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.

Faith Ringgold

 

 Faith Ringgold (October 8, 1930 – April 13, 2024) was a Black American painter, author, mixed media sculptor, performance artist, and intersectional activist, perhaps best known for her narrative quilts.

Ringgold's artistic practice was extremely varied—from painting to quilts, from sculptures and performance art to children's books.

As an educator, she taught in both the New York City Public school system and at college level. In 1973, she quit teaching public school to devote herself to creating art full-time. In 1995, she was approached by ACA Galleries for exclusive representation and was represented by them for the rest of her life.

Wikipedia gives us this:

Faith Ringgold (born Faith Willi Jones; October 8, 1930 – April 13, 2024) was an American painter, author, mixed media sculptor, performance artist, and intersectional activist, perhaps best known for her narrative quilts.

Ringgold was born in Harlem, New York City, and earned her bachelor's and master's degrees from the City College of New York. She was an art teacher in the New York City public school system. As a multimedia artist, her works explored themes of family, race, class, and gender. Her series of story quilts, designed from the 1980s on, captured the experiences of Black Americans and became her signature art form. During her career, she promoted the work of Black artists and rallied against their marginalization by the art museums. She wrote and illustrated over a dozen children's books. Ringgold's art has been exhibited throughout the world and is in the permanent collections of The Guggenheim, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Arts and Design, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

Ringgold received over 80 awards and honors and 23 honorary doctorates.^[53] She was interviewed for the 2010 film !Women Art Revolution.

Ringgold resided with her second husband Burdette "Birdie" Ringgold, whom she married in 1962, in a home in Englewood, New Jersey, where she lived and maintained a steady studio practice from 1992. Burdette died on February 1, 2020.

Ringgold died at her home in Englewood, New Jersey, on April 13, 2024, at age 93.

Who's Afraid of Aunt Jemima! Painting with fabric. Focus is on a real Jemima, as opposed to the commercially fabricated one to sell pancake syrup.

Just one quote

 Meryl Streep said:

"Aging is not for the weak. One day you wake up and realize that your youth is gone, but along with it, so go insecurity, haste, and the need to please... You learn to walk more slowly, but with greater certainty. You say goodbye without fear, and you cherish those who stay. Aging means letting go, it means accepting, it means discovering that beauty was never in our skin... but in the story we carry inside us."

Shirley Gromen

 Shirley Gromen

Shirley Gromen's superb porcelain extoles the virtues of the mighty Chesapeake Bay and all the splendorous inhabitants found in and near its waters. With precise workwomanship, she wheel throws or hand builds graceful forms and decorates them lavishly with incredibly beautiful sgraffito and slip trailing, creating visually stunning illustrated, textural surfaces that the hands love to explore. Focusing an adoring lens on small creatures from sandpipers and kingfishers to blowfish and striped bass, Shirley highlights the diversity of the Chesapeake's varied habitats. In a distinctive black-and-white with occasional pops of color, her pots make use of graphic forms and visual space, making this work stand out across a room. Shirley's work is prominently featured in our own collection, and we can't say enough about how much we love her pottery's beauty, its function, and the conversation it kindles amongst guests.

Shirley Gromen received her BFA from Maryland Institute College of Art and her MFA in Ceramics from The Ohio State University. She worked many years as a graphic designer before returning to the clay studio in 2015. She is a member of the Ceramic Guild and the Kiln Club, cooperative ceramic groups in the Washington, DC metro area and has shown as Scope Gallery, their shared gallery space at the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria, VA, since 2015. Her work has been selected for inclusion in numerous juried competitions and craft shows.

Artist Statement

My work serves as a portal into the ever-chaging natural world of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Through sgraffito, I interpret the region's diverse bird, fish, insect, and plant species on both functional and sculptural ceramic forms. By bringing these intricate ecosystems to the surface, I hope to inspire awareness and appreciation for the interdependent life that surrounds us.

My influences are noted in both the personal history and direct experiences with nature. I think of my grandmother's Limoges china, carried from Europe in 1914, and my mother's Imari plates from Japan, which adorned our dining room walls. Fishing trips with my father and bird watching with my husband inform my subject matter, while ongoing explorations in my craft continue to shape my artistic voice.

Each piece begins with a hand-built or wheel-thrown porcelain form. I spray black underglaze onto the leather-hard surface and use sgraffito to carve away the slip, reveealing the white porcelain beneath. Slip-trailing adds further texture and dimension. After bisque firing, a liner glaze completes the piece before it is fired to 2,200°F in oxidation. This process allows me to create patterns, textures, and narratives that bring imagined gatherings of birds, fish, and plants to life. Working from my home studio on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay, I find endless inspiration in the rhythms and beauty of this environment.

Shop Shirley Gromen's pottery here.

Thanks Charlie Cummings Gallery, Gainesville, FL

Happy hearts day!

 

Charles H Geilfus (1856 - 1914) Repairing Hearts 1900

Charles H Geilfus (1856 - 1914) Repairing Hearts 1900

The Boss

 Bruce Springsteen - Dancing in the Dark

Just for fun

The simple beat, and lyrics...still enjoyable all these years later.

Paul McCartney Set The Glastonbury Festival On Fire Saturday Night With A Jaw-Dropping Surprise That Had The Crowd Raging—Bringing Out Unbelievable Guests Dave Grohl And Bruce Springsteen!

Facebook post Feb 10, 2025

Movie: The Lady in the Van

 Upon Dame Maggie Smith's recent death, I started watching all of her movies that I could find. This was a somewhat odd but charming one.

,

 The Lady in the Van is a 2015 British comedy-drama film directed by Nicholas Hytner and written by Alan Bennett. The film is based on the true story of an elderly woman named Mary Shepherd, who, despite her unconventional lifestyle, made a lasting impression on Bennett. Maggie Smith stars as the eccentric Mary Shepherd, a woman who lives in a dilapidated van parked in Bennett's driveway for 15 years.

The story is set in London and follows the unique relationship between Mary and Alan Bennett, played by Alex Jennings, who allows her to stay in his driveway despite her unpredictable behavior and often mysterious past. Through a series of flashbacks and humorous exchanges, the film reveals the complicated and touching dynamics of their unlikely friendship. It also explores themes of kindness, boundaries, and compassion, as well as the hidden stories that people carry with them.

Maggie Smith’s performance as Mary Shepherd was widely acclaimed, earning her a Golden Globe nomination and solidifying the film as a favorite among fans of British cinema. The Lady in the Van is known for its wit, depth, and emotional resonance, all delivered with a charming British sensibility. It's a poignant yet humorous exploration of the lives of two seemingly very different individuals who, over time, develop a deep and genuine connection.

Propaganda in art

 Excerpts from BBC 2017  

The story of a painting that fought fascism - 

(published for a 2017 Art Show in London England)

6 February 2017 by Fiona Macdonald

Opening during the Spanish Civil War, the 1937 Paris Exhibition allowed 

artists to speak out against brutality. Fiona Macdonald looks at a moment

 when paintings became propaganda. 

On 26 April 1937, Nazi German and Italian bombers attacked the Basque

 city of Guernica. Over the course of three hours, they destroyed three-quarters

 of the ancient town, killing and wounding hundreds. The raid was “unparalleled

 in military history”, according to reports at the time – and it inspired one of the

 most famous anti-war paintings in history. A new exhibition staged in London 

by Barcelona’s Mayoral Gallery honours a group of artists who responded to 

the atrocities of the Spanish Civil War.

These artists were brought together by the 1937 Paris Exhibition, which 

opened less than a month after the bombing and just 10 months after the

 Civil War began. The Exhibition is usually remembered for the competing

 bluster of two nations: Germany, with its monumental granite tower topped

 with a giant eagle and swastika, and the Soviet Union, whose marble-clad

 structure was capped by an even bigger statue of two figures clutching a 

hammer and a sickle. Yet it also played host to a humbler project that has

 outlasted either monolith. Mayoral’s exhibition commemorates the 80th 

anniversary of the Spanish pavilion, seen by the Second Spanish Republic 

as a way of revealing General Franco’s cruelty to the rest of the world 

against a backdrop of rising authoritarianism.

Its ambitions were far removed from Nazi and Soviet architectural 

one-upmanship. As Europe moved towards war, the situation in Spain took 

on significance around the world. It became a battleground for the forces of 

Fascism and Communism and inspired new works from some of the greatest 

artists of the time. Pablo Picasso, Julio González, Joan Miró, 

Alexander Calder, Alberto Sánchez, and José Gutiérrez Solan were all 

shown in the Spanish pavilion.

Musicians = The Grateful Dead

 Congratulations to the Grateful Dead on being named the 2025 MusiCares Persons of the Year! Since their formation in the Bay Area in the '60s, the group has remained a symbol of peace and love, and inspired generations with their genre-bending improvisational style. Coming together to develop and popularize a new genre of "jam rock," the Grateful Dead left an imprint on rock music forever and birthed a cultural jam rock revolution that is still "truckin" today.

Fronted by guitarist and lead singer Jerry Garcia, the group's popularity grew quickly from their roots in the hippie movement in San Francisco. Their fans formed a tight-knit community called Deadheads who followed the band all over the country. With a beloved repertoire of songs like “Sugar Magnolia,” “Touch of Grey,” and “Friend of the Devil,” the Grateful Dead are an inimitable treasure in the canon of American music.

My friends would go to their concerts and record the music onto their little tape recorders (Walkmans, etc) of that era. So getting good balance of the music was sometimes hard but I think this gives a bit of the setting, as well as their music.

Keep Truckin'

Go to Wikipedia for more:

The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in Palo Alto, California, in 1965. Known for their eclectic style that fused elements of rock, blues, jazz, folk, country, bluegrass, rock and roll, gospel, reggae, and world music with psychedelia, the band is famous for improvisation during their live performances, and for their devoted fan base, known as "Deadheads". According to the musician and writer Lenny Kaye, the music of the Grateful Dead "touches on ground that most other groups don't even know exists." For the range of their influences and the structure of their live performances, the Grateful Dead are considered "the pioneering godfathers of the jam band world".

After Garcia's death in 1995, former members of the band, along with other musicians, toured as The Other Ones in 1998, 2000, and 2002, and as The Dead in 2003, 2004, and 2009. In 2015, the four surviving core members marked the band's 50th anniversary in a series of concerts in Santa Clara, California, and Chicago that were billed as their last performances together.

Like several other bands at the time, the Grateful Dead allowed their fans to record their shows. For many years the tapers set up their microphones wherever they could, and the eventual forest of microphones became a problem for the sound crew. Eventually, this was solved by having a dedicated taping section located behind the soundboard, which required a special "tapers" ticket. The band allowed sharing of their shows, as long as no profits were made on the sale of the tapes.

Of the approximately 2,350 shows the Grateful Dead played, almost 2,200 were taped, and most of these are available online. 

Deadheads, particularly those who collected tapes, were known for keeping close records of the band's setlists and for comparing various live versions of the band's songs, as reflected in publications such as the various editions of "Deadbase" and "The Deadhead's Taping Compendium". This practice continues into the 21st century on digital forums and websites such as the Internet Archive, which features live recordings of nearly every available Grateful Dead show and allows users to discuss and review the site's shows.

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Peter BersaniDead and Company Tour Family on Facebook

Ive been looking on with great joy and not a little bemusement at the celebration of The Grateful Dead over these last few months. From The Kennedy Centre Honours, to the Grammys and Musicares it seems the world is awakening to what many of us have always known. The music, stories, scene and family that the band in all its iterations have perpetrated for nearly 60 years IS worth celebrating. More than 45 years since my first show the music continues to give me solace, comfort and great joy. Oh the places it's taken me and the friends Ive made.

It must have been the roses..

Jerry Garcia in front of the Grateful Dead's Infamous Wall of Sound.

The Wall of Sound was an enormous public address system designed specifically for the Grateful Dead’s live performances in 1974. It was the creation of audio engineer Owsley “Bear” Stanley. The Grateful Dead gave the sneak peek of the Wall of Sound on February 9, 1973 at Stanford University’s Maples Pavilion but it was on March 23, 1974 when they debuted the completed system during their tour stop at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California.

Weighed over 70 tons, comprise dozens and then hundreds of amps, speakers, subwoofers, and tweeters, stand over three-stories tall and stretch nearly 100 feet wide. Its name could only be the “Wall of Sound”.

Drugs were part of their world, and at concerts (most rock concerts anyway) one didn't have to have

 their own - the amount of smoke in the air would let anyone get high, whether they wanted to or not!