FEAST OR FAMINE

The bird life in Sri Lanka is varied with about 433 species recorded. Tropical Sri Lanka has three zones – the dry zone (more than half of the island), the wet zone in the southwestern quarter with rainforests, and the central hills which has a cooler climate. The administrative capital is Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte and the commercial capital is Colombo on the southwestern coast of the island country. Within the largest city, Colombo, the bird life is rich due to the waterways and lush foliage. From the hotel and its gardens, many birds can be seen, such as crows, pelicans, egrets and bee-eaters. The white-throated kingfisher ( Halcyon smyrnensis ) has a vivid blue back with a brown head and white throat and breast. Apart from Sri Lanka, it is also found in Turkey, Pakistan, Afghanistan, northwest India, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, China, and Indonesia. The house crow ( Corvus splendens ) is also called the Colombo crow because it is extremely common in ...

The National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington DC is currently exhibiting American People, Black Light: Faith Ringgold’s Paintings of the 1960s (to November 10, 2013). Faith Ringgold (1930--) painted landscapes around Princetown, Massachusetts from 1957 but, influenced by the Civil Rights movement in the early 60s, she commenced a series of pictures that later she called American People. These are her provocative paintings depicting the Civil Rights and feminist movements of the 1960s.The exhibit at the National Museum contains her three monumental works: The Flag is Bleeding; US Postage Stamp Commemorating the Advent of Black Power; and Die. The images she portrays are extremely dramatic and emotive. In 1967 she commenced her Black Light series. The works are divided into grids composed of browns and blacks, reds and yellows, and blues and greens such that the images seem to emanate light without the use of the colour white. It is text-based work with prof...

The National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington DC, on the corner of New York Avenue and 13 th Street, is dedicated to female artists. It contains over 4500 works by artists, such as Frida Kahlo and Alma Thomas, as well as exhibits by specific artists. Currently, the exhibits include Awake in the Dream World: The Art of Audrey Niffenegger (to November 10, 2013) and Wanderer: Travel Prints by Ellen Day Hale (to January 5, 2014). The general section includes paintings by Rosa Bonheur, Frida Kahlo, and Robin Kahn. Rosa Bonheur was born in Bordeaux, France, in 1822, and died in Fontainebleau in 1899. Her piece, The Highland Raid (1860) is oil on canvas. She received her painting training from her father who was a landscape artist. He encouraged her interest in arts and animals. Bonheur’s reputation developed as a realist animal painter and sculptor in the 1840s, and regularly exhibited at the Paris Salon from 1841 to 1853. The museum includes Self-Portrait Ded...

The Madame Tussauds Wax Museum in Washington, on 14th Street, displays a selection of life-sized figures of celebrities, sporting figures, politicians, and presidents. Anna Maria Grosholtz (1761-1850, born in France, worked for Dr Philippe Curtius, a physician and wax sculptor in Paris. His first exhibition of waxworks was shown in 1770 was a French artist who sculpted figures in wax. In 1777 Anna Maria created her first wax figure of Voltaire. When Curtius died in 1794 he left his collection to Anna Maria. She married Francois Tussaud and moved to London, where she established a Wax Museum in Baker Street in 1835. Her museum has expanded to branches in Amsterdam, Bangkok, Sydney, Hong Kong, Las Vegas, Shanghai, Berlin, Washington DC, New York, and Hollywood. In Washington DC, the photographs show: Fidel Castro the former President of Cuba – J. Edgar Hoover, first Director of the FBI – American actress Julia Roberts – TV host Larry King – civil rights activist...