Sheron Long's Blog, page 36
November 10, 2013
Culture Smart: Sew Me a Story
Story quilt created in 1898 by African American quilter Harriet Powers
The Quilt Designs of Harriet Powers
Harriet Powers (1837–1910) never learned to read or write, yet her story quilts left a significant record of life and events in the American south of the 19th Century.
Powers was born into slavery and lived her entire life near Athens, Georgia. Though only two of her quilts survive today, she is widely praised for translating oral tradition into tangible art. She was inducted into Georgia Women of Achievement in 2009.
Powers’ quilts, stitched by hand and machine, are immediately recognizable for their bold use of appliqued designs. In the quilt above, each of the 15 panels tells a story from the Bible or documents a natural event. For example:
Panel 4 tells the story of Adam, Eve, and the tempting serpent. Powers includes the merciful hand and the...
November 9, 2013
Aha Moment Maker: A Smashing Wedding Cake
LONDON, 1840—The royal wedding of Queen Victoria to Prince Albert featured an elaborate, multi-tiered wedding cake, measuring almost nine feet in circumference. The pure white sugar frosting, that became known as “royal icing,” was not only a symbol of purity, but of status as well, since refined sugar at that time was a luxury item.
The entire event set the style of the modern wedding. And wedding cake design has gone on from there to become an art form in itself.
However, wedding cakes weren’t always about decadent displays and a delicious treat for those celebrating the nuptials. In ancient Rome, the wedding cake played a very different role. The groom was required to smash a barley cake over the bride’s head as a symbol of good fortune. After the ceremony, guests gathered crumbs for good luck.
Of course, if you have ever tried a barley cake with no...
November 7, 2013
How Creative Thinking Kicks The Soccket Ball to Success
When brain power lights up and creative thinking flows, people find the
good ideas that solve perplexing problems.
© iStock
Powered by Play
In 2008, for an engineering project at Harvard, Jessica O. Matthews teamed up with Julia Silverman, to prototype a soccer ball that traps kinetic energy during play and then turns the energy into a light source.
They called it the SOCCKET because a light inserted into the ball uses the stored energy for power. Thirty minutes of play harnesses enough energy to power a LED light for three hours.
During soccer play, a pendulum-like mechanism inside the SOCCKET captures the kinetic energy and stores it in the ball for later use as an off-grid power source.
© Uncharted Play Team
In 2011, Matthews and Silverman co-founded Uncharted Play to produce the SOCCKET and thereby harness the power of play as a power source for...
November 6, 2013
Secrets to Life #108: Don’t Lose Your Cool
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What other Secrets to Life have been revealed?
Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here .
Image © Brand X Pictures
November 4, 2013
Life’s Wonders Drift in on a Feather
Where Feathers Come From
turkey feather
© Chris Maynard
Chris Maynard’s Creative Process
detail, Where Feathers Come From
© Chris Maynard
“Feathers,” artist Chris Maynard says, “represent life’s wonders.”
A trained biologist, Maynard knows a lot about birds and their feathers. He can tell you everything from the structure of feathers to the patterns of bird migration.
Turning to Art
Although he studied the sciences, Maynard grew up around art. And his artist mother was very careful not to squelch her son’s creativity. When his mom passed away in 2008, Maynard had a life-changing “Oh, I see” moment. He decided to turn away from his science career to the art she had taught him to love.
Now, he says “I feel like I’ve come home.”
Maynard’s dad was influential on his son’s work as well....
November 3, 2013
Culture Smart: What’s the Trouble with Translations?
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The word to say when you miscommunicate in another language
Communicating Across Cultures
An oft repeated story faults Chevrolet in marketing the Chevy Nova in Latin America because “no va” means “does not go” in Spanish. The only problem with this classic international business blunder is that it’s just not true.
That doesn’t mean there haven’t been plenty of companies who made big mistakes when taking their marketing messages across cultures. Some prime examples:
The now-defunct Braniff Airlines targeted ads to the Hispanic market in 1987, only to discover that their campaign took off in an entirely different direction. In the campaign, Braniff used the slogan “Vuela en cuero” (fly in leather) to promote its luxurious new leather seats, but over the radio the phrase was too easily confused with “Vuela en cueros,” which is...
November 2, 2013
Aha Moment Maker: Teddy Bear Tug of War
ONWARD, MISSISSIPPI, 1902—The iconic “teddy bear” was so named for an incident involving America’s 26th President, Theodore Roosevelt. On a brief vacation in Mississippi, his hunting party managed to subdue a black bear and tie it to a tree. Roosevelt declined to shoot it on the grounds that it would not be the sporting thing to do.
News articles about how the big game hunting President refused to shoot a bear caught the attention of political cartoonist Clifford Berryman, who decided to poke fun at the President. In the cartoon, Berryman illustrated the bear as a cute and fuzzy little cub. People enjoyed it so much that he continued to symbolically insert the bear in his cartoons throughout Roosevelt’s presidency.
In Brooklyn, NY, candy shop owners Morris and Rose Michtom saw the cartoon and were inspired to create a stuffed version of the bear cub. They...
October 31, 2013
Halloween Traditions: Spooks, Saints, and Souls
U.S. Halloween traditions: Is it all about the candy?
© BananaStock
Trick-or-Treating the American Way
My first Halloween life lesson was at age 10. My tiger costume was purrfect. Visions of the candy haul were dancing in my head. My friends and I could get a month’s stash of sugar and chocolate in a few hours.
Without remorse, we judged each house on the quality of the treats. Apples and pennies were disdained. And even the grouchiest neighbors gained popularity points if they offered the coveted large-size chocolate bar instead of a few meager kernels of candy corn.
On this particular Halloween, my friends and I had a shorter time period for trick-or-treating since there was a neighborhood party. We decided to divide up the street and ask for treats for the other team as well as our own. That way, we could double our loot quickly.
The purrfect Halloween tiger...
October 30, 2013
Secrets to Life #107: Make Time to Relax
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What other Secrets to Life have been revealed?
Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here .
Image © iStockphoto
October 28, 2013
Finding Common Ground: Chalk It Up to Art
Day of the many dead
© Janine Boylan
Community Building in Chalk Art
Turning a corner in busy San Antonio, Texas, and Oh, I see! The once-drab sidewalks are filled in with colorful patches of art.
At this chalk art festival and others like it worldwide, professional artists, school-aged children, and other community members find common ground by working side by side and filling the sidewalks with glorious colors and designs.
Chalk brings them together.
Image courtesy of Artpace, San Antonio, by Francisco Cortes
Most observers step carefully between and around the art to both appreciate it and not ruin it.
But sometimes the art is too tempting, and people just have to be part of it.
So, inspired by the art, they grab a stick and add their own mark.
Adding his mark.
© Janine Boylan
Art History
Over the past few decades, chalk art festivals have been...
