Rainy day da Vinci

The pattern on rainy windows always reminds me of Impressionist brushwork.

Has it been not but the most glorious blustery, gray, partially overcast, rainy, breezy and cool set of days in recent weeks? I think this is the most pleasant beginning heading into summer I can remember in years! Of course that also makes for some great museum attending time, and there was a wonderful show based on the incredible mind and inventions of Leonardo da Vinci.

There were a few other more modern inventors featured in the outside gallery to learn about, prior to going into the show.

I'll admit I was a bit skeptical about what a show dealing with da Vinci's work could be about. For those of you that don't know, he was a true Renaissance man in that he was a painter, writer, inventor, scientist, and so much more, but aside from his Codex writings, and a handful of paintings, his output is not as prolific as others of that age.

Leonardo is a massive influence on me, as I had a few years living in Italy, his influence and legend is powerful and engrossing, to the point of most every child I went to school knowing quite a lot about him. So I did wonder what this exhibit would be about...

Now this is cool.

As you can see from the photos I took, the creators of the exhibit had taken to bringing pages of his writings on thoughts of inventions to life, many of which were able to be interacted with by the attending public.

Some of the concepts were not inventions, but improved versions reworked by Leonardo.

Being very familiar with many of the pages and imagery that da Vinci had done, it was so cool to see them come to life.

The models on display ranged from huge to pedestal mounted ones.

They also had a great interactive area for kids of all ages.

(Left) Archimedes Screw (Right) Concept for a diving suit and breathing unit.

One I had forgotten about was some time back I had read about this odd sketch that was found in one of the Codex pages, as the placard below notes, it was drawn in graphite, which for my own stance makes it fairly obvious that it was not one of his ideas/concepts.

(Right Top) Distance measuring tool, bicycle, (Right Bottom) and automatic driverless cart.

A nice imaginative take on what Leonardo's workshop could have looked like.

Since this was towards the end of the exhibit's run, there weren't a lot of people mulling about early on, so you could take your time really reading up on the details.

(Left) They had a mirrored8 panel room. (Right) This was the flying model I had made for the kids area. It did not fly.

About one third of the exhibit was dedicated to his military inventions and artworks. I was really stoked to see the prototype tank on display (below left).

I know warfare elements aren't everyone's cup of tea, but it's stunning how deadly these might have been.

Hopefully if you are reading this and live in or near the Kansas City area, you were able to make it out to Union Station to see the exhibit. I took copious notes for stories, garnered new ideas on things I had been mulling over, and ended my day afterwards by going home and watching the animated da Vinci short I purchased some years ago...

An amazing independent animated dvd short about Leonardo.

The creators of the animated DVD short above are the people at the Aerial Contrivance Workshop and is one of my prized indie publications/creations. The short itself can be found on Vimeo in full length. This DVD shows behind the scenes and alternate takes and comes in an amazing bit of packaging worthy of Leo's masterful creative ways. I'm not sure if it's available anymore unfortunately to purchase.

Going to this exhibit was a great chance to reset my thinking and how I have been approaching my newer artwork as of late. As I've said in many of my previous posts, no creative can create without some input or stimulus that fires up thinking and generation of ideas.

So did you go to the exhibit? What were your thoughts?

Until next time, support your local artists, be kind to your fellow beings, and enjoy that rainy weather if you got it!

- Mario, the Artisan Rogue