Day 1 of Blogging

So as ya'll know I am new here, and to blogging in general. I hope to get a warm welcome (like those they do in the South when new neighbors move in). But we'll see.
So as my "introduction" states, I am a dream, a MFA student (non-fiction creative writing) at University of Idaho, got my undergrad degree at Penn State - Go State! I am a passionate PSU fan (in all things penn state) and trying to become passionate about UI.
My thesis will be dealing with a "famous" ancestor of mine - American landscape painter and local crazy man - Ralph Albert Blakelock (my great, great, grandpa) - look him up - and attempting to find my life in his or tieing his life into mine. Or something of that sort. I'm only in my first of three years here, so it's very fuzzy as that what it will actually be.
I will be attempting to make a "theme" for each day, so that it seems regular - mom always said "you're such a planner!" Hopefully that's a good thing. SO without further pause - I present Sunday Family Funday! :)  So on Sundays, as long as I remember, I will be blogging about things that I've learned about my family, family history, ancestors, etc. - Usually dealing with the painter, which is why I brought him up earlier.

SUNDAY FAMILY FUNDAY!
So Ralph ... Ralphy Boy. What I learned this week about him - other than the reaffirmation that he was in fact "a mad genius" ... According to the current book I'm "reading"/studying - RAB - which I tend to refer to him as - was the first American Artist to travel to AND paint the Grand Tetons (mountains). I love this. I think it's such a cool and random fact about him. Also helps me connect to the west a bit more other than simply just "my great great grandpa traveled out west and painted and lived with the Indians when many white men still were fighting them..." This gives it solid proof or fact or something of that sort.
I also learned that he was friends - homies - with George Inness - Um - FRICKEN COOL! Everyone knows Inness's name, well most people who know anything about American Art do. So when I say that he painted in the same studio as and socialized with Inness - it is impressive to a lot of people. I love it! Go Ralph!
At one point I thought of him as an underappreciated artist that no one knew how amazing he was. But now through further research I've come to call him - the artist that everyone loved to hate. The critics at that time hated him because he was so different from the traditional Hudson River School style. But they found that they couldn't write a review of an exhibit without mentioning his name and his paintings. They loved to hate him because I feel like a lot of them wanted to mention him in their reviews, but in doing so in a positive way, they would be diverting from the tradition and weren't ready for that yet, so they wrote about him in a "negative light." It's far better to be the one that the critics loved to hate then not noticed at all. Like they say in show bus. - Any light in the media is better than working in the dark. :)

See ya'll tomorrow for Maddening Young Love Monday :)