Historical Naturalism

-The Natural History Museum.-

With the dull fact that I actually have to get started on my research paper now, it's becoming more and more difficult to make time for the simple pleasure in life that is writing on this blog...After being in London for a little over 2 months (?!?!?) I feel like I live here as opposed to being a temporary student in the area. I've gotten to know my way around and have found it to be a quite comfortable place.

True residency hasn't 100% set in though, as I still am convinced that I'm lazy and worthless if I can't find something to explore every Friday through Sunday (with some random weekly adventures speckled in as well). This past weekend, one of my flatmates and I explored the South Kensington area (only a stop away from where I work!) and ended up at the Natural History Museum. I've always found this genre to be a great solution to a rainy day (which it was) and a way to bring back the memory of so many Saturdays spent in the (beautiful?) land of Downtown Cleveland at our very own Natural History Museum.

Cheesiness aside...I've always been rather fascinated by the animals that are stationed throughout these museums, no matter how creepy it is when you really think about it. This time, though, the taxidermy wasn't doing it for me. I was captivated by the colors, textures and (dare I say it) natural beauty of the never once living elements of the museum. I took in some really inspiring things and am pretty pumped about translating that experience into my own artistic interpretation. As corny as that sounds, I could see some really cool cards and fabric coming out of the patterns and textures that I managed to capture.

-Old fossils. Very old fossils.-

-yum.-

-One of the more overwhelming things that I've ever seen (about 1,000 hummingbirds in an 8 by 10 frame).-

Anyway, despite feeling as though I don't need to take a thousand pictures in front of things that probably don't matter, it's always nice to have touristy moments. I haven't gotten my picture in front of Big Ben or at the top of the London Eye yet, but I figured a museum is a step in the right direction.