Post by artofhiddenmessages on Nov 8, 2020 12:21:34 GMT -5
Several people have asked about the red herrings.
As you know, I followed the forumla for "The Secret" by using an illustration and a poem, when paired together, would lead to a treasure. But I wanted to put a twist on that, so I added two sets of red herrings. There were two poems and two illustrations that leaded to no where.
Rather than spend a lot of time painting and writing poems, I went back through some old artwork that I had, to see what I might be able to use.
Several years ago, I applied for a grant to do a virtual treasure hunt of the Pittsburgh area. One of the paintings that I used as an example for that grant was the painting of the Frick Fine Arts Building on the University of Pittsburgh campus. On the building is a circle with the face of Henry Clay Frick. This is the same as pictured in the art. The painting not only shows that building, but part of the fountain that is in front of the building. It is called "A Song of Nature" or the Mary Schenley Memorial Fountain. It features Harmony playing the flute for Pan. The face in the art is Pan. One of the entrances to Schenley Park is near that building, and at that entrance is a panther, for the Pitt Panthers. There was never any treasure ever hidden there. This area is also near the old Forbes Field, which people were linking with the poem about Josh Gibson.
I will go into the Josh Gibson Poem....that too was used for the grant that I had applied to. But that grant was for a virtual hunt. It was to lead to Josh Gibson's grave in Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh. I had to change several words/lines because I did not want to lead people to his grave site. The rules stated that nothing would be in a cemetery or grave yard. Quite a few people were pairing this poem to the Frick Fine Arts Building, knowing it was close to the old Forbes Field.
The other red herring poem, which was on a red background, was originally about Pittsburgh, but was rather abstract, and did not lead to any real place.
The ballerina painting was an old painting that for several years had gone unfinished. I thought that it could make a good red herring because it was a nice painting, and people would not think it was done in haste. But somehow, I had to give it a story. And for all you code breakers out there, I wanted to give you something to spend time on! I did a bit of research and found an interesting story about a ballerina named Emma Livry. She played a butterfly character in a ballet called, La Papillion, which is about a kidnapped princess who is transformed into a butterfly. But the butterfly's wings catch fire after it flies into a torch light. Emma Livry was outspoken about what was termed carteronization, a process that was used on the tutus to make them flame-retardant. But the ballerinas did not like to dip their tutus into the liquid that was used to carteronize them because it discolored the tutu. Sadly enough, Emma Livry herself, had her tutu catch fire, and she died from her burns.
So, what I did to the painting that I had, which simply was a ballerina, was add a flaming butterfly, and add some ciphers. One cipher is Morse. It is done in the colored blocks. The blocks that have a smaller square block are the dots, and the ones that do not have a smaller square dot are the dashes. It is supposed to say: CAN SO SKINNY A RAT BE THE DAUGHTER OF SO ROUND A CAT. However, I missed adding the smaller square dot on the C in Cat, and in the word ROUND, I put S instead of O. This wasn't on purpose, I just made a dumb mistake. It had already been photographed and posted, and since it was a red herring, I decided not to make any announcement about the error. The question, "Can so skinny a rat be the daughter of so round a cat?" refers to Emma Livry. On top of the Morse are Braille dots. Those can be decoded to PRINCESS CHARACTER BALLET, which also refers back to Emma Livry in the Papillion ballet.
At the top of the border, there is a N and a E. I thought people would think this was Nebraska. There is a Papillion, Nebraska. But as far as I know, no one made that connection. That is all the further I went with this red herring.
The black lines that look like barcode, are nothing...just me making some black lines on the paper.
Next time, I am going to double the amount of red herrings! LOL! Just to make this harder.
As you know, I followed the forumla for "The Secret" by using an illustration and a poem, when paired together, would lead to a treasure. But I wanted to put a twist on that, so I added two sets of red herrings. There were two poems and two illustrations that leaded to no where.
Rather than spend a lot of time painting and writing poems, I went back through some old artwork that I had, to see what I might be able to use.
Several years ago, I applied for a grant to do a virtual treasure hunt of the Pittsburgh area. One of the paintings that I used as an example for that grant was the painting of the Frick Fine Arts Building on the University of Pittsburgh campus. On the building is a circle with the face of Henry Clay Frick. This is the same as pictured in the art. The painting not only shows that building, but part of the fountain that is in front of the building. It is called "A Song of Nature" or the Mary Schenley Memorial Fountain. It features Harmony playing the flute for Pan. The face in the art is Pan. One of the entrances to Schenley Park is near that building, and at that entrance is a panther, for the Pitt Panthers. There was never any treasure ever hidden there. This area is also near the old Forbes Field, which people were linking with the poem about Josh Gibson.
I will go into the Josh Gibson Poem....that too was used for the grant that I had applied to. But that grant was for a virtual hunt. It was to lead to Josh Gibson's grave in Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh. I had to change several words/lines because I did not want to lead people to his grave site. The rules stated that nothing would be in a cemetery or grave yard. Quite a few people were pairing this poem to the Frick Fine Arts Building, knowing it was close to the old Forbes Field.
The other red herring poem, which was on a red background, was originally about Pittsburgh, but was rather abstract, and did not lead to any real place.
The ballerina painting was an old painting that for several years had gone unfinished. I thought that it could make a good red herring because it was a nice painting, and people would not think it was done in haste. But somehow, I had to give it a story. And for all you code breakers out there, I wanted to give you something to spend time on! I did a bit of research and found an interesting story about a ballerina named Emma Livry. She played a butterfly character in a ballet called, La Papillion, which is about a kidnapped princess who is transformed into a butterfly. But the butterfly's wings catch fire after it flies into a torch light. Emma Livry was outspoken about what was termed carteronization, a process that was used on the tutus to make them flame-retardant. But the ballerinas did not like to dip their tutus into the liquid that was used to carteronize them because it discolored the tutu. Sadly enough, Emma Livry herself, had her tutu catch fire, and she died from her burns.
So, what I did to the painting that I had, which simply was a ballerina, was add a flaming butterfly, and add some ciphers. One cipher is Morse. It is done in the colored blocks. The blocks that have a smaller square block are the dots, and the ones that do not have a smaller square dot are the dashes. It is supposed to say: CAN SO SKINNY A RAT BE THE DAUGHTER OF SO ROUND A CAT. However, I missed adding the smaller square dot on the C in Cat, and in the word ROUND, I put S instead of O. This wasn't on purpose, I just made a dumb mistake. It had already been photographed and posted, and since it was a red herring, I decided not to make any announcement about the error. The question, "Can so skinny a rat be the daughter of so round a cat?" refers to Emma Livry. On top of the Morse are Braille dots. Those can be decoded to PRINCESS CHARACTER BALLET, which also refers back to Emma Livry in the Papillion ballet.
At the top of the border, there is a N and a E. I thought people would think this was Nebraska. There is a Papillion, Nebraska. But as far as I know, no one made that connection. That is all the further I went with this red herring.
The black lines that look like barcode, are nothing...just me making some black lines on the paper.
Next time, I am going to double the amount of red herrings! LOL! Just to make this harder.
Thanks for a great time!