Month: January 2024

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Stan Bitters

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Stan Bitters (1932-2021) was an American sculptor and ceramic artist known for his unique style of creating large-scale, textured, and sculptural ceramic murals, wall sculptures, and pottery.Bitters graduated from UCLA in 1959 with a BA in painting. He also attended San Diego State University, and Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles.. In 1958, immediately after college, he was hired to be the principal artist at Hans Sumpf Company in Madera, California, a company known for inventing a special emulsification process for water-proofing adobe bricks.The company’s main product was adobe, but Mr. Sumpf sought the creative potential of clay as a decorative element in homes.Bitters was the first artist at Hans Sumpf, and his creations —  such as the birdhouse, thumb pot, and other ceramic designs — would provide the company a stylistic imprint and creative identity.In 1963 Bitters  left Hans Sumpf and started his own studio after being commissioned by Garret Eckbo to build fountains for the Fulton Mall.As a pioneer of the organic modernist craft movement in the 1960s, Bitters has been producing rough-hewn ceramic birdhouses, planters, pedestals, mural tiles, totems, boulder walls, and fountains for more than half a century.He is an American ceramic sculptor rooted in the abstract expressionism which is  understood as a modality suited for American ceramic art.

“The power of an object comes from its ability to tell you a story.” Bitters reflects.

“Good sculpture makes you listen.”

More of Stan Bitter’s wonderful sculptures can be found at https://www.stanbitters.com/sculptures.

 

 

 

 

Self-Esteem

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Although men are freely allowed (and encouraged) to read this blog, this one today is for all my girlfriends out there.

Self-Esteem. What is it, exactly?

The dictionary defines self-esteem as “belief and confidence in your own ability and value.”

We all believe in ourselves, don’t we? At least now and then?

Then why are we always so hard on ourselves?

Went away for a weekend with the family. Had a wonderful time. Friends, family — there’s nothing like that in the world. I believed in my own worth. My own value. As a mom, a friend, and a grandma.

Then I got a look at myself in a family photo. 

Who in the hell was that?

We all feel good about ourselves until we are reflected in 3D.  All of a sudden we become our too-wide eyes, our Rubenesque figure, our complexion or our wrinkles or our hair.

How quickly our “self esteem” plummets.

I wonder if guys ever go through that. 

I doubt if their Earthly image is often compared to thin, busty, smoldering eyes beauties. If they notice that most movie stars, rock stars, artists and models are thinner, have more perfect jawlines or skin tone, or have killer white teeth and great smiles.

Yet women are constantly held to that standard.

Yes, the playing field of women has widened through the years. There are beautiful plus size ladies, ladies with moles and wrinkles and less-than-perfect skin.

Yet somehow they pale in comparison with the world’s ideal woman.

I’ve gone through this rigamarole all my life. You would think at 71 I would be done comparing and wondering and belittling.

But self-esteem is something that is messed with from the very beginning.

I know I’m a great mother, a great granny. I am a supportive friend, a kooky conversationalist and a half-decent writer. I am supporting, loving, and inquisitive.

I’m working on that being enough.

The photo made me realize that I do need to work on this body if I’m to see 72. I get that. THAT I can work on.

The rest — I’m working on that, too.

How about it, girlfriends? Have you 100% got this self esteem thing handled? 

Or are you your own worst critic?

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Jon Juarez

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Jon Juarez is an artist, author, and illustrator from San Sebastián, Spain.He is known for creating beautiful sketches and drawings with bright colors and a surrealist touch.Juarez describes himself as a soul of the wilderness, dragged by his pens towards civilization. Many of the artist’s works are based on real places, but they always have a surreal twist that takes them out of the realm of possibility.Through years of practice and honing his craft, he has learned to express his creative visions, and they now take the form of elaborate compositions that boast meticulous details.Each piece is beautiful in its delicate lines and use of color, and they are made alluring thanks to additional elements such as  polygons and waves.More of Jon Juarez‘s colorful works can be found at https://harriorrihar.myportfolio.com/ and https://designyoutrust.com/2022/12/the-superb-hand-drawn-illustrations-by-jon-juarez/. 

Sunday Evening Gallery Flashbacks

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I LOVE LOVE LOVE going back in time and showing you Art Galleries of the Past.

They are all so cool and all so different. So needed on a day like today. Let your mind and eyes wander!

 

Stilettos/High Heels

 

Sand Sculptures

 

Banksy

 

Jenny Foster

 

Pianos

Famous Food Paintings

 

Shayna Leib

 

Silver

 

Love Statues

 

 

 

 

Faerie Paths — Dreary

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Yan Hidayat

 

The day is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
The vine still clings to the mouldering wall,
But at every gust the dead leaves fall,
And the day is dark and dreary.

~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Can Sun

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London-based Chinese artist Can Sun has turned ignoring conventional wisdom into an art form.Far from heeding the old adage against playing with food, Sun has turned ordinary apples into masterpieces of complex geometry and design.Adding elements like brass hinges to the apple sculptures, Sun challenges the viewer’s preconceived notions about everyday objects.

The artist’s past was fraught with hardship, which influences his unique approach to his work. He seeks to turn everyday objects into pieces that shake the audience’s conventional understanding of reality.

The art of Can Sun serves as a compelling intersection of existential philosophy and everyday reality. By employing humor and surprise, he takes objects that are typically ignored and turns them into profound expressions of life’s inherent contradictions.

 “My work tries to break the audience’s logical expectations, which makes the audience wonder if the world is absurd,” Sun explains.“The more everyday the object, the greater shock when the audience sees its different forms.”

More of Can Sun‘s entertaining work can be found at https://www.instagram.com/suncannot/.

 

 

Totally Useless Facts

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I can tell I’m getting cabin fever already — it’s not even the end of January and I’m already restless and occasionally worthless. I don’t feel like writing, I don’t feel like crafting, reading puts me to sleep. 

It’s this late sunrise/early sunset that throws what circadian rhythm I have left off into a whirling dervish. 

So to fulfill my antsy pantsiness, here are a few totally useless facts that will make you smile. 

 

  • The King of Hearts is the only king in a deck of cards without a mustache. (I wonder if he feels left out.)

 

  • “Dreamt” is the only word in the English language that ends with “mt.” (MmmHmm…mt)

 

  • Pogonophobia is the fear of beards. (maybe that’s what the King of Hearts has!)

 

  • If you open your eyes in a pitch-black room, the color you’ll see is called “eigengrau.” (I thought it was just called black.)

 

  •  “Tesseradecades,” “aftercataracts,” and “sweaterdresses” are the longest words you can type using only your left hand. (I see you all trying a bunch of words holding your right arm behind your back.)

 

  • It’s impossible for you to lick your own elbow. (I see you trying this, too!)

 

  • A “jiffy” is about one trillionth of a second. (Sometime during the late 18th or early 19th centuries, scientist Gilbert Newton Lewis defined a jiffy as the amount of time it takes light to travel one centimeter in a vacuum, which is about 33.4 picoseconds or one trillionth of a second.)

 

  • It’s possible to lead a cow upstairs… but not downstairs. (I can’t say I’ve ever tried this.)

 

  • The little dot above a lowercase “i” and “j” has a name. (What is it???)

 

  • Your stomach produces a new layer of mucus every two weeks so that it doesn’t digest itself. (How lovely.)

 

  • The little dot is called a “tittle”.( it’s likely a combination of the words “tiny” and “little” since it is an itty-bitty dot.)

 

  • A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out. (I never noticed.)

 

  • You can’t hunt camels in Arizona. (I never checked that out in Wisconsin.)

 

  • Most car horns are in the key of F. (and still obnoxious.)

 

  • Napoleon’s penis was sold to an American Urologist for $40,000.

 

Ahem…. and with that …

Thank you Best Life and Thought Catalog for spicing up my boring day.

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Iris van Herpen

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Iris van Herpen is a Dutch fashion designer known for fusing technology with traditional haute couture and craftsmanship.Van Herpen graduated from the ArtEZ University of the Arts in Arnhem in 2006 and interned at Alexander McQueen in London.By combining handcraft, technology and the art of couture, van Herpen curates progressive and experimental fashion experiences with a highly conceptual approach.Van Herpen burst onto the scene in 2007 with her unusual approach to applying innovative 3D printing techniques to her clothing designs.Most notably, the Dutch designer was one of the first to present 3-D-printed dresses in both static and flexible forms on the runway, in a collaboration with the Belgian company Materialise.Fusing together technology and Haute Couture craftsmanship, Van Herpen’s unusual approach to design has earned her a unique and loyal following.

Van Herpen works in collaboration with experts from other industries in the fields of science, technology and architecture.This allows her to bring together her expertise in fashion with other areas to create something truly unique.

Each creation makes such an overwhelmingly beautiful and creative statement.

More of Iris van Herpen‘s unique designs can be found at https://www.irisvanherpen.com/ and Iris Van Herpen.

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Vanessa Lubach

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Vanessa Lubach is a linocut illustrator and artist who grew up in Oxfordshire and trained as an illustrator in Brighton, England, graduating in 1990.Drawing from observation has always been at the core of Lubach’s work, whether it is illustrating, painting or printmaking.Each piece begins with a sketch and a general idea of the palette.After drawing and carving the main image, or key block, she prints and transfers the composition to additional blocks designed for each individual color.Her linocuts are intricately carved and multi-layered,  and some pieces take almost a year to complete.Lubach likens her printmaking practice to the intricacies of oil painting, and draws on her color experiences to inform her vibrant compositions.“I linocut like a painter and paint like a linocutter, and the two disciplines work together to inform and enhance each other,,” Lubach shares.More of Vanessa Lubach‘s lovely prints can be found at http://www.vanessalubach.co.uk/ and https://www.instagram.com/vanessalubach/.

 

 

Weird Houses

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While looking for something else (as always), I happened to come across some weird-looking houses. And while that’s a great topic for an upcoming gallery, I felt like sharing a few of them with you this morning….

 

 

 

I love odd and unique things — houses included. 

Hope you are staying unique, too!

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Constantin Brâncuși

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Constantin Brâncuși (1876 – 1957) was a Romanian-French sculptor, painter and photographer who made his career in France.Considered a pioneer of modernism, Brâncuși is  one of the most influential sculptors of the 20th-century,  often called the patriarch of modern sculpture.Born in a family of poor peasants, Brâncuși showed early talent for carving objects out of wood. Brancusi was trained as a sculptor in Romania before moving to Paris in 1904. There he studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts and exhibited at the Salon d’Automne.

Brâncuși quickly became accepted as a member of the Paris avant-garde, as his sculptures departed from the 19th century Western trend toward naturalism and eroticism, and were based instead on non-Western and so-called ‘primitive’ sculpture.His sculptures were of two distinct types: elegant, abstract marble or bronze forms, such as the ‘bird’ sculptures based on a Romanian legend, and rougher carvings made of wood, like his series of ‘endless columns’.Brâncuși was also known for paying special attention to the bases on which his sculptures were displayed, believing that the pedestal was part of the sculpture itself. The artist aimed to depict in his sculpture “not the outer form but the idea, the essence of things”.

Though his art is regarded as abstract by many, he insisted that it was representational and disclosed a fundamental, often concealed, reality.

 

More of Constantin Brâncuși’s marvelous sculptures can be found at https://www.theartstory.org/artist/brancusi-constantin/ and https://www.wikiart.org/en/constantin-brancusi.

 

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Anna Julia Gobbi

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Ana Julia Gobbi is a graphic designer and photographer from Buenos Aires, Argentina.Gobbi’s inspiration comes from urban areas twilight through darkest hours night, often around high rise apartments with a solitary light on the inside.This light could be a tribute to those who, like the artist, celebrate the night and create art when most of the world is sleeping.Gobbi likes to play with the perception of the viewer — is this real or not?Her photography generates a moment of pause in which one stops and gets lost in the image.That is what the artist wishes to generate — a little curiosity.Gobbi tries to portray the hidden life behind the elements of darkness and light, nature and concrete, the intrinsic of a building.Her photography often captures singularity and stillness of the world through colors and darkness and shadows.

More of Ana Julia Gobbi’s mystique photography can be found at https://www.instagram.com/anajugob/ and https://nftphotographers.xyz/fine-art/ana-julia-gobbi-anajugob/.

 

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Romare Bearden

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Romare Howard Bearden  (1911 – 1988) was an American painter whose collages of photographs and painted paper on canvas depict aspects of American black culture in a style derived from Cubism.Considered one of the most important American artists of the 20th century, Bearden’s artwork depicted the African American culture and experience in creative and thought-provoking ways. After a year of studies in science and mathematics at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, Bearden went on to study art and art education, including two years at Boston University, and graduated with a degree in education from New York University.Living in Harlem, he joined a Black artists group and became excited about modern art, particularly, Cubism, post-Impressionism and Surrealism.Bearden is best known for his photomontage compositions made from torn images of popular magazines and assembled into visually powerful statements on African American life.During the mid 1960s, Bearden felt he was struggling in his art between expressing his experiences as a Black man and the obscurity of abstract painting.He felt that abstraction wasn’t clear enough for him to tell his story.

He felt his art was coming to a plateau, so he started to experiment again. Combining images from magazines and colored paper, he would work in other textures such as sandpaper, graphite and paint.Bearden’s collage work has also been compared to jazz improvisation, as growing up during the Harlem Renaissance, he was exposed to many of the jazz greats.His images reflected some of the elements of jazz with its interplay among the characters and improvisation of the materials used.More of Romare Bearden’s influential works can be found at  https://beardenfoundation.org/.

 

 

 

 

I’m Always Confused

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I’m sitting in front of my living room  window, watching it snow … and snow … and snow, devilishly thinking I’m glad I’m retired and don’t have to go anywhere today.

Good day for computer work or craft work or reading a book, right?

I wanted to add a new book to my site for a free download to coincide with the blog I  wanted to post, but I have no idea how to keep track of downloads.

WordPress instructions insists it’s not hard. Just download Google Analytics and connect it to your blog.

Yes. Just like take a sailboat from New Jersey across the ocean to Monaco. Possible, but highly improbable.

I have never been the sharpest tool in the shed, but I’ve always been able to grasp the basics. I’m still a good and careful driver, know how to follow recipes, and set up my Square Reader to take card payments.

But some things are now becoming over my head.

Way over my head.

These days I often have to ask how to do something a few times before I “get it”, which is pretty normal for my age and sparkling mental state. I don’t mind as much as others may.

But I have gotten to the point that it’s almost impossible to understand more complicated things. Football averages plus or minus. How to fix most anything. Adding Google Analytics. It all blurs together like those dizzying whirlpools in bright colors.

Do you ever get this way? What do you do about it?

Some things I plainly give up on. No Pain, No Gain, No Problem.

Some things I ask someone how to do and get the advice I need.

Some things I research on my own and almost figure it out myself.

And some things I just skip.

As I said earlier, I’ve never been the sharpest tool in the shed. On occasion I’ve not even been in the shed. But that’s alright.

I find there is always someone around to help you out — either to do it with you, find someone else to do it, or to pour you a cup of coffee while you deal  about it another day.

Which one will you pick?

 

 

Faerie Paths — Miracles

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My heart has wings and I can fly. I’ll touch every star in the sky. So this is the miracle I’ve been dreaming of.

~ Brothers Grimm, ‘Cinderella’

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Karen Risby

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Karen Risby is a ceramic artist based in rural Suffolk, England.

Risby obtained her degree in Ceramics at Camberwell College of Art, working and living in South London for many years before moving to Suffolk to set up her new ceramic studio.Her work is an extension of her love of drawing, exploring pattern and line using both brushwork and sgraffito, a process that involves scratching back into the painted surface.Risby takes inspiration from nature, myth and story telling.Birds are a prominent feature of her work, often interweaved with landscapes, people and places.

 Risby’s work is hand built and hand painted using porcelain slip, stains and oxides, she fires her work to stoneware.More of Karen Risby‘s ceramics can be found at https://www.karenrisby.co.uk/.

 

 

 

Having Fun?

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Another holiday season  is over. Trees and lights packed away, parts of toys already missing, boxes opened and tossed along with instructions — all part of the Christmas Aftermath.

I myself have been having a riot finding new artists for my Gallery. I have put out feelers and followed leads and opened an art site only to be led down several different paths until I’ve gotten lost and had to send up a balloon for someone to find me.

I often wish there was a way to broadcast my Gallery so that others could find it and wander through gallery after gallery of unique art. Truly unique art.

But this is a personal venture for me, not commercial. I don’t have money to advertise nor connections to those in power to share on bigger and broader blogs and medias. It’s a little guy’s idea in a little guy’s side of the world, which in itself is unique.

I know I’ve said this a dozen times before, but these talents I’ve highlighted are so diversified and so unique they make you step back and say “WOW” and really mean it.

I suppose this Monday blog is turning into a plug for the Sunday Evening Art Gallery. Why not? Friends are the best telegraph systems in the world.

Have your friends go to the sight and pick a gallery and look at all the magic within. We have photographers, glass blowers, calligraphists, painters, collagists, woodworkers, miniaturists, installation artists, surrealists, impressionists, precious stones, acts of Mother Nature, clock makers, shoe designers, ceramicists, furniture designers, and florists.

What more art could a person want?

Come browse around one evening if you’re bored. Tell your friends. Request your favorite artists.  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and there’s so many unique directions to wander!

Maria Sibylla Merian

 

Amber Cowan

 

 

Aso Shiho

 

Leonid Afremov

 

Paperweights

 

Louise Bourgeois

 

Sergio Bustamante

 

Salt Thrones

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Louis Armstrong

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Louis Daniel Armstrong (1901 –1971), nicknamed “Satchmo”, was an American trumpeter and vocalist.

He is among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and several eras in the history of jazz.Armstrong grew up in dire poverty in New Orleans, Louisiana, when jazz was very young.As a child he worked at odd jobs and sang in a boys’ quartet. He was sent to the Colored Waifs Home as a juvenile delinquent, and it was there he learned to play cornet in the home’s band. Playing music quickly became a passion; in his teens he learned music by listening to the pioneer jazz artists of the day.Armstrong advanced rapidly: he played in marching and jazz bands, and in the early 1920s he played in Mississippi riverboat dance bands.

The young Armstrong became popular through his ingenious ensemble lead and second cornet lines, his cornet duet passages (called “breaks”) and his solos.Armstrong developed a way of playing jazz, as an instrumentalist and a vocalist, which has had an impact on all musicians to follow.He made his greatest impact on the evolution of jazz itself, which at the start of his career was popularly considered to be little more than a novelty.With his great sensitivity, technique, and capacity to express emotion, Armstrong not only ensured the survival of jazz but led in its development into a fine art.

More of Louie Armstrong’ s history and music can be found at https://louisarmstrongfoundation.org/ and https://www.mosaicrecords.com/best-jazz-recordings-louis-armstrong/.

 

 

 

Faerie Paths — Making Art

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Amy Brown

 

Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.

~ Andy Warhol

 

 

Push the Button!

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Our first snowstorm of of the year hasn’t come our way yet  to lock me inside and force me to play checkers with Creativity, but I see her walking around the living room holding the box with the pieces above her head anyway.

What am I waiting for?

This usually is the time of year I get sparked with new creative ideas. Things to continue, things to research, things to improve. Things to get rid of. I  always keep in mind my energy and attention levels, but at this early part of the month there’s no reason not to feel like Florence Griffith Joyner sprinting through the 100 meter run.

You can have a LOT of energy sitting on your sofa or at your kitchen table, right?

I try and put my new ideas behind washing the kitchen floors and rearranging my linen closet, both of which are numero uno on my work place list.

But I’m also thinking of introducing a new Angel Tear to my offerings, switching some beads that didn’t work well with ones that will, look for maybe one more craft show this summer, look into days I can take my grandkids camping,  putting all my downloaded music on one hard drive, and researching a 42nd anniversary vacation to Paris and Rome.

Which comes first?

Does it matter?

Why do I get so pumped up about things I may or may not do? Why do I set myself up for failure because anything could happen at any moment and change the plans of my world?

I do it because it’s fun.

I love to dream. I love to pretend. I love to walk through other’s imaginations by reading their books and viewing their paintings and flipping through their scrapbooks. 

Maybe its because once you get through your first big blow in life, nothing is the same, and the best way of healing is to find your joy button and push it as often as you can.

The sound may not be the same: the song may have changed, the pitched lowered, the warble increased, but it’s the same joy button you’ve always had. It’s always there, no matter how much you try and ignore it or belittle it or say you don’t deserve a button.

Sorry, folks. Everyone has a joy button. And the best way to make it through this life (and the next) is to push that button as often as you can.

The world deserves you.

 

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Rick Eggert

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Rick Eggert is a master glass artist renowned for his captivating abstract sculptures.

Born in Southampton in 1974, Eggert  spent his early childhood in New York, then later moved to Vermont, where he began working in glass.The artist received his BFA in Glass Sculpture from the Rochester Institute of Technology in upstate New York.His  glasswork is smooth and chic, slightly more than whisps of glass and tips on solid bases.Eggert use a glass base that uses high quality sand but is standardized to allow the use of a wide range of colors.All the materials are places in the furnace and heated to 2400 F.Once it cooks it is cooled down to 2100 F where he gathers it onto metal rods and creates his masterpieces. To this day he continues to be an avid student of the natural world around him.In awe of what he discovered during his travels, Eggert encapsulates these experiences into his extraordinary glass work.More of Rick Eggert‘s beautiful glass works can be found at https://www.rickeggert.com/ and https://shawgallery.com/artist/rick-eggert. 

 

 

One Peek Backwards to Christmas — The Poetry Slam

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I spent the past few mornings reading past blogs of my friends and future friends, and was not disappointed.

I love Hit and Run’s Chickies and their poems. So much fun exploring their world.

Come take a look at their Christmas poem — The Poetry Slam — and find a smile on your face!

 

My name is Charlie
I think it’s short for something else
like Charleen
but everyone has called me Charlie for so long
I’m not sure
anyway
my poem is about
how weird life is
not just at Chickmas
but all the time
and yes
I’m the head of the
Philosophy Committee

……………(more)

Another New Years Day Post

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Ahhhh…. Another New Year!

Blogs today will be filled with New Year aspirations, resolutions, regrets, and pronouncements. New Year, New Change, New Chance, New Beginnings, blah blah blah.

Trying to always be one step above and ahead and in a seperate dimension from other New Years Day blogs, I’m going to post pictures of what New Years Day was like 100 years ago.

1924.

I feel like I’ve been around since 1924.

But I digress.

For those of you who have to work New Years Day, here’s to you. I’ve worked many NYDays.  Drink your juice. Carry  on.

For the rest of you, have a cup. Get the fuzz out of your head. A new year awaits!  Tomorrow…...

Vogue Magazine 1924

 

 

Brooklyn Bridge, 1924

 

Advertising, 1024

 

Miss Ruth Malcomson, Miss America, 1924

 

Sign, 1924

 

1924-S Silver Peace Dollar

 

Around the World Cruise. Belgenland.

 

The Thief of Bagdad movie, 1924

 

Olympics Games, 1924

 

First Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, 1924