Happy Birthday to Me
I had a very nice surprise in my office this week. While I was out, someone snuck in and left behind a painting:
This photo, which I took with my iPhone (no flash), really doesn’t do justice to the painting. It has a beautiful iridescent, “vibrating” quality to it. What really tickles me, though, are the strips of photo paper laid out and planted into the painting, so that they stand up from the canvas. Looking up from the bottom, it becomes apparent that the strips are actually cut up images and documents from my personal home page!
It turns out that the painting was made by our very own Carlos Guestrin, as a birthday present to me. Besides being impressed with Carlos’ artwork, I am really touched by the thought of such a personalized gift. (And, of course, every faculty member — and probably student, too — should treat the department head so well! ;-)
This, of course, leads me to think further about art possibilities in our new building, the SCS Complex (which will include the Gates Center for Computer Science), scheduled to open in 2009. Tomorrow, a small group of us (Guy Blelloch, Scott Fahlman, Anupam Gupta, and me) will be in New York City, doing some reconnaissance work on this topic. While there, we will also attend an art opening by Golan Levin, Associate Professor of Art here at CMU and a courtesy appointment in the Computer Science Department. His opening will be at the Bitforms Gallery. Watch this space over the weekend for a trip report.
Peter Lee @ November 29, 2007
Happy Birthday!
[…] with the Department Head”. Carlos Guestrin won the “Best Sucking Up Award” for the beautiful birthday present he gave me. The “Rah Rah Award” was given to Jessica Hodgins, for the determination she showed in […]