My boss is on a team to put in place a time and attendance system. This product is called appropriately enough I guess, Kronos. Her conversation with the other "steering committee" member in the cubicle next to mine was half-shut out, and the words I did absorb sort of took me off on a tangent:
Kronos? Who was Kronos? Oh, that's right. He's the guy who was born of Uranus and Gaia. He murdered his father, who ended up becoming the heavens. His mother, of course, was the Earth. Now, I'm not sure why he did this - prophesy? But the children he had, he swallowed just after they were born. Zeus, however, was spared when his mother fed Kronos a rock in his stead. When Zeus grew to adulthood, he kicked his father hard and out came the Olympians.
Pablo, who I called on this, filled in the details and sent me links to these delightful renderings:
This one's by Goya
This is Rubens.
Both can be found at the Prado. (Incidentally, while being stranded in Madrid for a bit, I got to visit the Prado. Ended up spending something like three straight days there. Didn't speak Spanish at the time, didn't know the city. Moreover, I didn't want to be there. Museums, however, will keep me off the streets nicely. I remember being awestruck by the immensity of the paintings in the Rubens hall. What else made an impression? This most certainly did. I also caught a Velasquez exhibition and a Goya one, as well.)
From Goya and Velasquez I think I got the best impressions on how one could render grotesqueness with delicacy. From Goya, as well, I learned my first wordplay in Spanish:
(Can be read both as "the sleep of reason produces monsters" and "the dreams of reason produce monsters." I love that.)
This site has a great collection of Goya's works, along with a biography. Take a look at his self-portraits in particular. He was a good looking man.
As for the designer who's hosting this Goyapalooza, I have to say that I'm pretty impressed with his work, too. I particularly enjoyed this vacation sketchbook.
This could go on forever, but I think I should stop. My brain's fried from all the bell curves I'd been charting (bell curves are cool, aren't they? Heck, someone's even got a bell curve blog. It's arrived.) and all the tangents I've been following. Onward.
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