‘Ink, by Japanese artist under the nickname Avogado6
—
‘there is something magical in seeing what you can do,
what texture and tone and colour you can produce
merely with a pen point and a bottle of ink.’
*-ida rentoul outhwaite
*Ida Rentoul Outhwaite, was an Australian illustrator of children’s books.
Her work mostly depicted magical creatures, such as elves and fairies.
—
—
through her imagination, all things become possible.’
-nadia janice brown
—
art credit: john goss, great blue heron
mill creek park north, huron river, dexter, mi, usa
winter 2025
after a wonderful lunch with friends at the polish village restaurant
a bakery visit, and trip to the local grocery
in hamtramck, michigan
(a small city on the edge or detroit
now filled with a mix of polish and yemini people)
we stopped to visit the famous
hamtramck disneyland
located in the middle of an old neighborhood
a one-man folk art display
created over 30 years
in his backyard
it’s really a lot to take in
ao incredibly creative and wonderful
see the story below:
Dmytro Szylak grew up in Ukraine and immigrated to the United States with his wife in the 1950s. Mr. Szylak worked for General Motors for 30 years; after retiring in the mid-1980s, he began building Hamtramck Disneyland atop the two garages on the properties he owned. The project took nearly 30 years to construct, and was constantly being updated and modified by Mr. Szylak until his death in 2015, at the age of 92.
In its heyday, the installation filled the air with whimsical kinetic structures that rattled and whirred as they spun in the wind. The garages were painted in bright stripes, and the space in between was filled with found photographs, posters, and classic Americana images mixed with those of the Europe of Mr. Szylak’s past. It is one of Michigan’s most significant works of folk art; thousands of visitors from all over the world have made Hamtramck Disneyland one of their stops.
After Mr. Szylak passed away, his estate was in limbo, with no plan to protect or keep the art. Driven by the energy and support of the community, a group of residents and artists formed to save this great local treasure. Hatch Art, which operates an art gallery and studios in the former Hamtramck police station, took ownership of Hamtramck Disneyland in May of 2016.
Hatch Art repairs and maintains the installation, preserving the core components of the artwork while proceeding with gradual updates as materials succumb to the elements. The intention is to honor Dmytro Szylak’s work by keeping the future of the installation as lively as he did in the past.
“Hamtramck Disneyland” has been the subject of two documentaries and is one of the top tourist attractions to Hamtramck, a city located within the boundaries of Detroit. It is one of Michigan’s most significant artist-built environments, along with the Heidelberg Project and MBAD African Bead Museum, among others. Thousands of visitors a year from all over the world have made “Hamtramck Disneyland” one of their stops. In 2006, famed photographer Bruce Weber did a photo shoot with Kate Moss at this location.—
‘art is life seeking itself. It is our intractable expressions of love
for the beauties, ideas, and epiphanies we regularly find.’
— vincent van gogh
—
text source credit: hatch art, detroit
i absolutely love
the toledo (ohio, usa) museum of art’s
creative announcement of their good news:
Cheers to the new year—and free parking!
Parking at TMA is now completely free.
Plan your next visit today: https://toledomuseum.org/visit
Man with a Wine Glass, Velázquez (Spanish, 1599–1660). c. 1630. Oil on canvas.
Lotus Lamp (shade), Tiffany Studios (American, 1902-1932). about 1905. Glass, and bronze.
—
‘creativity is contagious. pass it on.’
-albert einstein
pere noel/father christmas, by jan pashely
—
it’s not long now, santa….
==
“not believe in santa claus! you might as well not believe in fairies!”
* francis p. church
* Francis Pharcellus Church was an American publisher and editor.
In 1897, Church wrote the editorial “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus”.
‘raindrops on weeds in a broken wall’
*photo/edit credit: hollie jane wright
—
i find this photo so stunning
it looks like beautiful italian glass
—
‘weeds are nature’s graffiti.’
-j.l.w. brooks
‘pere noel’
picasso created this when he was 78 years old
to give as a gift to his friends on christmas eve.
i really love this one.
—
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
Père Noël
signed, dated and dedicated
‘Picasso 24.12.59. pour Gilberte et Serge’ (upper left)
colored wax crayons on paper
19 ½ x 13 3/8 in. (49.5 x 34 cm.)
Drawn on 24 December 1959
Maya Widmaier-Picasso and Claude Picasso have confirmed the authenticity of this work.
Picasso gifted this work as a present to Gilberte Duclaud and Serge Chauby on Christmas Eve 1959.
Duclaud was the owner of Galerie 65 in Cannes, which held multiple exhibitions for the artist.
Sold at Christie’s in auction and now in a private collection, 1970.
—
‘anybody with artisitc ambitions is always trying to reconnect with the way they saw things as a child.’
-tim burton, american film writer/director
while i am a fan of pop-up street art
so unique and free-spirited
i took a pass on this item
might be a perfect match for someone else.
(i almost glanced over my shoulder to see if it was following me.)
—
‘where there is no imagination, there is no horror.’
-arthur conan doyle
Almost Evening by Japanese artist, Kaoru Yamada
—
while the early morning hours are my favorite time of day
the change to evening holds its own special magic
as the day folds into itself once again.
—
‘the evening had turned sweet and blue.’
-alice hoffman
totally kid carousel
A Carousel Of Visions;Artist Brings the Fantasies Of Children to Magical Life
Artistic acclaim came early to Milo Mottola. When he was 8, his drawing of menacing tooth film with the slogan “Plaque is mean, so keep teeth clean” was such a hit it won him a $50 savings bond from a dental group and was made into a poster. Nearly 25 years later, Mr. Mottola, an artist who lives in Long Island City, Queens, NY, decided to try to find a way to give other children that same dizzy excitement and spark of confidence, without all those dentists.
What could be better, he thought, than asking children to draw the animals they would like to ride on a carousel — and then to make that carousel, carving the animals exactly as the children drew them? I wanted it to be as magical as the children who ride it,” said Mr. Mottola, who, in an echo of his own past, gave each child whose animal was chosen a $50 savings bond, and a lifetime of free rides on the carousel.
Above each animal, Mr. Mottola displayed the child’s original drawing, and on the floor beneath each animal, he carved the child’s signature. “I wanted the winners to have something that will last forever, where they can someday take their husbands and wives and say ‘I did this.’ “
The carousel is on permanent display in Riverbank State Park, the 28-acre park built three years ago atop a sewage treatment plant between West 137th and West 145th Streets in Harlem.
“improvisation, writing, painting, invention—all creative acts—are forms of play,
the starting place of creativity in the human growth cycle, one of the great primal life functions.”
— stephen nachmanovitch, Free Play
—
Source Credits: Pam Belluck, Milo Mottola, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Percent for Art Program
Material: steel (alloy), wood, fiberglass
Address:679 Riverside Dr, New York, 10031, USA
I didn't have my glasses on.... 