Fine Art at Sea World

We took a little trip to Sea World the other day; it was just us girls having some fun.  The main purpose of our outing was to get out of the heat!  It was 108 degrees at home. We could stay home and run the expensive air conditioner in the house, or we could "save energy" by filling up the gastank and driving to San Diego. As long as our comfort was going to cost us one way or another, we opted for fun. It was 76 degrees when we got to Sea World. What an amazing difference!

Since it was a homeschool day, it doubled as an educational field trip. Yup. 

Little did I realize just how great of an educational experience it would be! The kids are always learning things at Sea World; it really is a great place to educate in a fun way. 

We attended one show and it's one we haven't been to before. We usually like to see the Shamu show and the dolphin show, and then the kids are done with shows. This time we went to the sea lion and otter show, which was Halloween themed for the season.

The set was a haunted castle, and the animal actors put on quite a show! It was adorable and the kids were completely engaged in the antics of the sea lions and otters. I loved it too!

One thing that caught Gracie's eye was the painting on the set. She was pointing and pointing until I finally caught on to what she was talking about. With lots of excitement she was telling me that she's seen that painting before on a show on Tv called "Little Einsteins".  This show is a kid show on the Disney channel and they feature famous art and music, so no doubt this painting is a replica of something famous and here I am, clueless.

"Mom, what is that painting? Mom, who painted it? Mom! Mom! Mom! What is that painting called? Why are the lion and the unicorn having tea with that lady? Mom! Mom?"  Seriously, kid, watch the otter. She would not settle down until I promised that we would look it up online when we got home. Whew!

The next day...

I googled and googled trying to find information about this painting and couldn't find it. I'm obviously not much of an art googler. So, I sent an email to Sea World asking about it. So far, no response from them yet, but I'm hopeful that they'll reply.

In the meantime, and with some help from my facebook friends, I did find information about this painting. It is actually a tapestry in a series of six famous tapestries from the early 1500s. The lady is Mary Tudor, who was Queen of France in 1515 for a short period of time.  The lion represents her brother, Henry VIII and the unicorn is her husband (they are secretly married), Charles Brandon the Duke of Suffolk.  I believe Mary Tudor is the White Queen.

I was nearly brought down to the floor in a laughing fit when I read that the unicorn represented the husband. Phallic symbolism? And a lion for a brother, growling man eating big cat. That's hilarious!  I opted not to point this out to my six year old. The lady is married to a beautiful magical creature, and her brother is a lion; that is all.

We discussed how this piece of art is not a painting, but a tapestry. What is that?  It's made of cloth, sort of like a blanket that hangs on the wall. When I explained it, my little girl's eyes lit up and she made a connection to the new Disney movie, "Brave".  She's got it!

She also was excited to learn that the lady was the Queen of France. For some reason, she loves France and anything French. Her dream is to go to Paris to see the Eiffel Tower. She also enjoys French language lessons in school. Can you believe she's only six? What was I interested in when I was six? Dolls, red shoes, and picking dandelions.

This artwork has so many of her favorite things! Royalty, magical unicorn, France, a Disney connection too. How cool is this!

She goes to this fabulous school and is in a Montessori/Homeschool hybrid program. Her awesome teacher gave us a syllabus for the entire year before school started. Since we know what is expected of her, we know that she has an art history project due at the end of May. It's only October, but since she recognized this piece of art and it is part of a fun a Sea World show too, it's sticking in her brain. She wanted to know more about it and in doing that, she's got a good head start on her art project. I think we'll just go with it and do the art project early and keep it until May. Why not! For the project, she will not only have to explain the artwork, but make a replica of the piece. She drew it already and told me how she could make it out of fabric and glue. We're on a roll! May is always such a busy time of year, it'll be nice to get this project done and have it waiting in the wings.

Who knew an afternoon at Sea World would turn into such a great art history lesson!

*Update:  Seaworld responded to our email! There wasn't any pertinant information about the artwork that we didn't find already, but it was great to know that they researched Gracie's question and responded with an informative and thoughtful answer. This is the response:

Ms. Schumacher and Gracie,

      Thank you for your interest in Clyde & Seamore’s Spooky Adventure and Shamu at SeaWorld San Diego. The set of the Spooky Adventure show is a recreation of the original set from the show Spooky Kooky Castle that Clyde and Seamore performed in back in the 70’s and 80’s. The tapestry is a recreation of the one that appeared on that set and is called The Lady and the Unicorn. It’s a recreation of a French tapestry from the late 15^th century. As far as Shamu’s birthday, SeaWorld has never celebrated one official day as Shamu’s actual birthday. Thank you again for your interest in SeaWorld and we hope you plan to visit us again soon.

Ernie Scott  | Entertainment Creative & Performance Manager 500 SeaWorld Drive  |  San Diego  |  CA 92109 Direct: (619) 225-4281 |  Fax: (619) 226-3660

 


Thanks, Mr. Scott, we do plan to visit again soon. :)