A Trip to OMSI and Embellished Papers

Dexter does a logic puzzle while waiting for his PBJ at a local cafe
before we head to OMSI

Saturday my partner and I took grandson Dexter to the Leonardo da Vinci exhibit at OMSI. He thought it was pretty cool, though the Turbine Hall always takes precedence for him. I was fascinated by the da Vinci traveling exhibit, especially (of course) the section on his painting. The replicas of his machine designs were wonderful as well.

The replicas of some of Leonardo's codices were so perfect, it took us while to be sure they weren't the real thing.

I'd seen pictures of Leonardo's tank design before, but here it was, almost the real thing.

Here's how the Mona Lisa looks today.

I saw her in 1970 in her home at the Louvre in Paris. My companion and I weren't sure where to find her, and we didn't want to come off as typical tourists (which we were) by asking a guard. Suddenly we heard a nasal American voice yell, "First gallery to the left, Margaret!" We followed Margaret and company, and of course, there La Gioconda was, so much smaller than I had imagined, and so much more beautiful.

Here is how the Mona Lisa probably looked just after she was painted.

The OMSI exhibit has tons of information on the one person who was allowed to examine the painting out of the frame, and the conclusions he came to. You can find out more by clicking here.

I had just two complaints: The exhibit showed a model of Leonardo's supposed design for a bicycle, which has been proven to be a hoax, and the paintings done by a current artist after Leonardo's work were slick and awful--not done in the Old Master way at all! Other than that, the exhibit was well worth seeing--I may go back when unaccompanied by a minor to take my time over everything!

I've been playing with embellishing various kinds of papers--here's what I've done so far. (These are sections of the larger sheets of paper.)

Klimt Paper

Lady Paper
(The woman's face is made with a stamp my daughter hand-carved.)

Chrysanthamum Paper

Spring Paper

Wabi Sabi Paper




Lacsaux Paper



Medieval Paper