The Pagan Sphinx

The Friday Evening Nudes

2012-01-20T18:00:00.002-05:00

Tonight I feature various renditions of Danae The Rembrandt is for my lovely friend Susan.

Artemisa Gentilesch

Danaë

(That red blanket takes my breath away. ~ P.S.)

Rembrandt
Danaë
Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia

Danae
(detail)

Danae
(detail)

In 1985 this painting was viciously slashed and bathed in acid by a deranged man. The restoration proved highly successful.

Danaë
Jacob van Loo

Happy Weekend.
(Feeling a bit Sphinx-like),
Gina
:-)

2012-01-18T08:10:00.000-05:00

ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

Somewhat Surrealistic Sunday

2012-01-15T12:16:00.001-05:00

I've been posting a lot of weird art lately, so as a visual antidote, I'd like to share with you some pleasing images by Serbian Dusanka Petrovic - Душанка Петровић, born 1948. I couldn't find any other biographical information. More images available at Ricci-Art.

Enjoy your day. Peace and love,

Gina

Artist of the Week - Thomas Woodruff

2012-01-08T10:03:00.000-05:00

Thomas Woodruff is a self-proclaimed “neo-fabulist” artist who always works in series on large, complex imagistic projects. Hatched from personal experiences, the projects are often apotropaic and elegiac in nature, dealing with issues raised by the AIDS epidemic, aspects of maintaining wellness, and celebrating the outsider in all of us. The imagery is a cross-culturally hybridized, relentlessly figurative, technically tricky, perversely ornate, and more often than not– dark. Read the rest of the biography at Thomas Woodruff's website.

From the Four Temperaments series

The Sun/Sun Studies

Freak Parade

Silent-screenSiren/Hag Who-Understands All

All Systems Go

Links

P.P.O.W.

Illinois State University Galleries

Shark's Ink.

Characters on Canvas (or whatever)

2012-01-01T17:02:00.000-05:00

Here are a few art characters to help launch you into a new year. I'm not betting it'll be any better but onward we go. For me, after seeing these images, I'm in with a smirk and a smile. That's gotta be worth something, right? :-)

Wishing you a Happy, Love-Filled New Year!

Above we have an X ray of Snow White with an embroidered head.

Mathew Cox

Silicone sculptures by Thomas Kuebler

Sunday Snippet - Aphrodite, A Memoir of the Senses

2011-11-26T19:44:00.001-05:00

One of my favorite books about food and eroticism is Isabel Allende's Aphrodite - A Memoir of the Senses, an unpretentious, witty, and earthy collection of stories, lore and recipes taken from history, art, literature, and life experience itself. I've snipped from this book in two or three previous posts but I lack the energy and time right now to link you to them, though you can, if you wish, do a search on the blog.

Below is an excerpt from Aphrodite about the perceived difference between eroticism and pornography, in the form of a letter written by Anaïs Nin to a consumer of pornography, with an introduction by Isabel Allende.

“Erotica is using a feather, pornography is using the whole chicken"

~ Isabel Allende

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

About Eroticism

In the forties, Anaïs Nin and Henry Miller survived for a while by writing erotic stories for a man who paid them by the page. This client, known to them only as the Collector, remained anonymous, piquing the indignant curiosity of the two great authors who lent their talents and their pens to satisfy his caprices. This collector of pornography did not appreciate style and repeatedly asked them to "cut the poetry" and concentrate on the sex, because that was all he was interested in. Nin wrote him a letter in which she masterfully defines the essence of eroticism:

Dear Collector:

We hate you. Sex loses all its power and magic when it becomes explicit, mechanical, overdone, when it becomes a mechanistic obsession.

It becomes a bore. You have taught us more than anyone I know how wrong it is not to mix it with emotion, hunger, desire, lust, whims, caprices, personal ties, deeper relationships that change its color, flavor, rhythms, intensities.

You do not know what you are missing by your microscopic examination of sexual activity to the exclusion of aspects which are the fuel that ignites it. Intellectual, imaginative, romantic, emotional. This is what gives sex is surprising textures, its subtle transformation, its aphrodisiac elements. you are shrinking your world of sensations. You are withering it, starving it, draining its blood.

If you nourished your sexual life with all the excitements and adventures which love injects into sensuality, you would be the most potent man in the world. The source of sexual power is curiosity, passion. You are watching its little flame die of asphyxiation. Sex does not thrive on monotony. Without feeling, inventions, mood, there are no surprises in bed. Sex must be mixed with tears, laughter, words, promises, scenes, jealousy, envy, all of the spices of fear, foreign travel, new faces, novels, stories, dreams fantasies, music, dancing, opium, wine.

How much do you lose by this periscope at the tip of your sex, when you could enjoy a harem of distinct and never-repeated wonders? No two hairs alike, but you will not let us waste words on a description of hair; no two odors, but if we expand on this you cry: Cut the poetry! No two skins with the same texture, and never the same light, temperature, shadows, never the same gestures; for a lover; when he is aroused by true love, can run the gamut of centuries of love lore. What a range, what changes of age, what variations of maturity and innocence, Perversity and art.

We have sat around for hours and wondered how you look. If you have closed your senses upon silk, light, color, odor, character, temperament, you must by now be completely shriveled up. There are so many minor senses, all running like tributaries into the mainstream of sex, nourishing it. Only the united beat of sex and heart together can create ecstasy.

Egon Schiele

Embrace

"The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware."

~ Henry Miller

Robert Frank

2011-11-01T13:48:00.000-04:00

Robert Frank is a Swiss-born American photographer best known for a volume of photos from 1958 called The Americans. Unintentionally, it is a grittier look at American life than was presented in the American photographs contributed to the well-known photo anthology The Family of Man by Edward Steichen, from 1955.

It was in 1955, funded by a Guggenheim grant, that Frank packed up his family and took a series of road trips that yielded some of the most iconic images of an America that doesn't always like itself. Having met beat writer Jack Kerouac on one of those trips, Frank showed Jack some of his portfolio and Jack agreed to write the introduction. Poet Allan Ginsberg became a life-long friend of Frank; their respective forms of expression were compatible in their shared viewpoint on class and race differences and the underclass that reared its head despite the rosy, American-as-apple-pie depictions in the mainstream.

Needless to say, Frank had a difficult time finding an American publisher and thus the book was published first in Paris. Les Américain was to finally be published in the U.S. a year later and was met with substantial criticism, not only for its subject matter but also what was then unorthodox photographic techniques such as blurred images and off-kilter perspectives.

The eighty-three photographs contained in the book, were culled from the twenty-seven thousand photos he took in Detroit, Miami, New Orleans, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles and Butte, Montana, among other places.

While driving through Arkansas in 1955, Frank was stopped, detained and questioned by police for "suspicious activity", which included being in possession of several cameras.

Here is a sampling of what I think are the most evocative photographs from The Americans.

" I don't call my photographs masterpieces."

Hoboken, New Jersey

Charlestown, South Carolina

Butte, Montana

Detroit, Michigan

Frank produced a few films, the most notorious of which is Pull My Daisy, an adaptation from an act in Jack Kerouac's unfinished play, The Beat Generation. The title of the film is a poem by Allan Ginsberg, who stars in and narrates the film. To my surprise, the American painter Alice Neel was also involved in the film.

Other Frank films include Sin of Jesus and Cocksucker Blues, a unreleased documentary film about The Rolling Stones; to this day mired in legal red tape.

Frank returned to photography after moving to Cape Breton Nova Scotia, his still work taking on a very personal and introspective vein after a couple of personal tragedies, including the death of his daughter in a 1974 plane crash.

Related Links and Resources:

Vanity Fair - Robert Frank's Unsentimental Journey

The New Yorker - the journey of Robert Frank's "The Americans"

*
NPR: The Americans - the book that changed photography

*

YouTube: Inside Robert Frank's America

*

American Society of Cinematographers: Robert Franks: The Americans

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PetaPixel: Robert Frank Detained by Police in 1955

Untitled

2011-10-26T18:56:00.000-04:00

Margaret Atwood is one of my heroes because she uses her reputation and notoriety as a renowned writer and poet, to discuss issue regarding the survival the planet.

Both videos are posted with my friend Susan in mind but this next one, especially. She is much in my thoughts.

Philip Glass - Akhnaten

2011-10-11T19:57:00.000-04:00

Every weekday morning, on my twenty-minute commute to work,I tune in to my local public radio station WFCR out of Amherst, Massachusetts to listen to the news program All Things Considered. At the end of my day, when I get back in my car to go home, I often switch from that station's classical music program to WRSI, a good adult alternative music station. It plays a good blend of many popular genres and I find the mix pleasing and relaxing. Sometimes I turn it up really loud when I really like a song that's meant to be listened to at high volume. Perhaps loud isn't relaxing, exactly, but it is certainly cathartic. To me, anyway.

Today was an exception. When my car radio came on, I was immediately drawn in to a piece of music I wanted to stay connected to. I was glad that when it was over (which I did not want it to be), the announcer cited the name of the artist and the work: a Phillip Glass opera - Akhnaten HQ [Prelude; Refrain, Verse 1, Verse 2]. It is an opera in three acts based on the life and religious convictions of the pharoah Akhenaten.

Glass has composed two other biographical operas. Einstein on the Beach and Satyagraha based on the life of Ghandi. Both of these have been added to my list of music purchases, along with Akhnaten. I've begun to listen to bits and pieces of all three operas on youtube but there is nothing like the continuity of a whole musical piece, especially when it applies to the musical story that an opera tries to tell.

I have, of course, heard Philip Glass before. My only other interest in opera has been Tommy by The Who and Jesus Christ Superstar, so I'm really digging this discovery as a form of expansion of my musical interests.

In reading a bit about Glass, I found a list of his friends and collaborators of whom I am also a fan; among them, the writer Doris Lessing, visual artist Richard Serra and film director Martin Scorsese. Glass is in very brilliant and creative company, indeed!

I've not been excited or energized by much that fits the format of the blog lately. Which isn't to say that I haven't been doing and experiencing things I enjoy. Making a musical discovery that is outside of the box (albeit a rather large and eclectically filled one) is for me, kind of exciting and I wanted to share it with you.

The clip is over ten minutes long but I hope you are able to listen to at least a little bit of it and tell me what you think. Perhaps you are a Philip Glass fan and can add something further to the little I have garnered so far about his work.

Peace and love,

Gina

The Friday Evening Nudes

2011-10-07T16:57:00.000-04:00

Tonight I feature (and quickly) the nudes of American figurative painter George Tooker, whose work is generally associated with the Magic Realism and Social Realism movements.

We're planning a trip to NYC and a visit to The Whitney Museum of American Art, where a sampling of Tooker's work will be featured in the exhibition Real/Surreal, along with other artists of the same bend.

A native of Brooklyn, New York, Tooker lived and worked in Windsor, Vermont. His religious panel works hang in the St. Francis of Assisi Parish, of which Tooker was an avid member. We're planning a visit there this weekend. That should provide enough material for a more comprehensive post on George Tooker.

Here you go and off I go to dinner! To my American friends and family, have a safe holiday weekend. To everyone peace and love and lots of sunshine. After a very long rainy spell, it looks like we're going to have fine weather in Western New England, finally!

~ Gina

Characters on Canvas

2011-09-27T18:47:00.000-04:00

The work of Alan Macdonald

"It took me years to realise that it is the darkness in things that I respond to, whether it is a painting by Francisco Goya, a song by Leonard Cohen, a play by William Shakespeare or a film by Pedro Almodovar."

~ Alan Macdonald

Picture for One Moment

2011-09-24T20:53:00.000-04:00

"Walk on a rainbow trail; walk on a trail of song, and all about you will be beauty. There is a way out of every dark mist, over a rainbow trail."
Robert Motherwell

On Wednesday, after work and during a phone conversation with my daughter, I looked to the east through the glass and was lucky enough to see this.

In New England, it's been rainy, humid and very buggy. We're looking forward to crisp, sunny days. More often than not, Autumn here has much to offer in the way of natural beauty in peak leaf season, an abundance of crops from local farms and many fairs and festivals. I'm especially looking forward to the The Garlic Festival, with its hippie vibes and emphasis on sustainability, lots of great organic food and of course, a garlic stand to beat the band. And Wayne wincing at the garlic I'm about to consume. It's a good thing I am in possession of other charms. ;-)

A good Autumnal Equinox to you! And a song. One I think I play every year on The Pagan Sphinx Harvest Festival, written by Andy Partridge of XTC. I truly hope you can access it where you are. It is sublime. A modern masterpiece.

Lyrics to Harvest Festival :
See the flowers round the altar
See the peaches in tins 'neath the headmaster's chair
Harvest festival

See the two who've been chosen
See them walk hand in hand to the front of the hall

Harvest festival
Harvest festival
What was best of all was the
Longing look you gave me
That longing look
More than enough to keep me fed all year

See the children with baskets
See their hair cut like corn neatly combed in their rows

Harvest festival
Harvest festival
What was best of all was the
Longing look you gave me
That longing look
Across the hymnbooks and the canvas chairs
The longing look you gave me
That longing look
More than enough to keep me fed all year

And what a year when the exams and crops all failed
Of course you passed and you were never seen again
We all grew and we got screwed and cut and nailed
Then out of nowhere invitation in gold pen

See the flowers round the altar
See that you two got married and I wish you well

Harvest festival
Harvest festival
What was best of all was the
Longing look you gave me
That longing look
Across the hymnbooks and the canvas chairs
The longing look you gave me
That longing look
More than enough to keep me fed all year

Harvest festival

Peace and all groovy things,
Gina

Hiatus (with a new note)

2011-09-11T01:55:00.000-04:00

The Pagan Sphinx blog will be on hiatus for an indefinite amount of time.

I am still in the process of trying to figure out what to do about the blog; whether to just post random updates, facebook style, create the very occasional but substantial art post or put The Pagan Sphinx completely to rest after its three year plus lifespan.

Going over the stats for the blog recently, I saw that there are hundreds of page views daily, mostly driven here by google searches for images and artists, I"m sure. I've even received a handful of thank yous from people kind enough to let me know they had used the blog for educational purposes. I even received a comment telling me I "suck" because nothing on my blog helped with a term paper. :-)

I really should look seriously into wordpress or some other blog format that is more conducive to posting large images and which doesn't generate the constant headaches I face on blogger; everything from trouble uploading photos to issues with text spacing.

The upshot is that I may post something occasionally, especially for the handful of people who have actually cared enough to keep in touch during the hiatus. You know who you are and I thank you deeply for your interest, your friendship and your kindness.

Old friends pass away, new friends appear. It is just like the days. An old day passes, a new day arrives. The important thing is to make it meaningful: a meaningful friend - or a meaningful day.

~ Dalai Lama

Wishing you peace and love in the interim

If you'd like to keep in touch, drop me a line, a link or an entire novel at pagansphinx@gmail.com

Picture for One Moment

2011-09-05T12:48:00.000-04:00

Street Musicians

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Artist of the Week: M.C. Escher

2011-08-18T12:52:00.000-04:00

Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972) is one of the world's most famous graphic artists. His art is enjoyed by millions of people all over the world, as can be seen on the many web sites on the internet. full bio here.

" I believe that producing pictures, as I do, is almost solely a question of wanting so very much to do it well"

The Fall of Man

1920

woodcut

1948

"I am always wandering around in enigmas. There are young people who constantly come to tell me: you, too, are making Op Art. I haven't the slightest idea what that is, Op Art. I've been doing this work for thirty years now"

1939

1959

" I don't grow up. In me is the small child of my early days"

The official Escher website contains everything you ever wanted to know about him, a complete gallery and video interviews.

Pagan Sphinx Entertainment Highlight

2011-08-15T16:17:00.000-04:00

I still love Woody. :-) Dianne Keaton was kind of terrible but very charming in this flick, wasn't she?

Glimpses of Amsterdam, Part II - The Rijkmuseum

2011-08-07T13:44:00.000-04:00

Thinking back to just a few weeks ago when we were there, I really miss Amsterdam. Were I there today, I would probably be at the Sunday art market. I will post some photos of the markets in a future post.

I love cities for what they offer but unlike my daughter Ursula, who lives in and loves everything about Boston, I don't think I could live in most of them, even if I could afford to. Of those I've visited, there are only two cities I could see myself living in and being happy - San Francisco and now Amsterdam.

Here are a few more Amsterdam highlights from the Rijkmuseum.

Photo by Gina Duarte

Rijksmuseum

There is restoration work going on in the main building and we almost didn't go on the day we'd decided upon, since it was pouring off and on all day. I'm so glad we braved the rain and went anyway. Because of the renovations, all of the masterpieces of the Golden Age were set up in one room. It was breathtaking. Here are some of my favorites. Photography was strictly forbidden so of course, these images are borrowed from various sources on the internet. They've been credited wherever possible.

Johannes Vermeer

The Love Letter

Rembrandt

Self-Portrait as a Young Man

c. 1628-29

Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem

(1562-1638)

Bathseba

Bumper Sticker Sighting

2011-08-06T17:07:00.000-04:00

This is for Linda at Vulture Peak Muse, with love and affection...

and because she is thinking about dragons.

Happy Hour Friday

2011-08-05T17:19:00.000-04:00

Time to begin making dessert - peach crumble with this year's first local peaches. Have a great weekend. :-)

Love and all Groovy Stuff,
Gina

Pagan Sphinx Entertainment Highlight

2011-08-04T11:18:00.000-04:00

This is a film to savor. It stars Christopher Plummer, James McAvoy...ummm...now I've lost my train of thought ;-)...where was I...oh, and Helen Mirren. Directed by Michael Hoffman.

Highly recommended. *****

The Last Station is a love story set during the last year of the life of the great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy. As his health deteriorates, Tolstoy (Plummer) is tended to by his wife Sofya (Mirren), daughter Sasha (Duff) and devoted disciple Valentin Bulgakov (McAvoy)

However, having rejected his title and embraced an ascetic lifestyle, Tolstoy finds himself increasingly at odds with Sofya. As he considers signing a new will leaving the rights to his work to the Russian people rather than his family, the conflict between husband and wife grows to breaking point.

C is for Chihuly

2011-08-02T12:42:00.002-04:00

I spent the weekend in Boston visiting my daughter. On Sunday, we attended the Chihuly exhibition at The Museum of Fine Arts.

Living three hours west of Boston, I've been to the MFA many times, both on weekdays and weekends. Never have I seen a line spilling out of the main entrance, down the steps and out onto the sidewalk. It was body to body inside, with the temperatures in the low 90s F (33 C) outside. The works themselves were truly awe inspiring, hence its popularly with so many people of all ages.

Photography was allowed so all of the following photos were taken by me.

"I’ve often wondered what the lack of depth perception does for me, but  somehow I think it’s probably made me see things differently.”

–Dale Chihuly

Dale Chihuly

Dale Chihuly biography

Boston Globe article

“Glass is the most magical of all materials. It transmits light in a special way ..."

"I never met a color I didn't like." ~ Dale Chihuly

“I want my work to appear like it came from nature”

Linking to ABC Wednesday

The Friday Evening Nudes

2011-07-29T17:00:00.000-04:00

Tonight, the nudes go skinny (or not so skinny) dipping. ;-)

Stay cool!

Marie Auguste Emile Rene Menard

Camille Pissaro

Anders Zorn

Frileuse

Swedish

Frederick Childe-Hassam

American

Renoir

Ignacio Pinazo Camarlench

Spanish

Hippolyte-Petijean

Glimpses of Amsterdam

2011-07-25T13:16:00.001-04:00

I recently received an email from a reader who wished to know a bit about my impressions of Amsterdam, Holland, as he and his wife are thinking of visiting there. I'm grateful for that email, as I am usually reticent to write extensively and though my return email was brief, it provided a sort of jump start for this post. My fear of writing is really about beginning the process. Once I am done, it often feels good to have written.

After an inauspicious first step out of the shuttle bus that brought us from the airport to the office of the agency from which we rented our apartment and a desperate plea for a space to be momentarily ill, we finally found ourselves in a lovely, spacious, airy apartment overlooking the Singel Canal. I took to our neighborhood immediately, feeling quite fortunate that my wish to visit this city had finally come true.

I was not disappointed. After walking around a bit on our first evening in Amsterdam, sitting in an outdoor cafe just a few steps from "our" place, I felt right at home. Perhaps it's because I am a European native, but whenever I'm on that continent, I immediately feel a sense of belonging. I wasn't sure if not knowing Dutch would impact on my enjoyment of our visit but it was a needless worry, as it appeared to me that English is actually the second, unofficial language of The Netherlands. Besides, in reading signs in Dutch at museums, one became somewhat competent at deciphering some basic sentences. It was, of course, especially helpful in long passages, to have the English translations beside the Dutch ones. I've been telling people that the question I most frequently overheard on the streets of Amsterdam was "Where are you from". So many cultures are represented there. I was not surprised to hear Spanish, Italian, French and German spoken by visitors but hearing English spoken by so many Americans was not something I had anticipated.

What a happy, bustling city! I don't know if it's because it's a small city with lots of buildings packed together which makes it seem this way, but I have never seen so many bicycles, both parked and moving. And watch out if you're crossing the bike strips between the roads and the sidewalks!

Amsterdam is a romantic city; full of lovers walking hand in hand, the younger among them occasionally stopping to kiss. It was common to see a girl hitch a ride on her boyfriend's bicycle, chatting and laughing all the while. These people details endeared the city to me immediately. It crossed my mind, however, at how lucky these fashionable, pretty people are to have such a high standard of living. I counted myself among the lucky at being able to enjoy such a place and with a wonderful guide who has visited Amsterdam more than a dozen times, to show me around.

I took a series of photos that I call the Where's Wayne? collection. Here is one of them. I asked Wayne to stick his tongue out like the statue but alas he is a very shy man and would not cooperate :-)

Wayne, with his sharp eye for detail and excellent memory often alerted me to the small, quaint details of this old city. Sometimes it felt as if we were walking among a living hidden pictures exhibition. A fresco above a doorway...

...an artistic arrangement in a window...

...a bit of graffiti on a sidewalk...

... a sculpture of a deer on the top of a building...

The canals and architectural details of the buildings provided endless visual entertainment for me...

...and there were quite a number of rainy days, though that didn't stop anyone, including us. Except for one exceptionally rainy and gusty night when Wayne had to meet a colleague for dinner, we were out and about. On these rainy nights, we stayed close to home so we could easily duck in out of the rain.

To be continued, if you're not too tired of the tour yet!

Goodbye Lucian Freud

2011-07-23T10:19:00.000-04:00

Hello, my blogging friends!

I've been back physically since late Wednesday morning but not quite back into my homebody routines! The heat wave in New England, combined with the hot and heavy breathing of my ancient Dell laptop Darth, have made for a slow transition back to blogging.

As far as our trip to Amsterdam, we had a great time but it always takes me a while to fully digest any transcontinental vacation I take to a place for the first time. I have a ton of photos. If you're interested and are not already on facebook, email me and I'll send you a link to the album there. pagansphinx@gmail.com. Otherwise, I will post a few choice photos in future posts. When it's not so hot and Darth is less lusty. ;-)

Love, love, love,

For now, I wanted to give you this link, about the passing away of one of my favorite painters of the 20th century, Lucian Freud and to re-post my Artist of the Week feature in this this post.

Lucian Freud

1922-2011

I'm sailin' away...

2011-07-08T13:07:00.000-04:00

We're leaving this weekend for Amsterdam...leaving you with one of my favorite songs about travel as well as one of my favorite Dylan covers, by the incomparable Nanci Griffith...

All the love,
Gina

Goodbye Cy Twombly

2011-07-06T20:13:00.000-04:00

Edwin Parker ("Cy" [after "Cyclone" Young]) Twombly, Jr. (April 25, 1928 – July 5, 2011)

Cy Twombley dead at age 83

" My line is childlike but not childish. It is very difficult to fake... to get that quality you need to project yourself into the child's line. It has to be felt. "

Emerging from the New York art world of the early 1950s, Cy Twombly brought a distinctive approach to painting and sculpture that evaded precise affiliation with the predominant movements of the twentieth century, including Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, and Minimalism. Inspired by ancient Mediterranean history and geography, Greek and Roman mythology, and epic poetry, Twombly created—sometimes on a grand scale, in multiple-panel works—a sometimes-inscrutable world of iconography, metaphor, and myth. The breadth of Twombly’s imagination and his interdisciplinary approach to subjects traverse vast distances, resulting in works that are at once baroque and spare, modern and ancient. The rest of this excellent article, Cy Twombly in Depth, here

Cy Twombly: A Retrospective

Works by Twombly at the Brandhorst modern art museum, Munich

Lepanto

untitled- (bolsena)

Sites to go to for various works of Cy Twombly

The Menil Collection, Houston Texas
Cy Twombly Gallery
Gagosian Gallery

Art Foraging - The Latest Catch

2011-07-04T11:17:00.001-04:00

Art foraging on the web...sometimes remarkable; always eclectic.

ENCINITAS, CA (AP).- The "Surfing Madonna" appeared just before Easter weekend and has been stirring a soulful debate in this Southern California beach town ever since. The striking mosaic of the Virgin of Guadalupe riding a wave was affixed to a wall under a train bridge by artists disguised as construction workers in April. It technically is graffiti that should be removed under the law. But the surfing Madonna's beauty is drawing a mass following, and even city officials who say she must go acknowledge they too have been taken by her. They have spent thousands to hire an art conservation agency to find the best way to remove her without causing damage to the art. entire story here

I recently discovered the work of Argentine artist Raquel Forner (April 22, 1902 – June 10, 1988), who mixed expressionist and surrealism to create her works. There isn't much biographical information on her other than this wikipedia entry, which mentions her artistic interest in the Spanish Civil War (she spent time in Spain) and in depictions of strong female images.

(this, to me, is reminiscent of De Chirico)

And because I have a few friends who are R. Crumb fans (Susan, Joe?), here are a few images of his I discovered while art surfing recently. Enjoy!

The Official R. Crumb Website

(worth the visit!)

For you Brits (or world travelers) lucky enough to access it - the Tate Movie Project, because who doesn't love animation? :-)

Musical Postcard

2011-06-30T22:00:00.000-04:00

Put on your headphones and listen. You will love it...

Sending love and good wishes for a jubilant summertime.

Love,

I'm not scared of dying,
And I don't really care.
If it's peace you find in dying,
Well then let the time be near.
If it's peace you find in dying,
And if dying time is here,
Just bundle up my coffin
'Cause it's cold way down there.
I hear that its cold way down their*Yeah, crazy cold way down their*.

[Chorus:]
And when I die, and when I'm gone,
There'll be one child born
In this world to carry on,
to carry on.

Now troubles are many, they're as deep as a well.
I can swear there ain't no heaven but I pray there ain't no hell.
Swear there ain't no heaven and I pray there ain't no hell,
But I'll never know by living, only my dying will tell.
Yes only my dying will tell.
Yeah, only my dying will tell.

[Chorus]

Give me my freedom for as long as I be.
All I ask of living is to have no chains on me.
All I ask of living is to have no chains on me,
And all I ask of dying is to go naturally.
Oh I want to go naturally.

Here I go,
Hey Hey!
Here comes the devil,
Right Behind.
Look out children,
Here he comes!
Here he comes! Hey...

Don't want to go by the devil.
Don't want to go by demon.
Don't want to go by Satan,
Don't want to die uneasy.
Just let me go naturally.

and when I die,
When I'm dead, dead and gone,
There'll be one child born in our world to carry on,
To carry on.

* (no joke, "their" version of "there" on the ringtone website I copied and pasted from. :-D

Bumper Sticker Sighting

2011-06-23T20:14:00.000-04:00

Hey, all! Just a note to let you know that my mother is visiting from Portugal until 6 July so I'll be tied up 'till then and may not be able to get to blogs or answer email as promptly as usual. Happy Summer Solstice!

Spotted at The Strolling of the Heifers parade and Slow Living Summit in Brattleboro, Vermont. That's me in the reflection and the slogan isn't too far from autobiographical, either!

The Arty Side of Brattleboro, Vermont

2011-06-19T11:10:00.001-04:00

I blogged about Brattleboro just a few weekends ago, after attending The Strolling of the Heifers parade, which highlights the area's agricultural heritage. I visit there frequently, as it is only a twenty minute drive north on the interstate.

There is another side to Brattleboro which is its artisan community and its burgeoning contemporary art scene. One of the coolest venues in the city which has been labeled "the college town without a college", is The Brattleboro Museum and Arts Center. It's quite small but not insignificant.

Last weekend, on a rainy Saturday, I met up with my blog friend from New York City, Gay Liberal Homo, who was spending some vacation time that spanned The Berkshires to Cape Cod.

Inside the museum,I recognized "libhom" immediately by the slogan on his tee-shirt. Though he doesn't especially like having his picture taken, he allowed me to photograph his shirt! :-)

True to form, indeed!

Here is a sampling, in order of my personal enjoyment, of what we saw in the exhibit In The Zone III, a local art contest from which nine artists were chosen. The "local" criteria were that artists could be from all of Vermont or within 100 miles of Brattleboro.

There were a couple of other very good exhibits there as well. I was pleased to hear that libhom was quite impressed with what he saw. A great compliment to cow country from a long-time resident of NYC! I love it that photos are allowed for every corner of the museum.

Wheelchair, 2010

projector, DVD player, wheelchair and flash animation

This installation, by Chinese-born video artist Le Xi, was quite poetic in its own way. The immobility of the wheelchair, with a backdrop of flashing projections of frantic movement. It's obviously a piece that makes more sense in motion than in a sill photo. Le Xi's work explores opposites - stillness and motion, darkness and light. Being a fan of juxtapositions of all types, I think this was my favorite thing that day.

Richard Heller

(Brattleboro, Vermont)

The Republic of Illusion

1995-2011

Mixed media on oak tag

Heller buys 2 3/8 by 4 3/4 inch oak tag shipping labels and uses them as a "no fuss sketchbook substitute".

This installation was endlessly fascinating. When I return before its end on July 3, I will look at it again and again and take many more photos of the various tags, which he takes everywhere he goes and records whatever catches his eye. He then arranges hundreds of them on a wall grid, making this essentially a work in progress. The arrangement of the tags hold special significance for him but the viewer may want to draw his/her own conclusions.

In the exhibit Nature is not Your Friend - A Consideration, the paintings of Christin Couture of our very own Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts, are embellished with odd details by her artist husband William Hosie. Construction paper shapes or lines of yarn are added to the paintings. Using color as a code for the interventions (which to me are really collaborations) in Couture's paintings, the viewers eye is drawn to pause, go or stop at yellow, green and red at specific junctures. Couture's paintings are hauntingly Victorian, whereas Hosie's are influenced by pop art and the Beat Generation. The intersection of the two eras make for a puzzling but beautifully executed and well-integrated exhibit.

After the rain stopped, libhom and I walked up from the museum to Main Street's Gallery in the Woods, where I illegally took a few photos! We both let out disenchanted sighs over some of the very expensive art works we would purchase if we were a couple of wealthy tourists.

We concluded our meet-up by enjoying some good conversation over decent Thai food at Thai Bomboo. After three years of "knowing" libhom online, it was really cool to finally meet him. I wish I could have joined him in a visit to the Essex-Peabody Museum in Salem, for their recent Man Ray and Lee Miller exhibit, which was libhom's next museum destination. That exhibition is going on until December, and I hope not to miss it, as I am a huge Man Ray fan!

A Bit of Joni

2011-06-15T17:21:00.000-04:00

My daughter and daughter-in-law just returned from a trip to Paris, which reminded me of this song.

I lived in Paris in 1965 and 66 and it's true, they did kiss on main street...and in the subway, the grocery store and especially in the park. :-x

Sunday Snippet: Running with Scissors

2011-06-12T16:02:00.000-04:00

In the early 2000's Augusten Burroughs' memoir Running with Scissors became an instant sensation. Locally, its popularity went over the top, as Burroughs was brought up in Amherst and Northampton. The talk around the book was great enough that I avoided it until after the hype wore off. It was hard to avoid learning things about the book and the author's strange and dysfunctional upbringing. I stuck to my guns, though, as I don't like to read a book or see a film when there is so much of other people's attention focused on it. I like to have a clear and open mind as a reader and draw my own conclusions based on the work itself and not on the swirl of opinions held by others.

Nine years passed and I forgot all about Running with Scissors until a couple of weeks ago when I heard that Burroughs' (that is his nom de guerre) mother Margaret Robeson, much written about in Running with Scissors, had published a memoir in her own defense. A few years ago I read Burroughs' brother's memoir Look Me in the Eye, about his lifelong struggle with Asperger's, a form of autism. After finding Running with Scissors at my local library, I am now halfway through it and really enjoying it.

The NPR story on The Long Journey Home, Margaret Robeson's recently published memoir, intrigued me for a couple of reasons. Firstly, that three people in the same family should have quite distinct and at times very different perspectives on the same set of events. This is a testament to the complexity of individual experience and its resultant memories and how we interpret both. Secondly, I'll admit to being fascinated by Burroughs' characterization of his mother, who identified herself as a poet and had high ambitions of having her work published in The New Yorker. I'm waiting for inter-library loan of her book to arrive and I'm sure it will be a long wait, as local fans of Burroughs book clamor for it as a means of comparison.

Most memoirs have the feel of vindictiveness or are self-pitying portraits of betrayal and disappointment. Augusten Burroughs' doesn't strike me as self-pitying or vindictive, just as a story he had to write and publish, perhaps as a way of making sense of his strange childhood circumstances. It is also very funny without compromise to the seriousness of child neglect and the dangers of psychological quackery.

Just a bit of background on the snippet, taken from the chapter Pure Projection: at the age of thirteen, Augusten Burroughs was sent to live and eventually became the legal charge of his mother's psychiatrist, given the name Dr. Finch in the memoir. Dr. Finch had several children, both teens and adults, some of them the children of former patients or patients themselves, living with him in his massive Victorian home. In this excerpt, Burroughs discusses how anger was addressed in the Finch household.

The most excellent fights involved five or more people. Eventually, the fight would be resolved the way all disputes were resolved: Dr. Finch. He would be called at the office or the arguing group would travel en masse to his office, a hostile collective gang, and oust whatever patient he was seeing at the time. "Family emergency," someone would say. And the patient, whether a potential suicide or somebody suffering from a multiple personality disorder, would be transferred to the waiting room to drink Sanka with Cremora while Finch solved the dispute.

Finch believed that anger was the crux of mental illness. He believed that anger, unless it was expressed freely, would destroy a person. This explained the constant fighting in the house. Since they were tiny, the Finch children had been encouraged not just to sing , dance and jump rope but also to vent.

Anger was like the ground hamburger of our existence. Its versatility was inspiring. There was Anger Turned Inward, Repressed Anger, Misguided Anger. There were Acts Made in Anger, Things Said in Anger and people who might very well die if they didn't Face Their Anger.

So we screamed at each other constantly. It was like a competition and the prize was mental health. Every so often Finch would say, "Hope has been expressing a lot of healthy anger lately. I truly believe she's moved up to the next level in the stages of her emotional development. She's leaving the anal and moving into the phallic." So then everybody hated Hope because she walked around being so smug and emotionally mature.

I can't wait to read Margaret Robison's memoir to see what she made of Dr. Finch who, by the way, died before the publication of Running with Scissors.

Art Foraging - The Latest Catch

2011-06-09T21:22:00.000-04:00

Art foraging on the web...sometimes remarkable; always eclectic.

Maryna Baranovka

Maryna Baranovka's work reminds me a bit of Linda's at Vulture Peak Muse

Rockwell seems out of place among these innovative, contemporary artists but I couldn't resist including this painting I'd either never seen before or never noticed. I love the perspective from above. When I see such great work from Norman Rockwell, I am reminded of what an amazing illustrator he really was. ~P.S.

Ebb and Flow

Sperone Westwater Gallery

New York

Richard Long: Flow and Ebb opens with an overwhelming and head-tilting painting on the gallery’s double-height, first floor wall. Created specifically for the space, the painting comprises an immense black circle, which is cut by an arc of light-brownish mud. Nearly spanning the entire wall, the work pushes the gallery-goer back on order to take it all in. The rest is here at Art Culture.

Video art from Alex Bag

Alex Bag

Le Cruel e Curieux Vie Du La Salmonellapod

2000 video still

(straaaaaaaange! As is much of the video art I've seen at MoMA and Mass MoCA)

A Whore in the Kitchen

2011

Ryan McGinness

Aaron Morse
American (b. 1974)

Christy Langer
Canadian
Q & A Christy Langer

The Strolling of the Heifers

2011-06-07T16:36:00.002-04:00

Linking to My World and Shadow Shots

My last post Homelessness in the U.S, is a serious and sober one. Let's have some fun now, shall we? :-)

Last Saturday, The Future Mr. Pagan Sphinx and I awoke early to beautiful morning of sun and a fresh spring breeze. A perfect day to take in the 10th annual Strolling of the Heifers parade (and Slow Living Summit) in nearby Brattleboro, Vermont. It was to be our first time, as previous years we've missed it for one reason or another.

The Strolling of the Heifers celebrates New England small farm tradition, new-age organic farming and, as my friend Susan put it, generous doses of fun and funk! Enjoy!

There is a tradition in Vermont that if you see a cow in the middle of the road, go ahead and milk it. Just make sure you leave enough milk for the next guy. ;-)

The sign on the back of the cart reads save gas, ride an ass! :-)

The first crop of local strawberries is on its way to the markets this week!

Harlow's farm and sugarhouse is a business that was always generous to the kids at my former Vermont school; giving us free tours and great deals on fruit to take home.

And proud.

I thought this girl was especially sweet. The heifer, I mean!

The Dairy Fairy organizes her ring!

Not just for heifers:

Finally, for you foreigners who assume that all Americans are obese, a skinny cow! ;-)

Homelessness in the U.S.

2011-06-01T22:34:00.001-04:00

As those of you who visit here frequently know, I don't usually write extensively on any particular subject. Even my passion for art and culture fail to motivate me to write long posts. My passion for art is, in fact, a deterrent to writing about it. Because I read so much on these subjects, I don't feel that anything I write could possibly do them justice. But I don't intend this post to be about what I call my permanent writer's block. Instead, it is to finally write something, from my own experiences and perspectives that is talked about by most of us but rarely confronted. That topic is homelessness.

I've also been thinking a lot about the blog description in my header: art, love, peace and justice. There is a lot of art, of course. There is a lot of love, as this blog is a labor of love and I try by example to be a loving human being, who not only concerns herself with the blog content but also with caring about the people who comment here, whom I consider to be my friends, albeit for the most part, virtually.

But lately there's been no talk of justice on this blog. That doesn't mean I no longer believe in justice or think about it; I just don't usually write about it. I haven't since a couple of years ago when, from mostly a personal point-of-view, I shared what happened in my family when my older daughter fell in love with her wife in their junior year of college and they eloped to San Francisco in the few months after California made marriage equality the law and before they trashed it by passing Prop 8. I am beginning to think that I have to have some practical experience with the issue and a passion for doing my part, in order to write about it with any conviction. For me that doesn't happen with too many topics. I am not an artist, for example, so my passion for art is visual and I love to learn about it but I can't say I am able to write about it with any authority. Thus the extensive links to those sources better versed than I.

This is a lot to read for this blog and I know of at least one person (both in the "real-meet" world and the blogging world) who visits here frequently and has told me he doesn't have the attention span for long posts - one reason he likes my blog. I won't hold it against him (or anyone else), if he skips it. Though I hope no one does, of course!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

With the exception of a couple of transitional periods where my family and I lived with people who cared about us, I have never experienced homelessness firsthand.

What I have seen for the better part of my 32 year career, are many of families who have been officially homeless sometime before or during their connection with me, either as their child's teacher or as as the family's social worker; professional roles I have performed for Head Start, Massachusetts subsidized daycare programs and the Massachusetts and Vermont public school systems.

My current interaction with the homeless is as a volunteer "play-pal" with a fantastic Massachusetts non-profit organization, Horizons for Homeless Children. Once a week I visit my local homeless shelter and with two other volunteers, play for two hours with children from infancy through about age seven, in a room that is designed as a play space, with age-appropriate, educational toys, art materials and books.

I once visited a couple of families in this very shelter years ago, when I worked for Head Start. When a family is homeless, they and their children depend upon routine more than ever and being enrolled in a program like Head Start means their services continue even when there is a lack of permanent housing.

Families living in shelters are the luckier ones who qualify; often those with young children. There is a staggering number of homeless people without shelter who want and need it and for several reasons, some of them complex, are not able to access it.

I'd like to tell you a few statistics and provide some basic information that may put things into perspective if you are not in touch with this issue at all or if you live in another country and are only vaguely aware of the homeless problem here.

First of all, to deflate the myths that surround homelessness. Who is the typical homeless person? There is no such thing. Individuals range from single people with mental health or substance abuse issues to a nuclear family with young children who are homeless due to a job loss, an illness that has depleted their resources or foreclosure on a mortgaged home. There are, however, groups of people who are at higher than average risk for homelessness: young people aging out of the foster care system, people living in over-crowded situations and those just released from prison, to name a few.

While the numbers for homeless family households is not as large as that for individuals, nationally, approximately 500,000 children ages 0-5 experience homelessness in the course of a year. That is from a study by the Urban Institute in 2000. That number has surely gone up as the economy has deteriorated and services for the low-income, the unemployed and the underemployed have shrunk or disappeared altogether.

Here are some of the stories I've heard and impressions I've formed from my interactions with homeless people. Because I have always worked with families (largely single-mothers) and my volunteer work is at a family shelter, my stories are about them. There are more specialized shelters for people who meet the criteria for addiction and there are shelters for women victimized by domestic violence. ( I volunteered eons ago in one in an urban area of Mass) In those shelters there are a combination of individuals and families, providing services that attempt to meet the needs of all.

Many years ago, I provided services to a woman with two young children who became homeless when, after months of physical abuse, her partner smashed all of the windows in their house in the presence of the children and then set the place on fire. I drove by the condemned house every day, as it was close to the building where my office was. She and the children went to a shelter for victims of domestic violence (battered women is no longer politically correct) and within a couple of months, she had gotten back on her feet and had an apartment for her family. That shelter no longer exists in my community. It had to close due to lack of funding. Some services are still provided for women out of an office somewhere. Women in crisis have to seek shelter at a location outside of the county now, often taking their children out of school and away from any supportive people they may have in their lives. Often, they are forced to seek work in that new community because they lack the transportation and/or the financial means to commute.

Another story is that of a young woman and her three-year old daughter who were literally thrown out on the street by relatives whose house was already over-crowded with other people who had no place to live. Before the eviction, when I visited there for the first time, I had to endure six smokers playing cards at the kitchen table and the stench of a ferret "condo" in the same room. Neither the card players (nor the ferrets for that matter) gave a care that I was there, which is something I got used to working around after the initial shock. This young mom of about twenty ended up not in a shelter but moving back in with her boyfriend into his trailer. She told me she'd rather put up with the filth of the place and his abusive comments (he was not the child's father) than to go live with people she didn't know in shelter. Eventually, she moved out of that situation and into another overcrowded one and quit the my program, so I don't know what happened to her.

At the shelter where I have volunteered now for about six months, I have met several families. My role there is not as a social worker, so I don't pry. Sometimes families will tell you their stories or after a while, one surmises a bit about what is going on.

One family - two married parents and two very young children - have left the shelter. They found a place to live and are surviving on part-time jobs. The father served in the United States army. They relocated to Massachusetts from California, where he was stationed. I never learned anything else about them, except that they took impeccable care of their children, who appeared healthy and well-adjusted. In Massachusetts, health coverage is mandated by law, so it is likely that they, or at least their children, are insured through the state. Before this law, a family in this situation would lack insurance. There are flaws in this system. National health care it is not but it is at least an attempt at covering everyone.

For several months and through the holiday season, I played with two adorable siblings - a boy and a girl, ages four and six. These kids were intense, with the typical "acting out" behaviors that a good percentage of traumatized children exhibit: hitting each other hard and constantly, yelling and screaming angrily, grabbing toys out of the hands of other playmates and having miniscule attention spans. I had to ask their father to take one of them out of the play area once and the only way he could manage this six-year-old was to pick him up and sling him over his shoulder, the boy kicking and screaming. While I have the skills to handle that type of behavior, it is not allowed by volunteers. Not to mention that I don't miss having done that the occasional times the situation called for it, nor filling out the paperwork that ostensibly protected me from liability.

A family currently at the shelter, a father of, I'm guessing, less than forty years but looking in very poor health is the household head. There are two children, a fifteen year-old girl who gave birth to a son when she was just fourteen and her younger brother, about ten years old. While this very young mom adores her child and appears to take very good care of him, I worry about this family the most. While a cute, cuddly baby of nine months is a joy, he will grow up and need a lot more than a diaper change and cute outfits. I hope that she continues to raise him well and belies my concerns.

(I have more stories but I went with those that stood out in my mind the most and committed them to the keyboard before I had a chance to chicken out of writing this post. :-)

To qualify for shelter services, people must meet Mass. DTA criteria; the same or similar criteria that renders them eligible for food stamps, for example and is based on the current federal poverty guidelines established by the Department of Health and Human Services. Take a look at this table. The information may come in handy the next time you're called upon to talk to someone who thinks that welfare recipients are abusing the system or that homeless people are some sort of bazaar subculture. The complex packet of information and documentation one is expected to provide for any service they may receive is mind-boggling.

**2011 HHS Poverty Guidelines**
Persons in Family	48 Contiguous States and D.C.	Alaska	Hawaii
1	$10,890	$13,600	$12,540
2	14,710	18,380	16,930
3	18,530	23,160	21,320
4	22,350	27,940	25,710
5	26,170	32,720	30,100
6	29,990	37,500	34,490
7	33,810	42,280	38,880
8	37,630	47,060	43,270
For each additional person, add	3,820	4,780	4,390

SOURCE: Federal Register, Vol. 76, No. 13, January 20, 2011, pp. 3637-3638

I invite you to take a few minutes to hear one NYC woman's story, which is a fairly typical one, in the video Hanging by a Threat ,on The New York Times website. Her problems are exacerbated by the notoriously high cost of living in that city.

When I visit the shelter, what I see are people who have certainly been beaten down by the blows of life but I also see a tremendous resilience and a will to survive. If a parent is taking a break when we are there, which they are welcome to do, it is probably the only break they've had all day. Some parents use the play time session as a time to make dinner for their family, as this is done in shifts in a rather small kitchen, considering the capacity of the shelter. They are generally appreciative of the break we give them and the attention we heap on their children. Some are quiet and reserved about their situations, others sometimes come in and want to chat a bit. All take a great deal of interest in and show concern for their children. Most frequently come in the room throughout the session and check that their kids are doing okay.

When I see a mother with children somewhere out in public and she is yelling harshly at them, I try to remind myself that perhaps she's living in poverty, is possibly the victim of trauma herself and that she is very, very stressed. It is far too easy to be judgmental and I am sometimes guilty of that. There is a quote I and other adults who work with children say frequently but perhaps not enough: "All behavior is a form of communication". This goes for the coping strategies of adults in crisis as well.

I don't have answers to this multi-layered, complex problem, but with awareness sometimes comes action and solutions. If I can't solve the problem, I can help to make life a little better for people, two hours a week. I am hoping in the future to do more.

Information and Resources

National Coalition for the Homeless

Homeless Resource Center

NPR - Ending Homelessness: A Model That Just Might Work

Surrealistic Sunday - Leonora Carrington (April 6, 1917 - May 25, 2011)

2011-05-28T23:18:00.001-04:00

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I had a completely different post ready for this feature, until I saw the news on Friday that Leonora Carrington died at the age of 94.

Leonora Carrington was a British-born Mexican surrealist painter and novelist. She was the lover and muse to Max Ernst, one of the main founders of the surrealism movement. Read more here, at Art Knowledge News. And the obituary in The Guardian.

"I didn't have time to be anyone's muse... I was too busy rebelling against my family and learning to be an artist." --Leonora Carrington, 1983

The Friday Evening Nudes

2011-05-27T17:06:00.000-04:00

The nudes of Edward Steichen

One of the most influential figures in the history of photography, Edward Steichen (1879-1973) was also one of the most prolific and diverse. No other photographer can claim a leading role among the Photo-Secessionists, vibrant innovation in fashion photography, chief photographer for Condé Nast's Vogue and Vanity Fair, war photography born of two world wars, signature celebrity portraiture, and the title of curator at MOMA/NY where he conceived the groundbreaking exhibition, The Family of Man, viewed by nine million people in thirty-eight countries. more here

1903

Nude with Cat

Torso

1902

In 1913 Alfred Stieglitz devoted a double issue of Camera Work to Steichen's photographs. He wrote in the magazine: "Nothing I have ever done has given me quite so much satisfaction as finally sending this number out into the world."

(Dust Grain Sheet Fed Photogravure)

1905

"Every artist undresses his subject, whether human or still life. It is his business to find essences in surfaces, and what more attractive and challenging surface than the skin around a soul?"

~ Richard Corliss

Art Foraging - The Latest Catch

2011-05-24T13:28:00.000-04:00

Online this week, I perused the work of David Alfaro Siqueros...

Photographer Tina Modotti...

three Andrew Wyeth paintings I was previously unfamiliar with...

and these fascinating images of our planet Earth, from the exhibition Earth As Art, at the Library of Congress

and lastly, a rare photo of Andy Warhol by William John Kennedy
article here

Blogging 'Round the Globe (Linking to SkyWatch)

2011-05-20T16:49:00.000-04:00

An amazing, almost miraculous thing happened around here today. The sun came out for the first time in six days of rain.

Linking to SkyWatch

The Sphinx Awards Part I

2011-05-18T20:55:00.000-04:00

I've always loved The Movies and all sort of old cinema. My attention span becomes short during depressive phases (just getting out of one) and I tend to go into jags of movie watching. That includes actual trips to a theater, sometimes alone. I'm lucky to have two independent theaters within a half-hour's drive from my town. Mostly, though, I rent a lot of CD's and we plug the computer into the TV (I think that's what one does) and ta-da (!) a movie, among a choice of many,] and nary a commercial interruption. Thank you, Netflix. Sorry, but I don't miss the video store.

Early this morning, at 1:00 a.m., waiting for Mr. (Almost-Someday) Pagan Sphinx to arrive home from the airport, I fell asleep watching the Indieplex channel, I think it was. I watched most of a film starring Gary Oldman as Beethoven - Immortal Beloved, from 1994 (I love the 90's). A day or so before that, I caught the tail-end of a film I'd seen before - Talk to Her - directed by Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar.

I really liked both these films... or perhaps I am easier to please when I am viewing alone. ;-) I thought they both deserved more than the three stars I recall them both being assigned by the network. When I turned off the set, despite the late hour, I still had trouble falling asleep so to hasten the process I started thinking about favorite roles by favorite actors and came up with a list of approximately twenty such. I still didn't get to sleep until probably after 2:00 a.m. but the process of making up that mental list seems to be compelling me to commit it to a blog post. Bear with me if you can and if not, I understand. Chime in with your favorites. It will be fun. I promise.

Twenty Favorite Roles in Films I Like

(in spite of what the critics may have had to say. I don't generally seek out movie reviews, though occasionally I will listen to one on the car radio)

Gary Oldman in both Syd and Nancy and Immortal Beloved (as mentioned)

Kevin Spacey in both American Beauty and The Shipping News

(Having read the novel by Annie Proulx first, I thought Julianne Moore was totally miscast in her role as Wavey Prowse)
but perfectly cast as the porn actress in Boogie Nights, director Paul Thomas Anderson

Robert De Niro in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver

Sean Penn in I am Sam (nice soundtrack), Mystic River and Milk

Sean Penn as Harvey Milk

Edward Furlong in John Waters' Pecker (that doesn't sound good ;-)

Christina Ricci as Shelley in Pecker and as Selby in Monster , director Patty Jenkins

Ricci and Furlong in Pecker

Hilary Swank in Boys Don't Cry, director Kimberley Peirce

Frances McDormand as Marge Gunderson in Fargo (for which she won the Oscar for best actress in '96)

Holly Hunter as Ada and Harvey Keitel as Baines in The Piano, director Jane Campion

Harvey Keitel and Holly Hunter in The Piano

And although I liked Colin Firth very much in The King's Speech, I can't get over him as Vermeer in Girl With A Pearl Earring. I don't say that lightly, as I've tended to be disappointed with most biopics of famous artists. Probably not a lot was known about Vermeer, certainly hardly a thing about the young maid, so most of it is probably fiction. Oh, how I love a good story; passionately expressed!

Colin Firth and Scarlet Johansson, director Peter Webber

What are your favorite movie roles? If you make your own list, please link me up but also feel free to leave your lists, however long, in comments!

Part II coming up when I am next inspired.

Love and Peace,
Pagan Sphinx

Messy Gardener

2011-05-16T22:08:00.000-04:00

I put up some photos on my garden blog taken earlier today. The plants were an inspiration to think positive thoughts tonight. :-)

Litany by Billy Collins

2011-05-15T14:19:00.000-04:00

Even the jaded and ineffectual person that is currently me, had to smile at this one.

Billy Collins

You are the bread and the knife,
The crystal goblet and the wine...
-Jacques Crickillon

You are the bread and the knife,
the crystal goblet and the wine.
You are the dew on the morning grass
and the burning wheel of the sun.
You are the white apron of the baker,
and the marsh birds suddenly in flight.

However, you are not the wind in the orchard,
the plums on the counter,
or the house of cards.
And you are certainly not the pine-scented air.
There is just no way that you are the pine-scented air.

It is possible that you are the fish under the bridge,
maybe even the pigeon on the general's head,
but you are not even close
to being the field of cornflowers at dusk.

And a quick look in the mirror will show
that you are neither the boots in the corner
nor the boat asleep in its boathouse.

It might interest you to know,
speaking of the plentiful imagery of the world,
that I am the sound of rain on the roof.

I also happen to be the shooting star,
the evening paper blowing down an alley
and the basket of chestnuts on the kitchen table.

I am also the moon in the trees
and the blind woman's tea cup.
But don't worry, I'm not the bread and the knife.
You are still the bread and the knife.
You will always be the bread and the knife,
not to mention the crystal goblet and--somehow--the wine.

Keeping in Touch

2011-05-09T17:50:00.000-04:00

As you may know, my heart's not in the blog lately. But it is very much with your blogs. If I'm not putting an hour into an art post these days, I'm trying to visit blogs more frequently. My blogging mood is currently quiet, but just because I didn't leave a comment, doesn't mean I didn't see your post. :-)

I don't have much to offer, just a few photos of my yard where I've been resting more than usual these days due to my injured back. After re-injuring the tight muscles on Thursday (just minutes after a professional massage, interestingly) I am today, I hope, well on my way to full recovery. I went to work today, even wore my new groovy wedgie shoes (Becky, did you get yours yet? ;-) and the day went well. It was a beautiful, mostly sunny spring day, too. A bit gusty but everyone at school from toddlers to teachers was in a good mood. Personally, due to the week and a half of back problems, this is the first spring-like day I've enjoyed so far.

Thank you so much to those of you who left encouraging and positive comments. They really helped to make this bad spell pass more easily. And to a couple of new followers who recently left comments, my apologies for the dole drums.

View of the Connecticut River from our front yard

And the forsythia that has finally begun to bloom.

Love and Peace,

Pagan Sphinx

2011-05-08T10:57:00.000-04:00

Pagan Sphinx Photo

Happy Mother's Day

To all my blog friends who are mothers, have a lovely, fulfilling day with your loved ones.

(Not Exactly Happy) Happy Hour

2011-05-05T18:30:00.000-04:00

" I need a 12-step program to quit you, baby. "

Nick Lowe

Blog Note

2011-05-03T17:34:00.000-04:00

My back is still in spasm mode and I am into my third day off from work. I actually left school around noon on Thursday. Three and a half days out of work! I never do that. I think that tomorrow I will try to go to work, see the physical therapist, try to beat down the door of my favorite but very busy neuromuscular massage therapist whom my insurance company won't cover. I think tomorrow is the day I start trying to live among the living again. The lack of comfortable mobility is driving me crazy.

I'm having trouble concentrating on reading anything longer than article length. If you have any entertaining or informative links to share, please leave them in comments or email me at pagansphinx@gmail.com. Anything humorous? Bring it on.

I love this series Suzanne Vega has where she discusses what her songs are about and what they meant her when she wrote them. Below is one for the song Men in a War. I hope you can view it where you are and if not, I'm sorry! One day I will invest in a real blogspot jukebox. For now my Baby Dinosaur laptop used as a desktop computer, will have to do.

I really hope you're having a wonderful day. Sending love,

Pagan Sphinx

P.S. There are probably errors left and right in this post. Sorry, but it's time for me to sit up and hobble around the house for a while. :-D

Untitled

2011-04-27T20:10:00.000-04:00

I am currently in a blogging slump with a touch of emotional flu. I will see you when I am more inspired.

Love, peace and groovy things,

Pagan Sphinx

Characters on Canvas

2011-04-25T16:51:00.000-04:00

Unpleasant Duties of a Father

Adriaen Brouwer

What do you suppose the old woman in the background is saying? ;-)

Art in the News

2011-04-20T16:50:00.001-04:00

Dangerous Arts - by Salman Rushdie - op-ed New York Times, April 20,2011

Governments of the free world must make sure artists, like Ai Weiwei, who courageously stand up against authoritarianism are safe.

China’s most famous and politically outspoken artist, Ai Weiwei, has filled the back half of London’s cavernous Turbine Hall with what appears, from a distance, to be a mass of small grey pebbles. In fact these are 100 million tiny sculptures of sunflower seeds, made out of porcelain and hand-painted by skilled artisans in the Chinese city of Jingdezhen. Rest of the review in The Independent here.

Detained artist offered Berlin university post

What I've discovered about modern and contemporary art installations is that there is often more to them than meets the eye. It's easy to stroll by or read about a particular installation and write it off as junk, label it strange or just not think about it at all. This is one such case. If you happened to be in London, at The Tate's ginormous Turbine Hall and came upon a floor covered with tiny porcelain sunflowers that you could walk upon, what would you be thinking? if you had no knowledge of the artist or his motives, would you dismiss it as ridiculous? And if you were enlightened, would that change your mind about the relevance of such an installation?

I say it all the time - no matter how strange and incomprehensible, I admire an artist's drive to create. The ability to pull off something controversial or weird or unpalatable is artistic in and of itself. When one risks persecution and censorship at the hands of one's government and yet their vision and need to create is still unbound. That is a courageous thing.

I am in love with Ai Weiwei's sunflowers as much as I am in love with Charles Ledray's miniature garments. And for the same reason - the unstoppable need to put their work out there for us to guess at and a lot of times, to criticize. In the case of Ai Weisei, the need to create and express has turned his government against him; their most celebrated artist. Artists risk much for many things, not the least of which is the freedom to create. I for one, am grateful for this.

In Other Art News

A Nun Defends Serrano's 'Piss Christ', Which Was Attacked on Sunday

A Little Madness in the Spring

2011-04-19T14:57:00.000-04:00

A little Madness in the Spring
Is wholesome even for the King,
But God be with the Clown -
Who ponders this tremendous scene -
This whole Experiment of Green -
As if it were his own!

~~Emily Dickinson

For several years now,every April during my spring vacation I visit Emily Dickinson's garden at The Homestead. Emily is my neighbor to the southeast, less than a half hour's drive from where I live. This is one of my top favorite places in Western Massachusetts.

Since childhood I've been fascinated by The Belle of Amherst. Her reclusiveness has been speculated upon by all manner of scholars, some of whom have made it their entire life's work to study her poems and letters, in an effort to understand who she really was.

A very private person, obviously. By her own instructions, her letters were burned after her death by her younger sister Lavinia, who while doing so, came upon a box of 1700 of Emily's poems. During her lifetime, Emily Dickinson felt uneasy about publishing her very personal and highly passionate writing. Perhaps she felt secure that her tiny bundles of poems, sewed together into little books, would one day be discovered and found to have merit.

I've always entertained a suspicion that Emily's reclusiveness was not a result of serious mental illness as was once highly speculated. The old stereotype of her as a frail, perhaps frigid spinster have more recently given way to a view of Emily much more after my own heart! In thinking of someone like Dickinson, we assume that she was like a little mouse, never speaking to anyone, holing up in her upstairs bedroom to write, paranoid that anyone was watching her. In fact, Emily interacted fully with her own family, having close relationships with both her siblings and an adoration of her nieces and nephews. She tended the family garden and baked the family bread daily. Eccentric, yes. Yet busy and productive, with a sharpness of mind that is one of the trademarks of her poetry.

That her poems reveal, at times, a smoldering physical passion is obvious. Her relationship with God and religion tentative and questioning, she was most comfortable worshiping nature in her garden. Her father and brother Austin, prominent citizens of Amherst, helped to found the Congregational Church, just across the street from the Dickinson home. Emily never stepped foot inside of it.

"I feel that the world holds a predominant place in my affections. I do not feel that I could give up all for Christ, were I called to die" (L13)

I have not gone into a full biography, as others have done a much better job of it than I could possibly. For everything that is known about Emily, please visit The Homestead website, linked above. For many things speculated and invented, read Jerome Charyn's delightful novel The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson.

Here some more photos of Emily's garden in April, 2011. If you visit last year's post on this subject, you will notice a difference in how the garden is blooming. Spring is here, albeit somewhat delayed.

Scilla

Spring comes on the World—
I sight the Aprils—
Hueless to me until thou come
As, till the Bee
Blossoms stand negative
Touched to Conditions
By a Hum.

~~Emily Dickinson

A little Madness in the Spring
Is wholesome even for the King,
But God be with the Clown -
Who ponders this tremendous scene -
This whole Experiment of Green -
As if it were his own!

The path from the Dickinson Homestead to The Evergreens, Austin and Susan Dickinson's home.

Magnolia

Hyacinth

Wild Nights - Wild Nights!
Were I with thee
Wild Nights should be
Our luxury!

Futile - the Winds -
To a Heart in port -
Done with the Compass -
Done with the Chart!

Rowing in Eden -
Ah, the Sea!
Might I but moor - Tonight -
In Thee!

Linking to That's My World

Artist of the Week - Emil Nolde (Linking to ABC Wednesday)

2011-04-17T10:55:00.002-04:00

N is for Nolde

Emil (Hanson) Nolde

(1867-1956)

German Expressionist painter and printmaker

Self-portrait

1917

"There is silver blue, sky blue and thunder blue. Every colour holds within it a soul, which makes me happy or repels me, and which acts as a stimulus. To a person who has no art in him, colours are colours, tones tones...and that is all. All their consequences for the human spirit, which range between heaven to hell, just go unnoticed." ~ Emil Nolde

1908

Green Landscape with Red Cloud

"I had an infinite number of visions at this time, for wherever I turned my eyes nature, the sky, the clouds were alive, in each stone and in the branches of each tree, everywhere, my figures stirred and lived their still or wildly animated life, and they aroused my enthusiasm as well as tormented me with demands that I paint them."

Spectators at theCabaret

1911

"The art of an artist must be his own art. It is... always a continuous chain of little inventions, little technical discoveries of one's own, in one's relation to the tool, the material and the colors."

"What an artist learns matters little. What he himself discovers has a real worth for him, and gives him the necessary incitement to work."

Lost Paradise

Linking to ABC Wednesday

Radio On

2011-04-15T19:59:00.001-04:00

Joni Mitchell Meets William Butler Yeats

2011-04-13T15:48:00.000-04:00

Note: I revised and corrected (so many embarrassing mistakes!) this post from 2008 a bit and I'm republishing it for National Poetry Month.

sketch by John Singer Sargent

I'm a huge Joni Mitchell fan. Being a teen in the mid-seventies, my favorite of Joni's music is not what was once categorized as folk, but her recordings since the mid-70's beginning with Hejira. From there I worked my way back to her folk beginnings. Even early on, Joni created a genre all of her own and remains to date an influence on countless songwriters, singers and musicians.

In this song, Mitchell takes the classic Yeats poem The Second Coming, slightly alters the words and writes a musical composition to it. My only complaint about Joni's version is that although she stayed fairly true to the original, she should have left it entirely as it was written. Others believe she shouldn't have touched it all. I'll let you decide.

(On a side note: Am I the only poetry nerd who thinks that Yeats was hot? ;-)

Slouching Toward Bethlehem from the CD Night Ride Home, 1991

Joni Mitchell

based on the poem by W.B. Yeats

The Second Coming

Turning and turning in the widening gyre*

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

The Second Coming!

Hardly are those words out

When a vast image out of Spritus Mundi

Troubles my sight: somewhere in the sands of the desert.

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,

Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it

Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again; but now I know

That twenty centuries of stony sleep were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

William Butler Yeats

*gyre -Yeats called each cycle of history a "gyre"--literally a circular or spiral turn. (He pronounced it with a hard "g.") He had a complicated system detailed in his book A Vision that proposed history as a series of 2,000 year eras, each of which begins and ends with some apocalyptic event in which the divine (in a Christian or some other form) inserts itself into human history resulting in cataclysmic historical and mythological consequences.

Sunday Snipppet

2011-04-10T08:29:00.001-04:00

It's National Poetry Month in the United States. I try throughout the year to post a few poems on The Pagan Sphinx. And when April rolls around, I kick it up a notch. I'm experimenting with posting poems (or snippets of) by poets that I'm not familiar with. Previously I've gone with trusted favorites such as Emily Dickinson, Yeats, William Carlos Williams, e.e. cummings and Anne Sexton.

The poem for this Sunday is by Charles Bukowski. I've read him in quick spurts in the past. Usually while dusting my bookshelves! It always takes me all day to dust because I pull out a book and start reading. Before I'm aware of it, I've picked up and leafed through a dozen. Reading, dreaming, reminiscing...and sneezing from the dust!

When I went to dust the stacks this time, though, I was missing my one collection of Bukowski so I took myself over to Raven Books in Greenfield (electric kool-aid moment) and browsed the poetry and fiction sections. I came home with Charles Bukowski's Sifting Through the Madness for the Word, the Line, the Way and Kurt Vonnegut's God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater.

Perhaps in another installment of Sunday Snippet, I will take a passage from the latter. I've been on a Vonnegut kick recently, when I was really never a huge fan of his in the past. I did meet Kurt Vonnegut once and shook his hand but it was so uneventful in terms of actual details, that I won't get into it. Well, I did get into it. That was it!

And now without further gibber, is the Charles Bukowski poem:

about competition

the higher you climb

the greater the pressure

those who manage to

endure

learn

that the distance

between the

top and the

bottom

obscenely

great.

and those who

succeed

know

this secret:

there isn't

one.

~Charles Bukowski

Music for Saturday

2011-04-09T15:28:00.000-04:00

What is it about a jangly guitar that gets me all worked up in such a good way?

"Songs are better than Prozac."

Happy Hour Friday

2011-04-08T17:55:00.000-04:00

paintings by Joni Mitchell

ABC Wednesday/ Artist of the Week

2011-04-05T17:00:00.002-04:00

November 18, 2010–February 13, 2011 at The Whitney

L is for LeDray

The first three photos below were taken by me on our January trip to The Whitney Museum of American Art. I can't let any more time pass by without sharing a bit with you about this exhibition. It was truly amazing. While I don't have titles for these pieces (I wasn't even supposed to take pictures...ssh), I did listen to a portion of the guide's talk and I was able to approach her and ask a question. My question was whether Charles LeDray had the clothing sewn by studio hands. Her reply was that, no, he sewed each and every miniature article of clothing in the fabric exhibitions. She went on to say that LeDray spent three years making men's suits. This fascinated me, as my mother is an amazing tailor and seamstress. She would have loved this exhibition.

And while I did take these photos, I did not put my silly little copyright label on them because I'm not altogether sure it's appropriate to try to own a photograph that I wasn't supposed to have taken in the first place? It goes without saying that this lapse in character is strictly for educational purposes!

(if you'll notice the legs of the spectators above, it will give you an idea of the scale of the display)

This installation is meant as a miniature replica of a typical thrift store. Every item, including, I was told, the coat hangers, was made by LeDray.

Charles LeDray also works with ceramics and in two magnificent glass cases, his miniature ceramics were displayed. In one, and endless array of black porcelain vases, plates, bowls and other containers cast their tiny shadows upon the surface on which they sit.

photo:Skira Rizzoli: 2010

Photo: Tom Powell, courtesy of Sperone Westwaer

SOURCES

Whitewall Magazine

Charles LeDray at The Whitney

Getting Small: A Man's World, in Miniature NY Times

From Gladrags to Riches

Sperone Westwater

The Telegraph

Linding to ABC Wednesday

Art Foraging - This Week's Catch

2011-04-02T12:00:00.001-04:00

Thomas Allen

Roy Lichenstein Foundation

Jesse Treviño

Sue Coe

b. 1951

Electric Kool-Aid

2011-04-02T08:49:00.003-04:00

I don't know about you, but I live in a really dynamic community of intellectuals, hippies, queers and weirdos. Could be the reason that I feel so much at home in The Happy Valley. Because by nature I am a bit shy, I love to be in and among the bands of off-beats. If I'm going to be a silver-haired, lefty nerd with a married gay daughter, I'd rather blend in than stand out. If you know what I mean. ;-)

All of this to say that occasionally I'd like to post a photo of my beloved Happy Valley that alludes to that free spirit of the Western Massachusetts that I love so much. As my mind meanders around all sorts of connections that I have yet to put into words, I want to call this feature Electric Kool-Aid (Acid Test).
Okay, so we're not quite San Francisco and the 60's are over, but we've created our own brand of pranksters. It works for me.

In the North Quabin region of Franklin County, there is an annual Fall event that pays homage to garlic, sustainable farming and all-around wackiness - The North Quabin Garlic and Arts Festival. Rarely timely with my news (cuz hell, I don't have to be if I don't wanna), I'm sharing with you a sampling of photos from last Fall's festival. I hope you enjoy it.

Baby, You Can Drive My Car

We arrived in the grassy parking lot to the strains of The Beatles Drive My Car. As we were walking to queue up for the shuttle ride up to the festival, we saw that the music was blaring from this funky truck and that a peculiar yellow man was playing to the beat with a sort of...mobile?

Don't ask because I have no idea what any of it meant. Call it Burning Man, Western Massachusetts style! ;-)

Peace, Love and Understanding,

Pagan Sphinx

Linking to :

Weekend Reflections
Shadow Shot Sunday
That's My World

Happy Hour Friday

2011-04-01T17:12:00.000-04:00

Artist of the Week / Linking to ABC Wednesday

2011-03-29T16:57:00.000-04:00

K is for Kandinsky

Wassily Kandinsky

1886-1944

Black is like the silence of the body after death, the close of life.
~Wassily Kandinsky, 1911

In 1911, a new group of German artists began exhibiting their work to the public. Der Blaue Reiter was to become the high point of German Expressionism, but it also opened the way towards abstraction with its stand for free experimentation and originality. It is Wassily Kandinsky, the most influential member of the group, who is most often credited with the distinction of painting the first ``abstract'' picture, in 1910.

The Blue Mountain

1908-09

Guggenheim Museum, New York City

Munich-Schwabing with the Church of St. Ursula

1908

The First Abstract Watercolor

Of all the arts, abstract painting is the most difficult. It demands that you know how to draw well, that you have a heightened sensitivity for composition and for color, and that you be a true poet. This last is essential. (Wassily Kandinsky)

WWI

1913

"Every work of art is the child of its age and, in many cases, the mother of our emotions. It follows that each period of culture produces an art of its own which can never be repeated." (from On the Spiritual in Art)

Moscow I

1916

"Color is the power which directly influences the soul. Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammers, the soul is the piano with the strings. The artist is the hand which plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul."

~Kandinski

Red Oval

1920

That is beautiful which is produced by the inner need, which springs from the soul.

~Wassily Kandinsky

Yellow, Red, Blue

1925

Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris

Orange Violet

1935

Twilight

1945

Sources

Olga's Gallery

WebMuseum Paris

The Guggenheim

History of Russian Painting

Humanities Web
The Painter's Keys

Linking to ABC Wednesday

Surrealistic Sunday

2011-03-27T08:51:00.000-04:00

If you are a regular reader of The Pagan Sphinx, you know that I often stretch the true definition of Surrealism by including in the feature Surrealistic Sunday, examples of work that is not authentically surrealistic, but contains some visual elements that remind me of surrealism. This oil painting by Diego Rivera is one such example that I ran across recently in Art Knowledge News.

Rivera, is in fact, better known for his flirtation with Cubism than anything Surrealistic. Though one of his wives, the iconic Frida Kahlo, was pronounced a surrealist by the chief founder of the movement, Andre Breton.

Diego Rivera Virtual Museum

Picture for One Moment

2011-03-26T15:10:00.013-04:00

We got up to High Ledges Wildlife Sanctuary on Saturday and as the windchill must have been in the single digits, we passed on a hike and had pancakes and delicious local maple syrup at Davenport's Maple Farm in Shelburne, Massachusetts.

In addition to maple sugaring, Davenport's Farm raises cows. There were two calves in pens for the kids to pet. Being kids at heart, we couldn't resist them. This photo is of the shier, more skittish one

Below is The Future Mr. Pagan Sphinx petting the more friendly calf, whose look of ecstasy is priceless! :-)

Happy Hour Friday -- Billie Holiday

2011-03-25T17:00:00.000-04:00

Goodbye Elizabeth Taylor

2011-03-24T08:02:00.000-04:00

This REM song is ostensibly about Courtney Love (ugh) but to me, it's all about Elizabeth Taylor. An amazing screen actress and a compassionate human being has passed on. Goodbye Elizabeth.

Artist of the Week - (Linking to ABC Wednesday)

2011-03-22T18:10:00.001-04:00

J is for Jasper Johns

born May 15, 1930

Jasper Johns is an American contemporary artist who works as a painter, printmaker and sculptor. In the late 1950’s, Jasper Johns emerged as force in the American art scene. His richly worked paintings of maps, flags, and targets led the artistic community away from Abstract Expressionism toward a new emphasis on the concrete. Johns laid the groundwork for both Pop Art and Minimalism. Today, as his prints and paintings set record prices at auction, the meanings of his paintings, his imagery, and his changing style continue to be subjects of controversy. read the rest here.

"To be an artist you have to give up everything, including the desire to be a good artist."

~Jasper Johns

Flag

1954-55

(encaustic, oil and collage on fabric mounted to plywood)

42 x 61 in.
Museum of Modern Art, New York

"One night I dreamed I painted a large American flag, and the next morning I got up and I went out and bought the materials to begin it. And I did. I worked on that painting a long time. It's a very rotten painting—physically rotten—because I began it in house enamel paint, which you paint furniture with, and it wouldn't dry quickly enough. Then I had in my head this idea of something I had read or heard about: wax encaustic."

~Jasper Johns

Target

1958

MoMA, New York

"Everyone is of course free to interpret the work in his own way. I think seeing a picture is one thing and interpreting it is another. "
Jasper Johns

Map

1961

MoMA, New York

"I have no ideas about what the paintings imply about the world. I don't think that's a painter's business. He just paints paintings without a conscious reason."

~Jasper Johns

Color Linoleum Cut
5 Linoleum blocks cut by the Artist and Printed on
Handmade Kurotani Mitsumata paper
22 3/4 x 17 inches

Racing Thoughts

1983

(painting, collage and assemblage)

Collaboration was an important part in advancing Johns’ own art, and he worked regularly with a number of artists including Robert Morris, Andy Warhol, and Bruce Naumann. In 1967, he met the poet Frank O’Hara and illustrated his book, In Memory of My Feelings.

SOURCES:

American Masters

JasperJohns.com

The Artchive

Joseph K. Levine Fine Art

MoMA - Jasper Johns: A Retrospective

Linking to ABC Wednesday, Round 8

Picture for One Moment

2011-03-21T17:48:00.001-04:00

Saturday was brisk and windy but beautifully sunny. The-future-Mr.-Pagan-Sphinx (that's a nod to the style of hyphening one's name with one's spouse, era ;-) and I decided we had to go to the bulb show at Smith College Botanical Garden, as it was the last weekend before they closed up the bulb display for the season. We figured the last day would be less crowded but we were wrong. The place was busier than I've ever seen it on any weekend I attended this event in the past. The botanical garden is a small jewel among the laid-back, but busy pace of Northampton. And the view from of the lake from the knoll the greenhouse sits upon, is western Mass at its relaxed best. If you live in western Mass and you don't love Northampton, you have no heart! :-D

Because it was so crowded, it was hard to take decent photos, let alone get any stand-outs. This is my humble photo offering from the bulb show, which I hope you will enjoy. For some photos of this bulb show that will really knock your socks off, go visit my dear friend The Cunning Runt at Little Bang Theory. (for those of you who don't know him, CR is The Girls' Dad and my western Massachusetts neighbor to the west, not to mention my blog buddy. (hi, guy). :-)

The Girls (and then there are three more girls, besides ;)

As I look out the window my desk faces at home, a mixture of snow and freezing rain is turning to just rain. It's been coming down since around 9:30 this morning. I'm glad I had a chance to get some color and warmth on Saturday at Smith. On this first day of the vernal equinox, I wish you....well...better weather than what we're getting around here today! But also love, peace and groovy things.

Pagan Sphinx

Linking to That's My World Tuesday

(fantastic folks from around the world gather in these places virtually to celebrate the beauty and interest that surround us through photos and other creative media)

Sunday Snippet

2011-03-20T10:48:00.000-04:00

I write like

Gertrude Stein

I Write Like by Mémoires, journal software. Analyze your writing!

Gertrude Stein

(1874-1946)

I found the link for this thingy at my friend Dianne's blog Forks Off the Moment. Just for fun, I thought I'd include a snippet of the oetry of Gertrude Stein. Incidentally, she is one of my favorite literary "celebrities" who happens to be one of my least favorite poets. Perhaps I have not given her fiction a real chance but there is very little compelling me to do so. Still, what a time she had in Europe with Alice B. Tokeless and all those intellectual and artistic types like Picasso and Hemingway!

This is a Stein poem in its entirety:

A kind in glass and a cousin, a spectacle and nothing strange a single hurt color and an arrangement in a system to pointing. All this and not ordinary, not unordered in not resembling. The difference is spreading.

~Gertrude Stein