Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Ohara Koson

Ohara Koson (1877 -1945) was a Japanese painter and print designer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, part of the shin-hanga (new prints) movement.

Koson was born Ohara Matao; it is thought that he started training in painting and design at the Ishikawa Prefecture Technical School in 1889–1893.

Between 1900 and 1912, Koson worked with a number of different publishers and designed a few Russo-Japanese War prints, as well as genre landscapes, but his passion remained with kacho-e (pictures of birds and flowers).

Using ukiyo-e woodblock printing techniques inherited from the Edo period, he created numerous works of birds, flowers, and animals.

His works are characterized by their delicate, subtle colors, which belie their origins as woodblock prints.

Koson’s prints can almost be described as ‘printed paintings’, as woodblock carvers and printers convincingly transmitted the bulk of his works to the print medium.

More of Ohara Koson‘s delicate paintings can be found at https://japanesegallery.com/artist/koson-ohara and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohara_Koson.

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Faerie Paths — Cats

My Cats

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I believe cats to be spirits come to earth. A cat, I am sure, could walk on a cloud without coming through.

~Jules Verne, author

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Sunday Evening Art Gallery — George Rodrigue

Here is a repeat of a fun Gallery — George Rodrigue

.Meet Blue Dog. Possibly one of the most iconic pop art figures created by artist George Rodrigue.

Are You Lonesome Tonight
Blue Dog Oak

Blue Dog has been everywhere from the permanent collection of the Smithsonian to the White House and all over the world.

Butterfly Blues
A Faster Breed

A Faster Breed

Born and raised in New Iberia, Louisiana, Rodrigue began painting during the third grade while bedridden with polio.

Rollin on the River

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Later in life, his art studies at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette followed by the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena gave him a foundation that spawned one of the greatest success stories in southern art.

Rodrigue was a gifted artist who started out painting the landscape and the rich history of Louisiana and the Cajun people. But that all changed when he found his model in his studio: a photograph of his dog, Tiffany, who had died.

Good Morning Acadiana
He Stopped Loving Her Today

“I’m expressing the feelings of mankind today through the Blue Dog,” Rodrigue said. “The dog is always having problems of the heart, of growing up, the problems of life.”

I Am an Artist
Space Chair

His heart was in his work, in his love of his blue dog and his beautiful wife and loving kids.

Are You Trying To Get On My Good Side
Blue Dogs on the Red River

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More of George Rodigue’s amazing blue dogs can be found at https://georgerodrigue.com/.

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Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Millefiori

Millefiori is a glasswork technique which produces distinctive decorative patterns on glassware. Millefiori glass is decorated with cross-sections of patterned canes, often arranged to resemble a field of small flowers. The maker builds a design through the length of a glass cane, draws the cane thinner, cuts it into patterned slices called murrine, and fuses those pieces into or onto another glass form.

The results of this labor-intensive process are gorgeous patterns and deep intensive colors that instantly make any object artistic and unique.

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Rah Rah ~

This past weekend I went to my grandson’s high school Homecoming parade and football game. Besides the pang of being old enough to witness his first homecoming dance date, the parade and game itself stirred all kinds of memories, both good and bad.

The parade, the Homecoming Court, the school club floats were filled with beautiful kids. The pom-pom squad, cheerleaders, even the football players had an air and charisma that glowed like an aura all around them.

That’s what Homecoming is supposed to look like.

I rarely look back and wish I could redo any part of my life. But high school is a close first choice.

I had a rough middle school life, having been made fun of for most of those eternal years. So much so I went to a Catholic high school 10 miles away to get away from it all. Come sophomore year I got contact lenses and lost a couple of pounds and went back to the public school near my house. Needless to say, there was no trace of the do-badders from middle school.

I must have over-compensated for bad feelings, for I spent three of my four high school years dating the same person. While I enjoyed the attention of one particular boy, I cut off any potential I had to enjoy high school like a high schooler is supposed to.

I didn’t join any clubs. Try out for any plays. Go to any football or basketball games. Didn’t hang with girlfriends and have overnights or go to my Junior or Senior prom.

Love supposedly conquered everything.

Two months after I graduated my boyfriend and I broke up.

I’m not saying being active in high school is for everyone. These days, homework, the Internet, and plotting a course towards either college or a job is pressure enough.

But watching a group of girls representing some high school club, laughing and waving from the back of a pick up truck, struck a chord of negative nostalgia.

I doubt if I would have been as cute and perky as all the kids that waved as they passed by. But who knows. I would have been able to connect to the experience. To the memories.

Don’t devote yourself to one single cause at a time.

The world is full of experiences that are willing to share you with others.

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