Cornell Dragon Day!

"Every year around St. Patrick’s Day, in a tradition whose origins go back more than 100 years, an enormous dragon created by the first-year architecture students parades across the campus. Accompanied by AAP students in outrageous costumes and heckled by rival engineering students, the dragon lumbers to the Arts Quad to be consumed by a bonfire. This rite of spring is one of Cornell’s best-known traditions."


I went over today to see the event and took several photos. Great fun!  While teaching for 32 years, I was not able to view this tradition, but today was fine weather and I walked from Thurston Ave. over to the Architecture school.  The crowd was modest because many students have already gone away for spring break.  But the students involved were celebratory and had a good time.


It was impressive to see the students move the dragon up the road and across campus.  You can see from some photos that much of the work was brute force of holding up the dragon that was made of steel.


In the photos, you can also see part of the new architecture building that spans the road and almost touches the Foundry.

Cornell Flower Research Field Trip

The Ithaca Garden Club visited the Cornell Horticulture research facilities on Maple Avenue in Ithaca to learn about the flower research taking place at the site. There were both field plots as well as plastic greenhouses they called tunnels.  The structures were named that because they did not have ends on them and allowed air movement.  They protect from frost, allowing for a longer growing season.

The plants we viewed today included black berries, raspberries, tomatoes, sunflowers, cosmos, bushes of rose hips, curly willow, very bushy basel, ornamental peppers, and many others.  It was an enjoyable tour, topped with some free cut flowers for home arrangements as well as berry picking.

Chris Wien was in charge of the facility and has a web page detailing his research and some findings.  Check out http://hort.cals.cornell.edu/cals/hort/research/wienresearch.cfm.

Attached are some photos I took while we visited the facility.

Ithaca Unitarian Church photography show

Ithaca Unitarian Church show, Ithaca, NY.

The show in the parlor at the church on the corner of Buffalo and Aurora streets is up until May 26th. On Sundays, entrance to the parlor is available during the church coffee hour, 11:30-12:30, with easy access from Buffalo Street or the garden entrance between the church and the parsonage. During the week, the parsonage is usually open between 9 and 4 and Mark will guide you to the parsonage.

Hope you have a chance to see my work if you are in the Ithaca area. It contains flower and sculpture montages, Cornell montages,some macro photography of flowers, and selection of both canvas and fine art paper prints.

I would definitely appreciate any feedback you would like to share about pieces selected for the show. Also, are there subjects you would like to see as montages?