Dinosaur Sculptor

The lecture at this month's gem club meeting was incredible. Mark Rehkopf, an artist from St Jacobs, talked about his career making dinosaur sculptures. He started off working on a T. rex for a Discovery Channel special. He has built sculptures for museums all over North America, and done fossil reconstructions as well. He did the Diplodocus outside of Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, the mastodons outside Indiana State Museum, and various dinosaurs in Chinese museums. He's worked on the blue whale hanging in the American Museum of Natural History. He even did the Chasmosaurs and Daspletosaurs (not T. rexes, it turns out) at the Nature Museum in Ottawa. He showed us his hidden signatures, such as in the hair folds of a mastodon and the Great Red Spot of Jupiter. He talked of building an animatronic Triceratops for Universal Studios Park, and the Jurassic Park: Lost World travelling exhibit.

At the end of the talk, he pulled out a couple pieces actually used in the film: a raptor claw, and a chunk of skin from the T. rex's neck. I actually got to touch a piece of Jurassic Park. I became very sad afterwards, and couldn't stop crying once I left. I know it had something to do with touching a part of my favourite film, but I have no idea why this would make me so sad.

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I've dropped my course at St. Louis; my mood has sunk again and I could not attend class on a regular basis. I will be attempting correspondence, however. Hopfully they give me credit for having already completed half the course.

Tonight is the gem club's annual auction/best specimens contest/secret Santa/pizza party. I'm bringing something for the secret Santa (a fossil I don't want); this will be the first time I've participated in one of these. I've also never bid in a live auction before, only silent ones.