A Few Reykjavík Murals

We simply didn’t have enough time to capture that much street art around Reykjavik being there only two days. Here are a few images we captured around the main shopping street Laugavegur (northwest end of Reykjavik). Most of the these photos were taken in a space between Hverfisgata and Laugavegur between Smiðjustígur and Klapparstígur. From what we can tell, this is just scratching the surface of all the hidden murals and artwork. An article from the Grapevine gives some context to the murals: these are waiting areas “that have been sidelined in the planning process, and handed over to artists and cultural players to create dynamic temporary works and ignite debate about the future of the cityscape. It is the latest of the many ‘meanwhile projects’ that can be seen across town, commissioned by the City of Reykjavík to stimulate otherwise neglected spaces.”

 

Too Many Maps - Iceland Case Study

Do you have this problem? You are touring a new area (country, city, etc.) and you come home with a pile of paperwork. You can’t seem to get rid of it before going home. It might contain valuable information, right? Or so you tell yourself and so you end up with a pile of slips of paper, museum guides, business cards, and maps, especially maps. We were in Iceland for 5 days recently and it seemed like every time we asked someone a question, that person whipped out a map and made an “X” on it and handed it to us before I could say, “but we already have a map”. And so timidness and being slow-to-the-draw resulted in a pile of maps - all of various usefulness. We have a big plastic bin at home that contains maps of places we’ve been. We hardly open that bin when embarking on a trip to a location from which we’ve already collected maps. Sigh.

Each map we collected in Iceland has some particular bent behind it. There are dining maps, auto-rental maps, bus route maps, tour company promotional maps, regional promotional maps, and many more. We purchased the International Travel Maps map of Iceland before we left (www.itmb.com) but didn’t use it much.

For Reykjavík, we used the Big Map the most (www.bigmap.is). In the Golden Circle we used the excellent Uppsveitir Árnessýslu map (www.sveitir.is) and see below. 

Besides the physical maps, we had iPhone and Windows Phone mapping applications and a Garmin Nuvi 270. What we found is that a physical map was still the best used in conjunction with a phone mapping application for a sanity check to make sure you taking the right turns.

Big Map 2012-2013, Left: Inside, Right: Cover


Bus Route Map, Left: Side 1, Right: Side 2 Sponsored by the Saga Museum?


Various Other Iceland Maps

Iceland Excursions Map, Left: inside, Right: Cover

The Most Useful Map for the Golden Circle Area – Upper Árnessýslu Area. This map has all the sites you’ll typically see and a brief description of them.  
What’s On Map of Reykjavik, Left: Inside, Right: Cover

Binomen Art - Lantana

Lantana Spelled Out with Berries (left) and Floret and Berries (right)

We made me stop were the berries. I never saw Lantana with berries, green (unripe) and blue-black (ripe) berries. Time for a binomen-art project. I believe this is Lantana camara or Lantana montevidensis a plant in the Verbenaceae (Verbena) family. I guess Lantana is quite evasive, however, for this dusty front yard in Henderson Nevada it seemed so innocent and brought some much needed color. Looks can be deceiving.

I plucked a few of the berries (drupes) and arranged to them spell the generic name, Lantana. The generic name origin according to Quattrocchi is: related to the ancient name for viburnum and in spoken Latin it is called lentaginem, from lentus “pliant” (“lenta viburnum”). (I swear I heard someone say lentaginem on the bus the other day.)

The common name of L. camara is Spanish Flag or West Indian Lantana. Because L. camara emits a pungent odor (when you crush the leaves for example), a few local common names reference the smell. My favorite is the Filipino (Tagalog) utot-utot ‘fart’ [flower].

Lantana Spelled Out with Berries (left) and Floret and Berries (right)


Lantana Berries

Binomen Art - Opuntia

Opuntia Spelled Out on an Opuntia Pad (left) and Many Pads (right)

Some go to Las Vegas for the gambling and partying. I go for the plants, grandma’s plants to be specific. In her yard, in Henderson with a view of the strip in the distance, I spend hours poking around. I’m always intrigued by plants that don’t grow where I live. Case in point, a very large prickly pear cactus (Opuntia). I found a pad on the ground, brought in the house, cleaned it up and thought about carving it. However, in the end just wrote on it and set it back outside.

The generic name, Opuntia, according to Quattrocchi is:

Latin herba Opuntia, from Opus, Opuntis “a town of Locris, in Greece,” Opuntius, a, um “Opuntin,” Greek Opous, Opountus; some suggest from the Papago Indian name opun.

An Opuntia Trunk (left) and Bark Forming That Looks Like a Circuit Board (right)


Opuntia Fruit – called tuna


The Opuntia Specimen (left) and Spot the Imposter (right)
 

Binomen Art - Dactylopius

Dactylopius Spelled Out on Opuntia

Cochineal is a word you’ve probably heard of but are not sure what it means. Well, it’s the crimson color that comes from a scale insect in the genus Dactylopius. More specifically, it comes from grinding up these insects. It’s a bit more complex than that in terms of preparation, but just casually running your finger over a few of these insects easily produces a vivid color, carminic acid.

But before, we knew all this, were noticing all this fuzzy white stuff on an Opuntia plant in Henderson, Nevada. When we ran our finger through the white stuff and it came up red, a red light went off in our head. Ah, a binomen art project. We weren’t quite so sophisticated about preparing the scale insects. We simply collected the white webbing (with the insects inside) and when we collected enough, mashed it up and “painted” the Opuntia pads.
 
According to BugGuide, dactyl, is Greek for a finger or toe. The only reasonable guess we can make about opius is that it is related to opium which the Online Etymology Dictionary gives as

opium (n.)
late 14 c,. from L. opium, from Gk. opion “poppy juice, poppy,” dim. of opos “vegetable juice.”

So, finger juice? By the way, Campari used to be colored by cochineal.

First Investigations with White Webs of Dacytlopius and Seeing That it Produced Color


Cactus Pad with Dactylopius Webs (left) and Mixing Up Collected Webs and Insects (Right)

Writing on the Pads – Spelling Out Dactylopius
 

Designer Opuntia with Dactylopius Word