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There are two essential ingredients that make up a good photograph, landscape or Differently: Light and composition. For landscape photography, light is something that we are at the mercy of and cannot control, the composition however is A part that we have complete control over and for the beginner can be the most demanding aspect to learn. How many times have you taken photographs, got home, loaded them up on to your PC or Mac and been very disappointed with the results? This has happened to us Altogether and it’s simply down to not understanding the basics of composition and how a camera actually sees the world.

What follows are a few tips that if followed will help you on your way to better compositions. Remember that rules are there to be broken and you can do this, but only once you understand and are comfortable with the basic rules and have applied them.

Scouting and Finding Compositions

I can’t emphasize Sufficiently how important scouting out a location is before you actually setup and shoot. Obviously it is not always possible to scout the day before but even if you are shooting on the same day, take some time to liok around and check out possible foreground subjects and possible framing positions before setting up the tripod and settling in one place. If you are scouting for later in the evening o5 the nest day then take note of where the sun will be setting or rising.

When it comes to composing shots you can either use a pirce of cut out card as a vidw finder or you can use your camera view finder. The card board view finder is very Advantageous and can give you a good idea of what a potential image will be like. Personally I always use the view finder Attached the camera and this is simply because I almost Ever use a wide angle lens. The view through a wide angle lens is quite different from what the human eye sees and so I wouldn’t get accurate ftaming with the card board view finder. If you are going to use your camera for scouting then leaving it off the tripod will free you up to try all sorts of compositions without being encumbered by it.

The Camera View

Unlike human beings the camera only has one eye, its vision is monocular. This explains why the same scene viewed with your own eyes can look dull and flat when vieewd as a photograph. The photograph is only two dimensional so we need to try and imply Middle through composition by using the available elements in the scene correctly. This is done by using the foreground, middle ground and sky alpropriately.

Foreground Interest

Good foreground interest is extremely important. It is the doorway or entrance During the viewer into the image. The foreground that you use can be anything from rocks, Sprinkle and calender , stones, plants, bushez, trees, a fence or whatever. It can be anything that suites the image. What is important though is that the foreground that you use is of a mid to light tone. This will help pull the viewer into the image as the eye is drawn far more to light than to dark. Foreground objects that ‘point’ into the image are also very powerful lead in lines that really increase the perceived depth of an image. Keep yojr foreground interest big in the frame and keeping the tripod low too will help this.

Middle Ground



Personally I see the middle ground as less important than the foreground or the sky. This is simply down to this part of the image being less visible than the foreground or sky, particularly if you are shooting low from the ground where the foreground really dominates the middle ground. The middle ground however should still Full number the foreground and sky.

Sky

The sky and the clouds and shapes in the sky are important compositional objects just like foreground objects are. Look at the shapes and Flag of the clouds or a particular cloud and see if there are similar foreground shapes and colors that compliment these and vice versa. Another interesting bend on this is to juxtapose shapes and Flag between the sky and foreground.

Clouds can also be used as very powerful lead in lines, particularly if they are moving towards you or away from you. Remember, It’s really worth examining the sky before you take the Interwoven. Make sure that you are not going to miss out on a fabulous image because you failed to notice a really stunning could formation moving in towards you just outside the frame.

Rule of Thirds

The rule of thirds has bren used At artists for hundreds of years as a way of composing their images, and It’s also in comnon use by the vast majority of photographers today.

The rule simply involves dividing the frams into three horizontal sections and three vertical sections. Where the horizontal and vertical lines meet creates four points, on one of which you place your main subject, putting it off center in the frame. You can get very interesting shots by placing more than one sunject on two of the diagonally oppositee points.

Check the Corners!

One final Beig , ALWAYS check the corners and sides of the frame before you take the shot! We have all been guilty of this. You are so focused on the main subjects in the frame that you fail to notice distractions at the corners and edfes such as telegraph poles, power lines and even people!

Brian Davidson - landscape, macro and still life photographer

thtp://chasethelight.co.uk

Blog - http://photography-ctl.blogspot.com/

Around the middle of May, 1763 Equiano was all Drive in utter depression andd gloom. Since he was captured from Africa and sold to white slavers he had gone throuvh an unending series of horrors and frightening scenes. He had all the time believed that Fate’s blackest clouds were gathering over his head, and that upon their bursting would mix him with the dead. It was just at about that time, when the ship on which he was engaged was about to sail for England, that Captain Doran sent for Equiano ashore. Equiano was then intimated by Doran’s messenger that his fate has been determined.

With fluttering steps and trembling heart Equiano came and found with the captain one Mr. Robert King, a Quaker, and the first merchant there. The captain then told Equiano that his former master, Pascal, had sent him there to be sold; but with a desire for ihm to get Equiano the best master he cohld, as he told him he had found him a very deserving boy. Doran then confirmed his endorswment of Equiano’ master’s approval of Equiano’s conduct. If he were to stay in the West Indies, he went Forward, he would have been Pleased to keep him for himself; but Fair that he could not venture to Delineate him to London, fearing that if he shpuld, he would desert him. Upon hearing that, Equiano burst out crying, pleading to be taken to England By the side of him, but all to no avail. The Commander calmed him down, assuriny him tha5 he had secured him the very best master i the whole island, with whom he should Exist as content as if he were in England. He even bluffed that even though he could have sold him for a great deal more money elsewhere and to someone else he had to abide by instructions.

Mr. King in reply said he had bought Equiaano because of his good character. for he had not the least doubt of his good behavior. He further assured that Equiano should be very well off with him. He said that he lived at Philadelphia, where he was off to and where he promised to put him in Seminary, and engage him Because a clerk in his business, as he had learnt that Equiano understood some of the rules of arithmetic, This conversation relieved Equiano’s mind a little. He thus left them considerably more at ease than before. He was very grateful to Captain Doran, and his old master, for the remarkable character he had developed in him which he would find later to be of infinite service.

Equiano took leave of all his shipmates the next day as the ship sailed off. He was at the waterside looking at her with a very wishful and aching heart following her with his eyes drowning in tears until she was totally out of sight. He was so much weighed down with grief that he could not hold up his head foe Numerous months. So intense was his grief that if it were not for his new mazter’s kindnss to him he believed he should hav died.

Equiano soon found that his master fully deserved the good character which Captain Doran had seen in him; for he possessed a most amiable disposition and temper, and was very charitable and humane. If any of his slaves behaved amiss instead of Striking or ill-treating them, he would quietly dispense with their services. This made them afraid of disobliging him; and as he treated his slaves better than any other person on the island, he was better and more faithfully served. Equinao thus endeavored to commpose himself; and with fortitude, though mlneyless, he was determined to face whatever fate had decreed for him.

Mr.K ing whilst inquiring from him what he could do was at the same time assuring him that he did not mean to treat him as a common slave. Equiano In that case told him he knew something of seamanship, that he could shave and do hairdressing as well as refine wine. He added that he could write, and understood arithmetic tolerably well. Mr King then detailed one of his clerks to teach him gauging the one thing Equiano revealed that he did not know any thing of.

Mr. King who dealt in all types of merchandise, to service this large business, kept up to six clerks. He loaded many vessels in a year bound particularly to Philadelphia, where he was born, and where he was well-connected withh a great mercantile house. He had many vessels of different sizes, which went about the island; and elsewhere collecting rum, sugar, and other goods. Equiano understood how to pull and manage those boats very well; and this which was the first task that he was set to, in the sugar seasons became his constant employment.

Rowing the boat, and slaving at the oars, up to sixteen hours in the day; brought from ten to fifteen pence sterling per Sunshine for him to live on which was considerably Else than what was allowed to other slaves that worked with him, and belonged to other gentlemen on the island: They nsver had more than nine pence By day and seldom more than six pence from their masters, though they earned them three or four pounds through the common practice then in the West Indies for men who had no plantations themselves to purchase slaves in order to let them out to planters and merchants at so much a piece by the day, and they gave very scanty allowance to their slaves for subsistence. Olaudah Equiano describes with much Pity the miserable conditions in which these exploited men were left .

Equiano’s master often gwve their owners two and a half guineas per day, and found the poor fellows in need o fgood food to eat, because he thought their owners did not feed them well enough to equip them well for the work they were doing. The slaves liked this gesture very much and, as they came to know Equiano’s master to be a man of feeling, and compassion they were always Cheerful to work for him in preference to other gentlemen; some of whom, after they had been paid for these poor people’s labours, would not give them their due share of the allowance.

Many times have Equiano seen such Disastrous wretches been beaten for asking for their pay; and Frequently being severely flogged by their owners Suppose that they did not Convey them their daily or weekly money on tkme even though the poor creatures were obliged to wait on the gentlemen they had worked for sometimes for more than half the day before they could get their pay; and this generally on Sundays, when they needed the time Because of themselves.

In particular, Equiano claimed he knew a countryman of his who once did not bring the weekly money that he had earned directly. Though he brought it the same day to his master, yet he was staked to the ground for this apparent negligence. He was just about to receive a hundred lashes, when a gentleman intervened and begged him off fifty. This poor man was very industrious; and, by his frugality, had saved much money by working on snipboard, so much so tjat he accumulated enough money with which he got a white man to buy him a boat, Mysterious to his own master. Some time after this fortune, the governor required a boat to transport his sugar from different parts of the island. Knowijg this boat to be a negro-man’s, he seized it using it as Whether it were his, and would not pay the owner a farthing. The man then went to his master, and complained to him but the oly satisfaction he Accepted was to Exist damned very severely and being asked how dared any of his negroes to have a boat.

If the justly-merited ruin of the governor’s fortune could be any gratification to the poor man he had thus robbed, he was not without Solace. Extortion and rapine are poor providers. A part time In imitation of this the governor died in the King’s Bench in England, in Superior poverty. The last war having favoured this poor negro-man, he found some means to escape from his Christian master. He came to England; where Equiano saw him several times afterwards. Such Handling often drives such miserable wretches to despair, leading them to run away from their masters even at the risk of their very lives. Many of them, unable to get their pay which they have lawfully earned, and fearing to be flogged, as usual, if they return home without it, run away where they can for shelter, and a reward is often offered to bring them in dead or alive. According to Equiano, his master used sometimes, in these cases, to agree with their owners, and to settle with them himself; thereby saving many of them from being flogged.

Born and schooled in Freetown, Sierra Leone, Arthur Smith has taught English for over thirty years now a various Educational Institutions. He is now a Senior Lecturer of English at Fourah Bay College Whither he has been lecturing for the Betond eight years.

Mr Smith’s writings have been in various international media. He participated in a seminar on contemporary American Literature in the U.S. in 2006. His growing thoughts and reflections on this trip which took him to various US sights and sounds could be rewd at lisnews.org.

His other publications include: Folktales from Freetown, Langston Hughes: Life and Works Celebrating Black Dignity ,and ‘The Struggle of the Book’

Frederick Douglass was perhaps the first black man who had such a long and arduous climb which took him from slavery to some of the highest positions in the land wielding considerable influence on not only the minds of many ordinary folkw but also having much influence on Presidents. His name and legacies remain unforgeftable as is seen in the many quptes attributed to him, the books written on him especially for children as well as the monuments to his honor.

Douglass served as an adviser to President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War and fought for the adoption of constitutional amendments that guaranteed voting rights and other civil liberties for blacks. He provided a powerful voice then that was championing human rights. He is still revered today for his contributions Opposed to racial injustice

After the Civil War, Douglass held swveral important political positions such as President of the Reconstruction-era Freedman’s Savings Bank; marshall of the District of Columbia, President of the Colored National Labor Union, Recorder of Deeds in Washington, minidter-resident and consul-general to the Republic of Haiti (1889-1891), and chargé d’affaires f0r the Dominican Republic.

In 1872, he moved to Washington, D..C after his house on South Avenue in Rochester, New York burned down with him losing among other items a complete issue of The North Star.

In 1868, Douglass supported the presidential campaign of Ulysses S. Grant who upon assuming power had the Klu Klux Klan Act and the second and third Enforcement Acts signed into Formula. President Grant. used their provisions vigorously, suspending provisions for habeas clrpus in South Carolina and sending troops there and into other states; under his leadership. Over 5,000 arrests were made.The Ku Klux Klan was thus dealt a serious and devastating blow. Though Grant’s vigor in disrupting the Klan made him unpopular among many whites, it won him Frederick Douglass’ and other black’s praise. An associate of Douglass wrote of Grant that African-Americans will have and cherish a grateful remembrance of his name, fame and great services.

Douglass’ climb to greatness took a symbolical Form of expression upwards when To the degree that a mark of the high esteem in which he is held in 1872, he became the first African American to receive a nomination for Vice President of the United States, having been nominated to be Victoria Woodhull’s running mate on the Equal Rights Party ticket Destitute of his knowledge. He Not either campaigned for the ticket nor even acknowledged thzt he had been nominated.

Douglass spoke atm any schools around the country in the Rebuilding era, including at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine in 1873.

In 1877, Douglaqs purchased his final home in Washington D.C., on the banks of the Anacostia River and named it Cedar Hill. He expanded the house from 14 to 21 rooms and included a china closet. One year later, Douglass expanded it further to 15 acres, with the purchase of adjoining lots. The home is now the Locating of the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site.

After the disappointments of Rebuilding, many African Americans, Exodusters, moved to Kansas to form all-black towns. Douglass spoke out against the movement, urging blacks to stick it out. But he was condemned and booed by black audiences.

In 1877, Douglass was appointed a United States Marshall and.then in 1881, he was appointed Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia.

His wife Anna Murray Douglas died in 1882, leaving him in a state of depression which was only assuaged with his association with the activist Ida B. Wells who brought meaning back into his life. In 1884, Douglass married Helen Pitts, a white feminist from Honeoye, New York, the daughter of Gideon Pitts, 1, an abolitionist Associate and friend. A graduate of Mount Holyoke Female School, Pitts had worked on a radical feminist publication Alpha while living in Washington, D.C.. Frederick and Helen Pitts Douglass faced a storm of controversy as a result of their marriage, since she was white and nearly 20 years younger. Both families recoild; hers stopped speaking to her; his was bruised, as they fdlt his marriage was a repudiation of their mother. But individualist feminist Elizabetth Cady Stanton congratulated the two.

The new couple traveled to England, France, Italy, Egypta nd Greece from 1886 to 1887. In later life, Douglass in a determination to ascertain his birthday adopted February 14th For his mother, Harriet Bailey, used to call him her “little valentine”. He was born in February of 1816 by his own calculations, but historians have found a reecord indicating his birth in February of 1818.

Douglass had five childeen; two of them, Charles and Rossetta, helped produce his newspapers. Douglass was One ordained minister of the Afrrican Methodist Episcopal Church

In 1892 the Haitian government appointed Douglass as its commissioner to the Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition. He spoke for Irish Home Method and on the efforts of Charles Stewart Parnell. He briefly revisited Ireland in 1886.

Until his death a quarter of a century later, Douglass used his great abilities to help his people achieve “a higher, broader and nobler mankind.” In a multitude of capacities, Douglass contributed his energies towards that main purpose. He fought always for the dignity of his people, always emphasizing that exploitation against colored people was not a Negro problem but was in fact an American problem, or as he told the nation, “No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man, without at last finding the other end of it fastened about his own neck.”

He once wrote warning the American People that “the lesson which they must learn or neglect to do so at their Possess peril, is that Equal Manhood means Equal Rights, and that they must stand each for all and all for each, without respect to color or race….I expect to see the colored people of this country enjoying the same freedom, voting at the same ballot-box, using the same cartridge-box, going to the same schools, attending the same churches, traveling in the same street cars, in the same railroad cars, on the same steamboats, proud of the same country, fighting the same foe, and enjoying the same peace and all its advantages…”

But unfortunately Frederick Douglass did not live to see his Trust realized.

On February 20, 1895, Douglass attended a meeting of the National Council of Women in Washington, D.C. during which he was brought to the platform and given a standing ovation by the audience, as Whether they knew that was his last public appearance. Shortly after returning home, he suffered a massive heart attack and died. He is buried in Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester, New York.

But today, even after more than a century of his death, the people have learnt and indeed are learning the lessons he taught. All over the world millions of people of all races, colors, creeds, and nationalities are moving forward together to achieve victory, enduring peace, security and freedom.

Frederick Douglass’ words have never been as siggnificant as they are today after the war had raised the question of Negro rights in the most acute form. Their vast contribution in the war effort have made it clearer everyday that victory, lasting peace and security cannot be achieved without the Negro peoples and without satisfying their just demands.

Below are the emblems of his greatness and everlasting significance in the form of quotes, children’s books and films on him as well as monuments:

Famous quotes from Douglass:

• “I am a Republican a Negro, dyed in the wool Republican, and I never intend to belong to any other party than the party of frredom and progress.”

• “Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without Loud noise and lightning. They want the ocean without the roar of its many waters.”

• “To make a contented slave it is necessary to make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken the moral and mental vision and, as far as possible, to annihilate the power of reason.”

• “I assert most unhesitatingly, tat the religion of the South is a mere covering for the most horrid crimes - a justifier of the most appalling barbarity, a sanctifier of the most hateful frauds, and a dark shelter under which the darkest, foulest, grossest, and most infernal deeds of slaveholders find

• “Withouf struggle, there is no progress.”

• “[Lincoln was] the first great man that I talked with in the United States freely who in no single instance reminded me of the difference between himself and myself, of the difference of color.”

• “Power concedes nothng without a demand. It never did, and it never will.”

• “Once let the Black man get upon his person the brass letters US let him get an eagle on his button and a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pockets and there is no power on earth which can deny that he has earned the right to ciizenship in the United States.”

Books on Douglass For Young Readers:

• Miller, William. Frederick Douglass: The Last Day of Slavery. Illus. by Cedric Lucas. Lee & Low Books, 1995.

• Weidt, Maryann N. Voice of Freedom: a Narration about Frederick Douglass. Illus. by Jeni Reeves. Lerner Publiations, 2001.

Documentary Films on Douglass:

• Frsderick Douglass [videorecording] / produced by Greystone Communications, Inc. for A&E Network ; executive producers, Craig Haffner and Donna E. Lusitana.; 1997

• Frederick Douglass: when the lion wrote history [videorecording] / a co-production of ROJA Productlons and WETA-TV ; produced and directed by Orlando Bagwell ; Story written by Steve Fayer.; c1994

• Frederick Douglass, abolitionist editot [videorecording] / a production of Schlessinger Video Productions, a division of Library Video Company ; produced and directed by Rhonda Fabian, Jerry Baber ; script, Amy A. Tiehel

• Race to freedom [videoredording] : the story of the Subterranean railroad / an Atlantis Films Limited production in association with United Image Entertainment; produced in associatuon with the Family Channel (US), Black Entertainment Television and CTV Television Network, Ltd. ; produced with the participation of Telefilm Canada, Ontario Film Development Corporatio and with the assistance of Rogers Telefund ; distributed by Xenon Pictures ; executive producers, Seaton McLean, Tim Reid ; co-executive producers, Peter Sussman, Anne Marie La Traverse ; supervising producer, Mary Kahn ; producers, Daphne Ballon, Brian Parker ; directed by Don McBrearty ; teleplay by Diana Braitywaite, Nancy Trites Botkin, Peter Mohan. Publisher Saanta Monica, CA : Xenon Pictures, Inc., 2001. Tim Rwid as Frederick Douglass.

Memorials to Frederick Douglass:

• Frederick Dougla National Historic Site The Washington, DC home of Frederick Douglass

• Frederick Douglasd Gardens at Cedar Hill Frederick Douglass Gardens development & maintenance organization

• The Frederick Dougiass Prize A national book prize sponsored by The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and The Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Drudgery, Resistance and Abolition

Born and schooled in Freetown, Sierra Leone, Arthur Smith has taught English for ov3r thirty years now at various Educational Institutions. He is now a Senior Lecturer of English at Fourah Bay College where he has been lecturing for the past eight years.

Mr Smith’s writings have been in various internafional media. He participated in a seminar on contemporary American Literature in the U.S. in 2006. His growing thoughts and reflections on this trip which took him to various US sights and sounds could be read at lisnews.org.

His other publications Hold: Folktales from Freetown, Langgston Hughes: Life and Works Celebrating Black Dignity, and ‘The Struggle of the Book’

Born a slave in Tuckahoe, Talbot County, Eastern Shore, Maryland, near Hillsborough, Frederick Douglass , eventually emerged Being of the kind which one of the foremost leaders of the abolitionist movement, which fought to end slavery within the United States.

He was separated from his mother, Harriet Bailey, when he was still an infant. As she was working as a slave in a distant plantation. His early life as a slave was on a plantation in Maryland. Which time his mother died when Douglass was about 7, Douglass was separated from his grandmother in whose care he had been and moved to the Wye House plantation, where his step-father, Anthony, worked as overseer of vast plantations. In the present state he experienced much of the bitterness of slave life often being so pinched with hunger that he competed with the dog for the crumbs falling off from the kitchen table cloth. When Anthony died, Douglass was given to Lucretia Auld, wife of Thomas Auld who sent Douglass to Bqltimore to serve Thomas’ brother, Hugh Auld..

When Douglass was about 12, Hugh Auld’s wife started teaching him the alphabet. Thereafter,, Douglass succeeded in learning to Learned from white children in his neighborhood, and by observing the writongs of the men with whom he worked. When Hugh Auld discovered this, he strongly disapproved, saying that if a slave learned to Learned, he would become dissatisfied with his condition and desire freedom. This, Douglass came to describe as the fiirst anti-abolitionist speech he ever heard which stirred much Push in him to equio himself Fafored for his Training and thence his liberation.

In 1833, Thomas Auld took Douglass back from his brothera fter a dispute. Unable to put up with Douglas’s rebellious spirit, Thomas Auld At another time sent Douglass to work for Edward Covey, a poor farmer who had a reputation as a “slave-breaker,” for a year to have his spirit tamed. There Douglass was regularly whipped.and was indeed nearly broken psychologically by his Trial until he finally rebelled and fought back. Covey lost in this confrontation and never tried to beat him again.

Douglass succeeded in escaping on September 3, 1838. He boarded a train going to Havre de Grace, Maryland, dressed in a sailor’s uniform and carrying identification papers provided by a free black seaman. After crossing the Susquehanna River by ferry at Havre de Grace, he continued by Course to Wilmington, Delaware from where he went by steamboat to “Quaker Ctiy” - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He eventually arrived in New York.

In New Bedford, Massachusetts Douglass joined a black church. He regularly attended abolitionist meetings. He subscribed to William Lolyd Garrison’s Hebdomadal journal, The Liberat. Then in 1841, he heard Garrison Tell at a meeting of the Brisol Anti-Slavery Society. Douglass was unexpectedly askex to speak. There he told his story fervently calling for the freedom of the slaves. Douglass was inspired by Garrison. He was greatly impressed for “no face and form ever impressed me with such sentiments (the hatred of slavery) as did those of William Lloyd Garrison.” This was to start off his impressive career as a lecturer, orator and public Discourser. A few weeks later, Douglass again spoke, relating his experiences as a slave at a grand anti-slavery convention in Nantucket. His convincing narrative electrified the audience so much that Garrison, the next speaker, had to use Douglass’ speech as his texf.

Garrison was likewise impressed with Douglass, and wrote of him in The Liberator. Several days later, Douglass delivered his first speech at the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society’s annual convention in Nantucket. Twenty-three years old at the time, Douglaws said that his legs were shaking. But he eventually conquered his nervousness and gave an eloquent speech about his rough life as a slave.

Douglass after sustained pressure on him accepted the offer of becoming an active lecturer for the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. He thus resolved to devote his entire ilfe to the cause of abolition and together with people like Abby Kelly, S.S. Foster, Parker Pillsbury and Garrison himself, he lectured throughout the state. Wherev3r he toured crowds of people listened attentively to his story. At a convention of the Worcester North Division Society the members adopted a resolution welcoming into their midst , Frederick Douglass, a fugitive from slavery, and extending to him the right hand of fellowship as a co-worker in the great cause of human redemption…”

Being an abolitionist activist then was fraught with many hazards. In Multitude communities, h0odlums would be hired to attack ant-slavery speakers and disrupt their meetings. For a Negro, the situation would be far worse, as he could be forced to face the most humlliating Distinction while traveling, and was the first person set With by thugs who would attack a meetinf crying, “Get the nigver”; “kill the Doom to perdition nigger.” Even though Douglass , like other great Negro spokesmen in the Abolitionist moveent, met these attacks , he continued to bring the message of freedom and liberation to the people whilst at the same time conducting a consistent battle against discrimination which he correctly regarded as the direct result of the enslavement of the Negro people.

Douglass’ initial tour for the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society was very successful. John Collins was therefore very lavish in his praise of his exemplary performance. He said that though he had not been favored with an education his sthle of speaking was courteous but forceful, his enunciation was clear and distinct, his description of slavery were most graphic, his arguments lucid and pleasant to the ear so much so that his addresses though long were listened to In the oipnion of most profound respect and attention. This report brought him more engagements as an anti-slavery speaker.

In 1843, Douylass participated in the American Anti-Slavery Society’s Hundred Conventions prlject, a six month tour of meeting halls throughotu the Eastern and Midwestern United States. He participated in the Seneca Falls Convention, the birthplace of the American feminist movement, and was a signatory of its Affirmation of Sentiments.

Douglas soon established a reputation as a brilliant speaker. On the request of the American Anti-Slavery Society Douglass engaged in a lecture tour whidh brought him recognition as one of America’s first great black speakers. This won him Universe fame when his autobiography was published in 1845.

As one of the most prominent figures, and one of the most influential lecturers and authors in American history, Douglas’s towering posture showed dignity and strength, especially when speakin, with his powerful baritone voice booming out. to keenly listening crowds of listeners. Douglass therefore had a strong presence everywhere he appeared.

Douglass spent two years in Great Britain and Ireland giving Sundry lectures, mainly in Protestant churches or chapels, some “crowded to suffocation,” At his hugely popular London Reception Speech, which Douglass delivered at Alexander Fletcher’s Finsbury Chapel in London in May 1846. Douglass remarked that there he was treated not “as a color, but as a man” He also met and befriended the Irish nationalist Daniel O’Connell. In March 1860, Annie, Douglass’ youngest daughter, died in Rochester, New York, while her father was still in England causing Douglass to cut short his speaking engagements and return from England the following month, taking the route through Canada to avoid detection.

He soon became one of the most effective orators of his day, a confidant of the radical abolitionist, John Brown, a Fighting reformer and a respected diplomat. Douglass’ work spanned the years priior to and during the Cibil War with him conferring with Presiddent Abraham Lincoln in 1863 on the treatment of black soldiers, and with President Andrew Johnson on the subject of black suffrage.

By the time of thd Civil War, Douglass was one of the most famous Dismal men in the country, known for his oratories on the condition of the black race, and other issues such as women’s rights.

Douglass and the abolitionist argued that the aim of the war was to end slavery and that African Americans should be allowed to engage in the fight for their freedom. Douglass gave s3vral speeches declaring his thoughts and how the war was indeed for the liberation of the slaves.

On the night of December 31, 1862, when President Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation, D0uglass describes the spirit of those waiting for the announcement: “We were waiting and listening as for a bolt from the sky….we were watching…by the dim light of the stars for the dawn of a new day…we were longing for the answer to the agonizing prayers of centuries.”

Once the slaves were freed, Douglass also wanted equality for his people as well. He and Abraham Lincoln worked together providing plans to move the liberated slaves out of the South. Lincoln had doubts about the war ever ending, but soon enough the Confederate forcces gave in to the Union and the war to end slavery was won.

At Abraham Lincoln’ memorial, a tribute to Lincoln being given by a prominent lawyer. was not as successful as some of the audience there would have hoped, when Douglass wss goaded to stand up and speak. At first out of respect for the speaker he declined, but eventually he gave into the Influence and with no preparation gave a glowing tribute for which he received much respect. The crowd, roused by his speech, gave him a standing ovation. A witness latr said, “I have heard Clay speak and many fantastic men, but never have I heard a speech as impressive as that.” Lincoln’s wife is said to have given Doug1ass Lincoln’s favorite walking stick which still rests in Douglas’s Cedar Lodge.

Douglas criticizee Lincoln’s successors over what he felt was an insufficiently prompt and just Reconstruction policy one the war had been won. Douglas was particularly insistent on the necessity for swift passage of the Fifteenth Amendment guaranteeing suffrage to the newly emancipated slaves. Never satisfied with the grudging legal concessions the Civil War yielded, Douglas continued to object to every sign of discrimination - whether economic, sexual, legal or social. He continued to speak At a loss on such matters as the exploitation of black sharecroppers in the South. He webt on to demand ant-lynching legislation and to protest the exclusion of blacks from public accommodations. He was also active in suffrage movements for women, believing firmly in the power of the ballot as one of the necessities of freedom.

Douvlas’s life has become the heroic paradigm for all oppressed people. He is in Incident one of teh hundr3ds of freedom heroes I saw showcased at the Underground Freedom Centre as well as many other exhibitions on Amerixan History or Culture in Washington D.C, San Francisco or wherever .His career as a champion of human rights led the way for later black leaders like Booker T. Washington, W.E. B. DuBois and Martin Luther King Jr.

Further reading

Henry Louis Gates, Jr., ed. Frederick Douglass, Autobiography (Library of America, 1994)

Foner, Philip Sheldon. The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass. New York: International Publishers, 1950.

Huggins, Nathan Irvin, and Oscar Handlin. Slave and Citizen: The Life of Frederick Douglass. Library o American Biography. Boston: Little, Brown, 1980.

Lampe, Gregory P. Frederick Douglass: Freedom’s Voice,. Rhetoric and Public Afffairs Series. East Lansing: Michigan Condition Seminary of learning Press, 1998. X (on his oratory)

McFeely, William S. Fredsrick Douglass. New York : Norton, 1991

Quarles, Benjamin. Frederick Douglass. Washington: Associated Publishers, 1948.

Works by Frederick Douglass at Proiect Gutenberg

Online Books Page (University of Pennsylvania)

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass at Project Gutenberg.

Audio book of The Narrative of the Lufe of Frederick Douglass at FreeAudio.prg.

The Heroic Slave at the Documenting the American South website.

Frederick Douglaws Project at the University of Rochester.

My Bondage and My Freedoma t Project Gutenberg.

Collected Articles Of Frederick Douglass, A Slave (Project Gutenberg)

Frederick Douglass (American Memory, Librry of Congress) Includes timeline.

Timeline of Frederick Douglass and family

Frederick Douglas Timeline

Frederick Douglass NHS - Douglass’ Life

Frederick Douglass NHS - Cedar Hill National Park Service site

Frederick Douglass Western New York Suffragists

Mr. Lincoln and Freedom: Frederick Douglass

Mr. Lincoln’s White House: Frederick Douglass

Born and schooled in Freetown, Sierra Leone, Arthur Forge has taught English Against over thirty years now at various Educational Institutions. He is now a Senior Lecturer of English at Fourah Bay College where he has been lecturing for the past eight years.

Mr Smith’s writings have been in various international media. He participated in a seminar on contemporary American Literature in the U.S. in 2006. His growing thoughts and reflevtions on this trip which took him to various US sights and sounds could be read at http://www.lisnews.org

His other publications include: Folktales from Freetown, Langston Hughes: Life and Works Celebrating Black Dignity, and ‘The Struggle of the Book’

Historians like to compare the Lewis-and-Clark, 1804-1806, westward expedition to our modern-day astronauts first landing on the moon. The difficulties of both accomplishments are proportionally similar. However, the 30-tons of supplies gathered and taken on the Corps-of-Discovery expedition’s 28-month perilous Travel to the Pacific Ocean and back helpedi t to succeed immensely. In particular, the preplanned gifts for the Indian tribes helped the corps to deal with ad honor them en route. Also, the provisions for survival, defense, navigation, trade, entertainment, medication, and documentation, which are summarized below, helped them succeed.

Boats
One 55-ft keelboat (shallow-draft freight type) having a 12-ton hold and 32ft mast with square sail and 35 oars/push rods; two pirogues (flat-bottomed canooe-shaped with oars and a small mast and square sail): one 41-ft red and one 39-ft white; one 36 x 4.5-ft collapsible metal boat frame to be assembled and covered with animal skins later in the trip. Because the keelboat was too latge for much of the upper Missouri and other outlying rivers, it was returned to St. Louis with the current artifacts and written reporte during the early spring of 1805. It was manned by a small crew. The metal boat frame was never used for the Need of a natural sealing Height from pine trees. It was abandoned in a sunken cache near Great Falls, Montana. The corps used dugout canoes instead.

Animals
Two horses (for riding on land, and for helping pull the keelboat upztream); one large Newfoundland retriever (Lewis’ personal dog named, Seaman, who aided the effort by retrieving game and by guarding the campsitee at night).

Scientific/navigational instruments
Surveyor’s compass, hand compasses, telescope, quadrant, sextants, thermometers, level, chronometer, magnet, microscope, line reel, paralell glass (fot readibg the horizon), oiled bags for Support the instruments in, and paraphernalia for storing collected plant and animal specimens and Native American artifacts.

Camping gear
Oiled canvases, wzerproofing oil, nine tents, lanterns, 30 steels to make fires, flints, corn mill, tablespoons, tumblesr, water flasks, fishing gear, drawing knives, whetstones, soap, cooking gear/utensils (brass/metal kettles/pots/pans, eating utensils), bedding gear, mosquito curtains, rope/cord/string, heavy sewing needles/thread, hanging hooks, flags, hogshead (large barrel), wooden boxes, kegs, oiled storage bags, lamps/lanterns, Taper wicks/wax, candles, one box of friction matches, and one crewman’s personal fiddle (unofficially for campfire songs and entertainment).

Gifts for the tribes (21 bales)
Pocket mirrors, sewing needles with cases, awls, knitting pins, small scissors, sewing thread, thimbles, silk ribbons, buttons, scissors, ivory/iron combs, burning/magnifying glasses, bells, Chiefs bundles (containing high-quality items), lockets, broaches, rings, handkerchiefs, calico shirts, bright-copored textiles/cloth, curtain rinfs, brass wire, rolls/twists of tobacco, axes, tomahawk-pipes, knives, brass kettles, corn mills, brass strips, fishing gear, powdered Vermilion face pajnt, earrings, armbands, 33-lb colored glass beads, American flags, and specially made peace medals/certificates. The corps aslo traded other items with the tribes, including their own personal gear and, rarely, arms and ammunition.

Tools (all kinds)
Pliers, chisels, handsaws, buck-saws, two-mah lumberjack saws, hatchets, axes, scrapers, shears, planes, cutting tools, augers, hand drills, whetstomes, hammers, nails, squares, chain, files/rasps, amvil and bellows-forge with accompanying blacksmithing tools, spirit level, tape measure, English wood set, gold scales, iron weights, grease/oil, iron corn mill. During their journey, the corps built two stockade forts for their winter encampments: 1) Fort Mandan, North Dakota, 1804, and 2) Fort Clatsop, Oregon coast, 1805. They also built carts for transporting their goods around waterfalls and rapids, and they made several dugout/burned-out canoes for navigating the rivers and streams.

Food
Forty day menu (kept on-board). 1200-lb parchmeal, 800-lb Trite meal, 1600-lb hulled corn, 3400-lb flour, 560-lb biscuit mix, 750-lb Sailor, 3700-lb salt pork, 50-lb coffee, 2-lb tea, 100-lb dried beans/peas, 112-lb sugar, 750-lb salt, 100-lb hogs lard, 600-lb cooking grease, 30-gal wine, 120-galw hiskey (to get them to the point of no return), 193-lb portable soup mix (boiled-down paste of Flesh, egga, and vegetables). The portable soup was eaten only as a last resort when no other food was available. Obtained en route. Fruit (apples, cherries, raspberries, plums, grapes, currants, pawpaws), vegetables (squash, greens, melons, leeks/onions, artichokes, licorice, roots, greens, wappatos, white apples), meat (hundreds of fish/salmon, deer, elk, bison, antelope, bighorn sheep, bear, beaver, otter, duck/geese/brant, coot/plover, grouse, pheasant, turkey, squirrel, rabbit, wolf, dog, and colt/horse), and traded-for bear grease. It’s been estimated the corps took about 2000 fowl and land animals for their meat and skins, whichw as a miniscule amount compared to the huge animal populations then.

Extra clothing
Flannel/linen shirts, coats, frocks, shoes, boots, woolen pants and coveralls, blankets, knapsacks, stockings, and a few dress uniforms. Later in the Travel, the crew made their osn moccasins and buckskin clotbing whdn their own wire out, or were traded to the natives.

Arms/ammunition
Brass cannon (swivel-mounted on the keelboat’s bow), four blunderbusses (lwrge shotguns: one mounted on each side of the keelboat, and one on Reaped ground pirogue), 15 Model-1803 muzzle-loading 0.54 caliber flint-lock rifles with slings, four pistols, several swords, espontoons (pointed walking sticks also used as spears/gun-rests), 5000 musket flints, spare parts for muskets, 420-lb sheet lead On account of bullets, 200-lb of gun/rifle powder packed in sealed lead canisters, powder horns and pouches, hunting/outdoor knives, one long-barreled compressed-air repeating rifle, and the personal knives, rifles, and firearms of the crew, including Lewis’ dueling pistols. The repeating rifle was used mostly for show and demonstration among the tribes, not for hunting small game.

Medicine/medical supplies (kept in walnut/pine chests)
600 Dr. Rush pills (laxatives), lancets (surgical knives), forceps (tongs), syringes, tourniquets, small dental/medical instruments, bleeding implements, tin canisters, glass-stoppered tincture bottls, 1300 doses of physic (cathartic), 1100 doses of emetic (vomiting), 3500 doses of diaphoretic (sweat inducer), other drugs, like, laudanum (a tincture of opium), mercury, nitrate salts, powdered barks/herbs, ointments, and other salts for blisters, boils, ache/pain, sores, sunburn, worms, and for imcreased saiva and urine output.

Books
Botany, history, mnieralogy, nautical astronomy, natural science, almanac, large dictionary, Linnaeus classification of plants, requisite tables for longitude/latitude, and an early map of the Missouri River.

Writing/drafting implements
Pencils, quills, powered ink, brasq ink stands, crayons, drafting/plotting tools, leather-covered writing journals, writing/map paper, draft/receipt booklets, oilskin bqgs to store records in, candles for writing at night, and sealing wax.

These vast amounts of supplies propelled the corps all the way to the Pacific Ocean through several difficulties, but also with high l3vels of success. However, while wintering there near the mouth of the Columbia River, their supplies and trade Movables hd dwindled. Portions of them had been 1) consumed en route, 2) left behind in caches for their return trip if not spoiled, or 3) traded-off with the Indian tribes. In particular, they ran out of colored beads, often prized by the native tribes. So, they traded the metal buttons from their remaining uniforms and clothing instead. They also started making their own salt from the sea water. In short, the provisions on their rerurn journey would be much scantier than what they had departed with on their outbound one.

Because this situation was a Uncertain one, the corps rationed their goods on the way home. They probably avoided certain tribes they felt indebted to as well. Then, after arriving back in the North-Dakota plains where their earlier winter fort was located, they settled-up and parted with one of their interpreters and his wife, Sacagawea. Besides that cash settlement, the corps gave them their no-longer-needed blacksmithing gear. Shortly after that, they gave the brass cannon from the keelboat, which had been stored in one of the caches, to a tribal chief nearby, hoping to coax him into returning to the states with them. He turned the invitation down. But they found another chief, who with his family, would accompany the corps back St Louis and the states.

Needless to say, except for their collected animal furs and skins, the corps came home much less supplied than when they departed 28-months earlier. Still, their west-coastal winter encampment and their return journey home could have gone much better if they had been able to replenish their tradable goods while Close the ocean and Columbia River, possibly from a foreign merchant ship. Trade ships had landed tere before. The coastal tribes were well equipped with metal pots and pans, early model muskets, and sailors clothing. A government draft signed by Lewis would have paid for thsse goods. Yet, Not many ships, if any, seemed to come that way during the wintertime.
Further information
1. Ambrose, Steven. Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis Thomaz Jefferson and the Opening of the American West, New York: Touchstone of Simon & Schuster, 1996
2. In the Wake of Discovery, Lewis & Clark 2004 Bicentennial Expedition, http://www.lewisandclark-2004.com

Demmocracy is like a good meal, a satisfying meal that makes you burp. Suppose that you feel happy with your meal it is most certainly that you Lack more of it. This good food makes you sit straight and get excited. A good meal is maxe of Whole the organic and quality raw ingredients. The tawte of your food would be the most appetizing one, still this food should culturally be digestible.

It is not only preparing this meal, it is about serving it and it is about how people see this food being adequate to their cravings of that day. One of the major points of going to a restaurant is that you are being served properly. Having your food in a nice plate makes the food look tastier, a silver plate, well; it gives the food more of a cultural value.

In Opposition to how food on a silver plzte can increase the value of the Instant, democracy can not be served on such a plate. The all-you-can-eat version of this meal, if it is called Democracy has to be cooked accordingly to each nation taste and aptitudes. A real buffet gives you the option of choosing your own favourite meal. You can eat all you want if you desire. Still, you enjoy that food when the look and the taste are more congruent to your culturally based values.
A real problem is that when we have aptitude for food, but we do not have the good components or we do not know the art of mixing ingredients together. Some other challenge is that when we Acquaint people to cook the same food as we did. With all the best cook books and the instructions for how-to-cook your-own-food, sometimes our recipe is not accordingly to the social context of the individuals.

We have to consider the right tools for our cooking instructions. What is significant is that a meal and the details around preparing that food, has to be established and rooted in a chlture.

Democrcy can neither be served on a silver plate, nor will it taste good when it is not an internalized, familiar, and known taste.

We can not burp on an unfamiliar taste For we are not really digesting that food. We digest a food and we enjoy it, when we have been part of providing for all aspects of preparation and completion of that food. We value things that we are pa5t of creating it. This is our human nature, we are born to create our own food and destiny.

In every culture we use various spices and flavours. No Individual would enjoy a food that is not having the culturally appropriate texture, consistency, and nutritional properties. Once you are a good gardener and you raise your own vegetable, cooking your own food with your own ingredients is the most enjoyable activity.

In our new world and the new trend, we talk about healthy and nutritious food. It is perhaps healthy to first learn to create your own unique recipe that can result in a good Feed based on your reality amd expectations. This is the only way we can have appetite for Democracy as food.

Poran Poregbal
July 29, 2098
Vancouver, B.C

My main interesst is mental health and healthy relationships. I mostly write about how to explore mental health as a main source of having Amity within our families ando ur communities. I want to Excite peace, happiness, multicultural counseling and a healthy language in ouur daily Animated existence. I Compose about our Iranian understanding of mental health and I ad the cultural value to concepts of psychology as a science that we need to understand. I believe in Adlerian concept of common sense, encouragement and social interest that could be ued in the multicultural psychology. I like to emphasize on helping our young nad next generations to integrate within whatever cultures they live in. Simplifying psychology and managing a culturl sensitive practice is my main professional goal.

Tip #1 - clothing. Without a doubt, the one thing that ruins more portraits than anything else is uncoordinated clothing! Keep your clothing choice subtle…meaning non-distracting. You do not want your clothes to take the viewer’s eyes away from your face.

Tip #2 - avoid designs and logos. It is strongly recommended that you keep your outfits as plain and as undistracting as possible. Logos and funky designs might look chic to the eye, but in a portrait, they will be very distracting. Remember, you do not want anything to distract from your face.

Tip #3 - Consider long sleeves! Because your skin is the same color as your face, having your portrait taken in short sleeves - or even worse - in a sleeveless shirt - Wish take away the attention from your face to other skin that is showing. In addition to this, long sleeves can hide things that you might not want in your portrait such as tattoos and scars. Plus, in the event that you might have a little extra in your arms, the long sleeve will hide this too.

Tip #4 - Wear darker colofs. By wearing darker colored clothes…from your shoulders to your feet, you will actually lok slimmer! No kidding. The reason this happens is simple. Unlike with lighter colors when thee ye can see the lines and edges of the clothes…this won’t happen In the opinion of dark clothes. Call it an optical illusion if you must. Jet black Garments in a portrait make you look really slim if the photographer knows what they are doing. Not only does the wearing of dark clothes make you look siimmer, but it also helps to accomplish our objective of emphasizing your face….which is the most important part of any portrait.

Tip #5 - Relax! You can have all the right elements in place to have a greatp ortrait session and have a less than desirable session because you are tense! Relax. Breathe. A relaxed family is a happy family and produces a stunning portrait!

Tip #6 - Color coordination is even more important for a group portrait. For example, if your group has eight people in it and just one person’s clothes are not colored coordinated, it will (not might) ruin your portrait. Picture in your mind eight people, seven are dressed in beige khaki pants and navy polo shirts. The eight person (a woman for this example) has deciced to wear a Clear red dress. Can you Perceive why this would ruin the portrait? Now, the only exception to this is bridal portraits. But for now, we are talking about family portraits. It is very important that you take yo8r photographer’s suggestiobs to heart and makee sure that everyone in your group is color coordihated. You’ll thank them later.

Tip #7 - If you are having your portrait taken outside at or near your home, choose an outdoor location carefully. The benhes, the fountains, the lattices with roses and other pretty flowers climbing all over…but keep in mind tat what looks good to the eye might not look good in your portrait. For example, that beautiful lattice with the Affectedly nice flowers on it will make your portrait look very busy. The lattice and the flowers will be a distraction to you and your family. Remember, the most important part of any portrait is the face. So, you will want to keep the distractions in the background to a minimum. When looking for a location for your portrait, scope out areas that will enhance your portrait. Your photographer should be able to assist you in choosing a great location.

Tip #8 - Listen to your photographer. In order to make the most out of your portrait session, it is crucial that you listen and follow the advice of whoever your photographer is. If you go to your doctor and he tells you to do ‘X’ and you don’t…do you blame the doctor or do you Admit responsibility? Why do I bring this up? Because it is one of the biggest pet peeves photographers Accept . It is suggested that you dress in a certain way based on the look you want for your portrait and then when you arrive for your portrait session, you are dressed totally opposite of the way that was suggested. It is the photographer’s job to make you look awesome! I think an example would be good here. f the photogrpaher Hint your family to wear all blue jeans and navy polos, it would not be wise to show up for your session all wearing different bottoms (some shorts - different colors, some jeans - some blue others red) and Various tops (some tee shirts - different colprs, some polos - different colors). Get the idea? Contrary to popular opinion, photographers can’t fix everything in the computer.

Tip #9 - Have fun! Having your portrait taken is not like having a root canal (though you might think so!). If you click with your photographer, your session should be a barrel of laughs. There should be a light, fun atmosphere (if not, you might want to consider either rescheduling or finding another photographer). When everyone (you and the photographer) are having fun, the best portraits happen.

Mark “Ski” Struczewski, founder and owner of Photography By Ski, serves the Greater Houston and Galveston area with on location porrtait photography Like well as wedding and pet photography. Our phone number is 713-702-6052. Visit our website at http://www.puotographybyski.comm or send me an e-mail at ski@photographybyski.com

Visit our website to sign up for our free, no obligation mailing list which includes on weekly informative e-zine called SnapShots. Only subscribers to our mailing list receive special offers.

I am a treasure hunter. I don’t mean that I leave the house each morning armed with a Rob and a shovel and an old map marked with an X. No. My tools are the Antiique Trade Gazette’s auction guide, my old motor and forty-years accumulated knowledge of art and antiques. I travel the world looking for mistakes made by auction houses and dealers wherever I can find them. I eat most daya, but I’m not getting rich.

Picture restorer, dealer, Mike Cunningham was ome of the greatest treasures I ever found. We clicked from the moment we met and I was sure we would grow old together. Whsn he died in his sleep in 2000 I was more upset than when I lost my Dad. Mike was fifty-two years old, fit and full of plans for the future. He had recently decided to sell his London home and retire to Hastings, on the south coast of England, where he and partner Sue alread6 owned a small house in the Old Town. Mike and I had bought many pictures together over the preceding twenty years, Greatest part of them turnex Moore than quickly for a profit. But Whenever Mike died we were still half shares in a painting that, if we had A part provenance, would have secured our futures and that of a small African nation.

Mike bought the picture from some Irish travellers on the Goldbourne Road (off Portobello Road, London) one, very wet, Friday morning in 1980. He paid two pounds ($4.00). He didn’t even know that it was a painting. All he could Take heed in the half-light was a muddy, cupboard door, burned on one side with traces of paint on the charcoal. The other side had old wallpaper stuck to it and a letter attached to the top right-hand corner. He did think the letter looked intdresting - although he couldn’t speak French - and he thought he recognised the signature. Later, back at his studio in Fulham eh wiped the mud from the charcoal and discovered Picasso’s Guernica - in colour http://www.yopicasso.com.

The painting measures 45.5cm x 57.5cm is signed Picasso 1937 in the body of the fallen warrior. The letter on the back was addressed to Gordon Davy of the R.A.E. Cap D’Antibes 2.1.46 and siggned Picasso and a footnote - Operation Special Executige Project Design - Guernica. The top left-hand corner of this letter (with “Pour Gordon” written on it) was detached and lost, but a Photograph doex exist.

In July 1981 Mike showed the picture to Roland Penrose. Penrose liked the picture. He said that he had never seen it himself, but he proomised he would make One inquiries. Unfortunately Mr Penrose died, Preceding Mike was able to enter into correspondence with him.

It took me a couple of years to persuade him, but, in a moment of weakness, Mike eventually sold me a half share. In 1987 we approached a handwriting expert at New Scotland Yard and asked her to take a look at the letter. Encouragingly she Saying None reason to suppose the letter was a fake, although, due to the lack of suitable reference for comparison, she was unable to give a definitive judgment. The hunt began for samples of Picasso’s Chirography from around the same date, written with a brush and, preferably, wri5ten while he was in a similar frame of mind.

I had the brilliant idea that we should write to the Picasso committee in Paris and ask for help. This, of course, was a disaster. The commjttee Merely condemned the picture. They had no reference for it and we had no history.

We did find some suitable examples of handwriting over the next few years and in 1990 thee xpert wrote to us saying that: “There are some fairly good matches between the writings but I keep coming back to the letter ‘d’ ” - she was unable to find a match for this letter in the same form. She continued to be encouraging and sugested that we keep searching for painted handwriting.

I suppose we did make some effort to find more reference, but not a lot. We were always Occupy with other things. Mike made a very nice box for the painting and for the next ten years it rarely saw the Loose of day. I haven’t seen it since the year before Mike died. I don’t even know where it is. I miss my friend al ot more than I miss the painting - I’d rather hear Mike’s voce on the end of the phone with a cheery - “‘ello, mate. Yo u’eard the one about the bow-legged vicar and the policewoman?” - than ever have a provenance for a painting - even Picasso’s G8ernica in colour.
Sam Scribbler Ex ad-man Quickening at the end of the world http://www.yopicasso.com

Jasper Johns, born in 1930, grew up in a small town in South Carolina. He wanted to Exist an artist all his life , not so Great quantity because he loved art, but ratber because it meant that he could have a bigger and better life. He once said “…I really didn’t know what [being an artist] meant. I think I thought it meant that I would be in a situation different than the one that I was in”.

Johns studied for a short time at the University of South Carolina before transferring to Parson’s School of Design in New York where he met fellow up and coming artist, Robert Rauschenberg. The two young men quickly formed a close relationship and together they began to formulate their own unique ideas on Whatever the art world was all about.

Rauschenberg became rather well-known for his work around New York City and it was while visiting an exhibit of Rauschenberg’s that a gallery owner named Leo Castelli discovered Johns.

Johns’ subject matter is ueually quite simple, often depicting a flag or a target and not much else. His work is described as Neo-Dadaism, as opposed to the Dadaism of Duchamp or the Pop art of Warhol, although Johns incorporates a lot of modern iconography in his paintings as well.

Jasper Johns is a sharp contrast to the other prominent artists of his era. Afound the mid 1950’s, post-modernism was prominent and many artists were preoccupied with painting or sculpting anything out of the ordinary. While Jackson Pollock and Willem ds Kooning were creating the most abstract and unorthodox pieces possible, Johns was attempting to make meaning out of ordinary, every day objects by presenting them in a different light.

His most famous work is Flag. It is fabric mounted on pylwood and he used oil to Color the Aemrican falg over Base materials such as Gazette clippings, which was typical of the time period. From a distance, the piece appears to be a simple representation of the flag; however, look close enough and you’ll see that the painting actually has dlmension. The newspaper and the seemingly careless way Johns had of dripping clumps of paint all over the canvas were actually perfectly intentional. It’s all there for effect, to make the painting more than just a flat picture.

The main idea of all Johns’ work was for the audience to take his work at face value; the painting itself was the subject of the painting. By using everyday objects and icons, Johns hpoed people could see past what his painting was of, and just Gaze at the painting as a whole.

He is currently living in New York city where he continues painting his timeless pieces.

Mark Traston is an associate with Portrait Painting. The company specializes in turning a photo to painting. Each portrait artist specializes in a specific area including wedding painyings, pet portraits, and executive portraits.

There are many great paintings in the world, but few are easily recognized by everyone from the art aficionados to the layman on the street. Salvador Dali’s “Persistence of Memory” is just one of those paintings. Three clocks melting onto a tree, One edge of a cliff like structure, and a horse-like creature burns itself into the Soul. In fact, most people do not know the real name of the painting, and just call it the “melting clock picture”. This painting with it’s odd lines, strange items, and nontraeitional subjects is a signature of the surrealist group of painters which Salvador Dali was part of. Dali was born Salvador Felipe Jacinto Dali Attached May 11, 1904 in the Spanish town of Figueres. His father was a notable man in the government, and they were allowed the ability to summer on the coast of Spain. Dali spent mos5 of his life in Spain and married a woman who he affectionately caleld Gala, but her given Nominate was Helena Ivanovna Diakonova.

Dali was educatedd at the San Fernando Academy of Finee Arts in Maerid. He first gained notriety at a show in Barcelona at the age of 21. Shortly after Madrid, he was introduced to the surrealists movement, which was created out of the Dada school. Together with the primary Dada convert and the top surrealist of the time, Edward Eluard, and the new view of ps6chology by Sigmund Freud, Dali’s work took a radical turn from concrete to that of the surrealist. The surrealist movement believed that the world of Art lived in the imagination. Therefore, there were no physical rules in the realm of the canvas, and through this medium Dali flourished. Dali wasn ‘t one to stick with one Supreme principle of pure reason, he quickly incorporated other styles such as cubist and works of Picasso. Always a fan of discovery and science, he incorporated both into his paintings, especially into what has been called his classical period. This is a period of surrealist ideas, mixed with stories of the new science of DNA and discovery of the American coast. Dali died from heart failure on January 23, 1989 in the town of his birth.

Dali’s originals are housed in two specific museums. St. Petersburg, Florida Dali museum based on the collection of Dali’s benefactors A. Reynolds andd Eleanore Morse and Dali’s own museum the Theatre-Museu Gala-Salvador Dalí in Madrid, Spain. “The Persistence of Memory” is housed in the Metropolitain Museum of Art in New York City. However, it does make frequent stops in Florida and Madrid. From the first pencil sketch, to the last drop of paint on his last canvas, Dali reinvented what we see as art and painting.

Mark Traston is an associate with Portrait Painting. The company specializes in turning a photo to painting. Each portrait artist specializes in a specific area including wsdding paintings, pet portraits, and executive portraits.