Thursday, May 20, 2010

Interview and Beautiful at GRACE

We Love DC has a terrific interview of fave photographer Victoria F. Gaitán here.

By the way, last weekend I dropped by GRACE in Reston and was awed by the Beautiful: Virginia Women Artists and the Body (through June 11, 2010) curated by Joanne Bauer. What a terrific show!

A moderated dialogue with the Pink Line Project's Philippa Hughes will take place next week, Tuesday, May 25, at 7:30 pm.

Go see this show... the work by Victoria F. Gaitán, Elizabeth Menges, Elissa Farrow Savos and Bernis von zur Muehlen (is that a supercool name or what?) will really leave an impression on you; this is one of the best GRACE shows that I've seen in years!

International Draw Mohammed Day

Today is the International Draw Mohammed Day.

"... an event organized to protest the violence faced by artists, cartoonists, and creators of all stripes who would exercise their free speech to parody or even depict the Prophet Muhammed as they would any other religious or political figure, and the chilling effect those threats have upon free speech."
Details here and below is my contribution:

Draw Mohammad Day cartoon
At the celestial coffee shop, all the other deities hated it when Mohammed ordered to go

Battle of Dunnichen

Today is the anniversary of the Battle of Dunnichen or Battle of Nechtansmere (Scottish Gaelic: Blàr Dhùn Neachdain, Old Gaelic: Dún Nechtain, Old Welsh: Linn Garan, Old English: Nechtansmere), which was fought between the original indigenous people of present day Scotland, the Picts, led by King Bridei Mac Bili, and the English Northumbrians, led by King Ecgfrith on 20 May, 685.

"Egfrid is he who made war against his cousin Brudei, king of the Picts, and he fell therein with all the strength of his army and the Picts with their king gained the victory; and the Saxons never again reduced the Picts so as to exact tribute from them. Since the time of this war it is called Gueith Lin Garan."
— Nennius' account of battle from Historia Brittonum.
King Ecgfrith was killed in battle, and his army destroyed and this ancient battle ended with an unexpected and decisive Pictish victory which severed Northumbrian control of northern Britain and eventually assured the creation of a separate Scottish nation rather than a larger English nation.

More on the Picts here.

Viva Scotland!