Folk musician, Pete Seeger

When asked about his religious or spiritual views, Seeger replied: "I feel most spiritual when I’m out in the woods. I feel part of nature. Or looking up at the stars. [I used to say] I was an atheist. Now I say, it’s all according to your definition of God. According to my definition of God, I’m not an atheist. Because I think God is everything. Whenever I open my eyes I’m looking at God. Whenever I’m listening to something I’m listening to God."

 Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American folk singer-songwriter, musician and social activist. He was a fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, and had a string of hit records in the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, notably their recording of Lead Belly's "Goodnight, Irene," which topped the charts for 14 weeks in 1950. Members of the Weavers were blacklisted during the McCarthy Era. 

In the 1960s, Seeger re-emerged on the public scene as a prominent singer of protest music in support of international disarmament, civil rights, workers' rights, counterculture, environmental causes, and ending the Vietnam War.

Among the prolific songwriter's best-known songs are "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" (with additional lyrics by Joe Hickerson), "If I Had a Hammer (The Hammer Song)" (with Lee Hays of the Weavers), "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine" (also with Hays), and "Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season)", which has been recorded by many artists both in and outside the folk revival movement. "Flowers" was a hit recording for The Kingston Trio (1962); Marlene Dietrich, who recorded it in English, German and French (1962); and Johnny Rivers (1965). "If I Had a Hammer" was a hit for Peter, Paul and Mary (1962) and Trini Lopez (1963) while The Byrds had a number one hit with "Turn! Turn! Turn!" in 1965.

Seeger was one of the folk singers responsible for popularizing the spiritual "We Shall Overcome" (also recorded by Joan Baez and many other singer-activists), which became the acknowledged anthem of the civil rights movement, soon after folk singer and activist Guy Carawan introduced it at the founding meeting of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1960. In the PBS American Masters episode "Pete Seeger: The Power of Song", Seeger said it was he who changed the lyric from the traditional "We will overcome" to the more singable "We shall overcome".

---------- Wikipedia

Seeger was an activist even in his senior years. He marched in the "Occupy Wall Street" movement. According to his grandson, Pete Seeger was chopping wood only ten days before his death. A legend in his own time, we won't see such a man very often. A man who truly stood up for the rights of all. 

Judy Collins sings with Pete Seeger, Turn, Turn, Turn. 1966

I've read more about Pete Seeger's life elsewhere, and invite you to learn more about this talented man.

The Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc. is a non-profit organization based in Beacon, New York that seeks to protect the Hudson River and surrounding wetlands and waterways through advocacy and public education. Founded by folk singer Pete Seeger with his wife Toshi Seeger in 1966, the organization is known for its sailing vessel, the sloop Clearwater, and for its annual music and environmental festival, the Great Hudson River Revival.

Critters in art

  

Sandy_Skoglund_Revenge_of_the_Goldfish_-1981, Courtesy_Paci_Contemporary-Gallery_Brescia_Porto_Cervo_-Italy

Art by Carol Cavalaris

by Bozik in Kazan, Russia

by Karen Mathison Schmidt, Dreaming in Color

For this week's Saturday's Critters

Today' quote:

Exercise teaches us to be present, focusing on the rhythm of our breath and the synergy of our movements — grounding us in the here and now.

April Fools painting

 I'm quite a fan of Norman Rockwell. He has several April First paintings, which entice me to look thoroughly to find all that is topsy turvy in them.

I thought I had another one...

Happy birthday Vincent

 Vincent Willem van Gogh(Dutch: [ˈvɪnsɛnt ˈʋɪləɱ vɑŋ ˈɣɔx]  

30 March 1853 – 29 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created approximately 2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of them in the last two years of his life. His oeuvre includes landscapes, still lifes, portraits, and self-portraits, most of which are characterised by bold colours and dramatic brushwork that contributed to the rise of expressionism in modern art. Van Gogh's work was only beginning to gain critical attention before he died from a self-inflicted gunshot at age 37.^[5] During his lifetime, only one of Van Gogh's paintings, The Red Vineyard, was sold.

Born into an upper-middle-class family, Van Gogh drew as a child and was serious, quiet and thoughtful, but showed signs of mental instability. As a young man, he worked as an art dealer, often travelling, but became depressed after he was transferred to London. He turned to religion and spent time as a missionary in southern Belgium. Later he drifted into ill-health and solitude. He was keenly aware of modernist trends in art and, while back with his parents, took up painting in 1881. His younger brother, Theo, supported him financially, and the two of them maintained a long correspondence.

Van Gogh's early works consist of mostly still lifes and depictions of peasant labourers. In 1886, he moved to Paris, where he met members of the artistic avant-garde, including Émile Bernard and Paul Gauguin, who were seeking new paths beyond Impressionism. Frustrated in Paris and inspired by a growing spirit of artistic change and collaboration, in February 1888 Van Gogh moved to Arles in southern France to establish an artistic retreat and commune. Once there, his paintings grew brighter and he turned his attention to the natural world, depicting local olive groves, wheat fields and sunflowers. Van Gogh invited Gauguin to join him in Arles and eagerly anticipated Gauguin's arrival in late 1888.

Van Gogh Starry Night Over the Rhone, September 1888.

Van Gogh suffered from psychotic episodes and delusions. He worried about his mental stability, and often neglected his physical health, did not eat properly and drank heavily. His friendship with Gauguin ended after a confrontation with a razor when, in a rage, he mutilated his left ear. Van Gogh spent time in psychiatric hospitals, including a period at Saint-Rémy. After he discharged himself and moved to the Auberge Ravoux in Auvers-sur-Oise near Paris, he came under the care of the homeopathic doctor Paul Gachet. His depression persisted, and on 29 July 1890 Van Gogh died from his injuries after shooting himself in the chest with a revolver.

Van Gogh's work began to attract critical artistic attention in the last year of his life. After his death, his art and life story captured public imagination as an emblem of misunderstood genius, due in large part to the efforts of his widowed sister-in-law Johanna van Gogh-Bonger.^[6][7] His bold use of colour, expressive line and thick application of paint inspired avant-garde artistic groups like the Fauves and German Expressionists in the early 20th century. Van Gogh's work gained widespread critical and commercial success in the following decades, and he has become a lasting icon of the romantic ideal of the tortured artist. Today, Van Gogh's works are among the world's most expensive paintings ever sold. His legacy is celebrated by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, which holds the world's largest collection of his paintings and drawings.

Source: Wikipedia

Vincent van Gogh painted the scene of The Starry Night, which would become one of his most famous works, a total of 21 times.

van Gogh Flowering Garden, 1888

Clay demonstration in Santa Fe

I've covered Santa Fe paintings and prints and now for all those with an interest in ceramics this photo captures a historic Santa Fe moment, one of global importance in the world of studio pottery. Taken in Santa Fe in 1952. Demonstrating are Bernard Leach, Shoji Homada. Seated in the audience are Maria Martinez and behind her son Popovi Da. Leaning against the wall is Georgia O'Keeffe!

Santa Fe, Pictures on Face Book

By Noach Hoffman, Mar 27, 2024

I'm so glad when an old photo like this turns up! Of course nobody got the name of the potter actually throwing on the kick wheel!

 

Enjoying a new piece

 I love craftsmanship, in many mediums, as you may well know by now.

And earlier today I received a lovely gift that was totally unexpected. I finally met Mike Brubaker, a fellow blogger who can be seen each week on Sepia Saturday's group of posts from all over the world.

His interests on his blogs are often musical instruments, or bands, or old postcards, or photos of people who hold instruments, and so on. I learn each week about something different.

So I finally met Mike and his wife who I had kind of met before (in her capacity as a volunteer tax preparer for AARP.) After they treated me to a lunch at one of my favorite Black Mountain restaurants (The Veranda), we came over to my apartment.

And Mike gave me this.

It's a beautifully turned bowl with an inlayed rim. as well as some detailed inlays of little dark woods in various places. As a potter, I looked for a signature, but there wasn't one. 

What a sweet gift. I'm truly grateful!

And I'll blog about it tomorrow on When I Was 69, and post it to Sepia Saturday!

Grand Canyon National Park established

 

Fabric art by Sandra Mollen Derived from a John Slot photo.  Toroweap Overlook.  36 wide by 48 high, before quilting.

February 26, 2025

President Woodrow Wilson established the Grand Canyon National Park on this date in 1919, after a 30 year opposition from ranchers, miners, and entrepreneurs. Today, the Grand Canyon National Park covers more than 1,900 square miles; the canyon itself is 277 river miles long, 10 miles wide, and a mile deep. The park receives 5 million visitors every year.

In 1903, upon seeing the canyon for the first time, Theodore Roosevelt said: "The Grand Canyon fills me with awe. It is beyond comparison — beyond description; absolutely unparalleled throughout the wide world. ... Let this great wonder of nature remain as it now is. Do nothing to mar its grandeur, sublimity, and loveliness. You cannot improve on it. But what you can do is to keep it for your children, your children's children, and all who come after you, as the one great sight which every American should see.