Salem

A couple of old friends came to visit me from the midwest over wintersession break which led to doing a bit of local exploring. On the last day we went to Salem, MA of witch trial fame. It was a pretty drive, and the town itself was pretty cute and, according banners and melting evidence by the roadside, had just recently had a choclate and ice sculpture festival. The highlight, however, was the Salem Witch Museum. It seems there are a number of museums peppered throughout Salem, including a Witch History Museum, a Pirate Museum, and a Witch Dungeon. This one was chosen at random, and I am so happy that we went. It cost nine dollars, but was totally worth it. It consisted of a theatrical portion in a dark room with large, elaborate dioramas with costumed mannequins and spot lights on every wall. Each portion would light for its portion of the story, told in stereo in and old, theatrical style by a deep voiced man. Words cannot express how delightful this was to watch. It was genuinely well done, but had enough cheesiness in it to make it amusing as well. In the center of this dark room was a huge red glowing circle with all the names of the victims of the Salem Witch hysteria written around it. It was a little creepy. The second part was a basic education of what "witches" throughout history have been. This also involved more mannequins (thank god) as well as a strange timeline and and entire wall that had a picture of Joseph McCarthy and the words "Scapegoats" along with several examples (gay community and aids, anyone?) written out in bold letters. I highly recommend a trip to this museum if you are in the area as it is a little odd look at history, and anytime you bring dioramas and and mannequins into the mix history is immediately amazing. This is a close second to the Scotch Whiskey Museum in Edinburgh, which was maybe the best 12 quid I ever spent.

It was also nice to be by the ocean and not completely freeze the way we had earlier that week when we went to Newport, RI. Last but not least, here is a bunny from a while ago for my mixed media class.

                                                         Gouache + Colored Pencil