#gnemo

Gnemo acquired.

On this date in 1852 the first British mens’ public toilet opened on Fleet Street in London. Public toilets first came to London the year before, during the Great Exhibition of 1851 when a plumber named George Jennings installed “Monkey Closets” in the Crystal Palace. For 1 penny, visitors got “a clean seat, a towel, a comb, and a shoeshine.” After the exhibition closed, Jennings persuaded the organizers to keep them open. Due to their success, a year later toilets were opened at 95 Fleet Street. Tom’s painting “Oughthaus,” part of his Gnemo project, shows one of the public bathrooms in McCay City which was inspired by the proclamation of a prominent scientist that she got her greatest inspirations while in the bathroom. Soon after her statement, a series of artful public toiled were placed throughout the city in hopes of stimulating the creative minds of the citizenry. #tomkidd #gnemo #publictoilet

Today is National Serpent Day. The serpent has been used as a symbol of evil, medicine, fertility, wisdom, and power. Tom did this drawing “Serpent Alley” as part of his Gnemo project. One serpent can be seen in the plateau lake at the top left hand corner of the picture, and another can be seen in the lake in the middle right. #tomkidd #gnemo #nationalserpentday

Today is the birthday of American landscape painter Albert Bierstadt, born on this date in 1830 in Germany. He moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts with his parents at the age of one, and returned to Germany to study landscape painting in his 20s. After returning to America, he became part of the Hudson River School group of landscape painters, and later traveled to the American West to paint the Rocky Mountains, Yosemite Valley, and the Sierra Nevada Mountains, becoming one of the most popular and successful artists of his time. Tom’s painting “Leaving Terrain,” part of his Gnemo project, shows an airship going over the Bierstadt Mountains, on an expedition to explore their world of Lenoria. #tomkidd #gnemo #albertbierstadt

Today is the birthday of American artist and illustrator Howard Chandler Christy, born in 1872. He was a popular portrait painter, painting Lt Col. Theodore Roosevelt, Presidents Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, Roosevelt and Truman, as well as William Randolph Heart, Eddie Rickenbacker, Benito Mussolini and Amelia Earhart. He also gained fame for his “Christy Girl” images used as recruitment posters for the US Navy in World War I. This drawing of “Christy Capitol” is part of Tom’s Gnemo project. It is a Capitol building carved out of a mountain. The architect artist who designed it saw a hollow in a mountainside and envisioned an immense Capitol building, which took hundreds of years to complete. #tomkidd #gnemo #howardchandlerchristy

On this day in 1851, Melvil Dewey, American librarian who developed the Dewey decimal system was born. His system of classification uses numbers from 000 to 999 to cover the general fields of knowledge, and designating more specific subjects by the use of decimal points. He was an influential figure in the development of libraries and received a gold medal at the World’s Fair of 1893 for his invention of the vertical office file. Tom did the painting “Peale’s Library” as part of his Gnemo project. Charles Willson Peale IiI certainly would have used the Dewey Decimal System to keep his books in order. This is a close-up of the painting, cropped to fit Instagram format. The full painting extends much longer vertically. #tomkidd #gnemo #melvildewey #library

Today is Wear a Dress Day. Here’s a digitally colored sketch Tom did of a women in a formal dress for his Gnemo project. #tomkidd #wearadressday #gnemo

Today is the birthday of Captain James Cook, born in 1728. He was an English explorer who was the first of the scientific navigators. He surveyed the coast of Labrador and Newfoundland, and created detailed maps of them. Cook sailed on three voyages to the Pacific, journeying thousands of miles across uncharted areas, mapping from New Zealand to Hawaii. He took along a botanist, Joseph Banks, to study the flora and fauna discovered. Cook was killed in 1779 after a confrontation with natives after returning to the island of Hawaii to repair his boat. Tom painted ships ravaged by a storm at sea for the book “The Warrior’s Tale” by Allan Cole and Chris Bunch, published by Del Rey in 1993. He incorporated the painting into his Gnemo project, where Captain Pollack describes a painting of a voyage taken by his father, who also died on a voyage of exploration. #tomkidd #gnemo #captainjameshook #allancole