"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!)
Posted tagged ‘Karin Gustafson’
Saint Sebastian Gets Help (El Greco With Elephant)
February 10, 2011“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.
Queen Victoria Is “Going On Somewhere”
February 7, 2011
Victorian mums like "Going On Somewhere." (Even royal ones.)
Victorian dads too. (Even 'common' ones.)
Check it out! “Going On Somewhere” by Karin Gustafson, Diana Barco and Jason Martin on Amazon now! (If not, then.)
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.)
You Can Find Them Anywhere. (At the Met?)
January 31, 2011Courbet re-visited. Or…errr… visited. (At the Metropolitan Museum in NYC.)
Elephant cow?
Pearl feels out of place.
For a very little more on Courbet–rather, for a poem of gratitude to Courbet–check out “Going on Somewhere” by Karin Gustafson, Diana Barco, and Jason Martin, on Amazon now!
A Gnashing of Teeth (State of the Union)
January 26, 2011
Obama must really frustrate the GOP. For months, some have painted him as an anti-American (as well as non-American) totalitarian mastermind determined on jamming things down America’s throat in order to bring her to her knees. (Stephen Colbert had a wonderful rif on this after Obama’s speech in Tucson accusing Obama of causing him to be moved by Hitler.)
Obama’s inherent “otherness” has contributed to this caricature: his mixed race, his articulate and complex intelligence, his Hawaiian birth, his school experiences overseas, even his bony physique are atypical of U.S. politics (and not exactly “Reaganesque”.) On top of this, his intense decorum, which sometimes translates into a kind of aloofness, have kept him from directly responding to the kind of crazy character-assassination that has dogged him through the last election cycle.
But he has taken the national stage at some very charged moments recently-from pushing through compromises at the lame duck session, to the Tucson Memorial, to last night’s State of the Union–and unmistakeably (and on television) shown himself to be compassionate in ways that are tied to religious as well as moral precept, and to be open, thoughtful, serious, pro-progress, and notably unvengeful, petty, or throat-jamming.
One imagines a great gnashing of teeth (some of them tea-stained.)
PS – Although, at first, I found it a little disconcerting, I was happy for the absence of endless applause lines in the speech. Also, I was very glad that O. left out the traditional phrase = “the state of the union is strong.” Yes, I want it to be strong, but I’ve always found this phrase to be somehow, well, childish, as if the president were playing doctor.
PPS – don’t forget to check out “Going on Somewhere” by Karin Gustafson, Diana Barco, and Jason Martin on Amazon! (The state of its poetry is strong!)
You Can Find Them Anywhere (If You Really Look) Part 2
January 25, 2011
Even At The Fulton Street Subway Stop
King’s Birthday – Private Epiphany
January 17, 2011
Attempted Portrait
One of the great things of not watching much TV is that you get to have your own private epiphanies–sudden realizations that would probably be hammered into your brain if you were habitually tuned into to some 24-hour news channel, but which you get to somehow happen upon in non-television meanderings.
I happened onto one of these realizations today–I was lucky enough to receive an email from Leonie Haimson who runs Class Size Matters, an organization that focuses on trying to improve the New York City school system, in part through reduction of class size. In today’s email, Ms. Haimson embedded a video of an interview of Martin Luther King Jr. with Martin Agronsky in 1957.
The interview, conducted at Dr. King’s church in Montgomery, Alabama (made only a couple of years after Rosa Parks’ arrest) is incredibly impressive. King is articulate, thoughtful, carefully analytical, profound and generous. And so so young.
My “revelation” (undoubtedly more of a remembrance than a true epiphany) was about King’s youth–the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize at 35, assassinated at just 39, in his twenties in this particular interview.
I always think of him as having that kind of slightly rounded face that doesn’t show age, but the fact is that he didn’t attain a very old age. Just 39 at death. So impressive, so young.
The interview (embedded in Ms. Haimson’s blog) can be found here.
PS – Sorry to self-promote, but please please please check out “Going on Somewhere” on Amazon, and if it’s not a strain, get a copy! (If it’s a strain, drop me a line and I’ll send you one at a heavy heavy reduction.)
Big Announcement! (Poetry Book – “Going On Somewhere” on Amazon)
January 14, 2011
After many glitches (some probably yet uncovered), my book of poetry Going On Somewhere is available for purchase on Amazon. Here’s the link.
The wonderful interior illustrations for the poems are by Diana Barco, an artist, architect and social activist living in Colombia. The cover painting (above) is by Jason Martin, an artist, hiker, sweet person, living in the Catskill Mountains. They really are worth the price of the book (which is modest by today’s standards.)
The poems, of course, are mine. (Karin Gustafson) Some you have seen if you follow this blog regularly; they are better edited in the book. (I hope.) And there are many others that you will not have seen.
There really is a painful side to finally getting a project to fruition. It is a lot of work – not just artistic but bureaucratic–and the result (to the workers) may seem a bit slim. But my sense is that those feelings are “writer’s remorse.” It really is a lovely book, and I urge you to check it out.
I also want to thank all who’ve followed the poems on the blog and sent suggestions and encouragement.
PS – Also check out 1 Mississippi on Amazon, my children’s counting book. I was able to get the price lowered. A great book for those who like elephants and numbers.
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