What’s going on here? When I did my first stroll through the new exhibit The 80s Image at the Winnipeg Art Gallery this week I was drawn to this strange photo. It shows a young man named John Shepherd in 1982. He has converted his grandparents’ home in Michigan into a UFO detecting station. All the equipment you see is stuff he’s put together himself. He is using it to broadcast signals and music into outer space to attract aliens.
The photo was taken by Douglas Curran a Ontario artist who spent eight years traveling throughout Canada and the United States in a second-hand car photographing and interviewing people who were obsessed with outer space. John Shepherd’s photo is included in a book Douglas published in 1985 called In Advance of the Landing: Folk Concepts of Outer Space. Chris Carter producer of the X Files says he used the book to develop the first six episodes of his television series. Artist Douglas Curran doesn’t believe in UFOS but as he interviewed and photographed folks who did, he was surprised at how their belief in alien life forms was almost spiritual for them and how it gave them hope.
The people in Curran’s book weren’t alone in their interest in aliens and UFOS in the 1980s. More than 50 movies were made on the topic during the decade including some very popular ones like ET, Aliens, Cocoon, The Last Starfighter, Star Man and My Stepmother is an Alien.
Douglas Curran’s photo is only one of many intriguing pieces in The 80s Image exhibit at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. Come and see for yourself.
Other posts………
Last Sunday we celebrated my father’s 90th birthday. Staging the event was a real collaborative effort. 
Yesterday the guides who work in school programs at the Winnipeg Art Gallery met to learn about a new art activity we will be doing with children called The Power of Print. Students will use printer ink, paint, stencils and their own creativity to create posters that send a message about an issue that is important to them. As I was working on my poster about diversity I thought how just a few years ago I would have been so intimidated about creating art I wouldn’t have enjoyed an activity like this at all. Now I can. 
In July of 2012 the group of friends and former colleagues I meet with on a regular basis enjoyed a lovely lunch at The Gates on Roblin on a beautiful sunny day. 
Last Saturday we were back there again. This time on a soft grey fall afternoon with rain and just a little bit of snow which made us feel all cozy and comfortable inside as we caught up on what has been happening in our lives. Our group has done many things together in between those two luncheons at The Gates. 
We’ve gone miniature golfing.
We’ve done the Art Wave tour in Gimli. 
We’ve welcomed spring by the duck pond in Assiniboine Park.
Mary’s father’s name was Joachim. Joachim was from Nazareth and Anne, Mary’s mother was from Bethlehem. We see Anne and Joachim here in a beautiful wood painting found in the Church of St. Mary in Krakow Poland. It is by artist Veit Stoss and was created in 1480. 
Anna and Joachim married when Joachim was 46 and Anne was 24. Their wedding is depicted in this 1476 codex illustration by Cristoforo de Predis. 
The conception of Anne and Joachim’s daughter Mary was something of a miracle. That miracle is recorded in a beautiful 1305 painting by Giotto di Bondone called Legend of St. Joachim and St. Anne Meeting at the Golden Gate. The Gospel of James records that an angel directed Anne and Joachim to go separately to the gate of the temple. When they met they kissed and Anne became pregnant. 
According to the Gospel of James Anne breastfed her daughter right after she came into the world and midwives were in attendance. There are hundreds of paintings depicting the birth of Mary. Above is The Birth of the Virgin by German artist Wolf Traut painted in 1513 
Here we see an image of Mary and her parents by Mexican artist Jose Alejandro Arango. At age two Joachim thought it was time they took Mary to begin her service in the temple but Anne begged him to let Mary stay home another year and so they waited till she was three years old. 
But………. in many famous paintings Anna and Joachim are depicted as being a big part of Mary’s life right up until her marriage. We see that in this 1842 painting of Mary and Anna called Education of the Virgin by French artist Eugene Delacroix 
and in this 1700 work called The Education of Mary by another French artist Jean Jouvenet which is part of the collection at the Uffizi gallery in Florence. 
This painting is called The Education of the Virgin and is by Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens. It dates from 1625 and is in the Royal Museum in Brussels.It shows Mary as a young adult with her parents just before her marriage. 
It should be noted that there are many artists who have portrayed Anna and Joachim taking a very active role in the care and raising of their grandson Jesus. Like in Spanish artist El Greco’s The Holy Family painted in 1592. 
So if you were interested in talking about all day kindergarten you’d go to room 603 at 9:10 and everyone in the room would discuss that topic together. Or if you wanted to talk about doing Multi Media projects with students you’d go to room 702 at 2:30. 
The photo is actually a re-staging of a famous painting called The Raft of the Medusa by Theodore Gericault which is in the Louvre in Paris. Gericault painted it in 1818 when he was just twenty-seven years old. It depicted a true event- the wreck of the frigate Medusa which ran aground in Maruitania in 1816. 147 people escaped from the boat on a quickly constructed raft. Thirteen days later when they were rescued there were only 15 survivors, the rest had died of starvation, cannibalism, suicide, drowning and dehydration.
What Next? 