Painting a Monkey Skull
We visit a rural natural history museum
Sketching a monkey skull seemed like the a good way to spend a rainy Saturday.
The Gunnison Museum of Natural History at the Akin Free Library is like a time machine. It takes you back to a different way of organizing and presenting knowledge.
It's worth a visit if you're near Pawling, New York, but it's only open Saturdays and Sundays 1:00-4:00, May - October.
Here’s a link to the Akin Free Library for more information.
From what I can see, the Gunnison Museum reminds me of the Nature Lab at RISD which I think you’d really like. You could study live animals, taxidermied ones, skeletons, and preserved specimins of all kinds, and even check items out like library books. When I was attending school it was all in one room, but it looks like they’ve expanded it with some pretty cool new spaces with architecture inspired by organic forms. They have electron microscopes now and everything. https://naturelab.risd.edu/
You sent me on a journey today, with this post. About a year ago I was learning how to use gouache, so I did a zoom lesson from an artist explaining how to use the medium. He used a replica of Lucy's skull to demonstrate how to use gouache. I followed along. While my painting did NOT resemble Lucy's skull (I kinda went my own way with it) I learned to appreciate gouache and got a fun skull picture which this post reminded me about. So I posted it on my bluesky.
In the process I realized you did the Dinotopia books, because I saw a comment you made about Watership Down, a book that I read several times beginning in childhood. I also have a collectors edition version of Dinotopia. I don't even remember how I got it. But I've always loved the pictures and the fantasy world that looked so real. Then I checked out your video on your web page.
Seriously? Wanting an elevator to take you to another world?? I have been writing an entire universe because an elevator took five people to several different worlds. I did an episodic story on facebook years ago. Everyone that "liked" or commented, became a character in the story. The first five were the ones hijacked by the elevator.
Anyhow, this is a long odd story. I just wanted to say it's exciting to know there are other creatives out there with a similar process!
I also shared your substack link on my bluesky. Not that I have much of a following, but I am always happy to promote a fellow creative!