The old-school way of making art – flat features and babies that are shrunken adults.
One thing you observe when looking through art history, is that a lot of art looked the same – for centuries, as they were making art the only way they knew how – then BOOM. An explosion of depth in paintings. Up through the Byzantine era, most artwork looked flat. Very rarely would you see the side profile of a person. Most art had a religious theme because only the church, royalty, and the rich could afford to commission an artist to make art. Whenever you see a baby in paintings pre-dating the renaissance, they look like shrunken adults, not babies.
The explosion of depth in Renaissance painting
Artwork that we often categorize as some of the most recognizable of the renaissance period predates the known existence of the Camera Obscura and the Camera Lucida by over a century, but it has been theorized that the most well-known artists of the period were using a type of Camera Obscura or Camera Lucida to achieve depth and appropriate ratios of arms and heads to body sizes. Seemingly overnight, we start to see artwork like this:
Finally, a geek article that lets me share one of my favorite renaissance paintings. 🙂 Artemisia Gentileschi was a unicorn – one of the very few female renaissance painters – and quite the master of the craft. Notice how the art here looks like a photo or a movie scene. Light moves around the contours of the arms and faces. Granted – there was amazing skill involved – but how did artists of this time suddenly have the ability to see these details?
Enter the Camera Lucida
The old-school Camera Lucida
Artist Pablo Garcia wants to help artists around the world by bringing back an old-school technique of making art. The Camera Lucida. Long before the invention of photography, these ‘cameras’ allowed artists to see a reflection of their subject projected onto their canvas. Some today would call this “tracing” or “cheating,” but having tools at your disposal does not suddenly transform you into a talented artist. Just as the discovery of new pigments gave artists new colors to use in their palettes was not cheating – this is not cheating. It’s a tool. And a pretty freakin’ awesome tool at that.
Garcia, professor at School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), successfully funded a Kickstarter campaign a while back with a modern rendition of the old-school Camera Lucida. Now he’s back with a newer and bigger version – the NeoLucida XL. He’s passionate about this tool and wants more of these to be made for art students to use. Larger viewing area means less hunching and squinting on the part of the artist. A lot of thought went into its redesign.
Some of you may have read my post from back in March where I pontificated on the dangers of High Fructose Corn Syrup (it’s very taxing on the liver) and Sodium Lauryl Sulfate visa vie my personal story of how these two items were crippling me, quite literally. I shared a lot of products that I use that are SLS free, because just about everything in my bathroom had SLS in it. In my quest to purge my body of further SLS exposure, I decided to go aluminum-free with my deodorant as well. It’s something I had planned on doing for years, but kept postponing. From the time I was 12 or so – whenever I started wearing deodorant – I must have tried 50-100 different brands of deodorant. I’d sign up and mail off for free samples (yes, actual snail mail – the burden of existing in the pre-Internet universe) of just about every brand out there. I didn’t care if it was designed for men or women. I needed it to work, smell good, and not make my armpits irritated. Everything I tried, even if it was scent-free, would irritate my armpits like crazy. I finally found my go-to brand that I used for decades – Arrid Extra Dry.
This used to be my go-to for years. Decades, even. Works great. Zero irritation. But alas – with aluminum. No bueno.
I’d get the baby powder scent as a rule and it worked. It was an antiperspirant and like all current antiperspirants on the market, the active ingredient is an aluminum-based compound. Per WebMD (and other sources), years of aluminum exposure can increase the risk of Alzheimer’s and breast cancer. And as Sweet Brown so eloquently stated, “Ain’t nobody got time for that.”
I’d been doing research online and looked into one of those crystal deodorants, but they are plagued with some of the same problems as the aluminum-based antiperspirants. Then one evening, my husband and I were watching Shark Tank (as do all good geeks) and a couple of gals pitched their all natural deodorant that “actually works,” called Piper Wai. They got the funding they were looking for, but as is the case with many successes with Shark Tank, they were bombarded with orders once their episode aired. I placed my order and their site said they were backordered and it might take longer than expected. It took a couple of months. I knew that if it worked, it would be worth it and they’d catch up with demand eventually.
I saw some listed on Amazon (being resold at a hefty premium by a 3rd party seller) and my search led me to get pitched repeatedly via smart ads on Facebook for Schmidt’s. I figured I’d go ahead and order their deodorant and try it out while waiting on Piper Wai – and who knows – maybe I’d like Schmidt’s even better?
The two scents I got were Bergamot Lime and Cedarwood Juniper. Both smelled absolutely heavenly. My friend, Dana, told me that after her husband mulched their yard with cedar chips, the aroma was so heavenly that she declared to her him that that must be what God smells like. Yes, friends – Schmidt’s smells that good to be compared to something you’d smell like with your glorified body. For realz.
This is the best smelling anything I’ve ever put on my body. If I could, I’d eat it so I could sweat it out – but sadly, it was like I took a belt sander to my armpits. I was miserable. For months. Ironically, I could rub this stuff on my belly (why not?) and have zero reaction. Armpit skin is apparently more delicate. Dunno. Not using this awesome stuff anymore due to the chemical burns I got on my armpits. Sadness.
I had read the reviews on Amazon, which were fairly mixed, but I was willing to give it a try and let me tell you, Schmidt’s works. I’d perspire, but I would not smell when using it – but my armpits would sting like I’d applied a mound of fire ants there. Some of the Amazon reviews had similar complaints. I’d seen a comment (which I guess has been since deleted) that the person who reviewed it poorly was probably sensitive to baking soda and that to keep trying it because it’s something you get over in time. So I used this stuff like an idiot for MONTHS. My armpits got so dark that my husband said I looked bruised. My order of Piper Wai finally arrived and it did the same exact thing. Burning and more burning. A friend suggested using coconut oil on my armpits before applying it – and it did help, but the burning continued – and it would burn intermittently all day long.
I finally realized that this could not go on. I was thinking about my armpits all day because they were on fire. I loved the smell, but I could no longer stand the itching and burning. I reluctantly went back to my Arrid Extra Dry and my armpits started to heal from the hell I had put them through. I didn’t care about Alzheimer’s – I just didn’t want to get funky at work and I didn’t want my armpits to hurt 24/7. When they weren’t burning, they were itching. I was done.
This stuff right here. It is AWESOME. Lots of scents to choose from. I seriously have worn this for over 24 hours with zero funk. No burning. No itching. No armpit skin discoloration. Just odor protection for an entire stinking day. I am not kidding you.
After a week or so back on Arrid, I remembered I was a member of a private Facebook group that discusses totally natural remedies for folks for various ailments, so I posted my slightly less wordy lament regarding natural deodorant and another group member suggested I try the deodorant offered by Olive Tree Body Care. They are located in Fort Worth, TX – and if you live nearby, they will let you pick up your order at their house (yes, it’s a home business) to save on shipping. I lived a bit too far to make that practical for trying out one stick of deodorant, so I opted to pay for shipping. I got my deodorant in a few days and BOOM! The only other deodorant I’ve ever used in my life that doesn’t irritate my skin and it works longer than any other deodorant I’ve ever used. I am not freaking kidding you. I opted for the ginger citrus scent and it is dreamy. Is it as sexy as Schmidt’s Cedarwood Juniper? Sadly, no – but my skin is continuing to heal as I use this aluminum-free, paraben-free and petroleum-free deodorant. When I made the online order, there was a spot to enter a comment and I stated that I hoped it didn’t burn me like everything else I had tried in the past. The owner of the business followed up with a personal e-mail, stating that she had had similar problems with burning armpits and she researched ingredients until she got the right formula. I am completely blown-away at how cheap her stuff is. A mere $5 for an all-natural deodorant. It’s about the same price as the commercial stuff that gives you dementia!
For geeks who perspire (this means you!) and are looking for an aluminum-free deodorant that isn’t going to irritate you, this is a great brand to try out. They don’t have an unscented version, unfortunately, but for those who aren’t crazy about scents in general, I can tell you the scent is super mild. Most people aren’t going to smell it even when you hug them. It is subtle. There are some other businesses with similar names to Olive Tree Body Care, so make sure you’re going to the right place. You can also like them on Facebook.
