the tiny expo art show
at our downtown library
had a wide range of artists
with beautiful work
one of the most unusual
was some of jaci riley’s work
tiny earrings
cast from her cat, Beatrix’s lost tooth.
—
“the world is a museum of passion projects.”
-john collison
while recently at my friend’s lake house
we made this beautiful puzzle
of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula
she purchased during her recent visit to the northern regions
beautifully made of wood, precision cut, and challenging
but together we managed to complete the puzzle
except
for one piece
that I tried to jam in
I broke it
our ‘gluer’ didn’t put it back together quite right
so we accepted that it was finished without it
but I felt bad
so I wrote to the company
to see if they could possibly replace the piece
I took photos of it and where it was supposed to be
always worth a shot
the artist who made the puzzle
also the company owner
said she would replace it
(talk about customer service!)
I thanked her
excitedly waited for the piece to arrive
within days it showed up at my house
what should arrive at my house
all the way from the upper peninsula
but an entire puzzle
at no charge
from the artist herself
as her and her husband
are the small business owners
of their own family owned company
she is a Ukranian artist
who makes the puzzles
among many other things
he is an American veteran
I was so amazed by their kindness
that I’d like to publicly thank them here
by sharing a connection to their business
I will certainly buy puzzles from them myself
thank you again for reminding me
that there are wonderful people out there in the world
and for your beautiful work
(all links are below)
Artist, Kateryna Nelson
https://www.facebook.com/artfactorytwinportsWIMNMI
https://www.artfactorytwinports.com/shopall
https://www.etsy.com/shop/ArtFactoryTwinPorts
Gwinn, MI, United States
artfactorysuperior@Gmail.com
—
“customer service is an opportunity to exceed your customer’s expectations.”
-John Jantsch
*John Jantsch is an author, speaker, and marketing consultant who specializes in assisting small businesses. He is the author of Duct Tape Marketing, The Referral Engine, and The Commitment Engine.
here we meet again
my former kindergarten student
now at the annual Ann Arbor art fair
having grown into a wonderful human
and innovative artist.
—
‘creativity is like scientific research in that it involves things that haven’t been done before. as such, creative endeavors are essentially experiments, and if they really unique, you have no idea what will happen.’
-tina seeling
* tina seeling is an american educator, entrepreneur, and author of 17 books on creativity and innovation. she is a faculty member at Stanford University and currently the executive director of the Knight-Hennesy Scholars.
happy birthday to Frida Kahlo, one of my favorite artists
Born on July 5th, 1907, she was one of the most iconic artists of the 20th century. This photograph, titled “Frida with Granizo, Coyoacán,” captures Frida Kahlo alongside her beloved pet deer, Granizo. The presence of Granizo highlights Frida’s love for animals and the natural world. This photo is one of many that document Kahlo’s life and intimate moments at her home, La Casa Azul (The Blue House), in Coyoacán, Mexico City. Frida had an extraordinary talent and indomitable spirit.
“everything exists, and moves, under only one law – life.”
― The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self-Portrait
Image: Nickolas Muray, Frida with Granzio, Coyoacan, 1939, printed later, gelatin silver print. Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of the Nickolas Muray Photo Archive, 2018.25.q
artist Tatsuya Tanaka uses everyday objects and food items to create amazing mini worlds. his latest creation: ‘Shaun the Sauna’! was inspired by Shaun the Sheep, one of my favorite cartoons’ and made into dumplings, one of my favorite foods. what’s not to love?
—
‘dumplings – little pockets of joy waiting to be savored.’
-author unknown
‘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.
—
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
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
Today, the “Happiest Place on Earth” turns 69 years old. After a year of construction and a $17 million investment (the equivalent of nearly $200 million today), Disneyland welcomed its first visitors, inviting thousands of studio staffers, construction workers, members of the press, and company sponsors to preview the Anaheim, California, park before it opened to the public the following day. At the time, tickets to explore Adventureland, Frontierland, Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, and Main Street USA cost $1 for adults and 50 cents for kids.
—
‘it’s kind of fun to do the impossible.’
-walt disney
—
source/image credits: travel and leisure, getty images, gene lester
Vik Muniz. Action Photo, after Hans Namuth from Pictures of Chocolate. 1997. Chromogenic color print. The Museum of Modern Art. Gift of Patricia Phelps de Cisneros in honor of Adriana Cisneros de Griffin through the Latin American and Caribbean Fund. © The Estate of Hans Namuth and Vik Muniz/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
—
‘As part of the Artist’s Choice exhibition series at the Museum of Modern Art, Muniz curated a show drawn from the Museum’s collection, and MoMA has recently added to the collection a key picture by Muniz, Action Photo, after Hans Namuth from Pictures of Chocolate, and we hope to continue our exploration and appreciation of this leading artist’s work.’ -MoMa
To make his work, Muniz renders familiar images drawn from pop culture and art history in a variety of materials, and then photographs them. He has fashioned the Mona Lisa from peanut butter and jelly, Elizabeth Taylor from diamonds, Caravaggio’s Narcissus from junk, iconic news images from wet ink, and his self-portrait from dice. Muniz has referred to himself as an “illusionist,” and, with characteristic humor and ingenuity, explores the nature of representation in an image-saturated world.
One of Muniz’s most well-known bodies of work is a series of pictures rendered in chocolate sauce. Action Photo, after Hans Namuth (1997) is made after a 1950 photograph taken by Hans Namuth of Jackson Pollock frozen in mid-dance as he was making one of his paintings, Autumn Rhythm. Muniz’s subsequent appropriation and translation of this image into chocolate is a perfect marriage of subject and material. The viscous chocolate syrup (incidentally, he used the brand Bosco) is a perfect stand-in for Pollock’s wet, shiny paint drips. This new acquisition not only strengthens the Museum’s Muniz holdings, but is a welcome complement to MoMA’s rich Pollock collection .
Vik Muniz is a Brazilian artist and photographer. His work has been met with both commercial success and critical acclaim, and has been exhibited worldwide. In 1998, he participated in the 24th International Biennale in São Paulo, and in 2001, he represented Brazil at the 49th Biennale in Venice, Italy. He currently works in New York City and Rio de Janerio.
while this is not me,
this is my exact style of painting with chocolate
while not quite as celebrated as vic’s
they are not as in demand
and have not yet been exhibited in public.
—
on world chocolate day
—
‘i’las cosas claras y el chocolate espeso.’
(ideas should be clear and chocolate thick.)
-spanish proverb
—
source credits:MoMa, Inside/Out
I didn't have my glasses on.... 