Areas of Unrest

10 December 2000 - In Miniature

QOTD: "I heard Al Gore had trouble sleeping last night. So he started to count sheep. And then he had to recount sheep." - Andrew Wisot

Reading: the January 2001 issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine

Listening to: Outback, Baka

First, let me apologize for posting the last two entries at the same time as this one. I was just too exhausted to get around to proofreading. And, I assure you, I found some odd typos just now.

I didn't mention that after I got back from D.C., I more or less turned around and went to Boulder. Our design review was a lot more successful than I'd expected. And I got to eat chowder at Rhumba and French toast with blueberry sauce at Le Peep. I'm still glad that I don't have to go there this week, since the meeting I had planned to go for was postponed and I can handle the other stuff I need to do over the phone.

I was so exhausted that I postponed getting together with Penny to work on stories. Instead, I spend most of the day yesterday napping and reading. By today I had enough energy that I got myself out of the house before noon. I had read that The Carole and Barry Kaye Museum of Miniatures was closing at the end of the year. (Actually, as I understand it, it's moving from California with the Kayes. They'd tried to sell it to the city but that didn't work out for reasons I don't entirely understand.) I'd intended to go see it for ages and there's nothing like a deadline to provide motivation!

So I drove over to Museum Row, reminded myself of the advantage of free street parking on Sunday, and found a spot just a block or so from the museum. The place is, indeed, impressive. The focus is on modern artists who create miniatures, so there isn't quite as much of the row after row of Victorian dollhouses that most people would expect. There are some Victorian things, though, if that's what you like.

The most obvious highlights are the reproductions of the great palaces of Europe - Hampton Court, the Doge's Palace, the Royal Pavilion at Brighton, Fontainebleau - in ornate detail. It's hard to look at things like the 10 1/2 foot tall replica of the Vatican (including a replica of the Sistine Chapel) and not gasp at the work that went into building it. And then there are things like the Roman Forum and King Tut's tomb and a miniature art museum filled with miniature Van Goghs and the Hollywood Bowl.

There are some very whimsical (and unconventional) displays, like David McElroy's "Tin Can Technology." Those pieces are made from bits of tin cans and assorted hardware and include spaceships and fantastic gardens and an elephant with trainer. I think they're supposed to move, though, and seeing them as a static display is mildly disappointing.

The weirdest pieces are the Singerie ones by Adnan Karabay, which show monkeys in 17th and 18th century court settings. Apparently, this relates to a French tradition, but I found the pieces vaguely unsettling. There are other disturbing pieces, but those are more intentionally upsetting. Nobody is about to see a Whitechapel street with references to Jack the Ripper as a pleasant fantasy. Similarly, Albert Chailosky's reproduction of 42nd Street in New York doesn't gloss over the seamy side.

My favorite pieces included the Roman Forum, an architect's studio by Tom Roberts, the Kupjack Gallery (Eugene Kupjack did the famous Thorne rooms at the Art Institute of Chicago), and a series of four scenes of Venice Beach by Ray Anderson. I was also very amused by the display of outhouses. Overall, I continued to be impressed by the detail and workmanship, especially since I've built some miniatures myself, though only from kits.

It's a good thing that I've pretty much lost interest in making miniatures because everything in the gift shop was at least half off and I'd have had to wrestle serious tempation. As it was, there were minor temptations, but I could talk myself out of them by reminding myself that I just don't have the room. At this point in my life, I want a house that isn't at a 1 inch to the foot scale.