Europe 2015: Day Eight and Nine

Tuesday, June 23, 2015 (Day 8)

Paris, France to Lucerne, Switzerland

Today we are going to travel via Burgundy to the Lucerne region of Switzerland.  That means an early breakfast and on the bus by 8:30 for a four hour ride to the French city of Beaune.

For lunch we decided as a family to eat at Le Conty.  No offense intended to our travel companions but this might have been the nicest meal we had because it was just our family and we could sit and talk in a quiet setting.

After lunch it was back in the bus for another four hours on the highway.  Our original hotel was supposed to be the Loewen Lungern in downtown Lucerne.  While the location would have been great, the previous EF group complained about it so much that we were moved to Campus Sursee in Sursee.  This is some kind of business training complex that appeared to be part ghost town.

The good news was that because it was fairly new, it had the most modern digs we were to stay in.  

The campus has a cafeteria and that is where we ate that night.  After dinner, my brother-in-law Donny and I went to the gym and played some basketball.  I was surprised how at my advanced age I will still able to get it up (so to speak).  No photos of this are available so you will have to trust me.

Wednesday, June 24, 2015 (Day 9)

Lucerne, Switzerland

We left the industrial park campus early on this day to take a tour of Lucerne.  Our first stop is the carving known as The Lion Monument or the Lion of Lucerne. This is a sculpture designed by Bertel Thorvaldsen who was commissioned to commemorate the approximately 300 Swiss Guards who were massacred in 1792 during the French Revolution.  Unfortunately, my camera was not on the right setting (operator error) so most of my pictures did not turn out from this visit so these do not do this magnificent sculpture justice.

The rest of our time in Lucerne was our own.  Denice and I broke off from the herd and went our own way, wandering the city to see what we could see.   

Its a bagel--but I bet you had to look twice.

Below is me and the sweetie hangin' out in Lucerne.

 

Things can be very old in Europe.

Denice and I went up the hill to the Museggmauer, a church up on a hill that gave us a great view of Lucerne.  And when I say up, I mean up.

There is a law that insists you eat chocolate even if you are a diabetic.  Yeah, there is.  

The big excursion of the day was a group outing on the lake to Stansstad.

Giggle

Snort

We are going to board this vintage funicular railway car a venture 6,227 feet above sea level to enjoy

the spectacular views from the top of Stanserhorn.

At the top we had plenty of time to stroll around and enjoy the views.

How a hard working EF tour guide unwinds.

Our tour group part one

Our tour group part deux

When we return to Lucerne we had more free time so Denice and I visited an antique shop and then the St. Leodegar im Hof (Hofkirche) church.

Outside the church the courtyard is rung with an exterior mausoleum with these fascinating crypts.  

When we return to Sussel that night, after dinner, five of us decided to walk into the town to see what was happening.  The industrial campus we were sleeping in was about two miles from the central core of this small town but for pedestrians there was no direct access except on a weird wooden path and under the railroad tracks.  We made it and we were glad we did.

We walked through a residential part of the town which had long narrow lots where everyone seemed to be growing great gardens.  The town was fairly quiet and deserted but we enjoyed a chance to see how the Swiss live.  Then it was back on the strange path across the railroad tracks back to our campus and into bed.

Mictecacihuatl

I have been working on a project that is a part of the online workshop conducted by Michael deMeng called Plumed Serpents and Moon Goddesses.  The first project in the course was Mictlantecuhtli Skully which involved various techniques that I decided to incorporate into a slightly different Aztec god, Mictecacihuatl.  According to The Fountain of All Knowledge, Wikipedia, "in Aztec mythology, Mictecacihuatl is Queen of Mictlan, the underworld, ruling over the afterlife with Mictlantecuhtli, another deity who is her husband. Her role is to watch over the bones of the dead and preside over the ancient festivals of the dead. These festivals evolved from Aztec traditions into the modern Day of the Dead after synthesis with Spanish traditions. She now presides over the contemporary festival as well. Mictecacihuatl is known as the Lady of the Dead, since it is believed that she was born, then sacrificed as an infant. Mictecacihuatl was represented with a defleshed body and with jaw agape to swallow the stars during the day."  Here is a depiction of her from one of the ancient Codex of Mexico.

The first decision on the project is what to make the base form.  After a trip to my basement, I came up with THE INCREDIBLE HULK, a plastic form that is going to be perfect for this goddess. The additional items were a toy shield, an ink holder and a buggy step.  

I remember how excited I was when I bought this shield but I also remember how I overspent for it when I paid $10.  Today, selected as the backdrop for this project, I am much happier as it is going to be perfect.  The first job is to drill a hole so I can secure it to Hulk.  

Based on one of Michael's workshop suggestions, I decided to Verday this shield with bronze and the rusting solution.  Here is the progress:

With the addition of the nails as protective spikes on the shield, I was able to set that aside.  

Another suggestion from Michael's workshop was using eggshells as a base for the texture on the Hulk.  (Under terms of full disclosure--I am glad I tried this but I am NEVER doing this again.)  Before the texture went on, I wanted to build us some facial structure using Aves clay.  

Another thing I had to wrestle with was how was going to attached a three pound buggy step to a flimsy plastic form with the whole thing falling on its face.

From Michael's workshop there came a suggestion to use Great Stuff as a texturing item but ironically that sparked me to use it for its original intended use--to fill a space.  With Hulk full of this Great Stuff, I had the structure I need to attached the buggy step.  

Michael teaches the philosophy of "inherent thingyness" which means letting a found object's core structure inform the piece.  Here I was able to use the bolt hole from the buggy step to place a bolt both through it and Hulk's face to secure the two together...but also create an armature for the tongue I wanted to attach to the face.  Next up--time for painting.  

The inherent thingyness of the buggy step also lent itself to the snake I wanted to wrap around Mictecacihuatl's head.  A visit to my vast stash of plastic animals in my basement led to a big surprise--I have a ton of tiny snakes but none the size needed for this project.  So--Plan B--I sacrificed this dinosaur for the good of the Aztecs.  

Now it was time to wrap the snake body with plastic bags.  This was covered with a concoction of glue and varnish--and set on fire.  WARNING:  this is most likely very toxic and that is why the next photo show Mictecacihuatl outside just before it was Flame On!

Above you will find Quetzalcóatl, the god known as the Plumed Serpent who is a mix of bird and rattle snake.  Below is Dino the Dinosaur who is about to get plumed.  

The last step in Snake Building 101 was to top coat the project with Kroma Crackle.  Because time did allow, I used their method rather than the expedited technique Michael teaches in his workshop.  

This set up, designed to allow me to complete the project by attaching the shield and filling the Hulk form with more Great Stuff led my wife Denice to suggest this might not be the wisest use of our living room.  I had to point the heat gun at her and suggest she step away from the assemblage.  While the photo below looks tame, there was a bulging mass of Great Stuff weeping out of Hulk's butt that I did have to carve down after it cured.   

With the body now firm, I could attach the inkwells which from now on will be referred to as the breast plate.  

Many times in a project's development, there comes a time when I look at it and say, "Something is missing."  In this case, it was some side force, some horizontal dimension.  At first I was thinking arms but after a trip to the basement, I came up with antlers.  

A word of caution--if you are going to Dremel off bone for a project, head outside and wear a mask!  If you think that was the scariest part of this idea, you would be wrong because now I had to drill into Mictecacihuatl's head.  After all the work I had put into it already, I was really nervous this Aztec brain surgery would go awry and I would be done before I was finished.  The good news was the drill worked and the previous applied Great Stuff did its job and helped make a great divot to clay in the antlers.  

What the f...??  This still looked wrong to me and I knew why.  It still needed the horizontal dimension that the original idea had suggested...arms!

While Baby Jesus has a thematic quality to it, it was not appropriate to this project so I had to modify our Lord and Savior into something else more in the spirit of the Aztec's religion.  

So I decided to add Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec sun and war god, who is often represented in art as either a hummingbird or an eagle.

 

So with my thanks to Michael deMeng and the Plumed Serpent and Moon Goddesses workshop, I have Mictecacihuatl.