May 18, 2014
We flew east last Thursday to witness the graduation of Thomas Charles Bell from the Masters program at the University of Maryland on Friday:
The guest graduation speaker was Wes Moore, who you will be hearing more from in the future.
Afterwards we motored down to Jeff & Patty's house in Severn, where we partied on the patio:
Tom Bell's graduation party
The next day, we drove to Philadelphia and I saw the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall for the first time. Also, the Philly Art Museum where Rocky (Sylvester Stallone) ran up the steps. Everyone, I mean everyone runs up the steps and does the victory dance at the top.
Afterwards we went to a great restaurant in China Town:
Dinner at Dim Sum Garden in Philadelphia: left to right T. Bell, Kendra and Jeremy, Kathy, Maliwan, Sci and Pattarapan.
This morning we drove out to Chadds Ford where we saw a bunch of paintings by this guy:
A certain artist dressed as a cowboy in Colorado in 1904
Got to visit his house and studio, which was a thrill:
BBB in front of NC's studio
Great little details, like these death masks:
Death masks in NC's studio, bottom one is of Lincoln which had been removed for a display in the museum showing the artist's props.
And here he is painting in his studio:
NC painting in his large studio on a hill in Chadds Hill.
I'm reading "Treasure Island" so it was great to see so many of his original paintings that were created for the book.
NC Wyeth's most famous work, is probably the paintings for "Treasure Island"
"Fifteen men on the dead man's chest—Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!"
—Long John Silver's familiar tune