LEONARDO CHALLENGE A HUGE SUCCESS

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Once again the Eli WhitneyMuseum’s Leonardo Challenge has achieved high levels of accomplishment at itsfundraiser on Thursday, April 26, number 18 in a series of sensational soirees. Each year an object, likepencils, rulers, mirrors, keys or ice cream spoons, is selected as an artistmaterial and the “challenge” is to create something utilizing that in a novelway.
This year director Bill Brownand associate director Sally Hill selected numbers, entitled “Enumerated Invention" and one hundred artistsfrom all over the country submitted everything from detailed painted eggs tobeautifully carved cabinets, games for children to floral arrangements, handsewn patchwork quilts to hand sewn clothing.
Jennifer Davies of Branfordcreated “Your Numbers Are Falling,” with black and white paper she producedherself using Japanese mulberry plants. In a series of steps, she cooks and cleans it, makes it fiber, squeezingand suspending it and then catching it on a screen before flipping it on ablanket to dry.  She claims to havebeen entering the challenge every year since “the clothes pins and cigarboxes.”
For Betsy Golden Kellem ofWestville, who is an attorney by day, her love of art brings her to take partin the challenge.  Her entry thisyear is called “4 and 20 Blackbirds,” a delightful water color painting of whatmight happen if the blackbirds from the nursery rhyme mutinied causing the chefto go in a tizzy.
For Anne Fortunato ofMilford, one entry wasn’t enough, she submitted two.  After painstakingly working on a counted cross stitchpicture of Mystic Seaport, entitled Latitude 41 degrees 21’ 40” N, Longitude 071 degrees58’ 1” W, she unexpectedly found herself on the campus of Rice University inTexas and saw two giant 8 foot tall metal chair statues made entirely ofnumbers and letters.  She took aphotograph calling it “Their Hands Were Filled with Numbers.”
Amy Peters of Madison usedslate and wood, a wood burner and acrylic paint to create an abacus “You CanCount on Me.”  Calling it  “quirky like me,” it was the first ideashe had and she selected a Gertrude Stein quote “Counting is the religion ofthis generation.  Its Hope andSalvation.” She considers the quotation perfect for an abacus “funny, wise andeccentric.”
Among the many other uniquesubmissions are “Soft numbers” animal toys by Sara Thomas, a child’s chair “4on the Floor” by Tim Nighswander, a floral display “Flowers of Love” by HunterNesbitt Spence, a shiny white “Pi Plate and Pin” composed by Jim Newton, a“Fairy Garden” with a swing, plants and flowers by Ariel Mayer and an adorablephotograph of a girl and her pup called “Wallflower” by Jackie Heitchul.
All the proceeds from thefundraiser will be used for summer and year round programming for children andfor scholarships.  The entries willbe on display until Sunday, May 13. The Eli Whitney Museum, 915 Whitney Avenue, Hamden is available by calling 203-777-1833 oronline at www.eliwhitney.org.  Museum hours are Sunday noon-5 p.m.,closed Monday and Tuesday, open Wednesday – Friday noon – 5 p.m. and Saturday10 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Come see creativity andimagination unleashed as a tribute to Leonardo da Vinci, master mathematician,painter, sculptor, inventor and scientist.