the room divider

As amazing as it may seem these abstract pictures - which to me look like something out of the

ending of 2001 - A Space Odyssey (sp?) - when Keir Dullea is hurled into space in his quest to find out what the

Monoliths was - are actually a result of a project I did with my two g-kids - ages 5 and almost 3.

The abstract art project was done on one panel of a Room Divider - and the meduim was that of

colored sand and glitter.  The artists simply explored the Wonderful World of  Abstract - by pouring the sand and glitter directly on the panel - as I stood by excitedly - seeing how absorbed they were in it all.  Some glue was used and today - after taking these pictures for posterity - I turned the room divider

upright once more - and then proceeded to clean up the mess.  I was able to save some of the sand and glitter for another time.

All in all - I deem it a very successful project - and I'm hoping it is the start of a new 'thing' - in the annals of abstart art.  Perhaps not quite on the level of  - let's say - Jackson Pollock's innovative drip

method - but still - one never knows - What New Worlds Are There  To Explore.                              

ed paschke

Ed Paschke kept - in his Art studio - magazine clippings, posters and advertisements - according to
Debra N. Mancoff - in her book 50 AMERICAN ARTISTS You Should Know.  Ms. Mancoff
also tells us that Ed Paschke also painted 'provocative and often lurid figures.'

She uses - for an illustration in her book - Paschke's Violence ( 1980) - oil on canvas - Whitney
Museum of American Art, New York - which I love - even though it is a little weird.  I googled
Ed Paschke and found an assomrtment of Great Paintings - most of which seemed to me a
little weird - but one in particular that I liked can be found under Ed Paschke Images - the 10th
down on the far right - which looks like Wheels - and can be found in The Koffler Collection
of Chicago Artists.

The Koffler Collection contains 26 paintings, sculptures and works on paper created by Chicago
Artists, including works by Roger Brown, Leon Golub, Theodore Halkin,  Vera Clement, Ed Paschke -
and Others.  Dating from 1960 - 1980, many of the pieces are typical of  the well-known Chicago
taste for figurative art - according to Smithsonian Magazine on google.

I plan to check out the Koffler Collection the very next time I have an opportuntiy to visit the
Windy City.

And I look forward to that - and to seeing firsthand one of Ed Paschke's fine Paintings.

Ed Paschke was born in Chicago in 1939 - and died there on November 25th - in 2004.

andy warhol

The Truth is - I hardly know anything about Andy Warhol - and I've
never been into his Art.

Andy Warhol is just one of those People who I knew existed in the
same World that I live in.

In her book - 50 American Artists You Should Know - Debra N. Mancoff
tells her Readers that:


~Andy Warhol was born on August 6th in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - in 1928.


At the beginning of each Article Debra Mancoff writes kind of an introductoty
sentence or two about the American Artists and this is what she says about
Andy Warhol:


Andy Warhol's absurd quips, delivered with deadpan naivete, often disguised
shrewd insights.  He claimed to like 'boring things':  popular porducts,
movie stars, and the endless repeating news cycle.  These were his icons, and
in his art they represented the common culture of a postwar, affluent America.


Besides that  - there is a small picture of him in Mancoff's book and he had - in
that particular picture - short chopped off white hair.

So in that respect I guess you could say that Andy Warhol and I have a Common
Bond.

: ]

thomas hart benton

I was reading a comment by one of my most Loyal Commenters just
now - and -FJ suggested that I paint directly on the Walls of my Sunroom
Art Studio - rather on the Room Divider (see my previous Art Blog Post.)

-FJ went on to say that he got the idea for that because his Father - an artist
in his own right - did that very thing.

But Really - folks - ya can't think of painting 'on the walls' without using the
word Fresco.  And you can't use the word Fresco without sometimes
interchanging it with the word Mural.  And if the Truth were known - any
use of the words Fresco/Mural cannot happen without this Artist coming -
to mind:


THOMAS   HART    BENTON


I didn't know back then - when I would stand  - here at Indiana University -
and stare at the Thomas Hart Benton Murals.

I Didn't Know - Even Then - What Impact The Arts Would Have On My Life.

I mean I knew that music and art were a part of my life - but back then They weren't
Relevant to my life.  Boys were Relevant to my life. 

But Now I Know That Once More I Will Stand And Stare At These Murals -
Painted By Thomas Hart Benton:


IN  AWE.

and

IN ADMIRATION AND RESPECT

and

in my inherently stupid way - with tears in my eyes -

i most likely will be thinking:


THOMAS HART BENTON    -   you go girl



















and may I suggest -for a Real treat - that you click on -FJ in the comment
section of my Post (Sue Hanes) on my Art Blog and if you do that - it will
take you into a World As Yet Undiscovered - and that is the World of
-FJ's Blog - Farmers Letters - and well - Just Do It.

He's Smart - folks.

sue hanes

Had author Debra N. Mancoff decided to extend her book on
Famous American Artists to 51 - instead of limiting herself to
50 Famous American Artists - this is what an Article about
Sue Hanes might look like:


Picture yourself in a Sunroom Studio (see my Post on that which
actually contains Real photographs of Sue Hanes' Sunroom Art
Studio)  - small but Large enough to hold two baskets of assorted
Colors of Acrylic Paints - a nice metal black Easel - a fairly large
folding Table - other Supplies needed by an Aspiring Housewife
Artist - Various Canvases - Craftily Decorated Walls - and a
Really Nice View of So. Indiana Trees.

What has Sue Hanes accomplished in her 5-6 (?) years as a
Traditional Idiot Housewife Artist?

Quite a lot - really.

To see what Sue Hanes has accomplished - click on her Post
My Art.

And you will see - folks - an Assortment of not-that-bad examples
of what a Traditional Idiot can do when She Sets Her Idiot Mind
To It.

And currently Sue Hanes - the Artist - is working on a Room
Divider - covered on Both Sides with - Canvas.  Sue will be
doing Blues and Greens - maybe Purple - Abstract Designs on
this Room Divider - and no one knows - folks where that will
Lead - not even the Idiot Artist Herself.


Sue Hanes was Born - and she is still very much Alive -









even now.   : ]

jean-michel basquiat

Debra N. Mancoff gives only one example of Jean-Michel Basquiat's
painting - and here is how his Charles the First (1982) acrylic and oil
paintstick on canvas, three panels, 198.1 x 158.1 work of Art spoke to
me:

~not completely abstract

~childlike simplicity

~a background of mainly rich yellow and two panels - one done half
in deep blue and another 3/4 in black

~readable words or pharses - if not immediately understandable:

Haloes
Fifty n i ne  cent.

Thor

X- MN

193

MOST KINGS GET THIER HEAD CUT OFF.

1953

COPYRIGHT.

OPERA

CHEROKEE

MARVEL COMICS (crossed off)

~in this painting there are recognizable shapes along with - to me -
what look like spatters and scribbles


I like this painting.

I like this Artist's Abstract Style.

I love the Colors in this Painting.

This Painting Speaks To Me Without My Knowing For Sure What
The Artist Is Trying to Convey.
~~~

Jean-Michel Basquiat was born on December 22nd, 1960 in Brooklyn, New York.

He died on August 12th in New York City.

At the age of  22.

I wonder why.

richard diebenkorn

If I had the big bucks and a room big enough to hang it on the wall -
I would ask the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art if they would
consider selling me Richard Diebenkorn's Ocean Park No. 54 (1972.)

Now I don't know why Debra Mancoff has insisted on giving the dimensions
of this really cool painting in cm  - 254 x 205.7 - but it sounds big to me
folks.

and -

~it's Abstract

~it's done completely in geometrical shapes

~the colors are soothing - mostly light blue

~yet in the upper righthand corner there is a rectangle
that is deep red

~and a few golds but not metallic

~and there is one very long and very thin rectangle
that is done in a sort of dark but not too dark green -
makes me think of moss really


Mancott tells us right off that Richard Diebenkorn 'composed his paintings
in response to his surroundings, from the sun-bleached deserts of New
Mexico to the luminous convergence of land and water on the southern
California coast.'

Now I've never been to New Mexico - or even California for that matter - but
I like this painting.

And if California can inspire Richard Diebenkorn to paint something as nice
as Ocean Park No. 54 - and in Abstract - then maybe I could paint something
nice in Abstract if I were to live in California too.





but what are the chances of that happening?






folks





:  ]

eastman johnson

Eastman Johnson was born in Lovell, Maine in 1824 and died in
New York City in 1906. 

In her book 50 American Artists You Should Know - Debra N. Mancoff tells
us that one of the most important contributions that Eastman Johnson
made as an Artist is that he 'caught the breadth of the National Spirit
in a time of Turmoil and Transition.'


Mancoff goes on to say that Johnson made drawings of  Union
Soldiers on three different tours with them - and these insightful
glimpses into the Civil War were well known and published.

Johnson also did paintings of the lives of African Americans -
and uses one of them to illustrate her book  - Negro Life at the
South (1859) which hangs at the The New York Historical Society,
The Robert L. Stuart Collection.

Eastman Johnson lived to the age of 82 - often painting Portraits -
including two of Presidents of the United States - and was able to
enjoy widespread recogniton of his Talent during his Life.

matther barney

was born in San Francisco in 1967 and works in sculpture, photography
drawing and film.

Either Debra N. Mancott needed to include him so that she would have
enough American Artists to make up 50 - or she really does think his
work is worthy of attention.


I will leave that up to you - dear reader - and you can decide for yourself
if you want to google him.








: ]

john sloan

I'm glad that when I opened up my American Artists book
today that the American Artist I'm going to write about is
John Sloan.

Never heard of him.

John Sloan was born in 1871 in Pennsylvania - and started his
career in painting there.  But when he moved to New York City
at the age of 33 people made fun of his art so because he was
smart he started basing his work on his new surroundings.

Debra Mancott - the author of 50 American Artists You Should
Know and the book that I am basing my essays of American
Artists on - writes this about John Sloan:


Sloan immersed himself in the life of his adopted city,
reveling in subjects that encapsulated the raw energy of
modern urban life.  He painted blowsy (?) hairdressers
in their shops,working girls out on the town, carousing
drunkards, and raucous crowds on election night.


She goes on to say that Sloan had a genuine feeling for
the working people.

I googled John Sloan and under images the only painting
that spoke to me was one called Three Cultures - painted
by Avi Levin.

Having seen many of John Sloan's paintings on google -
I can only say that he was a Real Artist who lived a nice
fullfilling life before dying at the age of 80.

colonial limners

I decided that today I would write about the very first person in
my book on American Artists.

That person would be Colonial Limners

So I check to see what his dates of birth and death are - because I
like to mention that.  Makes the post seem authentic - don't you
think?

Only I can't find those dates.


That's because Colonial Limners is not an Artist - but rather 
limners is a term used in 16th century England to designate
a painter of portrait miniatures. : ]


In her very good book 50 American Artists You Should Know by
Debra N. Mancott - and at this point I would like to say that not
only is this book very good, it is also easy to understand with
intelligently-written esaays and excellent examples of art - she
cites an illustration of a Self-Portrait painted by Thomas Smith - in
which he has his hand on a human skull.  Mancott explains in the article
that the skull is present as a reference to the 'transcience of human life.'

In what she calls another iconographic attribute Debra Mancott points
out a naval battle seen through the window in the painting which has
been put there by Smith to remind us of  his career as a mariner.


I am not very interested in Portrait Painting as such - with the exception
of the Mona Lisa - simply because it is beyond my realm of imagination
as to how artists can do that.  But I respect every artist that is sincerely
trying to express his feelings - with any medium.

louise bourgeois

My book 50 American Artists You Should Know by Debra N. Mancoff
says that Louise Bourgeois wrote to a tribute to her mother - explaining
the motif of the spider in various media:

'the spider will repair any damage that is done to her web'

I'm ok with that part but listen to this:

'She doesn't get mad (the spider not her mother.)

She weaves and repairs it.'


Well let me tell you folks that I was bitten this year by a spider that
was most likely mad.  It burned two layers off of the skin on my thumb.

That sounds mad to me.


Louise Bourgeois was either obsessed with spiders - or she simply thought
they were interesting.

I don't know about that - and I don't want to know.


What I do know is that she had a huge sculpture made (927 x 891 x 1023 cm)
-which is in the Cheim & Read Collection of New York - and although I am
tempted to tear that page out of my book - I will not.

Out of respect for a fellow artist and creative person I will leave it there.

Louise Bourgeois is a Native Parisian - and really folks I can't compete with
that - now can I .

Louise Bourgeois is now an American citizen.

She has on display a 30-ft bronze spider in Rockefeller Center in New York City.






those native parisians must really be something - makes ya wanna dedicate
a book to them - hard to let them go isn't it

henry darger

When I was looking for yet another American artist to write about
and I leafed through my 50 American Artists You Should Know by
Debra N. Mancoff today I had honestly never heard of Henry
Darger.

But I just knew that he would be the American Artist I would write
about.

Why - you might ask?

Color.

Two of his paintings are shown in my book:


Spangled Blenkins (Kiyoko Lerner Collection)

Untitled (overall flowers) also in the KL Collection


The colors in these two paintings as bright - reds, blues
pinks, purple and others.

and well - I like bright colors.


Henry Darger was born in Chicago in 1892 and died there
in 1973.