What lies beneath artwork, such as Gallego’s Raising Lazarus is invisible to the naked eye but thanks to infrared technology, art historians, restorers and now everyday viewers can see what the artist originally had in mind. Part of the creative process can be understood by this discovery.
The technical study was part of a five-year project by the Meadows Museum and the University of Arizona Museum of Art, which has had the altarpiece in its permanent collection since 1957. Since no individual drawings by Gallego survive, the infrared images reveal his skill as a draftsman and his workshop’s contributions. “They never thought that in 500 years technology was going to be able to unveil something that was eternally covered,” Mr. Roglán said. J. D. BIERSDORFER (New York Times, June 8, 2008)
Gallego's Raising of Lazarus and under drawing via the New York TImes
This was an old story that I ran across in my archives regarding the 15th-century altarpiece from the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Ascension in Ciudad Rodrigo, Spain. It is worth posting now, as a simple tribute in some way to my fellow sister-in-law in my husband’s family. Cindy and I had the connection of both being married to twin brothers. She passed away suddenly last week and her funeral is this week but details are not known. Words can never do one’s passing justice but finding this artwork reminded me that life is complex and fleeting. Just like this underpainting there are details only known to the artist. Fortunately for us, however, you can click on this link and interactively discover what they are in the painting and then view the finished piece with more insight, more fully understood. There is peace in understanding and fulfillment in the pleasure life brings even in memories long after we are gone.
Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion is so beautiful and moving and seems appropriate here, as performed by Koopman – Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra.
This is a mix mash of multiple interests and the start of my Wednesdays-once-a-week posts, so I’m calling it the Charleston Shuffle. It starts in Charleston from previous collected sites re an interesting way to do an art fundraiser + sculpture that I really like, then it moves to museums and music, all reminding me of the Charleston dance and back to where this began.
What a great idea to save the palette for each painting and then offer it up in an auction for a fundraiser. This is what The Charleston Fine Art Dealers Association’s Palette and Palate Stroll accomplished in this summer. $250,000 for visual arts scholarship has been raised in the past and divided between Redux, the Gibbes, and the College of Charleston’s art programs. This event paired 20 artists’ palettes, representing 10 galleries along with 10 restaurants, with the paintings for which they were used. A simple, yet brilliant idea that gives insight into the creative paint process used for each artwork.
Fred Jamar's painting and palette
Karen Ann Meyers' painting and palette
Another artist that Redux Gallery showed was Susan Meyer back in 2008 and her Installations sculpture, Together, which I really enjoy. Looking at her work, I’m pretty fascinated with her ability to have so many textural layers in her work and the color is captivating.
There was an entire section of the Washington Post called Museums: Technology but for the life of me I could not find the same online. It showcases all of the upcoming local/DC museum exhibit listings for the rest of the year and discussed whether apps for iPhone and iPad were worthwhile using while viewing an exhibit. Answer, not really because unless you look at the artwork instead of the screen, you’re not really viewing it as it was meant to be seen. You’ll be once removed like the character Brick in The Middle, who experiences life, even while in Nature, through books and what they tell him he is viewing. Love that show. (Axl, the teenage son character is the epitome of mine.)
Here’s one story from that section that I was able to find, Experiencing Music in Germany’s Meteorite exhibit, where the music surrounds you accoustically and visually as an interactive experience. Todd Machover is the creator and composer using music and technology and his MIT media lab Hyperinstruments/Opera of the Future group. (Honestly, the Post needs to work on their website navigation. Unless you know the title of the article, it is sometimes near impossible to find.) Click this link to go the the Haus der Musik in Austria — architecture below. Keep clicking these links within the Meteorite site to listen to the music within.
Now, here’s another museum post worth reading about a new proposed melting pot, National Museum of the American People and how it might soon exist from concept to creation. Here’s the only link I could find to the museum listings I mentioned previously but unfortunately it’s not the same as in the paper, which allows you to circle the ones you want to attend — so much for technology.
Finally, I’ll end this post with a little music, Gone Wondering and Ball & Chain from Jackie Greene, having recently attended his performance at a gallery showing at Mary Douglas Drysdale’s home. It was an interesting event with gaining a little insight regarding artists, talented musicians and the business of art handlers. We had some Drysdale Signature Color panels for Casart coverings on display as artwork.
This post was set to draft and never posted last week – so it is now the post for this week…After my last post regarding collaboration of collective art media and initiatives that generate positive public art, I was inspired to think more holistically in my blogging approach. It is not the quantity, well sometimes it is in the blogosphere where it can be only about the SEO rankings, but the quality of posts generated. After reaching over 500 posts — this is my 512th — I’ve decided to cut back to one post a week. I realize this is bucking the trend of posting more not less but time, mental health, my other business and my family are all more important. It takes quite a chunk of time to write blog posts and I’ve been doing this since 2008, so no fly-by-night here, but with more things needing my attention, there is just so much time to be able to spread my self any thinner. I had thought about ending this blog altogether, although, I have always received enjoyment from writing it, in particular due to the discovery of all the new things out there each day. I would never be able to post all of the 60 pages of 12 entries on each that I’ve collected to write about over the years. Some of them, although interesting, are out of date, needless to say.
This is the end of the month and start of a new fall season so it seems an appropriate time to switch my posts to Wednesday’s Once a Week. I’ll still keep reporting on all of the same topics, Murals and Kick Starting the Weekend won’t go away but they will share the post time and will most certainly alternate with other subjects. That is what this blog is about — many subjects with Art being Everywhere.
On this note, I saw this sculpture by Segun Aiyesan and thought about the past meeting present and it seemed to sum up my state of mind. Blogging has been an education – always reflecting on what has come before in relation to what is new and there is joyfulness within the search, correlation and discovery. I thought this interview on Next with the artist was quite interesting to learn that he was self taught, coming from an engineering background and to learn about his creative process and what inspires and drives him to create art. Learning about this from other artist’s perspectives gives introspective insight that is always enlightening and often inspirational to me.
Segun Aiysean's sculpture
Michelangelo's Creation of Man
You see the reference right? On a humorous note, I’ve been saving this mural below and can’t resist posting now….and how cyclical it is. This mural, a spoof on God’s Gift to Woman, is by Studio Vertu, as described here on The Huffington Post, and painted in Cincinnati (see last post, where this one started).
George Clooney as God's Gift to Woman painted by Studio Vertu in Cincinnati
Now you know what is weird about this trail, is it leads me really full circle, back to my decorative art business. I’ve been following this group for their Fresco Wall™ technology, where a mural can be commissioned and ordered as a portable fresco to install — either permanently or with Velco®. This has been interesting to me ever since I first learned about it over a year ago in my Faux Finisher magazine, which has since stopped publishing. I’ve been following because it generalizes the same concept of my decorative painting being transferred to a wallcovering substrate that is independent of the wall and in my case, removable and reusable, Casart coverings. We’ve gone one step further in being able to also customize the work.
I can’t leave this without sharing recommended readings for the following: 1) Blogging is Big Business (2008 / WTAE.com) — where the state of blogging started (when I began) to although not saying goodbye yet but cutting back, and Saying Goodbye (ArtTalk – Chicago, 2009), which states some great parting sentiments regarding art reviews from writer Kathryn Born – well worth reading.
Finally what you’ve all been waiting for, a little music to Kick Start Your Weekend (and in this case, your week, as this is posting late ) — a collective One Love by Bob Marly by various artist around the world through the effort Playing for Change.
It’s pretty inspirational to me to see projects that come together based on innovation, talent and public participation.
When I first saw this mural, I thought I recognized the unique stylistic hand of C.F. Payne, one of my favorite contemporary illustrators, but with all the scaffolding in front and even with the resource post, Mural, mural on the wall by Soapbox Media, it seemed unclear and I wasn’t sure I understood. After several reads now I see, or at least I think I understand the background and how it has come together.
Singing Mural by CF Payne - Photo by Scott-Beseler of Social Media
This Singing Portrait Mural is by C.F. Payne, who’s not known as a muralist, but MuralWorks in Cincinnati (a public art sub-branch of ArtWorks) has painted it in collaboration and according to C.F. Payne’s illustration. This is what I like about ArtWorks’ MuralWorks program:
ArtWorks employs teen and professional artists to work side-by-side with communities to transform our region. Since MuralWorks began in 2007, ArtWorks has painted 34 murals in 25 neighborhoods in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. Your neighborhood can be next!
Here’s a little secret — they even hold Secret Artist Events called Secret ArtWorks. The next one is November 18 but wait, you can attend the best of all their past Secret ArtWorks events on October 6 at their MasterWorks event.
The other part of this collaboration was in in relation to JR, a street artist who won the 2011 TED award with his international Inside Out idea to get everyone and anyone involved in art by submitting their portraits, in which they would receive posters on which they were printed and they would then paste the posters in a public area in order to be a part of the public art, global community project. The teen artists painting C. F. Payne’s Singing Portrait Mural for MuralWorks participated in Inside Out with their own portraits that they had pasted on the wooden planks surrounding the scaffolding on which they were working to paint the mural.
INSIDE OUT is a large-scale participatory art project that transforms messages of personal identity into pieces of artistic work. Upload a portrait. Receive a poster. Paste it for the world to see.
I like this idea but I do not consider individual photographic portraits pasted to singular spots in public spaces as murals. They are more like pin-up posters or similar to something you could see as billboard advertisements in Times Square. However, I did a post on JR and the strategic placements of large scale photographic portraits that he uses in his own work is different in how they are used collectively to transform an entire village or community or public space and it’s people is truly remarkable. No wonder JR is the winner of the 2011 TED Prize.
From the streets of Paris, where he started to the heart of the Middle East conflict to Brazil and Cambodia, here are a few of his works from the latter location. The changing eyes on the train is brilliant.
This is where “street art” can be powerful and leaves a lasting impression long after the artwork is gone.
The second part of this two-part post about two artists who stood out among the crowd at Old Town Alexandria’s Art Festival.
Part 2 - Jim Roberts does Gyotaku = Japanese for Fish (gyo) + Rubbings (taku). He had a large triptych that I wish I had photographed of what looked like a large grouper. It was wonderful and was printed on handmade rice paper.
Jim Roberts, Gytoaku print starts with a fresh catch, in this case grouper
Perhaps you may remember doing fish prints at camp? Well, this takes it to whole new level and scale (no pun intended). What I like most about his prints are actually seeing the scales. This brings reality to the artistic print that can’t be overlooked. It adds character to the print that would not exist without the subject. In this sense, you can fish for your dinner in a double way — both immediate and with the future purchase of prints.
The Gyotaku print
Jim Roberts, book on Gyotaku
Not all of his prints are black and white or monochromatic. I love these colors in his fish prints below and the movement of water suggested with the ink or paint used in the process.
Jim Roberts, Yellowtails Rising, Gyotaku
Jim Roberts, Rainbow-Trout, Gyotaku
I’m partial to blue and green myself.
Jim Roberts, In the Zone, Gyatoku
Radiohead’s new music upload, Mrs Magpie – Modeselektor RMXto Kick Start the Weekend is below. They are appearing as Saturday Night Live’s musical guest this coming weekend to kick off their new fall season. It will be interesting to hear what, if any, of these new songs or remixes that they might play. Their music has been heading in a dubstep direction. Here’s a pretty fascinating video from alberito80 to help visually explain, as it mixes this electronic music style with fine art masterpieces. See if you can recognize some of the paintings. Here is some of Radiohead’s newer music.
Lotus Flower (+ disjointed dancing that a bit disconcerting if not mesmerizing to watch).
Supercolider, which I like and has some meditative repetitiveness that is more typical of their older music.
Who said, “Things come to those who are patient,” and I’ll add persistent? Just like these 3-d brick murals, brick by brick by brick and the amount of patience involved in the production and details for it all to add up to create a large mural, some positive press mentions are coming our way. I’ll get to that in a moment but for now, here are some three-dimensional brick murals and a few followups to note, where time and patience is evident and pays off.
Meade Bank Oak Tree Mural by Mara Smith, in Brandenburg, KY
River City Bank Derby Theme Brick Mural by Mara Smith
Detail of River City Bank Mural by Mara Smith
Mara Smith works on brick mural
Artist Mara Smith working on preparatory designs for brick mural
2) Detroit has Brixels. ArtCorpsDetroit is a public art foundation via Wayne State University that addresses abandoned spaces and how they can be refurbished using art in public education programs. In this case, existing bricks were painted using paint donated by Sherwin Williams and the geometric design was painted by volunteers.
brixels = combination of bricks and pixels mural by ArtCorpsDetroit
3) Shepard Fairey may need to move over because Alexandre Farto, the Portuguese street artist (Vhills) about whom I had previously blogged has been tapped by Cincinnati to produce some public art murals as well as by Levi’s to be a part of their ad campaign “Go Forth”, in Berlin to carve portraits of four Berliners who exhibit the pioneering spirit. Maybe it was this video that caught their attention. This shows a little bit of his creative production in using mini explosions to create his murals….Just remember to stand back.
Lucky for us we have Chris Stegner’s account and visual pictorial reference of Vihlls revealed and in action creating his Cincinnati portrait. Usually he takes pictures of signs on buildings after they are created but he had just happened to run into Vihlls creating his. How fortunate.
Getting back to some good news mentioned at the onset. Check out this post over at Slipcovers for your Walls and just like Farto’s portrait creations, just when you’re unsure of all the hard work, all is revealed once there.
Tough week — trying to get ready for a potential media blitz and possible TV spot so there was no time for me to write in advance of a post today like I wanted.
Except to say, I saw two very interesting artists at the Old Town Alexandria Arts Festival last weekend who stood out among the rest. This is a two part series to profile them in each post.
Part 1:
Jupi T. Das‘ exquisite, labor intensive and creative papercut art. Here are excerpts from her artist’s statement, and what I like is noted in teal:
All the paper cuttings of this site are artist’s self-creation.Each of them are hand cut one at a time.No commercial reproduction procedures are used for mass production…The art of paper cutting is a process of hand cutting a single piece of paper and turning them into a beautiful design is the soul of my work….
It is my hope that others will see the influence of different cultural elements in my artwork and realize the connection between a dying art and my creativity and enjoying it visually. I create, so that the energy and the enthusiasm that I put into each piece will bring as much joy to people as the process of creating them brings joy to my life….As a full time artist my goal is to breathe life into this dying art and inspire others to create.
OK, I like a lot, for this is art you can savor. Folk art silhouettes that tell a cultural story. I truly appreciate the intricacy and time it takes to be so precise in one’s work. Giving a dying art the credit where it is due is more than admirable. She gives a wonderful accounting of the history of papercutting. Having an art history background, I find this fantastic and I learned a lot. Clicking on her video will give you an intimate inside look to her process, execution and the talent of her work as well as its importance. I am particularly fond of the butterfly papercutting. Of course it was one of the highlights in her display and costs the most. What can I say?…She said, when I asked her how long it took typically to complete. She said she could do one or two of this size a year. It all depends on the intricacy and the size. Notice she adds color to some of her papercuttings, which make them even more unusual and striking.
Butterfly Garden via jupisart.com
Peacock Mandala+ other works courtesy jupisart.com
Ahh, its’s now a work week again and I’m still thinking of memories of the beach, wishing we could have that relaxed pace all year long. But alas, we’ll just have to reflect on these times that help make vacations all the more appreciated. Meanwhile, here are some stunning beach photos that will leave a lasting impression.
Light painting on Britain’s beaches by Jamie Wardley from the UK’s Daily Mail.
Next time you’re burning a bonfire, you may want to consider this beautiful and sculptural Beach Burner by John T. Unger.
Firebowl by John T. Unger
Firebowl by John T. Unger
There are a lot of songs I could use to Kick Start the Weekend with this post but Starlight by Muse seems a fitting way to put a sunset on the beach scene until the next vacation.
Post Irene and while writing this I’m not sure where I’ll be. On vacation, finally, or stuck working still?….As I write this with an hour upon the big bands of 85 mile winds approaching that have caused 20,000 people to lose power in Virginia, I’m not sure if power will still be on in the morning. But, at least I can envision signs of rainbow — hoping all will be well.
Here are views that you may be seeing “after the storm” captured in a Morning Drive by watercolorist landscape painter and illustrator,Nick Swift, who I’ve just added to my blogroll. He has an interesting background being partially color blind that brings extra fascination to his work. He also has an instructive painting demo that show the process of his work. I’m intrigued with the artist’s creative process.
I also like his shells, which I hope to be collecting by the time this post is published. I love beachcombing in the early hours before any ones else is awake and the beach gets crowed — and I’m NOT a morning person but this gets me up.
But I hope I’ll be seeing signs of a rainbow by this time too:
1) Rainbow Door to Paradise by Agnieszka Cuprys from Poland (designboom).
2) A Rainbow “house” stairs by Ab Rogers and DA Studio (modern house deco).
3) Plexus no. 8 by Gabriel Dawe is lovely and reminds me of a translucent rainbow (St. Louis Riverfront Times).
4) and even Rainbow Sheep — now that’s really seeing rainbows (moonbattery).
There are a small number of trained ocularists — only a few hundered in the country, as it is a niche industry requiring a “trained eye” and skill to create realistic prosthetic eyes.
I found this CNN story thought-provoking on Christie Erickson’s talent for painting and making prosthetic eyes It takes a lot of work and it’s something that often gets overlooked. As the article states,” people who want to enter the profession must spend 10,000 hours, or five years, of apprenticeship to become certified.The career blends the fields of art and science — as only people with a creative side and anatomical knowledge can duplicate the organ that gives the gift of sight.” Click here to read more….and a link to the American Society of Ocularists for more information.
Ms. Erickson has an interesting toolbox.
And this is the result of one of her creations.
With the way I’ve been spending time on the computer, I feel my eyes are giving out on me and this is tough for an artist and I hope it is not the case. I’m now using glasses to compensate and hopefully stop further progression of blurred vision.
There is a lot of music I could post in relation to eyes to Kick Start the Weekend but I think it’s always intriguing to see the actual band performing, so I like to post this when I come across such footage; even though there may be higher quality videos. Here’s The Black Keys with Them Eyes.
Regarding Images used: I do not claim ownership of any of the images posted on this blog (unless stated otherwise). I try my utmost best to give credit from original sources. If you have ownership rights of a photo and wish for me to remove it, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
