This painting is magnificent, as is the process the artist went through in creating is. The Gallery of the Louvre by Samuel F.B. Morse, on display from March 8, 2003 through January 11, 2004, is a painting of a gallery in the Louvre. The painting itself is of an enormous size, talking up an entire wall at the Terra Museum of American Art. It is displayed on the top floor (5th) of the gallery.

When he was a young, Morse spent time in Paris to study paintings on display at the Louvre Museum. He also copied several of the works of art. His purpose of copying the paintings was to bring them to American as a means of educating the American people. Since he realized that most Americans could not travel to Paris to see the Louvre themselves, he decided to try and bring the museum to them. He did this by making a painting of one of the Louvre's galleries, the Salon Carre. Instead of painting the gallery as it appeared in real life, Morse invented his own special arrangement by selecting art works on display throughout the Louvre that he thought were the most important ones for Americans to know about. About forty famous paintings can be found in this single painting.

In order to create this piece of art, Morse went to the Louve over and over and painted replicas of many of the famous works on display there. He kept those replicas in his studio and used them when he painted their miniature versions as part of the Gallery of the Louvre. Can you imagine the time and effort involved in creating something like this?

In addition to being a painting of a collection of important art, there is also a story involved. Notice the people located throughout the gallery. It is thought that some of the many of the people in the painting are people Morse actually knew, including well-respected American artists and his own art students. Morse himself is even said to be in the painting. He is the figure in the center, leaning over to talk to a young woman as she draws.

Near a large urn in the left background, three people are engaged in a discussion. The young woman seated in front of her easel is Susan cooper, one of Morse's students and daughter of James Fenimore Cooper, author of The Last of the Mohicans and Morse's close friend. James Cooper and his wife Susan are the two other people in the discussion.

Standing by the threshold between the Salon Carre and the neighboring gallery is a woman in a traditional French country dress holding a little girl's hand. Nearby, a well-dressed man in a top hat in hand gazes at the wonders around him. These people serve to remind us that this is a public area in which visitors of all walks of life come together to experience art.

Leaving for the Country: George Bellows at Woodstock is on display at the Terra Museum of American Art from October 4, 2003 through January 11, 2004. Forty-five paintings and drawings by Bellows and 20 works of art by other artists make up this exhibit. You will also learn about the painters making up the artistic community.

I had never heard about George Bellows before, but the exhibit attracted me because the works highlighted were painted in Woodstock, New York in the early 1920s. I have not been to Woodstock, New York, but I know it is in the country and I assumed the paintings would be interesting. Better known for his urban scenes, this is the first exhibition to focus exclusively on Bellows's years in Woodstock, a period of growth that significantly changed his style. During these years, Bellows produced some of his best work, including Elinor, Jean and Anna, a painting of his mother, aunt, and daughter, considered by some to be an American masterpiece.

While living in Woodstock, Bellows sometimes traveled to New York City to paint scenes from the boxing matches of the day. One of these famous paintings, A Stag at Sharkey's, is included in the exhibit.

Bellows lived in Woodstock, New York during the summers of 1920 through 1924. During that time, Woodstock became a community filled with artists. Most of Bellows's paintings were of landscapes of the area, or portraits of family or friends. He was inspired by the mountains, lakes, and fields in Woodstock.

As such an artistic community, Woodstock held several festivals each year. Bellows loved painting portraits of people dressed up in costumes. These festivals provided the perfect opportunity for people to create interesting outfits to dress up in. One painting contains a woman dressed up in a costume she had from the annual bohemian theatrical festival.

Works by his Woodstock contemporaries Henry Lee McFee, Eugene Speicher, Andrew Dasburg, and Bellows's former teacher Robert Henri are also represented in this exhibition. According to the literature provided by the museum, "Many of the works in this traveling exhibition are lent generously by institutions including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Columbus Museum of Art, and Yale University Art Gallery."

Most of the other activity entries I have written about involve major events that attract large numbers of people. But a Worldcon will also have a large number of small events catering to specific tastes. Most of these are in the form of a discussion panel. A small group of experts gets to hold forth on some topic for a while, and then takes questions from the audience. Other events include speeches by the major guests, autograph sessions, and "Kaffeklatsches" - limited attendance events at which an author discusses his or her work with a small group of fans.

The principal Guests of Honor in Chicago were author Ben Bova, artist Bob Eggleton and editor/publisher Jim Baen. I confess to having been too busy to attend any of their speeches, but I know that Eggleton kept himself very busy because I kept seeing him around talking to people and painting.

Other than the main guests, there were over 100 published authors at the convention. Many of them had paid their memberships just like the rest of us, because Worldcon is the place to be. A quick flick through the program book reveals famous names such as Forry Ackerman, David Brin, Lois McMaster Bujold, Orson Scott Card, Joe Haldeman, George R.R. Martin, Larry Niven, Robert Silverberg, Harry Turtledove, Vernor Vinge, Connie Willis, Gene Wolfe and many, many others.

The panel sessions can cover all sorts of topics. Generally a Worldcon program is organized into "streams" to try to ensure, for example, that no two panels on space exploration, or the craft of writing, or costuming, or games are scheduled against each other. But as a member you can pick and choose what you go to. Here is a random selection of topics, which will hopefully illustrate the diversity, and in depth knowledge, that was available:

Writing for children, discoveries made by the Gallileo spacecraft, how to enjoy a convention, copyright and the Internet, commercializing space, the Robin Hood legends, the making of Toy Story 2, designing computer games, developments in longevity, the treatment of gender issues in SF, building your own rocket, nineteenth century fantasy writers, low budget filmmaking, computer viruses and, most fantastic of all, the prospects for a Cubs v White Sox World Series.

And if you were really unlucky you could come and listen to me holding forth of how to review books.

The important point to note here is that I have barely scratched the surface of what went on. I haven't even mentioned the gaming, or the films, or the kids program, or the music and theatre performances. There were 22 separate rooms used for programming, all of which were kept busy for most of the day for five days. The biggest problem I normally have with a Worldcon is deciding which events to go to, because there is so much interesting stuff going on.