Carnegie Museums & Oakland
The kid approved of the playground.
My wife's been away on business having left the very next morning after our vacation (which really sucks but it's our life). This has meant the kid an I have been spending a lot of time together. Although I shot this at the Carnegie Museum of Art while we were in Pittsburgh, it captures what I have to say about being with her. Being her father is the simply the most amazing thing I have ever done. Last night after dinner we spent a good bit of time outside. First we played tennis in the driveway, hitting balls off the closed garage door. She then scootered while I walked and we went to the playground at the schoolyard about 1/4 of mile from here. After that we watched a Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode, "Manos: The Hands of Fate" while she took a bath and I just relaxed. As I sent her off to school she was shuffling around like the crazed Torgo. She's just such a clown! I'm a very lucky man.
I took this photo in 2017 while visiting the Museum. It's hard to believe it was nearly 30 years ago that I found myself volunteering to help create the Hall of Ancient Egypt. I wonder what I'd tell my 21-year-old-self to do in order to avoid the pratfalls of being a "pro" artist?
The Grand Stairwell of the Carnegie Museums
I recently traveled back to Pittsburgh and had a chance to share my love of the Carnegie with my 9yo daughter. Having spent 15 years working there I can honestly say that aside from some of the staff it's the building itself I miss the most. It has a very unique personality. I had the same feeling of "having come home" I get when I go to a relative's where I played as a child. I've dreamt of it often since leaving there in 2007 to become a stay at home father. While I have zero regrets about leaving my career behind to raise a child, it's marbled halls echo within me still.
Jane Hyland talks about her work in the entomology department.
While the entomology collections manager gives Teri a detailed accounting of how the departments specimens are all stored, the kid explores on her own a bit. Insects she's interested in, how they are stored, and how many drawers there are, not so much.
While the entomology collections manager gives Teri a detailed accounting of how the departments specimens are all stored, the kid explores on her own a bit. Insects she's interested in, how they are stored, and how many drawers there are, not so much.
While the entomology collections manager gives Teri a detailed accounting of how the departments specimens are all stored, the kid explores on her own a bit. Insects she's interested in, how they are stored, and how many drawers there are, not so much.
Dr John Rawlins explains how folks occasionally find one of these large moths, known as the "White Witch," and turn them in, not knowing what they are.
This little orchid was made by one of my coworkers many years ago. Made from tissue, vinyl, wire and glue, it took her about three months to create it. It's almost an exact replica of the real orchid that was used as the model.
Freja examines a diorama of Kodiak bears that I helped create in the mid 1990's.
The Bare Necessities. Freja holds still in front of a Kodiak mother and her cubs. They're in a diorama that I worked on many years ago while at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. Creating a diorama wasn't as simple as it might seem. It took a combination of of scenic landscape painters, designers, graphic artists and sculptors working with educators and scientific staff to create fake rocks, plants and dirt in just the right setting. The aim is to completely recreate a specific location's environment. If I took the time to explain how we made, lets say the grasses or leaves on the bushes I'd have to write an article. This photo is of Freja seeing it for the first time while on a trip home in 2014.
Dan Pickering explains how he carefully extracts fossil bones from the surrounding matrix, which is the stone in which they are encased.
These two photo were taken nearly 100 years apart. To the left is an early photo of a guard soon after Dinosaur Hall opened. To the right is a photo I took of the last guards to watch the hall before being completely taken down and replaced.
