era artifacts, and contemporary works of art.
Several styles of baskets used for different purposes are featured in the displays.
The design of this part of the museum really impressed me. Big pieces of columnar basalt framed the display cases.
Nearby, a sculpture of a Native American fishing from a platform towers over visitors. This traditional fishing method is still in use today at places like Cascade Locks, Oregon.
Horse gear of the past at Museum of the American West, Lander, Wyoming
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While visiting the Museum of the Rockies (MOR) in Bozeman, Montana, I was amazed to see mythical creatures filling one of their halls. Kudos to whomever had the great idea to create and display life-sized representations of creatures that have existed in our imaginations for years.
A colorful 17-foot long dragon guards one of the entrances. These are mythical creatures, but they resemble lizards, snakes, and dinosaurs.
Near the other entrance, a unicorn points the way ahead. Modern tales of this creature depict it as white with a single long horn. However, older stories describe them with the body of a goat and a short, colored horn.
Here’s the High Desert Voices June 2024 newsletter for your reading pleasure. Lots of nice photos as well! This newsletter is published by and for volunteers at the High Desert Museum in Bend, Oregon, where I volunteer.
Articles this month include one on accommodating visitors with disabilities, one on facts about local wildlife mothers, one on the High Desert Ranger Station, and one on a birding event at the Museum.
Please enjoy this month’s issue!
Today I’m sharing a particularly challenging photo edit I worked on recently. Sometimes putting extra time into something can really pay off.
When I visited the Museum of the American West in Lander, Wyoming last year, I took a couple pictures of an art piece entitled The Confrontation. I marveled at the detail the artist, Tess Diaz, created with thousands of tiny glass beads.
Here are the two pictures I took that day, shown with no editing. As you can see, the bright light and many reflections hid the beauty of the work.
Today I’ll be featuring a photo of a 1935 Chevrolet fire truck on display at the High Desert Museum in Bend, Oregon, edited three ways. This truck, pieced together with parts from trucks in Prineville and Lakeview, Oregon, was restored to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Smokey Bear. For years, Smokey Bear has been reminding people how to prevent wildfires.
I’ll show a pair of pictures with and without editing effects. Slide the slider to see the full images. I use Corel Paintshop Pro software to edit my photos.
The first pair shows the original picture and one using the Hot Wax Coating Artistic Effect. I like how it almost looks like a pen and ink drawing with color added.
The second pair shows the original picture and one using a Retro Lab Photo Effect. The effect darkened the whole picture. I loved how it and gave the chrome details a warm brass color.
Continue readingLast week, I showed symmetrical displays of history at the Museum of the American West in Lander, Wyoming. However, history is not always balanced. A good museum shows our similarities and differences. Here are more items on display at the Museum.
At times, our differences stand out.
Though what we wear differs, from practical and utilitarian…
To ornamental and symbolic, our clothing reflects who we are.
Here are some treasures of the Old West at the Museum of the American West, in Lander, Wyoming, shown in both color and black and white. Click on the arrows to see monochrome versions highlighting their symmetry.
Wheels may carry you forward, towards new horizons
Or back, to a final resting place
You may choose to wander in another’s shoes
Continue reading
This Beaded Horse Regalia is part of the exhibition at The Indian Museum of North America®. The beaded horse is on display at the Crazy Horse Memorial in South Dakota. Douglas Fast Horse, Oglala Lakota, created this piece. He makes a point of creating work that replicates “historic Lakota regalia as a way to honor his heritage and help tell the story of Lakota Oyate.”
I’ve always admired beadwork such as this. This Beaded Horse Regalia piece shows what can be accomplished with many tiny glass beads, and a lot of patience.
Birch bark canoe at The Indian Museum of North America® at Crazy Horse Memorial in South Dakota
The Imagine a World exhibition at the High Desert Museum focuses on past and present efforts to create utopian communities. Participants joined for assorted reasons, including religious persecution, environmental concerns, and anti-war sentiments.
The communities featured are in the Western United States. Founding members often thought of the West as an idyllic, “empty” place to settle. However, they did not always consider who was already living in these environments.
As you enter the gallery, two life-sized astronauts suspended in front of a bold painting of bison catch your eye. Two bright paintings adorn the walls next to this display. These works represent Indigenous futurism. They highlight how important cosmology, science, and futurism have been to Native peoples. Grace Dilon, Ph.D. (Anishinaabe) states that Indigenous futurism is part of the process of “returning to ourselves.” The goal is to recover “ancestral traditions in order to adapt in our post-Native Apocalypse world.”
Continue readingThis beautiful exhibit at the High Desert Museum featured x-ray images of fish. X-Ray Vision: Fish Inside Out! The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Services (SITES) organized the exhibit.
I am presenting them in sepia tone. The photographers at the Smithsonian showed their structure in artistic layouts.
Though I wrote down the species of the fish in each display, I decided to let the x-ray images of fish speak for themselves. The wonder of Nature.
This exhibition closes at the High Desert Museum on May 8, 2022, but it will continue travelling to other museums around the country.
I took this nose to nose with a biplane picture at the Western Antique Aeroplane & Automobile Museum. This large museum is located in Hood River, Oregon. All of the aircraft on display are in flyable condition, unlike at other museums.
Monochrome Monday
I saw this life-sized trapper’s cabin re-creation at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming. The details in the log walls, elk’s head, and snowshoes stand out in sepia tones. This is one of many amazing exhibits inside the museum.
Wordless Wednesday
Wordless Wednesday
Wordless Wednesday
This is a scene from a museum in Baker City, Oregon. I thought the rustic details came out much more clearly in black and white.
Monochrome Monday
Wordless Wednesday
Sometimes you may have looked up at rock climbers on Smith Rock (near Terrebonne , Oregon) and wondered what drives them in their quest to reach the top. This new exhibit helps answer that question. Ascent: Climbing Explored, looks at the history, evolution, and culture of climbing and mountaineering in the West. What began as scientific exploration, grew into an activity people take part in for sheer joy of the experience.
One of the first things you see in the exhibit is a journal entry from John Muir. Muir taught people about conserving wild places through his eloquent writings. In another section of the exhibit, the artwork of Thomas Moran is featured. The paintings he created of Yellowstone in 1871 helped to establish the world’s first national park. The artwork and writings of early explorers were the “social media” of their day. Artist Sarah Uhl, also featured in this exhibit, presents landscape art that is a continuation of themes first presented by 19th century artists. James Lavadour, of the Walla Walla tribe, did the bold bright paintings of mountains near the exhibit entrance. His paintings, and the clean lines of the exhibit, bring a modern look to the displays.
Silent Sunday
Fossilized teeth that form a shape like a buzzsaw were found in the 1800’s but the type of creature they belonged to was not determined until 2013. A research team consisting of people with backgrounds in art, science, and digital technology solved the mystery. The whorl of teeth belonged to Helicoprion, the buzzsaw shark or whorl toothed shark. This exhibit brings the findings of that research to life through the artwork of Ray Troll and the sculptures of Gary Straub.
A massive sculpture of the huge head of a buzzsaw shark bursts through the wall outside of the exhibit at the High Desert Museum and there are additional sculptures and detailed images inside the gallery. A large sculpture of a buzzsaw shark hangs over your head as you enter the gallery. The walls are covered with murals of waves and members of the shark family. Large colorful paintings show the shark family tree and how buzzsaw sharks swimming in the deep may have looked. Glass cases enclose fossils of the odd-shaped whorl of teeth. Projections of that whorl spin across the floor. Framed drawings of buzzsaw sharks hang on the walls. An interactive model of a buzzsaw shark skull shows the action of those formidable-looking teeth. You can sit on a comfy couch (emblazoned with a whorl pattern) and watch a video about the now-extinct shark.
When I was at the exhibit, I heard a five-year old boy entering the gallery with his family remark, “Wow! Mommy look at that!” Yes, this is a dramatic exhibit that contains a lot of visual interest and fascinating information. The whorl pattern is repeated throughout the exhibit. The artist also had a little fun with the exhibit by hiding several representations of cheeseburgers in the displays. Can you find any of them in the gallery?
The Warm Springs Museum, located in Warm Springs, Oregon, is impressive inside and out. As you approach the building, note the interesting architecture that echoes some of the structures local tribes lived in. Be sure to view the building from the back as well. The building honors the Wasco, Warm Springs, and Northern Paiute tribes that reside in the Warm Springs Reservation area. There is a ¼ mile long interpretive trail behind the Museum.
Historically, the Paiute lived in a large area of Southeastern Oregon and traveled far in search of food. The Wascoes, or “river people”, lived east of The Dalles along the Columbia River and were primarily fishermen. The Warm Springs people lived in a large area in the vicinity of the current reservation. They moved between summer and winter villages and were more dependent on game, roots, and berries. There was a lot of trading that went on between the tribes for food and other resources.
Tribes looked to their elders for guidance and passed on traditions to their children. The family was the center of learning. Children learned subsistence skills such as basket making and hunting but also learned the value of traits such as patience and commitment.
Each tribe chose their own chief. They respected the values and traditions of other tribes. For example, the seven drum religion of the Wasco was shared with other local tribes.
When white men entered the scene in the 1700’s, the importance of trade increased. Coffee, sugar, cloth, and especially beads, were valued trade items. Unfortunately the settlers also brought diseases that native people had very little immunity to. By the time Lewis and Clark arrived in 1804, the numbers of Native Americans had plummeted due to many succumbing to various diseases.
Exploration of the area by early settlers continued into the 1800’s. The Indian Removal Act was approved in 1830. In the 1840’s immigrants began moving to the area on the Oregon Trail. From 1840 to 1860, 250,000 settlers traversed the Oregon Trail. John C. Fremont explored the area that would become the Warm Springs Reservation in 1843.
In 1855 Native Americans were forced onto reservations. Most of their ancestral lands were ceded to the U.S. The Wasco and Warm Springs tribes ceded ten million acres.
The Northern Paiutes fought against scouts, soldiers, settlers, and other tribes in an attempt to keep their lands. They were finally defeated by General George Crook between 1866 to 1868 and forced on to the reservation.
The tribes were forced to give up their culture. Certain traditions were outlawed. Children were forced to attend boarding schools. If they were caught speaking their native language they were given demerits.
The Warm Springs Museum preserves part of the past and passes on valuable information to future generations. A short film on the history of local Native Americans plays as you enter the exhibit hall. You learn that water was important to all tribes and was referred to as the “blood of life”.
As you make your way through the Museum you will see an impressive collection of artifacts and recreations that give you a glimpse into the various tribes’ way of life. Many of the items are decorated with tiny seed beads that show an amazing amount of detail and artistry. Belts, bags, buckskin clothing, and war bonnets all feature intricate beadwork.
Re-creations of a wickiup and tule mat lodge invite visitors to look inside the structures local Native Americans lived in. A small, rustic cabin stands nearby. Tools of daily life are visible inside the structures.
There are a few parts of the exhibit that are interactive. A camera films you as you attempt to use a hoop and copy the moves playing in a video of the hoop dance. Another display features recordings of the languages of the three tribes living on the reservation.
The small gift store is a great place to browse for local products. There are several books on regional topics. Jewelry, bags, and colorful prints are also available. Huckleberry jam and syrup are tempting to buy for yourself or as a gift for someone else. Boldly patterned Pendleton blankets are neatly tucked into shelves patiently waiting for someone to wrap themselves in their warmth.
If you are interested in the history of the Central Oregon area, consider a stop at the Warm Springs Museum. It is nicely laid out and has some remarkable artifacts in its collection. The information provided with the displays is interesting and may pique your curiosity into learning more. That is always a sign of a great museum.
If you are looking for something to do that isn’t too far away from Bend, consider a trip to the Bowman Museum located in downtown Prineville. The main part of the Museum is in what used to be the Crook County Bank building, built in 1910. You walk past bank teller cages and through the vault doors as you explore the Museum. Downstairs there are displays on the railroad, the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Prineville Hotshots, local sports, and an interesting firearms exhibit.
There is a great collection of books for sale near the Museum’s entrance. Many relate to regional and local history. There are also nature related books and several novels.
Upstairs, themed rooms show some of the ways people lived and the services they used. A dining table sits ready to feed a large family. A medical office shows what a typical exam room looked like. Be sure to pull open the drawers to get a closer look at some of the medical tools of the time. A tack room contains intricately designed saddles and bridles as well as more utilitarian chaps and lassos. A general store shows some of the items early settlers purchased.
In 2012, the Crook County History Center opened in an adjoining building. Displays along one wall focus on the local cattle business, the roles women played in the family and business, local businesses and events, and Native Americans. In one corner of this building there is a research library maintained by The Genealogical Society. Another room is devoted to the history of Les Schwab and his now thriving business. The company started in Prineville with the purchase of a run-down tire business.
