Archive for the ‘elephants’ category
Olympia With (Cozy) Elephant
February 11, 2011Mmmmm Mmmmm Warhol (With Elephant)
February 10, 2011
Saint Sebastian Gets Help (El Greco With Elephant)
February 10, 2011
"Got it!"
The sublime by El Greco, elephant by ManicDDaily.
(For more on paintings of Saint Sebastian and fine art with elephants, check out this!)
“Videot?”, Chance, the iPhone Artist?, Hercules as Zeus, Athena as Elephant
February 9, 2011
Zeus Giving Birth to Athena, as Elephant (Ouch!)
The late, sometimes brilliant, extremely troubled, Jerzy Kosinski spoke of his worries about the human fascination with electronic/video screens in an interview with David Sohn after a 1974 convention of the National Conference of Teachers of English: “For me, imagining groups of solitary individuals watching their private, remote-controlled TV sets is the ultimate future terror: a nation of videots.” This was around the time that Kosinski published Being There, a satiric novel featuring Chance, the Gardener, a simple-minded soul who has grown up literally in front of a TV, remote control as security blanket, navigating the non-video world.
Kosinski was concerned about obsession with video screens in a B.C. (“Before Computer”) age, before the years of A.D. (“All Digital”), or should I call it A.D.D. (“All hold a Digital Device”).
I am one of those people who is stuck in front of a screen much of the time. And, even as my digits punch keys and tap icons, I definitely worry about it. I assuage these worries by telling myself that much of what I am doing is good old-fashioned communication–that email are just letters; that social networks, in our geographically dispersed world, are a personalized town square; that the glow of the screen itself (like the glow of ash on the cigarettes lonely people sometimes smoke, or used to smoke) is an imaginary friend.
Yes, I know it’s not exactly the same. (Or healthy.)
As followers of this blog know, I have recently received an iPhone and become engrossed in the “Brushes App,” which allows one to make paintings on the iPhone’s screen, and even to insert iPhone digital photographs into the paintings.
Yes, working in such a small space, with your fingers, is a real pain in the itinerant.
And yet….
And yet…
Above is my Athena, as elephant, being born from Zeus’s forehead, hand-drawn.
Below is my Athena, as elephant, being born from Zeus’s forehead done on Brushes App.
You will notice that in the “Brushes” iPhone version, Zeus is not even Zeus, but Hercules. (See the lion cape.) (Meaning that the true title of this piece should be “Athena, as elephant, being born from Zeus, as Hercules.”)
And yet… and yet…
I’m not saying that I didn’t enjoy drawing the Zeus on paper. With a pencil.
But. well….
Hercules as Zeus (see cape) Bearing Athena as Elephant
Elephantasm?
February 8, 2011
Really?
Attributed (minus elephant) to Juan de Valdez-Leal (1622-1690). Exhibited at Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA.
PS – there’s still time before Valentine’s Day to order “Going on Somewhere” by Karin Gustafson, Diana Barco, Jason Martin. Or, if you like elephants, try 1 Mississippi, a counting book for lovers of light and pachyderms.
Rembrandt Portrait With (By) Elephant
February 6, 2011
"This will take HOW long?"
You Can Fit A Lot Under A Hat Like That (Rembrandt With Elephant)
February 6, 2011
Rembrandt Van Rasta?
“Art Appreciation”: You Can Find Them Anywhere. (Even Orleans?)
February 5, 2011
"Joan of Arc (With Elephant"), Jules Bastien-LePage (with Karin Gustafson) (At the Met.)
When I was a child, I was transfixed by this painting. First, I loved Joan of Arc; secondly, the surface is so smooth and photographic, it seemed inconceivable to me that it could have actually been painted. When you are little, you tend to be a sucker for technique. And drama. (Ah, drama!) And crazy eyes.
Here’s a poem inspired by it, and others of a slightly similar ilk. (Ah drama!)
Art Appreciation
Sebastian run with arrows pierced the halls,
reaming eye and mind’s eye too
with piteous wounds, his pale trunk
like the finest china except it dripped.
The visitor, a child, struggled to replace him with
inspired skin, a hand around a
candle, glow within,
(Georges de la Tour plunging in.)
Farther afield (a continent and several galleries away),
she found a Joan of Arc, whose eyes beamed
kaleidoscopically against Pre-Raphaelite bark,
a silvered willow. Caught
inside that psychedelic gleam,
she became a connoisseur.
(As always, all rights reserved.)
(Also as always, if you like poetry, check out “Going On Somewhere” by Karin Gustafson, Diana Barco, and Jason Martin on Amazon. If you like elephants, check out 1 Mississippi.)
Madonna, Child, Elephant, Skylight. (You can find them anywhere?)
February 4, 2011
Italy–elephants. Some think of Hannibal; others of productions of Aida at the Roman Coliseum; others of Berlusconi staying endlessly in office. And then, there are those minds that conjure up the Madonna and Child.
I am embarrassed to say that, in my ManicDDaily way, I did not jot down the name of this artist, and cannot find the image among the hundreds of Madonna and Childs in the online catalogue of the Metropolitan Museum. All I can say is that it’s located in one of the galleries with a skylight.
I guess I’ll just have to go back.
Have a wonderful weekend, and if you like fine art (as in wonderful drawings), don’t forget to check out “Going on Somewhere” with illustrations by Diana Barco, cover by Jason Martin, poetry by Karin Gustafson, on Amazon. (Buy one!) And if you like elephants, check out 1 Mississippi by Karin Gustafson, also on Amazon. (Buy another!) (P.S. If price is an issue, let me know–I know someone who can get them for you wholesale.)
Fine Art With Elephants
February 3, 2011
The sun is so bright through my window this morning as to block out almost everything shadowed and worrisome in my and the world. Which leads me to Fine Art. With Elephants.
Check out, if you haven’t seen them, the last few posts. A trip to the Metropolitan Museum has led, so far, to:
Cezanne with Elephant
Courbet with Elephant (and little white dog i,e, Pearl)!
I’m concerned that this is only the beginning. Have brush (or Brushes app), will elephant.
(For original fine art, check out the wonderful illustrations of Diana Barco in my new book of poetry “Going on Somewhere”, by Karin Gustafson, Diana Barco, and Jason Martin on Amazon. And buy it for someone for Valentine’s Day! It has lots of love poems and is cheaper, even, than reasonable chocolate.)
PS – I’m not quite sure why the links are different colors. (Agh.)
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