Tag Archives: art

Sep17

magic and illusion.

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2 paintings by the same artist, painted 11 years apart.

Top: The Sun Sets Sail, 2001

Bottom: Toward the Horizon, 2012

Artist: Rob Gonsalves, acrylic on canvas

 

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 Gonsalves stated that the wonder of life depends on one’s point of view. His paintings suggest that magic is an essential truth of our environment, hidden just beneath the surface of ordinary things.

 

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‘art is the perpetual motion of illusion. the highest purpose of art is to inspire.’

-bob dylan

Sep14

totem.

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 walking the neighborhood

  totem stands

waiting to be discovered

 neighbor’s yard

 an artist

who often

has something 

to say

with his work

 the details here

lightning bolt at the top

 red fish

dragonfly

compass rose

238 miles to manistee

in the upper peninsula

how do they connect

what is the message

art puzzle

feels to me like

an ode to our state

michigan.

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‘you must be absolutely honest and true in the depicting of a totem for meaning 

 is attached to every line. you must be most particular about detail and proportion.’

-emily carr

 

 

*Emily Carr (1871 –1945) was a Canadian artist who was inspired by the monumental art and villages of the First Nations and the landscapes of British Columbia. She was a vivid writer and chronicler of life in her surroundings, praised for her “complete candor” and “strong prose”. ‘Klee Wick’ her first book, published in 1941, won the Governor General’s Literary Award for non-fiction and this book and her other writings are still much in demand today.

Sep4

two birds.

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Two Birds

M.C. Escher, Regular Division of the Plane (Birds) no. 18, India ink, pencil and watercolor, February 1938

About Two Birds

M.C. Escher created his iconic interlocking motif Two Birds in 1938, exploring how repeating, interlocking geometric shapes can fit together without any gaps. His fascination with interlocking figures began in 1922 when he visited the Alhambra, a 14th-century Moorish palace in Granada, Spain. He spent days sketching the complex, colorful tile mosaics that covered the walls and floors.

 Though the Moors avoided depicting living creatures due to religious tradition, Escher adapted their mathematical tile designs to feature recognizable animals like birds, fish, and reptiles.

Escher had no formal training in advanced mathematics, but he intuitively grasped geometric symmetry. By 1938, works like Two Birds and related prints such as Day and Night, marked his deep dive into tessellations – where a single bird shape serves as both the primary figure and the negative space outlining its counterpart. 

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‘mighty is geometry; joined with art, resistless.’

-Euripides

 

 

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Source Credits: Artchive, Wiki Art, M.C Escher, The Graphic Work, Royal Publishing House

Aug28

‘i, kusama, am the modern alice in wonderland.’

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Yayoi Kusama, an icon, rebel and visionary, passed away this week

 

10 interesting facts about Yauoi Kusama

  1. Yayoi Kusama arrived in Seattle in 1957 with two kimonos and 200 paintings. This is the first city Kusama visited when she moved to the US.
  2. Kusama was pen pals with Georgia O’Keeffe, Richard Nixon, and the President of France.
  3. She partnered with Louis Vuitton to design a clothing line in 2012.
  4. Narcissus Garden, a rogue performance piece by Kusama, was installed outside of the 33rd Venice Biennale in 1966 with the support of one of the curators, however she was asked to leave the premises.
  5. She was making Pop art before Andy Warhol.
  6. Assemblage artist and filmmaker, Joseph Cornell and Kusama had an intimate friendship that prompted his mother to dump a bucket of water on them once when she caught them kissing.
  7. The quintessential polymath, Kusama has published numerous literary works.
  8.  A firm believer in love forever, Kusama performed a gay marriage way before gay marriage was legal.
  9. In 2016, she was ranked as the most expensive living female artist on aggregate.
  10. Yayoi Kusama produced art work for more than six decades.

    Kusama was an avant-garde artist who died at the age of 97. She worked across painting, installation, and sculpture, and has covered rooms, trees, and buildings with her iconic imagery. Kusama started painting her famous polka-dotted sculptures in the 50s which put her problems into perspective. “I wanted to examine the single dot that was my own life. One polka dot: a single particle among billions,” she said.

‘more and more, i think about the role of the arts, and as an artist,

i think that it’s important that I share the love and peace.’
-Yayoi Kusama

 

 

 

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source credits:galerie, chelsea werner-gatzky

Jul28

it’s not safe to talk.

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‘It’s Not Safe To Talk’, David Hayward, Sumi ink and watercolour on paper

 

 “It’s Not Safe to Talk”, it’s origin story – A woman contacted me to say she saw a young bright maple tree surrounded by dead and dying trees as if they were trying to silence it. She heard, “It’s not safe to talk!” How I feel! She said keep shining. So I painted it.
(Ink used to make calligraphy) – David Hayward

 

It’s not safe to talk, but as long as we talk, we’re alive.

 

Bio from the artist: I’m a lot of things. Pastor turned artist. Cartoonist. Writer. And other things I’m still figuring out. To be all these things is simply to be human. Complex, meaningful, creative, curious, and evolving. – DH

 

Jul18

journeys.

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walking into the small gallery

we saw

 a very intriguing  ship

way up high

above a wall of art and exotic teas

it looked like

a viking longship

the owner said

indeed it was

her scandinavian grandfather

built it long ago

spent many hours

making the details perfect

using

special wood

adding

the colors

the rigging

strung carefully

the dragon

as the figurehead

to frighten enemies

bring the vikings good luck

the “heart” symbols

valknut

for protection of the god Odin

honor their fallen warriors

symbolize the transition

between life and death

one day

he sent it

across the seas

to america

to her father

who passed it on

to his daughter

who owned the gallery

who passed on to her son

who, when he grew

passed it back to his mother

who loved it

wanted to rescue it

put it in her gallery

where she could look at it

where visitors

could admire

and wonder about

this legacy gift

the only thing

that didn’t survive

over time

were

the hand made

paper sails

he had taken such care

to raise on the mast

it lived on

through

the journeys

the generations

 the years

arriving at last

in a safe harbor

now shared

for all to enjoy

and imagine

the journeys it has taken.

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“The more journeys you make, the more directions they take.”
– Egil’s Saga

Egil’s Saga was written down between 1220-1240 AD. While it is an epic story spanning the 9th and 10th centuries, it is not a 100% true story, but is  deeply rooted in real history. Egill Skallagrímsson, was a 10th-century Viking warrior and poet. However, the saga was written down centuries later and blends verifiable facts with folklore, myth, and legendary exaggeration. The saga functions as a mix of biography and medieval literature.
Jul7

bringing stone to life.

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Japanese artist Akie Nakata (known as Akie) turns found rocks into realistic animal paintings

 

 Akie has a unique way of looking at the world. While many would simply pass over a rock or a stone, Akie is able to see their potential. For the past nine years, she’s taken ordinary stones and transformed them into something magical using paint. Under her watchful eye, these rocks become highly realistic animals that fit into the palm of your hand.

Using only acrylic gouache—no pen—and working with tiny brushes, Akie carefully brings each animal to life. In reality, the creative process begins from the moment she spots a rock. Its natural shape helps inspire what animal it will become. “Stones have their own intentions, and I consider my encounters with them as cues to go ahead and paint what I see on them.”

From cuddly dogs and curious cats to various frogs, birds, and mice, there is no animal that Akie can’t make magically appear before our eyes. Her talent has garnered her a huge following on Instagram and Facebook, where the stones she makes available for purchase are usually snapped up quickly.

Occasionally, Akie will also post before and after photographs of her rock art. When viewed side by side, Akie’s work is even more impressive. Natural markings might become eyes and a pointed edge may transform into a nose -with Akie, anything is possible. For the artist, it’s all about bringing the animal to life and hoping that its future owner will enjoy it as much as she does.

“To me, completing a piece of work is not about how much detail I draw, but whether I feel the life in the stone.”

 

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“0ne eye sees, the other feels.”

― Paul Klee, pioneering Swiss/German artist

 

 

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source credits: my modern met, j. stewart, facebook, instagram

Jun15

blue whispering day.

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Choy Moo Kheong (b.1950 Singapore)

Blue Whispering Day, 2022.

Acrylic on canvas

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Choy Moo Kheong (b.1950) is a self-taught artist from Singapore who is inspired by the romanticism of nature. At the age of 28, he taught himself how to paint. Combining his talent, creativity and determination, he succeeded despite the odds. He held on to his dreams and was rewarded when his works begun to be accepted and exhibited.

Since then, his work has been exhibited in France, Switzerland, Brunei, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore. Besides attracting international and local private collectors, his work has also been collected by many private organizations such as the National Bank of Abu Dhabi, the Canadian High Commissioner, Glaxo Holdings in London, the New York Institute of Finance in Singapore, the Sultan of Brunei, JP Morgan Singapore and the Gulf International Bank.

May27

night rain.

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Kasamatsu Shirō (Japanese, 1898–1991)

“Night Rain at Shinobazu Pond”, 1938, Woodblock Print

 

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‘rain is grace; rain is the sky descending to the earth without rain, there would be no life.’

-john updike

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Shiro Kasamatsu (笠松 紫浪, Kasamatsu Shirō; was a Japanese engraver and print maker trained in the Shin-Janga and Sosaku-Hanga styles of woodblock printing.

Kasamatsu was born in Tokyo in 1898 and apprenticed at the age of 13 to Kaburagi Kivokata , a traditional master of Bijin-ga, pictures of beautiful women. Kasamatsu however took an interest in landscape and was given the pseudonym Shiro by his teacher, which he used as a signature mark in his prints. Kasamatsu exhibited his paintings in government sponsored juried exhibitions. He completed his first woodblock prints in 1919 for Shozaburo Watanabe after the publisher saw his paintings on exhibit. Almost all the woodblocks were destroyed in a fire in Watanabe’s print shop following the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. Around 50 prints were published by Watanabe by the late 1940s. Kasamatsu began to partner with Unsodo in Kyoto in the 1950s and produced over 100 prints by 1960. He also began to print and publish on his own Sosaku-Hanga style and produced nearly 80 prints between 1955 and 1965.



May19

folk.

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one of my favorite museums ever

 Urania Proscenium No. 11, a 19th-century German toy theater, Joseph Scholz of Mainz. 

this vibrant hooked rug, crafted by artist Celso Gallegos,  late 1920s or early 1930s.
he rug features a central tree form surrounded by various native animals.

 Monica Canilao, Teotilian del Vallek. Oaxaca, Mexicto, 1960

Sculpture titled “Ms. Utopia” by British-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare CBE,

featuring a mannequin dressed in Dutch wax cotton textile, 2013

pinata near the offices, artist unknown

quilt titled Nobody’s Free Until Everybody’s Free: Fannie Lou Hamer (2024) by artist Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi. The quilt honors Fannie Lou Hamer, a prominent civil rights activist and community organizer who championed voting rights.

This blue and white ceramic vessel is a work by Los Angeles-based artist Elyse Pignolet, often featured in exhibitions exploring contemporary female experiences. The piece is part of a body of work that utilizes traditional ceramic techniques—specifically blue and white glaze reminiscent of historical European pottery—to subvert expectations.

 

 papier-mâché sculpturen created by artist Roberto Benavidez.

part of an exhibition titled “Truths Be Told” 

from the Ray Neutrogena collection

 vibrant hooked rug crafted by artist Celso Gallegos in the late 1920s or early 1930s
  •  The rug features a central tree form surrounded by various native animals.

museum guests of all ages were invited to stitch with museum materials

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folk art is handmade, utilitarian or decorative objects, created by everday, often self-taught artists with a specific cultural community. instead of following formal academic rules, it relies on deeply-rooted community traditions,
preserving cultural heritage, history, and daily life through generations.
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‘from our first babblings to our last word, we make but one statement, and that is our life.’
-richard paul evans

 

 

 

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source credits:

museum of iunternatiuonal folk art, santa fe, new mexico, u.s.a – may, 2026