ars magna studio – photography blog

An update for those with whom I have not spoken; we are far enough away from the major fire sites to be okay to stay in our home and keep track of news by television.

weeknight. after labor day. best time to hang out at belmont park, eating pretzels and riding rollercoasters. here are ben and sara, madly in love with each other and having a good time.

This evening Michelle Obama came to the Kroc Center to host a fundraiser for her husband’s campaign. After lunch today, I got an inquiry if I could give her girls a private art lesson while she met her audience. It was an honor, and I was pretty excited about it. Later I got a call that the girls had decided to get ice cream instead, and they wouldn’t need me after all. The difficult decision between art class and ice cream; such is the life of girls on the campaign trail.

This morning I toured two school groups through the Annie Leibovitz show. We stopped and talked about a number of portraits of people that I thought they would recongize. One was the image of Chris Rock in whiteface, top hat and circus-y tux. Not one of the kids ntoiced that his face was painted white. They observed his expression, the enviornment, his clothing, but never the change inthe color of his skin.

Further on in the exhibit, there is an image of Bush’s first cabinet, where the first term Bush is standing in the oval office surrounded by his colleagues. One child out of the two classes knew who Dick Cheney was. This same child also knew that one of those faces had to be Rumsfeld. Several of the kids thought that Condoleeza Rice was the first lady. I saw the amused faces of the adult patrons in the back of my school group.