Tutorial: Making a Papercast Bowl ~ Donna Albino ~

I am pleased to present this excellent tutorial by the multi-talented, Donna Albino, proud Mt. Holyoke alumna, a friend of mine and of the environment. Donna likes to turn her junk mail into beautiful recycled papercast bowls. I own two of them and can't even begin to tell you how gorgeous they are! Each is surprisingly sturdy, while at the same time delicate.

Ms. D. has other interesting tutorials on her web site where she also sells paper moulds, if aren't inclined to make your own. Check it out when you have some time to click around on all the interesting links.




These are the resources you will need in order to make paper:

* a water source
* an electricity source
* a blender
* a Rubbermaid dishwashing pan (or some other deep pan)
* a towel
* cloth-like shop towels - you can buy these in a roll at any auto supply store.
(Don't use paper towels for this!)
* a paper mould
* a sponge
* mould-release spray
* metal or glass bowl with no foot, and a smooth surface
* gel medium
* craft paint brush

The first step to making a paper bowl is to create a stack of paper. For a small bowl, you need about 8-9 sheets. For the bowl I used in this tutorial, I needed 20 sheets.



The metal bowl will be the mould that I use for creating the paper bowl. The can I'm holding is mould release spray; I've found that a light coating of Pam cooking spray works fine too, but don't use too much or it will leave oily residue on the paper. I bought this mould release spray from papermaking.net. And the pile of handmade paper is stacked between shop towels in the right hand side of the photo. Note that they are still wet. They are freshly made, and should not be allowed to dry before making the bowl.


Tear the sheets into smaller pieces.


I like to make very thick paper when I'm making paper bowls; it tears more easily and it's more sturdy. And I'll have to make fewer sheets, too.

Tear up two or three sheets before continuing.




The mould release spray can instructions state that you should spray the mould immediately before laying down the casting, and having a stack of paper ready to go is best.

Spray the mould. Make sure the whole thing gets covered, especially the rim.

Now you're ready to start making the bowl.




Each sheet of paper has two sides: one side that shows the screening of the paper mould, and one side that shows the texture of the shop towel. I think the texture of the shop towel is more appealing than the screening, so I lay the torn pieces of paper with the towel-texture down. Overlap the pieces as you go. Pat the seams down with your fingers. Make sure all of the bowl gets covered.

After the first layer is done, switch over to laying the torn pieces of paper with the towel-texture up. The outside of the bowl will end up have towel-texture showing too.
Use at least three layers of paper to make your bowl. If you only use one or two, your bowl will be very flexible. You want a bowl that will be sturdy.

After all three-plus layers have been laid on the bowl, take a sponge and carefully press down over the entire surface of the bowl. With pressure, you are creating a smooth surface to the inside of the bowl, and binding the three layers of paper together into one strong layer. Water will flow from the pressure; just keep wringing out the sponge and keep going until you feel all the seams are strong and the paper has been pressed as hard as it can.

After the sponging, the bowl looks like this.



Notice it still looks wet; it is still quite wet. Let it dry in front of a fan for at least 24 hours. Do not skimp on the time. If you pop it off too early and it's still wet inside, it may stick or warp.

If you sprayed it well, you should be able to separate the bowl from the mould by just pulling the two apart with some gentle pressure.



If it refuses to give at first, just keep turning the bowl around and try from a different angle.

You may want to put the bowl in front of the fan again for a few hours just to make sure the inside is completely dry.

This is what the bowl looks like fresh off the mould.




I made this one with old bank statements, old credit card statements, and old utility bills. I also shredded some multicolor flower petals, which shredded into the threads you see in the paper, and added some irridescent confetti for some shine.

At this point, I give each bowl two coats of matte gel medium, to seal in all the confetti and flower petals so that they don't peel off the surface of the bowl with handling. This is what the bowl looks like after the Mod Podge; it's a little darker than the raw bowl, and has a bit more of a sheen to it.





The surprise with this bowl was the surface of the outside of the bowl; it looked so different than the inside, and that is quite unusual! The green freckles formed, I believe, from the seeds that were in the flower heads. I don't know why they ended up mostly on the outside papers and not on the inside. There's a mystery to every bowl! This photo was taken after the two coats of gel medium, too.

Magic Realism

Today's entry is about Magic Realism, (AKA Magical Realism), a form of painting that encompasses fantastical characters and objects in a realistic looking depiction. Magic Realism in art actually refers to a twentieth century movement which was initiated by European artists after World War I,. It was followed by a second phase that began in North America a decade later. The earliest phases of Magic Realism followed World War I and preceded Surrealism by a few years. Together the two phases spanned approximately four decades, with residual works after 1960.



The movement actually began as a reaction to Expressionism, Cubism, and other avant-garde movements. The first Magic Realism paintings were characterized by sharply focused, unsentimental presentations of commonplace subject matter.



Frank Roh identified 22 traits of Magic Realism. Important features include a sharp focus throughout the painting, the smooth and thin application of the paint, the subordination of painting techniques, juxtaposition of close and far subject matter, and the limited use of aerial perspective and atmospheric effects.




Magic Realism spread from Germany to many other European countries, and subsequently to North America. Although in many ways the movement was soon overshadowed in Europe by the Surrealist movement, it flourished to a considerable extent in the Americas, as an alternative artistic current to the mainstream Abstract Expressionism movement which developed in the 1940's and 50's.

Mosics in Calabria, Italy

Italian art includes the finest and oldest mosaics known to humanity. Calabria is a region in southern Italy where one can still find a mosaic tradition that began in ancient Rome over 2000 years ago.




This Calabria Italy travel video takes place in one of Italy's least explored regions, yet in the region of great history, culture and import, Calabria.



(Please click here if you cannot see the video above.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKaBiq8n6Kk

Calabria is fraught with economic problems, but it hasn't always been that way. Sybaris is an ancient Greek city near Corigliano, founded in 710 BC. It was known for its luxury, giving rise to the modern meaning of "sybaritic" as a word applied to almost unimaginable wealth. Some of Calabria's most exqusit ancient mosaics can be found there.










Calabria is framed by 800 km of coast line, touching two seas — the Tyrrhenian and Ionian. In between, a dramatic, lush landscape is dotted with cities celebrating rich historic heritages worth preserving and exploring ...but there is nothing there so beautiful as the rich, intricate mosaic art...so if you're planning a trip to Italy, know that this region is a real Byzantine treasure trove!

In Rossano, the 11th-century church of San Marco, defiantly perched on its own outcrop, is a mystical masterpiece, one of the great Byzantine monuments in southern Italy.



Vibo Valentia, an ancient Calabrian city that has begrudgingly hosted Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Normans and Bourbons, is home to the Byzantine temple of St. Ruba chock full of mosaic art.

Gerace is one of the most interesting towns in southern Italy. It has a grandiose 12th -century castle, an absolutely breathtaking 11th-century cathedral, and three Byzantine churches (S. Giovanello, S. Maria del Maestro and S. Maria del Monserrato), all full of mosaics.

Are you packed yet??

Fashion Meets Collage - Emilia Norris

Aspasia and Steven

Out of respect for our dear friend, Aspasia, who died last night, I will be observing a few days of quiet and reflection. This will be the last blog entry here until next Monday, April 28, 2008. Thank you for understanding.

Stacy

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Emilia Norris


Fashion Meets Collage

The artist Emilia Norris was born in 1973 in Skopje, R.Macedonia. She finished secondary school in 1992 in Skopje, R.Macedonia as a culturologist. Today, she melds the disciplines of fashion design with collage in some pithy statements about life.

The artist states:


Fashion is an all-pervading category. It is an outward articulation of the various segments of human existence, and as such, it is characterized with remarkable dynamics and constant changeability. Therefore, I find Fashion exciting and inspiring, and it is the basic medium for my art and aesthetic expression.

Butterfly


My interest for Fashion dates back to my early childhood. My first ‘works’ were an expression of my zest for historic costumes, seen first in films and later as illustrations in various history and art books. This led to my first fashion drawings, or clothes designs.

Cherry Woman

Despite of all this, when I was making my professional choice, there was no faculty for fashion design, so I took up my second passion – music, and graduated from the Faculty of Music Art. Thus, my life has been engaged with both music and visual art, via fashion design.

Dilemma 1

One of the most important moments for me was the revelation of the great Austrian painter Gustav Klimt from the time of Belle Epoch. It was simply fascinated with his painting technique and the compositions in his works. I was greatly impressed by the interesting fragmentation, the beautiful colours, eroticism, as well as the way he has presented the woman and female psyche. This has led me to the idea of making an attempt of creating reproductions of a few of his paintings using the paper collage technique. Satisfied with the achieved results, I went on producing collages, trying to reinterpret Klimt and master the technique I was using.

Dilemma 2

Later, when I enrolled onto a one-year fashion design course taught by a Macedonian fashion designer, I realized that the collage is related to fashion expression and is often used in making fashion collection books. Having finished the course, I saw that I am not drawn to the technical, but to the artistic side of fashion, and started using the collage technique as a means for my fashion expression. That is how I began working on the cycle consisted of 40 collages (by now), which I named "Woman".

Eco-Clown

My works, including the last cycle, are never born out of a preconception, but are fully spontaneous creations based on my personal feelings and experiences.

Fire

I create my collages using cuttings from different kinds of paper. Then I apply pastel, acrylic or textile colors, and sometimes add cloth or other objects. Most of my works are done in 50 x 70 cm format.

Warrior

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From my own studio....by Stacy Alexander

I am spending time in my own studio these days, exploring the concept of women's clothing as social statement. The following collage is part of an installation that I am currently piecing together from a variety of mixed media. I used the process of flat bed scanner as camera with an original Terry Donovan photograph and paper. (click to enlarge)
Bikini of Hair and Large Diamonds
by Stacy Alexander

(Available as Giclée print)

Oh, Crop! Art from a Bird’s Eye View

This art form is fascinating. It involves fractal geometry...and attracts all kinds of people...some of whom believe it was made by aliens from outer space! ;-)







CROP ART (CRAWP art) n. A person who creates designs by manipulating crops and other agricultural products.
—crop art n.

Example Citation:
With black beans, split peas, yellow lentils, dill seed and wild rice, you can make a savory stew — or create an art masterpiece. Works by a dozen of the state's finest crop artists whose celebrity portraits have been displayed at the State Fair are showcased in "Crop Art at the King," opening Saturday evening at T Designshop Gallery in the Northrup King Building in northeast Minneapolis.
—Tim Harlow, "Weekend Watch," Star Tribune, November 29, 2001

When I was a kid, a group of us went out into a field the day before a science trip was planned by one of our rather neurotic teachers. We stomped out a huge circle and placed certain mysterious-looking objects inside it so the teacher would think UFO's had landed there. Her response seemed one of bewilderment....but in retrospect, she probably knew exactly what had transpired. We were convinced at the time that we had fooled her. Now? Not so much... :-)




The notion of crop circles is surrounded by mystique. There are those who believe they were made by creatures from outer space while the rest of us look on in amazement at the talent inherent in creating these giant works of art that can only be seen from above.




The term "crop circle" was first used by researcher Colin Andrews to describe simple circles he was researching at that time. Since 1990 the circles evolved into complex geometries but by then the term had stuck. Examples can be found worldwide.




As mentioned earlier, various hypotheses have been offered to explain their formation, ranging from the naturalistic to the paranormal. Naturalistic explanations include man-made hoaxes or geological anomalies, while paranormal explanations include formation by UFOs.




Many circles are known to be man-made such as those created by Doug Bower, Dave Chorley, and John Lundberg, and a 2000 study into circle hoaxing concluded that virtually all of them were definitely man-made. Those unexplained were less perfect in construction and were attributed to atmospheric conditions such as storms.




In 1991, two elderly Englishmen, Doug Bower and Dave Chorley, confessed to creating hundreds of crop circles, beginning in the early 1970s. This led most media sources to proclaim that all crop circles had been hoaxes. Some crop-circle scholars pointed out that these two men couldn't possibly have created all the circles, particularly those outside the U.K. Other self-described crop-circle artists, such as Circlemakers, http://www.circlemakers.org/ suggest that Bower and Chorley started a trend that was picked up by others worldwide.



Bower and Chorley were awarded a lg Nobel Prize in 1992 for their crop circle hoaxing. The Ig Nobel Prizes are a parody of the Nobel Prizes and are given each year in early October — around the time the recipients of the genuine Nobel Prizes are announced — for ten achievements that "first make people laugh, and then make them think.



Here is a fun video about how crop circle artists are made. :

Betye Saar

"There has been an apparent thread in my art that weaves from early prints of the 1960’s through later collages and assemblages and ties into the current installations. That thread is a curiosity about the mystical.



I am intrigued with combining the remnant of memories, fragments of relics and ordinary objects, with the components of technology. It’s a way of delving into the past and reaching into the future simultaneously. The art itself becomes the bridge.” Betye Saar

Betye Saar is an assemblage artist who calls herself a "conjurer and a recycler". I was first exposed to Betye’s work in December of 2006 when I went to see the exhibit, “Family Legasies” that featured her work along with that of her daughters, Lezlie and Allison. I shot a little video that day which you can either watch below or by clicking THIS link.



Betye considers her life to be a collage of heritage: African, Irish and American Indian. Being of American Indian and Irish descent myself, I am strongly drawn to her work. However, the most poignant is probably that created to represent the plight of the African Americans throughout history.




Born in Los Angeles in 1926, Betye still lives in the hills above the city in a huge grey-shingled house. Leading up to her front door are terraced gardens, filled with colored tiles, pots and carefully arranged objects.

"As an artist everything I do has this thing, assembling things. assembling plants and sculptures and lanterns rocks and so forth," Saar explains. She is is small, though her grey hair swoops up inches higher.

Right inside her front door, she keeps one of her own works, an assemblage that resembles an altar. A large, ghostly photograph of an African-American soldier from World War sits below a tattered American flag, mounted on a tombstone-shaped slab of wood.

Crossings

"I wasn't intending it to be a morbid piece but it turned out to be that way. Across the bottom is a diagram of a slave ship. And the piece is called 'Crossings.' " The red roses, she says, "are for Christmas -- I just decorate my art for Christmas."


Saar first glimpsed real art as a child, visiting her grandmother in Watts.

Today Watts is best known as an urban black community infamous for the 1965 riots.

In the 1930's, it was a racially mixed place where this young black girl watched an Italian immigrant by the name of Simon Rodia as he pieced together what would become the glittering spirals of the Watts Towers.

Watts Towers

"He had a big car and he would see these piles of rubble and he would go through it," Saar remembers. "And he wanted to make something monumental. And he put these steel structures up and covered them in cement and pressed shards of ceramics, of plates, I've seen corn cobs in there, I've seen tools. It's like, the cement is wet, what can we put in here? I think that was the beginning of me becoming an assemblagist or recycler."


It would take years before Betye Saar's "beginning" came to fruition in the art world. She was a mother, raising three daughters, a "late bloomer,"as she put it.

At the age of 46 she created the piece that would make her reputation and launch a series of art aimed at reclaiming the derogatory images of people of color.

The Liberation of Aunt Jemimah

"The Liberation of Aunt Jemima" was exhibited in 1972. It was a wooden box displaying a full-figured, smiling black mammy, a kerchief wrapped around her head. She's holding a broom in one hand -- and a rifle in the other.

It was about the way African-American women were treated as sex objects, as domestic soldiers. And it was about this particular woman's revolt to be free of that image.

"I'm the kind of person who recycles materials but I also recycle emotions and feelings," Saar wrote. "And I had a great deal of anger about the segregation and the racism in this country. And so this series sort of evolved. And if feel like if I had to say what was my contribution to the art world and to the world in general as an African American woman, [it] would be this series."

National Racism - We Was Mostly 'bout Survival

Supreme Quality


Saar wants the viewer "to be seduced by my work. That's the part that's essential -- to have beauty. I want my piece to crook a finger, say to viewer, check this out."


Palmist Wind


Betye Saar's studio is overflowing with the stuff of her art. Tables in the room are layered with mysterious objects and materials. A shelf is filled with pickanninny dolls, tiny minstrels, slices of watermelon made from painted wood. Her media includes metal: rusty chains, long discarded toys, birdcages, anything she can find.

Ritual Journey

Betye Saar will turn 83 this coming July.


You can watch a series of interview videos with Betye HERE. I highly recommend that you do.

Eric Feng AKA FERIC

Inside Out by Eric Feng AKA "FERIC"



CLICK HERE if you are unable to see the video above.




This past weekend, I went to see an exhibition at the San Jose Museum of Art called , “ Robots: Evolution of a Cultural Icon”. The show examined the development of robot iconography in fine art over the past 50 years. While there, the art of Eric Feng, AKA “Feric” caught my eye and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since.



Born in Taipei City Taiwan in 1974, Feric draws inspiration from traditional Chinese brush painting, calligraphy and Buddhism.




Influenced by animated cells, his mixed media drawings are minimalist in fine detail and filled with highly personal symbolism.






Imagery of flora, fauna and quasi-buddhist figures are layered with imaginative internal robotics. These fantastical blueprints expose a relationship between the natural, physical and spiritual world reflecting the artist’s life long fascination with atonomy, machines and “samsara” – the cycle of life, death and rebirth.




Feng’s surreal and beautiful art blends East and West, past and present, natural and mechanical. Hovering between fantasy and reality, interwoven with natural and mechanical beings Feric’s drawings address infinite evolutionary possibilities.








Feric’s web site is a work of art in and of itself. It takes a little effort to learn how to navigate it, but it is well worth the time it takes. There are many intriguing images there, some animated. Check it!



_______________________________________

In my own studio, I have been reacquainting myself with graphite, a medium I have never been very fond of. In this series of organic forms, I have been experimenting with the properties of the graphite and how it responds to the paper and to light. These are six of the pieces I drew over a period of three weeks.

Graphite 1

Graphite 2

Graphite 3

Graphite 4

Graphite 5

Graphite 6



That's all she wrote....

Sharp as Glass - Dale Chihuly

_____________________________________________________________

Dale Chihuly


I love the work of Dale Chihuly. The glass museum named for him is one of my favorite places to visit when we pass through Tacoma en route to Seattle. My friend, Sheryl and I spent an entire day there last year. These large blue sculptures are located along the walkway that leads from the museum to the contemporary gallery and glass blowing arena.


Dale Chihuly brought this interdisciplinary approach to the arts to the legendary Pilchuck School in Stanwood, Washington, which he cofounded in 1971 and served as its first artistic director until 1989. Under his guidance, Pilchuck has become a gathering place for international artists with diverse backgrounds. Over the years his studios, which include an old racing shell factory in Seattle called The Boathouse and now buildings in the Ballard section of the city and Tacoma, have become a mecca for artists, collectors, and museum professionals involved in all media.




Dale is most frequently lauded for revolutionizing the Studio Glass movement. However, his contribution extends well beyond the boundaries both of this movement and even the field of glass: his achievements have influenced contemporary art in general.

photo by Stacy Alexander


You will find his work all over the world. Chihuly’s practice of using teams has led to the development of complex, multipart sculptures of dramatic beauty that place him in the leadership role of moving blown glass out of the confines of the small, precious object and into the realm of large-scale contemporary sculpture.



A prolific artist whose work balances content with an investigation of the material's properties of translucency and transparency, Chihuly began working with glass at a time when reverence for the medium and for technique was paramount.



Influenced by an environment that fostered the blurring of boundaries separating all the arts, as early as 1967 Chihuly was using neon, argon, and blown glass forms to create room-sized installations of organic, freestanding, plantlike imagery. This one is located in the Clinton Library:




Stylistically over the past forty years, Chihuly's sculptures in glass have explored color, line, and assemblage.




Although his work ranges from the single vessel to indoor/outdoor site-specific installations, he is best known for his multipart blown compositions. These works fall into the categories of mini-environments designed for the tabletop as well as large, often serialized forms that are innovatively displayed in groupings on a wide variety of surfaces ranging from pedestals to bodies of natural water.


Masses of these blown forms also have been affixed to specially engineered structures that dominate large exterior or interior spaces.




Over the years Chihuly and his teams have created a wide vocabulary of blown forms, revisiting and refining earlier shapes while at the same time creating exciting new elements, such as his Fiori, all of which demonstrate mastery and understanding of glassblowing techniques.




Earlier forms, such as the Baskets, Seaforms, Ikebana, Venetians, and Chandeliers, from the late 1970s through the 1990s have been augmented since the early to mid-1990s with new blown elements. Chihuly and his teams primarily developed these while working in glass factories in France, Finland, Ireland, and Mexico. The resulting Reeds, Saguaros, Herons, Belugas, Seal Pups, and other forms are now juxtaposed with the earlier series, including Macchia, Niijima Floats, and Persians in lively new contexts.




Since the early 1980s, all of Chihuly's work has been marked by intense, vibrant color and by subtle linear decoration.






At first he achieved patterns by fusing into the surface of his vessels “drawings” composed of prearranged glass threads; he then had his forms blown in optic molds, which created ribbed motifs. He also explored in the Macchia series bold, colorful lip wraps that contrasted sharply with the brilliant colors of his vessels and architectural details such as this door:



Finally, beginning with the Venetians of the early 1990s, elongated, linear blown forms, a product of the glassblowing process, have become part of his vocabulary, resulting in highly baroque, writhing elements. In recent years Chihuly has experimented with Polyvitro to create new interpretations of some of his glass forms.



Chihuly’s work is strongly autobiographical. His fascination with abstracted flower forms, for him, reminiscent of his mother's garden in Tacoma, has been discussed in depth in the literature. Likewise, series such as his Seaforms, Niijima Floats, the Chandeliers, and more recently, the Boats allude to his childhood in Tacoma, Washington, marked by his love of the sea and his recognition of its importance to the economy of the Pacific Northwest.






Over the years the artist has created a number of memorable installation exhibitions. These installations confirm the artist's sensitivity to architectural context and his interest in the interplay of natural light on the glass that exploits its translucency and transparency.




A dominant presence in the art world, Dale Chihuly and his work have long provoked considerable controversy as part of the art/craft debate. However, with projects such as his recent garden installations in Kew and New York, there can be little doubt that his lasting contribution to art of our times is an established fact.



Of local interet, there is currently a Chihuly exhibition at the deYoung Museum in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park.

Inside African Art

Today is our local Earth Day celebration even though the official day is the 20th. My neighborhood is a hub of activity as people hustle and bustle to tidy up and to plant trees and flowers everywhere. I feel this is a good day to remind everyone of the connections we share with all people on this earth, and by doing so, I’d like to talk about Inside African Art.




Inside African Art is a project run by three people, Todd Schaffer and his wife Liz, and Liz's sister Sarah. The trio regularly travels from the US to Kenya, shuttling paintings in their effort to promote and expose contemporary original fine arts by African artists.



Contemporary African paintings are less well known than African artifacts and traditional crafts. Therefore, it receives less exposure. IAA attempts to show the world the treasures that lie within the African contemporary art community, an act we should all be thankful for.

Simon Murrithi is one of the artists being promoted by IAA.


Born in a small village on the slopes of the Arbedares range called Mioro, in the Muranga District, Simon was inspired to pursue art at an early age by both his parents and teachers. He has enjoyed national as well as international success as a painter with at least 21 exhibitions in the last five years. Recently, his work was part of a three-man, month-long exhibition at the National Museum of Kenya.


He has his own home/gallery in Kasarani, a town about 10 miles outside of Nairobi town. Mixed media paintings incorporating mostly rope, painted to blend in yet add a texture. The oils that Muriithi uses are layered thickly, and the rope gives that paintings an even more topographical feel.
True Love

Fantasy 2


Anne Berenge Anne Berenge was born in Western Province of Kenya near the city of Webuye. She went to school at Soy D.E.B. school, and joined the polytechnique where she learned arts and crafts.


Anne currently is working with the HIV and AIDS women in Kawangware slums. Under the auspices of AMREF and PLAN International she has been teaching the women skills of arts and crafts for self reliance. She is a mother of three children.
Lovely Silence


In Their Hopes They Serenade


House! Who is this guy? And why are his paintings so much different from any other African artist?

House and Todd


Transgendered characters, violent and sexual content... House crossed the barriers and paints what is normally considered taboo. Maybe this is why his paintings sell so well in Nairobi - they are unique!

Todd writes, “I met House at his home in the Ngecha village about an hour outside of Nairobi, and what a great host he was - see photo at left. His wife brought us tea and we sat around talking for hours. He had his friend Coco Jim, a wood sculptor there also, who proved to be very charming and humorous.

Ngecha is well known as an artists commune, and is the area where many now-famous artists began their careers (I will be doing a feature on the Ngecha Artists Association in the future). But now House has branched-out on his own and has found a nice following for his art. He lives a modest and relaxed lifestyle in Ngecha, allowing him plenty of time to paint and gather bizarre ideas for more paintings.”

Sensing Danger
Punishing a Thief

The Witness



This has been but a tiny sample of the artists and variety of art available through IAA. THEIR WEB SITE features many contemporary African artists and allows viewers to submit monetary offers for paintings which will either be accepted or countered.

This writer would like to see the number of female artists increased to balance the number of fine male artists. Perhaps feedback left at the site can help this occur. There is a place for that as well.

OOoo..OOoo..OOoo...eEEEE..eEEEE...eEEEEE

Who are the Guerrilla Girls? Beats me. Actually…no one knows. Not even the Guerrilla Girls! Sure…someone might know one of them…or two of them, but not even the Guerrilla Girls know who all of them are. They are a group of radical feminist, subversive artists who established themselves in New York City in 1985. I saw them in Houston shortly thereafter. They now travel all over the world and while they do print a schedule of appearances, no one really knows where one might see them at any given time.

In their own words, “We’re feminist masked avengers in the tradition of anonymous do-gooders like Robin Hood, Wonder Woman and Batman. How do we expose sexism, racism and corruption in politics, art, film and pop culture? With facts, humor and outrageous visuals. We reveal the understory, the subtext, the overlooked, the and the downright unfair.”



The GG’s are best known for using guerrilla art to promote women and people of color in the arts. Their first work was putting up posters on the streets of New York decrying the gender and racial imbalance of artists represented in galleries and museums. Over the years they expanded their activism to examine Hollywood and the film industry, popular culture, gender stereotyping and corruption in the art world.




They now maintain a website, write books and create new posters and print projects and they travel the world giving presentations and showing small and large scale versions of their work.I just bought one of these:



They have recently created new projects about the cultural situation of specific places and events, like The Venice Biennale of Art, the status of women artists in Turkey and the representation of women artists in national museums on the Mall in Washington DC.

The Guerrilla Girls invented a unique combination of content, text, and snappy graphics that present feminist viewpoints in an outrageous and humorous manner.




The intention is that many viewers who initially disagree with GG positions get drawn in by their comic hook, think about the issues and often change their minds. Guerrilla Girls want to rehabilitate the “f” word (feminism) so that people who believe in the tenets of feminism (equal opportunity, an end to gender based discrimination, equal access to education, reproductive rights education and human rights for women everywhere) will also want to call themselves feminists.




One of their most famous posters was plastered across New York City buses in 1989. Its headline read, "Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum?"



They conducted a "weenie count" at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, counting naked males and naked females in the artworks as well as numbers of female artists in the collection. Less than 5% of the artists in the Met's modern art sections were women, but 85% of the nudes were female. Their design[1] was rejected by The Public Art Fund as a billboard so the Guerrilla girls ran it as an ad in the public buses in New York City. This poster has been reproduced in many, many textbooks on all subjects from geography to art history to women’s studies. The GGs went back in 2005 to do a recount and found that there are now fewer women artists shown at the Met, but more naked males in the artworks.

Members of the original group always wear gorilla masks when appearing as Guerrilla Girls and often, but not always, miniskirts and fishnet stockings, and will assume the names of deceased famous female artists. They proclaim that no one knows their identities, except for some of their mothers and/or partners. They never reveal the number of members of the group, implying that there are many Guerrilla Girls, or at least Guerrilla Girl supporters, all over the world. In 2001 two groups broke away and formed Guerrilla Girls Broadband, focused on internet and work issues, and Guerrilla Girls on Tour, a theatre troupe.

It has been said that Guerrilla Girls' work on behalf of marginalized female artists and artists of color within the art world serves the needs of only a handful of privileged artists, but the GG cause and work have been taken up by women’s groups everywhere from Brazil to India, Mexico, Europe, Cyprus, Bosnia and Serbia. Their books, The Guerrilla Girls Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art, Bitches, Bimbos and Ballbreakers, The Guerrilla Girls Illustrated Guide to Female Stereotypes and The Guerrilla Girls Art Museum Activity Book are popular among political activists and have become textbooks in women’s studies, cultural studies and political science classes.

This is a blurb from the back of their newest book.


In their newest book, BITCHES, BIMBOS, AND BALLBREAKERS: The Guerrilla Girls’ Illustrated Guide to Female Stereotypes (Penguin paperback original; On Sale: Fall, 2003), the Girls focus their beady little eyes, and laser wit, on female stereotypes throughout the ages. Who isn’t familiar with such stereotypes as the Old Maid, the Trophy Wife, the Vamp, or the Prostitute with a Heart of Gold? In BITCHES, BIMBOS, AND BALLBREAKERS , the Girls take on the maze of stereotypes that follow women from the cradle to the grave. With subversive humor and great visuals they explore the history and significance of each stereotype as well as its evolution and the various manifestations each have taken on through the ages. They tag the Top Types, examine sexual slurs, and delve into the lives of real and fictional women who have become stereotypes—from Aunt Jemima and Tokyo Rose to June Cleaver. The Guerrilla Girls’ latest assault on injustice towards women will make people laugh, make them angry, and maybe, just maybe, make them change their minds. The wisecracking, but always clever style of the Guerrilla Girls makes BITCHES, BIMBOS, AND BALLBREAKERS both an entertaining and educational read that will appeal to readers of all genders and ages—provided they like a good laugh and a hearty dose of truth.



Click the following text to read the current Guerilla Girls newsletter.

Jen Worden

The multi-talented Jen Worden states on her blog that she “isn’t here to make you feel comfortable “ ...and I love that about her. Her art demonstrates an ability to subvert artistic conventions resulting in true grist for the thought mill. She has a fascinating talent for making art from the most unlikely assemblages of found objects and materials. Her work has substance and body. It reaches out to its viewers and imparts senses of rich, familiar history ... meat-on-the-bone context, color and texture.

She describes herself as having “a Mediterranean soul” and whether Mediterranean or not, the woman does have soul! Her work is utterly thrilling. AND it is not for sissies!

Morpheus

Challenge Piece

Jen is a full time artist who lives in rural Nova Scotia. Her work is shown in a number of galleries in Canada and the U.S. Visit her studio and you will discover bits and pieces of past lives and found objects waiting to be reassembled into some of Jen's own magical interpretations.



Jen is well known for her generous assistance to other artists in terms of tips and techniques. She has been hosting an event each week this year that involves coming up with an artistic activity to help stimulate our imaginations and get the art fires burning beneath us. Anyone can join in and I highly recommend it.




From her blog, each Friday, Jen posts a new activity…gives an “assignment”…and because these artistic endeavors are in so wide an array of different artistic disciplines, they often serve to stretch the boundaries of comfort of the artists who participate. These exercises have been of immeasurable inspiration to me personally. Jen has an http://flickr.com/groups/stretch/ album on flickr that shows some of the challenge’s results. Activities range from printmaking to paper casting to new paint and collage techniques and everything in between. This piece is Jen’s own result of a paper casting challenge:





“I have done watercolor, pen and ink illustration, digital media, paper and bookmaking. My current love is mixed media collage and assemblage. “ …and therein lies her greatest artistic strength.






Jen has an outstanding capacity for creating works of art that are challenging and captivating. Her work is informed by past lives and forgotten worlds revitalized into entirely new tableaus that hold secrets and tell stories simultaneously.

Speak No Evil

Transparency Assemblage


piece from Jen's Home Series



“ I have eclectic taste.”



(....much to the gratitude of her viewers, I might add.) I am fortunate to have her as a friend as well.



Jen Worden is a member of the Hannah Grey Design Team.

Hiroko Sakai

Hiroko Sakai

"When we tap into our powers of imagination, we are blooms of possibilities."

Hiroko Sakai

*****

Today's entry is about San Francisco poet and visual artist, Hiroko Sakai, whose panoplay of work is a fusion of Japanese and Western cultures. I feel a sense of visual respit when I look at Hiroko's work, an ordered tranquility.

Born in Izuka City, Japan, Hiroko's work hangs thoughout the Bay Area as well as in many locations in Japan. Shis represented by Cityart Gallery, Artist XChange Gallery, Aranciatamera, Mad River Post Gallery and the Yuri Shiller Gallery.

Temptation
30" x 30"
oil on canvas

The artist states:

I was born in a small town of northern Kyushu island of Japan in early Spring. I was a shy kid. I liked looking for fairies in grass and reading adventure stories from my gigantic book case. My parents were great patrons of cultures and art and made sure I had many opportunities to grow artistically. It seemed like I have been painting and drawing from my first breath. My school note books are filled with drawings.

Yume - Dream
24"x48"
oil on canvas


My professional art career started in the graphic arts field in Fukuoka, Japan in the early 1990s. After graduating from Seinan Gakuin University with a BA degree in French and Nihon interior design school with a BA degree in design and rendering, I founded Atelier Yume-Tsumugi Ltd. I operated that studio successfully for 5 years. I emphasized working on a variety of projects with varying requirements rather than a distinct style. Many of my works are displayed in hospital lobbies, corporate offices, and commercial building entrances in Japan.


Boukyo - Nostalgia
24"x36"
oil on canvas

In 1998, I broadened the scope of my endeavors to include projects in the United States. In the US, I decided to start concentrate on oil painting. I had always wanted to paint with oils in Japan, but slow drying oils were not realistic with the short deadlines of my commercial clients. Now I could do it.

Sublimation
24"x30"
oil on canvas


San Francisco, with its vibrant arts culture, became my second home and was a source of much inspiration. For a while, I felt disadvantaged because I was a foreigner learning a second language. Now I know that my differences are my strength and I can combine my Japanese and San Francisco backgrounds to produce powerful and unique art works.


Moon
15" x 18"
chalk on paper

I believe that I am one of the happiest creatures in the world because I have found what I am meant to do on this Earth and what I want to do from now on.
Angel
18" x 15"
pencil on paper

Please click here for more information about Hiroko Sakai.


IN OTHER NEWS ......

I received the following from Julia Zagar this morning about the film her son made about his legendary mosaic master father, Isaiah Zagar:

It has been an exciting few weeks since the World Premiere of In A Dream last month at the SXSW Film Festival. The movie has screened at a couple more festivals and it is now three for three—it has won an award at every festival in which it has screened.

Philadelphia Film Festival
After four sold out screenings, In A Dream received the jury award for Best First Film and the DIVE Technical Achievement Award. In terms of audience balloting, In A Dream tied another documentary as the highest rated of all the films in the entire festival. It scored a 4.81 out of 5.

Full Frame Documentary Film Festival
In A Dream received the Charles E. Guggenheim Emerging Artist Award at Full Frame—a very prestigious documentary only film festival based in Durham, North Carolina.

Evolution of a Filmmaker: Jeremiah Zagar
The Tribeca Film Institute is hosting an event next week for students and educators at the Soho Apple Store as part of the Tribeca Youth program. The event description: Filmmaker Jeremiah Zagar has been making films since he was a teenager (way back in 1998), and the Tribeca Film Institute is proud to invite students to a special discussion addressing the "Evolution of a Filmmaker." Zagar will present and discuss scenes from his films from the past ten years (Coney Island, 1945; Baby Eat Baby), all leading up to a special presentation of excerpts from his feature-length documentary, the award-winning In A Dream. Together this series of clips and excerpts is designed to show young filmmakers the changes, adaptations (and mistakes!) a filmmaker makes as s/he develops an aesthetic and style that works.

Press / Blogs:
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/steven_rea/20080404_Isaiah_Zagar_s_mosaic_of_a_life__shattering.html
http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2008/04/03/truth-be-tiled
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/04/15/213036.php
http://festphanatic.wordpress.com/2008/04/06/what-i-peeped-day-three/
http://twoonefivemagazine.com/reviews_detail.cfm/review/544/
http://www.phawker.com/2008/04/04/cinema-philadelphia-film-festival-guidance/
http://kayemess.diaryland.com/080407_31.html
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=story&id=1061&articleid=VR1117983602&cs=1
http://edendale.typepad.com/weblog/2008/04/full-frame-20-4.html

A holdover from the SXSW days: http://www.thefilmconnection.org/927/don039t-miss-dream

Radio:
http://wunc.org/tsot/archive/sot0402c08.mp3/view
http://whyy.wordpress.com/2008/04/08/in-a-dream/

Facebook:
Join the In A Dream group on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=10087191255

Websites:
http://www.hzfilms.com/
http://www.inadreammovie.com/

Learn to make papyrus paper from dried vegetables

First things first!

Tricia Anders gave an art blog award to this site, much to my delight and surprise. (Thanks so much, Tricia! )


Arte y Pico

There are 5 rules attached to this award:

1. You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and that also contribute to the blogging community, no matter what language.

2. Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his/her blog to be visited by everyone.

3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her/him the award itself.

4. The Award winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of "Arte Y Pico" blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.

5. To show these rules.


These are my blog picks:

Kim Larson Art

Jen Worden


Sarah-Lynda Johnson

Stacy Zimmerman

Darjit!

Congratulations, everyone!

********************






A few weeks ago, I wrote about Margaret Dorfman, the artist who makes beautiful art bowls from papyrus that she makes herself from dried vegetables. I am a real fan of her work and have purchased a number of her pieces. However, her process has remained a mystery to me….that is until yesterday when my friend, Julia, sent me instructions for a similar paper papyrus process.






"To be classed as true paper, the thin sheets must be made from fiber that has been macerated until each individual filament is a separate unit; the fibers are then intermixed with water, and, by the use of a sieve-like screen, are lifted from the water in the form of a thin stratum, the water draining through the small openings of the screen leaving a sheet of matted fiber upon the screen's surface. This thin layer of intertwined fiber is paper."



• Thin slice vegetable. A variety of vegetables can be used for this process. The ones that are not recommended are:

Cherimoya

Prickly pear

Potatoes- too starchy

____________________

Method One:

* Soak in water.
* Total number of soaking days is dependent attributes of the vegetable. Cucumbers are quicker than carrots.

Method Two:

* Some light cooking is used in conjunction with soaking.
* Cooking shortens the number of days needed to reach the desired consistency.

Shared Method:

* Roll vegetable slice daily with a rolling pin until the vegetable becomes spongy (time varies):

Cucumber - 1 day
* Carrots = may take several weeks Lay out the "paper" on pellon. Place vegetable on a cloth so that the pieces overlap.
* Place another cloth on top and press for approximately an hour.
* Remove from the press and change the cloths and keep changing the cloths until your papyrus is dry.
* The cloths must be changed a minimum of once a day to reduce the risk of mold. This is the time when mold is most likely to occur.


Here is a picture of papyrus made from thinly sliced radish.

Radish Papyrus

Day One:

* Sliced 3/32”
* Microwave – 1 min - uncovered
* Microwave – 1 min – uncovered
* Microwave – 2 min – uncovered
* Microwave – 2 min – uncovered
* Soak
* Not refrigerated

Day Two - Four:

* Roll out
* Soak (water changed)
* Not refrigerat

The Orange Show

Unless you've been there, you probably can't fathom just how hot it gets in Houston.

Years back, I took some art classes at the University of Houston, one of which was a beginning drawing class. The entire class would often take the short trip from the main campus to a folk art environment called, “The Orange Show” and do our sketching for the class. I loved the place and returned often on my own. It is now hailed as one of the most important folk art environments in the United States.



Sketch pads in hand, we students would bake in the hot Houston sun as we drew our versions of McKissick's whimsical bird sculptures, the tractor seats, the circus arenas, kitch and mosaic work that had been created by Jeff McKissack to extol the virtues of his favorite fruit …the orange. It was difficult to concentrate because the heat was so oppressive, but when I look at the sketches I made back then, I long to return.

Jefferson Davis Kissick

McKissack was a rebel and a fanatic. All he thought about were oranges and how good they were for human consumption. His creation encourages visitors of all ages to follow his theories relating health and longevity to good nutrition, hard work and eating oranges. The Orange Show was McKissack’s life’s work.



The Orange Show brightly screams in a Houston neighborhood of small single story homes, an out-of-place cacophony of sculpture and junk turned to folk art. Multi-hued metal juts from a jumble of balconies and buildings; American and Texan flags flutter in the breeze. Did crazed cross-dimensional clowns crash land here? Nah -- but it's a stellar example of dementia concretia and the vision of a singular dreamer.





Jeff McKissack (1902-1980) spent the Depression transporting Florida oranges, and something about the happy citrus fruit sparked obsession in him years later. In the 1950s, as a Houston postal worker living in a quiet neighborhood at 2406 Munger Street, McKissack decided to buy two adjacent empty lots. His get-rich-quick notions of turning the land into a worm farm, plant nursery, or beauty parlor eventually gave way to something much better: an artistic tribute to the orange.



Starting in 1956, McKissack transformed the lots on Munger using bits of junk and material salvaged along his mail route. He fashioned tons of masonry block, tiles, and throwaways into whimsical sculptures, doorways, gates and displays, based on his personal philosophy that oranges were "the perfect food." The Orange Show filled 3,000 square feet with a multi-decked building and series of rooms, a wishing well, an amphitheater with an array of old tractor seats, a pond, and an oasis. He did all the work himself.



Amphitheater area.Finally in 1979, nearly 25 years after he began, McKissack officially opened the doors of The Orange Show to the public. He believed his creation would become a major attraction, but early attendance dropped off to just a curious few who Jeff would cheerily guide. Seven months after the opening, McKissack collapsed from a stroke and died in the hospital.




This might have been the place in the story where neighbors, suffering through local property value depressed for 25 years by a garish, hulking safety hazard, storm the gates of the Orange Show and demolish it. It happens. Fortunately, the Orange Show was rescued from real estate oblivion by a group of supporters who pooled funds and bought the property. They formed the Orange Show Foundation, which preserves and operates the attraction to this day.




The Orange Show is now a nexus for folk art events and exhibits in Houston. The Art Car Weekend, held the third week in April, is an internationally known event, drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors. Avante garde and blues concerts, poetry readings, and folk art lectures are performed in the the tractor seat theater on weekend nights, and appearances by the strangest of the strange seem commonplace. The Foundation opens the Orange Show to the public frequently; volunteers spend some of the winter months preserving the attraction.

The man who loved oranges would be pleased.

Jamie Kuli McIntosh

Jamie McIntosh

As many of you know, I have been working on an installation about women’s clothing as social statement. Therefore, I keep my eye out for inspirational work by other artists who have made pieces that fit into this category. When I find one who also uses a lot of recycled materials, I am hooked! This is how I discovered Kentucky artist, Jamie McIntosh’s, art. Subsequently, Jamie was gracious enough to grant permission for me to write this entry about her. Her work is cerebral and diverse. She stretches both the media and her imagination with each creation, be it a teapot made of tea bags sewn together to one of her beautiful quilted paintings. They are all captivating.



Jamie writes:

“It’s sometimes challenging to make a really great piece of art that is realistically functional without having to “dumb it down” a bit. If you’ve ever tried to make a teapot out of fabric, then you know what I mean.”



“That being said, it’s often a complicated process to create something absolutely original without being sucked into using typical, tried-and-true materials. As far as fine art goes, that’s what I’m working on conquering right now.”

Swimming Solo


To me, the clothes that we wear are a type of sculpture, but they have become necessarily “dumbed down” in order for us to be able to perform our daily activities. I read in a book recently, (and I’m paraphrasing this…) “The type of shoes we wear is a declaration of what it is that we don’t have to do.”

I find it difficult to explain the way I work; the process isn’t always the same. But mainly, I start with a collection of one specific material (otherwise known as “a pile of junk”). Usually by the time I have accumulated a great heaping mass of this said material, I have figured out an interesting way to attach all of them together, united with a new and different purpose.

I made this bangle bracelet from plastic from... a parmesan cheese container! The plastic is sturdy and comfortable, plus it's the perfect size and flexible enough to go on and off easily. I've hand "engraved" the design onto the surface by using a woodburner to slightly melt the plastic.




For example, candy wrappers, fabric softener sheets, buttons, pistachio shells, scraps of foil and copper, clothing tags, and pressed leaves are all excellent things for me to collect and work with.

Dress made of dryer sheets

By re-using discarded materials, I don’t mean to explicitly make a political statement about recycling–but I am interested in questioning humanity’s social expectations and transforming the mundane into something interesting and useful.

Plastic Ball Gown



Since I have recently re-discovered my passion for sewing, anything that can be sewn together is definitely of interest to me (no matter how silly or disgusting). Also, I’ve recently been working on creating a unique line of clothing that makes underwear something you’ll want to wear on the outside.


Steel Shoes

Photography credit: J. McIntosh

If you have a craving to see more of Jamie's work, please check out her web site at:
Twisted Textiles - Art Themes .

Artista do dia - Joana Vasconcelos

Joana Vasconcelos has recently appeared on my radar screen in the same genre as some of the great feminist artists of the 60’s and 70’s. Think: Judy Chicago meets Crochet. Born in Paris, Joana now lives and works in Portugal greating large sculptural pieces that often include knitting and crochet.

A Noiva

Vast sculptures created by Vasconcelos from a variety of domestic objects are currently gallery spaces across the globe. She came to the attention of many during her appearance at the Venice Biennale in 2005. The stunning chandelier sculpture (above), A Noiva (The Bride) took the form of a chandelier made from around 25,000 tampons and greeted visitors to the Arsenale. Vasconcelos loves to play with the idea of femininity, of the "womanly knowledge", and to put it on its head.

Dorothy

Nectar

The remarkable structure is typical of her often witty and provocative work, which mainly consists of very large-scale sculptures that on closer inspection are made up of familiar objects as in the shoe sculpture above, created from tin cans. They also utilize a degree of handicraft, such as meticulously and ingeniously engineered crochet or knitting.

Bovine


As the French newspaper Libération put it, she uses out-of-date archetypes, but ones which still impregnate the collective memory, to update "Portugality". An avid proponent for the preservation of the environment, Vasconcelo’s work also "criticizes the action of consuming ". Her work is more than a rebellion - it's a provocative flirt, in which the pieces turn discourses such as pop, or the aesthetic irony of kitsch, around and over themselves, adding a new ironic twist to the use of these languages and materials.


Caração Independente Vermelho (Red Independent Heart)


The red sculpture (above) in the shape of a heart, is made from translucent plastic objects. The piece refers to the Viana do Castelo Heart, traditionally worn on pendants by women from the town of Viana do Castelo in Portugal, famous for its folklore traditions and decorative filigree jewellery. It is an example of the way Vasconcelos is concerned with Portuguese culture and national identity.
a photograph of several illuminated false flowers


Vasconcelos was recently commissioned to create a “Garden of Eden”, an ambitious piece that explores the relationship between art, nature and technology and ponders on our perception of nature in the future.



Visitors can wander through this completely artificial and multi-sensory garden, which attempts to marry beauty with something slightly chilling.

She also created two works that use ceramic dogs of the type commonly found in Portuguese homes – as ironic status symbols or as substitutes for the real thing. In Matilha, a group of dogs are wrapped in an elaborate coat of crochet while Passerelle sees the dogs locked in a relentless parade where, on impact with each other, they slowly break into pieces on the floor.





Her work is additionally about democratizing objects. From a discourse on her Web site: “Today, there are objects … that anyone can appreciate as being cool and trendy … There are objects that have changed status in this way. Status of people—of objects—changes; it isn’t static. Things that are banal today might belong in high culture tomorrow.”

She also uses the crochet work to draw the viewer in (it’s often said that the average person spends about 30 seconds in front of a piece of art). According to Joana, “Handcraft gives you three things: time, repetition, and then, when things are repeated over and over again, they become abstract.” She thinks of the crochet as a drawing or pattern on the work.

Crab

Vultrex

Cecilia Henle - Ancient to Modern

Cecilia Henle


Since I’ve known her, I have been impressed by Cece as an artist and a friend. She isn't merely inspirational. Oh, no.... She is so much more than just "inspirational". In fact, yesterday, as I was reviewing her art I realized that it almost made me high! It is so complex, so full of context and meaning and so very beautiful!
Abstract Wall

Inspired by the Caves of Lascaux, some of Cece’s most notable works are created on rich textural fields depicting ancient rock and cave. However her artistic style stretches to embrace other sophisticated treatments as well, using oils, pastels and watercolor.

Lascaux Mares and Goat

Mares and Magic

Ancient Journey

Wildfire Mares


Her exquisite watercolors are highly developed studies in color, light and pattern that dance delicately across a range of subjects including florals and figurative compositions.

Quiet Moments

Lily and Shell

Rose Begonia


Her studies and artistic exploration of the styles and meanings of both European and Native American primitive art led to a deep respect and appreciation for man's ancient artistic beginnings.

Bull Fragment

From primitive human cave paintings to American petroglyph and pictograph imagery, there is left a visual legacy of mans first attempts to explain the mysterious universe, to evoke and control the powers of nature, and record events. We certainly owe a debt of gratitude and appreciation to our ancient ancestors for making these marks for the first time, it was the beginning of all art!

Chaveux Lioness

Cece states:

" The very first role of artist was as shaman...an intermediary between worlds, bringing into being spiritual insight in the form of painted and carved symbols and pictures...to enhance understanding of life events and therefore, survival. I view this legacy with a high degree of respect- as a pictorial view of how we gave shape to our views of the universe. “

Horsehead Fragment


“My view as an artist and painter is that we have given shape to our world by making marks that represent, and symbolize and even copy nature to a high degree, to shape the form of our beliefs, and tell the stories of our inner realms.”


El Toro Grande Rojo

“Art is amazing. It opens one up to larger worlds, both real and imaginary. In my journey to understand the cultures and people that inspire me in my work, I have been reminded again and again of where it all started. The study of the first art ever created has helped me know art in a new way, that transcends all culture, all boundaries and all beliefs, bringing us together as one human species who have the incredible gift of creative expression.
My work is intended to celebrate the inspiring in life, to evoke and awaken respect and understanding of the cultures surrounding us, and to honor the first artists of the world."

Ancient Journey


Cecilia Henle’s art portfolio can be viewed HERE. Her focus is more on watercolor these days, so be sure to check out her new work.

Please visit to read about the artist's projects and see new work!

Anamorphosis

Anamorphosis is a distorted projection or perspective requiring the viewer to use special devices or occupy a specific vantage point to reconstitute the image. "Ana - morphosis" comes from the Greek words meaning "formed again.

Oblique anamorphosis is closely related to an artistic technique called trompe l'oeil (French for "deceiving the eye", pronounced "tromp loy").




Both use perspective constructions to create a "trick" image, but the difference lies in the nature of the trick. For an anamorphosis, the viewer is presented with something that does not make sense when viewed conventionally, and so he or she must seek out the unconventional viewpoint from which the trick is resolved. For trompe l'oeil, the viewer, standing in one particular (and usually conventional) place, is tricked into seeing an invented image as if it were reality. One of the most stunning examples of the technique is the fresco painting on the ceiling of the Church of Saint Ignazio in Rome, created by Andrea Pozzo during 1691-1694. A semi-circular roof is transformed into a fantastic picture of the heavens, in which Saint Ignatius ascends into paradise:



Kurt Wenner is a master artist and architect best known for his extremely high quality street painting and chalk murals using anamorphosis.

Kurt Wenner




These 3D chalk drawings on pavement have been featured in the media across the globe, in Italy, Germany, France, Switzerland, the United States, and Mexico. His artwork has been seen on ABC's World News Saturday, Good Morning America, and Pan Am and TWA's in-flight programs.



CLICK IMAGES TO SEE FULL SIZE

There are two main types of anamorphosis: Perspective (oblique) and Mirror (catoptric). Examples of perspectival anamorphosis date to the early Renaissance (15th Century), whereas examples of mirror anamorphosis (or catoptric anamorphosis) occurred at the time of the baroque (17th century).




Crowds often gather around Wenner as he works and when they are photographed standing next to the art, one can easily see the impact of the illusion. Kurt creates Renaissance classicism that is distinctly his own. They are as much unconfined by traditional canvas as they are not restrained by frames.



Kurt's art invites people to live within a work of art, to be drawn into it visually and to become an actual part of his imaginary world.



His vision of architecture expresses optimism and exuberance, celebrating the richness and complexity of the physical world made even more beautiful by the infusion of the human spirit.



Wenner is the foremost contemporary artist to fuse the visual patrimony of the past with the imagination of the twenty-first century. His sense of originality is stunning.



Wenner's work spans a vast array of disciplines. He designs and executes permanent works of art and architecture, as well as ephemeral visual illusions. From sumptuous murals and fine art of public or private residences to the amazing illusionistic street painting shown here:



For more information about Kurt Wenner and chalk artists in general, please visit the artist's web site HERE.

Diane Redmer Moore – Painting with Beads

Diane Redmer Moore


Since the 18th century the concept of craft is historically associated with the production of useful objects and art with less utilitarian ones. The craftsman's teapot or vase should normally be able to hold tea or flowers, while the artist's work is typically without utilitarian function. I don't care for this definition because this writer believes that art provides the greatest utilitarian function of all...a reason to get out of bed and embrace each day. Diane Redmer Moore uses her needle and beads to make art.



Known by her friends as, "Enchy" (Enchylatta), Diane, of Mountain Salt Studio lives in a candy colored house in a rural area near Seattle with six cats, four dogs and one musician. Her preferred art form includes techniques that have adorned moccasin tops and other decorative garments for more than 6,000 years. Diane paints exquisite pictures with a needle and beads.



About her inspiration for the creative process, Diana writes:

"I think that for me, it is difficult to really tell where it comes from. I work in fits and spurts - there will be a dry spell for weeks and then suddenly, as if from no where, a large body of work will come spewing forth, some of it not so good, but some of it quite wonderful. I fill up the waste bin quite often with the 'not so good' things."




Her work also originates from a keen sense of observation.



"I tend to be pretty quiet and very observant - i am constantly making little sketches that are more impressions than anything else - brief wisps of images that somehow all gel into something else - eventually."




To inspire her, Diane collects bits of paper...newspapper clippings, postcards, pictures torn from books and photographs and pairs these things with interesting ephemera and objects d'artes that she draws from for their textural influences.

"...so the creative process, for me, is something that happens when all of the textures and images and tastes and smells combine and magically transform themselves..."



"Historically I've been doing art for as long as I can remember. I think it was something that could be done quietly and being quiet was highly encouraged in my house when I was a child. I sold my first painting when I was 10 at an 'art sale' I set up on the sidewalk in front of my house (much to the horror of my mother). I was the arts and crafts director of the local parks department and was an art major in college with an area of concentration in figure drawing. Suddenly finding myself a single mother I learned that drawing naked people really doesn't pay the rent and went back to college and got a degree in social work and still work in that field today."





Diane has always been influenced by the Mexican muralists. Her fifth birthday party was held in in the Rivera Room of the Detroit Institute of Arts "...as it was my favorite place in the world. It's the only thing I miss about living in Detroit."



With each new intricate piece Enchy creates, fans of her work know it will delight the eye and transport the imagination to wherever she wants to take us.

Enno de Kroon

(click images to enlarge)

“The concept of "recycling" usually refers to the breaking down of used items into raw materials and then using those materials to make new items. In contrast, the concept of "reuse" includes both using an item again for its original function, as well as for "new-life reuse" where it is used for a brand new function. "ReUsing is similar to Recycling, only we aren't getting rid of things, we are finding new uses for them" explains INSPIRE, administrator of The ReUse Project group on Flickr that serves as an International hub for reuse artists.


A main aspect of my own art-making process involves recycling and reusing. I would wager to say that about 80% of my work is constructed of recycled or reused materials and almost 100% of it contains at least one recycled or reused element. That said, I always keep an eye out for other artists who help our earth along by making art out of these materials, but I would have noticed Enno de Kroon’s work regardless. I'm crazy about it!

Leading both recycling art and cubism into the 21st century is, Enno de Kroon, from The Netherlands. Enno uses ordinary egg crates instead of canvas to make spectacular "two-and-a-half" dimensional paintings in a style he defines as Eggcubism.





The most obvious question to ask Enno de Kroon is what he was thinking when he decided to start painting on such an inconvenient surface as an egg carton:

“The egg carton works came about out of my previous work where I find the relationship between the viewer and the piece as an object to be of great importance. I’ve always played with distortions of perspective, which puts the viewer on the wrong foot and makes them conscious of their manner of observing. The way we see things is so conditioned and decides what our minds eventually see in something. The egg cartons had been lying around my studio for some time ready for me to be painted upon, but it took some courage before I could take the plunge. It also took a while to come up with a product I was satisfied with.”





Painting with hinderances requires a new approach by the painter, which in turn has led the viewer to have to take a new approach to looking at the art.



The viewer discovers quickly the presence of an obstacle when looking at these works and finds it necessary to look at it from different sides, and then to decide themselves which position they want to take. Every position suffers the consequence that other parts of the work can’t be seen. The extra effort of this process really offers something new to the art: The process of viewing this art work becomes a purposeful, even interactive and exciting experience where both your expectations and memory play a role.



“In this way I’ve been inspired by cubism, the art form developed at the beginning of the 20th century where Picasso and Braque were the pioneers. They were the first to show us that you can take an object, a person or landscape, and simultaneously show it from different angles. It was also due to the times and the fact that much thought and contemplation surrounded psychological subjects and experiments. Freud’s Gestallt theory suggested that the human spirit automatically strives for the complete and will, on its own, complete an image."




"But in contrast to cubistic painting, it remains always with my paintings that it isn’t the single or multiple interpretations of the artist which matter. The viewer plays, by simply accepting my work, an active role. My work is dependant upon the viewer, it is only valuable once it is in the spirit of the one who beholds it."




"Just how long do we spend looking at a piece of art in a museum? Usually not longer than about ten minutes, and even then it would be an exceptionally interesting painting. Eventually a masterwork “exists” only immaterially, in the spirit of the one who has seen it; the memory of looking at the image plays an important role. This is also the reason for the fact that many people still know in what context they have witnessed or experienced an important event. If an image makes an impact upon you, then it has the potential to remain intriguing and inspiring to the public. A famous painting becomes “carried” through a great many people, and has won a place in our collective memories.”




This self awareness became De Kroon’s starting point, and started him off approaching the viewer as an experienced entity. “The average person of the 21st century is used to processing an enormous amount of visual information. Even when you watch television these days we are constantly zapping and are able to follow different story lines from various programmes at the same time. When you find something interesting you can choose if you stay and watch it which is exactly how it is with my eggcubism.”




The eggcubism works consist mainly of human portraits. During their evolution, humans developed a complex ability to recognize the human face and its subtle changes and differences. That, and the fact that the portraits confront the viewer because they seem to be looking as well as following you, is what makes the human face a continuous source of inspiration for Enno de Kroon. In his recent combined double portraits, which show multiple people, he develops a three way relationship between the viewer and the figures. As the viewer you wonder just who is looking at whom.



Enno de Kroon still has a long list of ideas. Some piled up and stuck together, egg cartons flung around the studio, ready to be painted. And an impressive large work in progress, consisting of some 80 egg cartons, is there on the wall.

"This new work is inspired by my daughters first schooldays, it will depict a loud and messy classroom full of kids. The sales so far have given me the opportunity and freedom to keep experimenting. I could never just make variations on the same theme.”




His work comes enclosed in these boxes with text written in three languages:



For more information about Enno, please see his flicker site at THIS url.

Lily Russo - Mosaics Influenced by the Masters

Lily Russo

When it comes to mosaic art, Lily Russo runs a versatile one - woman show. She creates her work expressively, using modulated color progressions and variations in shapes and textures to create visual metaphors for complex ideas. Lily creates both fine art and commercial pieces for sale. She has a real knack for putting her own spin on master paintings, turning them into wonderlands of mosaic spirals and colors as in this rendition of Van Gogh's Starry Night.
Starry Night

When Van Gogh painted the original, he was attracted by the contrast between the starlight and the – violent, active light coming from the gas lamps that reflected on the river. Both in his painting and in Lily’s mosaic, the sky plays a central role.
detail


Her treatment of “The Kiss” by Gustav Klimt retains the original integrity of his best-known work while imparting a more contemporary exodus from the early 20th century Art Nouveau movement.
The Kiss
Klimt and his fellow painters focused on stylistic designs that were soft and curving. Lily worked magic in being able to create the soft, curving mood of the piece with the rigid tesserae.

Lily also paints. This is her interpretation of the women depicted in Klimpt's work:

Klimpt Women


Lily Russo has been making mosaics since she was a child. She began by using the scraps from her mother's stained glass window projects and over time, diversified and developed her skills to create these exquisite works of art:


Botticelli's Venus

Late Afternoon Tea

Peacock

Fabric (painting)


She studied painting at the University of Illinois and graduated with a B.A. in International Studies, with a concentration on Human Rights in Latin America. She has recently returned from a trip to Ecuador where she used to live. She also lived in Australia. Both places influenced her skill and observations of intricate design and the rich color choices saturated in blues, yellows and reds.


You can see more of Lily Russo's work on her website HERE. Lilly is the former studio manager at Institute of Mosaic Art in Oakland.

Mail Art

Mail Art

THE HISTORY OF MAIL-ART

The roots of Mail-Art grow from many different influences.
Ray Johnson
Andy 2Cow

Ray Johnson is known as the "father" of Mail-Art. He worked within the New York Correspondance School in the early 1960s. Its aim was to create the opportunity for the direct exchange of art, ideas and information among artists in different countries.

Johnson created a network by sending out "moticos" using an extensive mailing-list which he, himself, organized. Mail-Art began to spread from this original network-system and soon reached new areas and more people.



FLUXUS

Contre Base Loin

Fluxus began outside the "fine arts" and included people from a non-artistic background. Fluxus influenced Mail-Art not only by this technical and ideoligical basis, but also by the nature of its artists.

DADA

Dadaism

The philosophy of the Dada artform has been transported by a multitude of Mail-Art examples. Dadaism and Merz-Art also use such techniques as collages, stamps as well as rubber-stamps and typography.

ADDITIONAL INFLUENCES

Many different "genres" of art have been connected to Mail-Art. To name only a few: nouveau realism, futurism, fluxus, modernism, dadaism and others. Some other artist often identified with Mail-Art are: Twombly, Duchamp, Schwitters, Warhol, Rauschenberg, Higgins, Klein, Spoerri and many others.

Marcel DuChamp

Cy Twombly

Kurt Schwitters

Andy Warhol

THE FUTURE OF MAIL ART

The rapid introduction of new media and techniques for telecommunication and a new sense of globalization and information-flow have influenced the development of this art form. New forms of network activity, new concepts of dealing with communication and of mailing art are continually being created.

SOME OF THE MOST COMMONLY USED MAIL-ART TECHNIQUES

The way to produce Mail-Art is strongly influenced by the elements one finds in common postal objects, but there are many others. Here you find some basic techniques.

STAMPS

Stamp-art apears in many forms such as miniature paintings, ego-stamps, fluxus and neo-dada stamps, ficticious stamps, social stamps and crossover stamps of different styles.

Silvaron Pertone - Italy

Tim Scannell


RUBBER STAMPS

Rubber stamps are used in many interesting ways. Some are recycled postal stamps and some have been artificially carved by the artists. The range of rubber stamps is so big that people produce stamp-magazines and stamps-archives.<
Rubber Stamps




COLLAGE AND COMBINATION

Creating something original out of new or recycled materials is a basic technique of Mail-Art.





TEXTS AND TYPOGRAPHY

Using the written (or printed) word as poetry, literature or in other forms as an art-element can also be seen in many examples of Mail-Art.

Borchers

MATERIALS AND OBJECTS

The experiment of sending unusual materials or even objects to achieve new ways of expression is often practiced.

OTHER TECHNIQUES

Mail-Art is done in nearly every technique you can imagine. Video, audio and digital data are also exchanged in the network. But also there is copy art, paper art, photography, painting, sketching, and many other media.


Why not try mail art for yourself? It’s fun!
CLICK HERE for a listing of interesting mail art projects that you can participate in.

This is a video about creating mail art with junk mail"

If you are unable to see the video, please click HERE .

The Art of Optical Illusion

Not long ago, we drove to San Jose to see the M.C. Escher exhibit at the contemporary art museum. I've always been a fan of his work.





Many of his works use simple formulae to achieve the illusion effects that made him one of the most notable artists to use this form of art.


By definition, mosaic art lends itself to the use of optical illusion very well.




See how the fish and turtles seem to come to life?


For your viewing pleasure, I have put together a collection of other optical illusions that I found on the web along with a little information about their history.


To experience the full effect of this first one, please click the photo to enlarge:




Bezold Effect

The Bezold Effect is an optical illusion, named after a German professor of meteorology, Wilhelm von Bezold (1837-1907), who discovered that a color may appear different depending on its relation to adjacent colors.

In the above example, the red seems lighter combined with the white, and darker combined with the black.

This next one is called the café wall illusion. It is an optical illusion, first described by Doctor Richard Gregory. He observed this curious effect in the tiles of the wall of a café at the bottom of St Michael’s Hill, Bristol. This optical illusion makes the parallel straight horizontal lines appear to be bent.

To construct the illusion, alternating light and dark “bricks” are laid in staggered rows. It is essential for the illusion that each “brick” is surrounded by a layer of “mortar” (the grey in the image). This should ideally be of a color in between the dark and light color of the “bricks”.

The Cafe Wall Illusion




The Chubb Illusion
The Chubb illusion is an optical illusion wherein the apparent contrast of an object varies dramatically, depending on the context of the presentation.

Low-contrast texture surrounded by a uniform field appears to have higher contrast than when it is surrounded by high-contrast texture. This was observed and documented by Chubb and colleagues in 1989.


Hermann Grid
The Hermann grid illusion is an optical illusion reported by Ludimar Hermann in 1870 while, incidentally, reading John Tyndall’s Sound.

The illusion is characterised by “ghostlike” grey blobs perceived at the intersections of a white (or light-colored) grid on a black background. The grey blobs disappear when looking directly at an intersection.


Zöllner Illusion
In this figure the black lines seem to be unparallel, but in reality they are parallel. The shorter lines are on an angle to the longer lines. This angle helps to create the impression that one end of the longer lines is nearer to us than the other end.

This is very similar to the way the Wundt illusion appears. It may be that the Zöllner illusion is caused by this impression of depth.




In this next illusion, the image shows what appears to be a black and white checker-board with a green cylinder resting on it that casts a shadow diagonally across the middle of the board. The black and white squares are actually different shades of gray.

The image has been constructed so that “white” squares in the shadow, one of which is labeled “B,” are actually the exact same gray value as “black” squares outside the shadow, one of which is labeled “A.” The two squares A and B appear very different as a result of the illusion.

Adelson's Checker Illusion



Here is a great little video about how to draw some optical illusions. The soundtrack is pretty obnoxious, and I apologize for that. I watch it with the sound turned off.

Peter Rocha and Roger Rocha - Jelly Bean Mosaics

We took eleven-year-old Maya to the Jelly Belly Candy factory in Fairfield, CA. yesterday. The factory floor was a maze of conveyer belts, robots, tumbling drums and trays full of brightly colored beans in various stages of development. We were stunned to learn that it takes seven to 21 days for a Jelly Belly to complete the evolution from sugary slurry to fully formed, tasty treat.

All along the tour route there were Jelly Belly mosaics created by San Francisco artist Roger Rocha, the self-proclaimed king of jelly bean art. Roger follows in the footsteps of his uncle, Peter Rocha, who was the first notable area jelly bean mosaic artist.

Carousel

We saw portraits of Elvis, Amelia Earhart ....and Ronald Reagan, who ordered three and a half tons of the candy for his presidential inauguration in 1981. (Doesn't it just warm your heart to realize your tax dollars were spent on such a meaningful endeavor?) The blueberry Jelly Belly flavor was created so that Ronnie could serve red, white and blue Jelly Belly beans at his inaugural parties.

Ronald Reagan

We weren't allowed to take photographs during the tour itself, but there were a number of mosaics in the lobby that we could take photos of. Please excuse my uneven photographs. Most were taken while being pushed through the lobby by a throng of tourists.

Honest Abe

It can take up to six months to create one of these mosaic masterpieces.

Queen Elizabeth
In recognition of the 50-year reign of Queen Elizabeth II, the sweet portrait (above) made from over 10,000 individual Jelly Belly beans depicts the Queen at the time of her coronation in 1952. The royal portrait measures 4 feet by 4 feet and weighs in at some 40,000 calories.

The portrait went on display in London's Oxford Street during Jubilee weekend and toured throughout the United Kingdom during the summer of 2002.

And speaking of political figures, here we have a portrait of the first U.S. President, George Washington:

George Washington


...and while we're on the subject of Georges....this portrait of George Clooney is but one of more than 75 individual portraits of celebrities and political images created by the two Rochas for the Jelly Belly company. This piece - which features Cotton Candy beans for George’s cheeks and Buttered Popcorn candy for his highlighted hair - will be donated to a charity of George’s choice.

George Clooney

This shimmering sweet bean portrait of Marilyn Monroe was on display at the Luxe Hotel during last Golden Globe Awards ceremony in tinsel town.
Marilyn Monroe

The Jelly Belly art collection seemed to have a particular patriotic slant. It included this one of the Statue of Liberty:

Statue of Liberty

...and this one of Ben Franklin:

Ben Franklin

The next time I find myself with a surplus of jelly beans, I think I'll give this a try.



Sweet Dreams!

Jennifer Koshbin

Jennifer Koshbin

She came into that room looking for something.

What she was looking for wasn't what she finally accepted.

Jennifer Khoshbin, has been an artist most of her life. Her work was only recently discovered by this writer and for me, it was a happy day. Growth. Her work addresses various ideas of growth — personal, natural, biological, etc.

She says: "I am continually trying to figure out how to be satisfied each day with whatever happens and remembering to be grateful."



In the series Handmade Wilderness I am creating a number of wall-mount deer "trophies"-paper mache and decoupage on resin cast heads. The deer head itself is a common emblem of "nature," but one in which nature is celebrated by its death, and in this case artificially reimagined.











In a series of small, self-contained, conceptual pieces entitled "The Book Project: diggin’ for the truth" Jennifer's focus turned to the sculptural use of books.

"I methodically carve each page to create a “depth of thought”, and minimally design the surface with mixed images of birds, insects, botany, women, or children, with hints of the inorganic- manufactured objects, advertising, or text.

In these experiments I am trying to delve into the books, into facts and knowledge, as a way to understand my world. Using the surface space to express what I “dig-up”, I seek some resolution between the organic and the inorganic, hoping for the authentic."

Balance
Butterfly Grave
T.M. Bita (Too Many Balls in the Air)


Ashes

Ashes detail
Handmade Wilderness
Orbit


To see more of Jen's work, please CLICK HERE.

Hold the Gravy, Please

The art of Oakland artist, Margaret Dorfman has been a standard gift from me to my friends and family since I moved to the Bay Area. As a vegetarian, I find the significance of their creation particularly pithy on a number of levels.




After I purchased the first one, I couldn’t stop! (Badda boom!)


Margaret makes these bowls by hand from fresh vegetables that have been cured for several days, then pressed, dried and aged. She then molds the parchments into bowls that are paper thin and translucent. No chemicals are used in the process. Each bowl takes about ten days to complete, and because each bowl is hand shaped and formed, each is unique.





She calls this “Vegetable Parchment” because the texture and translucency calls to mind the skin partchments of medieval Europe.


Margaret makes the bowls from over twenty different types of vegetable that vary somewhat by season. Beat, zucchini, daikon, carrot, bok choy, bok choy greens, pineapple, purple cabbage, celery, red and yellow bell pepper and golden beet are available year-round.




Spring and summer bring additional varieties including leek, savoy, yellow and green scallop squash, cantaloupe, watermelon, snow pea and Mexican and Hawaiian papaya. Fall features yam, pumpkin, gourd and green and gold acorn squash.




To preserve their beauty, these bowls should be kept out of direct or bright sunlight and away from moisture and humidity. Like all botanicals, the natural pigments in the bowls may lighten over time.




Margaret earned degrees in Linguistics and Anthropology from U.C. Davis, then went on to gain fluency in American Sign Language and worked for many years as a sign language interpreter. She now makes her bowls full-time at her studio here in Oakland, where she lives with her husband and son.




The local farmers' markets and ethnic enclaves of Oakland provide Margaret with a great range of exotic and unusual fruits and vegetables for her work: "Chinatown provides lotus roots and bitter melon, while only a couple of miles away the mercados of East Oakland carry rare varieties of chili peppers and sapote fruit.




Like their fresh counterparts, the bowls vary with the seasons: purple Savoy in the spring, watermelon and cantaloupe in the summer, pumpkin and persimmon in the autumn, pear and citrus in the winter. "I'm always trying something new," says Margaret. "These days I'm experimenting with raddicchio and apricot."



"What delights me about creating these vegetable parchment bowls," says Margaret, "is the process of turning what is seen as ordinary and commonplace into something of beauty. The bowls allow me to re-see what I take for granted; the luminous beauty of fruits and vegetables, their jewel-like colors, and most of all their ability to surprise and enchant. As I work with the fruits and vegetables, I feel like I am not creating something new, but instead uncovering what was always there to see."



Margaret's bowls are available through Uncommon Goods.

Art is the Center of the Real World

Isaiah Zagar


I need help writing this entry. I really do.

I had an idea of what I wanted to say when I sat down at my computer today , but I found it was too difficult to narrow the scope of complexities that comprise Isaiah and Julia Zagar. Each thought I had about the subject would spin off into an entirely new direction worthy of pages and pages of writing. They are so interesting and have done so much. It would be impossible to write about it all here. You might want to start to get a better sense of who this entry is about by first listening to this NPR radio spot about their stint in the Peace Corp. : CLICK HERE.

To merely say that Isaiah is an internationally-recognized artist who has had his work commissioned for public spaces and received a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in sculpture doesn't even scratch the surface in formulating an overall picture of this man. He is so much more than that. And to say that Julia is just Isaiah's wife, is doing a disservice to them both. They are the dynamic duo.

Julia travels the world, collecting items for her Eyes Gallery in Philadelphia...that is, when she isn't lecturing about Frida Kahlo or assisting Isaiah with his mural making or helping raise funds for Philadelphia's Magic Gardens or engaging in some other interesting endeavor. She has just returned from a trip to Peru.
Julia Zagar (L) with Peruvian woman



Recently, a documentary feature film about Isaiah and Julia was released by their son, Jeramiah. It was produced by Herzliya Films in association with Red Light Films. Titled, “In A Dream”, the film, which is already getting rave reviews, was awarded the Emerging Visions Audience Award at the SXSW Film Festival and is scheduled to screen this weekend at the Philadelphia and Full Frame Film Festivals. The official trailer, stills and other information about the film can be found at the Herzliya Films Web Site. If you are in the Philadelphia area, you don't want to miss it!

I am far from the first person to say that Isaiah had a profound impact on her life and I doubt I’ll be the last. He lit a spark under me. He has lit sparks under a lot of people. It seems that every time I turn around, someone else is talking about him.

Isaiah was my first mosaic teacher. The experience, for me, was an emotional catharsis. I worked with Isaiah and a group of other students who built a large mosaic mural in five days. Afterward, I wept for about three. It was truly a liberating and empowering experience. Even now, two years later, I can’t fully describe what it was like.

Stacy Alexander and Isaiah Zagar (He's the one with the beard...)

I made a little QuickTime video of the class that you can watch below or by clicking HERE.



Over the last forty years, Isaiah has covered more than 50,000 square feet of Philadelphia with stunning mosaic murals.

Philadelphia's Magic Gardens are an ongoing project started in 1994 by Isaiah, who's life's mission has been to gentrify, beautify, and re-dream the city. His distinctive art is present throughout the city, with a main focus that weaves in and around the South Street corridor. There are currently over 100 murals on public city walls, and new murals popping up consistently. The glass and pottery creations reflect the neighborhood, the true spirit of Philadelphia and the history of a local art revolution.

Read all about how this mosaic wonderland came about HERE

A little more than a year ago, Isaiah and Julia, spent five days with us here in the Bay Area. We had the honor of showing them around the San Francisco and were thoroughly entertained by Isaiah’s stories and his vast knowledge of the arts. He struck us as being every bit as complex as the multitudes of fascinating mosaic murals he makes in or around Philadelphia's South Street. Equally as fascinating, Julia adds the spice to the mix. They seem to balance one another perfectly.
Julia and Isaiah Zagar Photograph by Stacy Alexander

Isaiah writes:
“In 1959 when I was 19 years old I was introduced to the folk art environment of Clarence Schmidt, My Mirrored Hope, Woodstock, NY USA. Soon after in 1960 there was a groundbreaking exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, NY USA. Because that exhibition included assemblages of artists like Pablo Picasso, Jean Dubuffet, Curt Schwitters, Antonio Gaudi along side of untrained brickaleurs Clarence Schmit, Simon Rodia and Joseph Ferdinand Cheval that gave me as a trained artist the rationale to include their concepts as manifestations of fine art. At a crucial time in my life it allowed me to begin what could be called a life's work making the city of Philadelphia PA USA into a labyrinthine mosaic museum that incorporates all my varied knowledge and skills.”







In RawVision, Len Davidson says:

Zagar knows energy. This entryway wall, a huge expenditure for most, is but another pebble in the sand for him. Today he chips away at a hallway on South Street; next week he will attack the stairwell; next month the exterior; until finally this tireless mason/artist has covered one more three-story brick building/canvas – inside and out – transforming it into an extraordinary ceramic and glass environment.


Here are some additional photos of Isaiah and his work:









To read more about Isaiah and his art or to make a donation to Philadelphia's Magic Garden, please CLICK HERE.

I met Isaiah at Institute of Mosaic Art in Oakland.




"Art is the Center of the Real World"
Isaiah Zagar