Teenar, Girl Guitar

Close up of Teenar, Girl Guitar (photo by Lou Reimuller)
Photo by Lou Reimuller
Inventor and craftsman, Lou Reimuller playing Teenar 1986

(Photo by Amy Crehore)
Photo by Lou Reimuller copyright 1986
Here is Lou Reimuller (a.k.a. Sunset Lou, musician, collector, luthier, artist) and his invention: Teenar, The Girl Guitar - a vintage mannequin transformed into an electric guitar (1986, Richmond, VA).

Yes, she really does play the blues.

The Art of Amy Crehore

Listen to Lou Reimuller and Amy Crehore's Hokum Scorcher's Band. LINK

See Teenar in a new outfit HERE .

Gibson Guitar Design Using Headstock for the Body

Clever guitar design using a large replica of Gibson headstock for the body and a
miniature of the same Les Paul guitar (upside-down) for the headstock. Early 50s-60s style.

I like this design. A switcheroo.

Thanks, American Blues Scene FB page



Unusual National Triolian Mandolin Paint Job

We bought this 1930s National Triolian resonator mandolin a little while ago. The unusual thing is the paint job: a solid pale yellow with custom pinstriping done by hand and a flower (?) design sprayed on the cover plate. I have never seen one exactly like it before. It's in great shape except for a spot where some of the paint is worn away from heavy playing. Wondering if maybe there was a set of them? Perhaps there was also a National Triolian guitar, plectrum guitar and tenor guitar painted to match. I can picture a hip 1930s band playing matching instruments.

The Art of Amy Crehore

P.S. The big instrument in the photo is a Gibson mandobass and the one on the wall is a Lyon and Healy Camp Uke.

Teenar, Girl Guitar - Fashion Preview

Teenar photo copyright 2007 Lou Reimuller

Lou Reimuller, luthier and creator of Teenar, Girl Guitar, is allowing me to post a little preview of Teenar in her new "updated" outfit. She never ages and is just as beautiful as ever. Out of the 1980's and into the 21st century! Teenar, Girl Guitar is having a resurgence of hits on my blog from Japan - mostly coming from www.hiroburo.com- one year after I inititally posted about her (perhaps because J-walk blog recently picked up my old post).

Lou Reimuller is also building my new Tickler Ukuleles. The #2 Tickler Uke will be revealed sometime in January. He's the other half of the Hokum Scorchers (photo link).

The Art of Amy Crehore

Teenar- Most Outrageous Guitar?!

Can it be? Teenar is still making news - even a couple of years after we brought her out of the mothballs. This old mannequin is Number One "Outrageous Guitar" on the internet according to Music Radar .

(Thanks, Mark Lowrie for heads up.)

This guitar was made by my luthier, Lou Reimuller, back in 1986 from a vintage mannequin. Exactly what is so "wrong" about her, I'll never know! She's just art made out of a found object -a "sculpture". But, she also happens to play. The outrageousness must have to do with people projecting their own thoughts onto her and the whole idea of someone playing her. But, she really doesn't mind. She's not human!

Gibson Harp Guitar

Photo of Harp Guitars, Gregg Miner

Oil Painting, "Banquet days" by Amy Crehore (30" x 40")
Here is a photo of the beautiful and unusual Gibson Harp Guitar. We have one of these at home: the instrument on the right, Gibson Style U, 1916. I painted this guitar in the background of a large canvas I did in 1984 called, "Banquet Days".

It was my first "pierrot" image and the pierrot was based on an image from an old tintype photo (a relative of mine who was an actor/singer in the theater).
I first exhibited this painting in Richmond, VA in a solo show and, a couple years later, in New Hope, PA where it won a first patron's award and sold to a collector.

The Art of Amy Crehore

Blues Gal # 4

Blues Gal #4 Sketch Copyright 2006 Amy Crehore

Here's another new Blues Gal drawing. This one has a Gibson Style O Guitar from 1920 in it. We don't have one of these guitars at home, but we have others in the Gibson guitar family such as the teardrop-shaped Mando Bass and the cubist-looking Harp Guitar. All are classic beauties just like this girl who is feeding an acorn to her pet squirrel. I'm listening to The Essential Nino Rota Film Music Collection as I draw.

Check out Elderly Music

Amy_Crehore

Amy Crehore

National Guitars Have Perfectly Shaped Dust Bunnies

Steve Olson, who repairs guitars for Elderly Instruments , has collected dust bunnies from guitar and mandolin bodies for years and has even catalogued them. The one pictured on the top left was found in the cone of an old National guitar. Apparently, National guitars create perfectly round and dense "tone balls" (dust bunnies) over time. Interesting! I happen to know someone in Oregon who once worked at Elderly repairing guitars and I also know a National guitar collector/repairman who would absolutely love this article which appeared in the Summer 2006 issue of The FretBoard Journal (Number 2). Thanks, Mark! BOINGBOING

Hugo Boettinger 1880-1934, Painter

Hugo Boettinger in his studio with the large painting "Zwei Blumenmädchen" (1911)-see the guitar in the background?

"Jugend", oil painting by Hugo Boettinger, 1918

"Three Girls Bathing on Bach" 1910 painting by Hugo Boettinger

Who was Hugo Boettinger (or Bottinger)? He was Czech painter who was born in 1880 and died in 1934. He was also a graphic artist and studied at the Prague Academy. He was a friend of T. F. Simon, another amazing painter.
You can find a whole page devoted to Boettinger on
tfsimon.com .
Follow the link and scroll down the page to see lots of photos, paintings and graphic works. He apparently loved music as there are photos of him holding an accordian, a violin, and a guitar. The painting above is entitled "Three Girls Bathing on Bach". The other painting, "Jugend", pre-dates Balthus, yet it has much in common with him. One wonders if Balthus saw these works and was influenced by Boettinger.
Here is another site with images: Michis-Seiten .
Boettinger's paintings of nudes bathing are fascinating compositions. You can see how he loved to overlap the poses of his figures- legs, arms, angles -to suggest interesting relationships. I like to do that, too. I am glad I stumbled upon this great artist!
The Art of Amy Crehore

Cigar Box Nation

Cigar Box Guitar by Mark Frauenfelder

See more photos of this guitar and many more here:

CIGAR BOX NATION

Fun!

A Rauch with Guitar

Neo Rauch, Rauch, 2005,

Privatsammlung, courtesy Galerie EIGEN + ART Leipzig/Berlin und David Zwirner,

New York/London - Photo: Uwe Walter, Berlin

This is one of my favorite paintings by Neo Rauch.

It is a small self-portrait with a guitar.

There is an exhibit in Brussels at the BOZAR of

his work thru May 19th, 2013. Here's a link with a video of the show:

BOZAR 

I heard that his birthday was April 18th.

The Crehore Piano

Square piano about 1800 by Benjamin Crehore, American, 1765–1831 Milton, Massachusetts Museum of Fine Arts Boston
" Dangerous Curves- The Art of the Guitar" book by Darcy Kuronen

Apparently, a "Crehore" made the first pianos and bass-viols in America. In 1992, Darcy Kuronen wrote an award-winning article called "The Musical Instruments of Benjamin Crehore" which was published in the Journal of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The Crehore piano (above) is in the museum collection and Darcy is curator of musical instruments there.

I dug up this information on Benjamin Crehore:

"In 1798 Benjamin Crehore, who was born in Milton, MA, was assisting in getting up machinery and appliances of the stage for the play of "Forty Thieves," which was soon to be introduced in Boston. His inventive skill was so admired by the leader of the orchestra that he applied to him to repair his broken bass-viol. Mr. Crehore undertook the job, and is said to have improved the tone of the instrument. This resulted in his beginning the manufacture of bass-viols, the first ever made in this country, and said to rival those imported..... Mr. Crehore's reputation in the musical world of that day caused all sorts of disabled musical instruments to flow into his shop for repairs. Among these was a piano. After analyzing it and mastering its movements, he entered upon the manufacture of pianos. The first piano in this country was made by Benjamin Crehore, in Milton." Dorchester Atheneum

Darcy Kuronen of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston also put together an exhibit and wrote a book called "Dangerous Curves" which presents 400 years of guitar design and history, from ornamental models of the 17th century to modern electric guitars. It's a beautiful book which we picked up some years ago.

"Dangerous Curves" can be purchased here:
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston shop

The Art of Amy Crehore

Spoon-in-Mouth Slide Guitar Player

Spoon Guitar via letsgogetborn (Thanks to Charles Gallant twitter)

What am I listening to?

link

One of my favorite albums from Yazoo with the Robert Armstrong cover. It's perfect to paint by. No singing, just pure guitar music. Listen to a few more tracks and buy the album here:

Yazoo

His name was Salvatore Massaro a.k.a. Eddie Lang (1902-1933). He died tragically at a young age during a botched tonsillectomy. He was a jazz guitar virtuoso. Read more about Eddie.

The Art of Amy Crehore

Kohala Girls played National Guitars

The Kohala Girls circa 1934 featuring Letritia Kandle on National Tricone Resophonic

The Kohala Girls play "Chile Blues" - Instrumental

http://76.12.147.135/audio/Track05.mp3

From the Steel Guitar Forum

We love vintage National guitars and National guitar family instruments at our house.

The Art (and music) of Amy Crehore

Town of Luthiers

photo by R. Jacobson

There is a town in Mexico called

Paracho

with a statue of a luthier in the main plaza. "Paracho is the home of some of the best luthiers in Mexico, if not the world. Guitar shops line the main street entering town. But, the best guitars are made by luthiers working out of their homes on the back streets of the town." link

There is even a giant guitar on the main road.

Read more about luthiers at wikipedia:

Luthier

The Art of Amy Crehore

Ukulele is in the Lead...

I am offering two new artist-signed limited edition prints for $50. each ...with small, signed pencil drawings tucked into at least ten of the orders (at random) for good measure. So far, the "ukulele" prints are leading the "guitar" prints in sales, 2 to 1. We shall see, as the days go by, which one sells out first. One image has two girls, a uke and mostly monkeys. The other has an allegorical feel to it with lots of different characters and one girl with a guitar. Thanks, boingboing.net for mentioning them here. And thanks, Creep Machine.

For more details, to purchase a print (with a chance at receiving a lucky pencil drawing):

Click HERE (new prints)

Before they are gone. Only 75 prints in these editions.

The Art of Amy Crehore

Guitar and Ukulele Details in Amy Crehore's Newest Paintings

Ukulele detail from "French Bubble Gum Encore" by Amy Crehore
Guitar detail from "Black Ball Finale" by Amy Crehore
Here are a couple more details of my new paintings showing vintage musical instruments.
They were fun to paint! I will be blogging the whole enchilada soon. I think it's nice to pick some details out to show you first. They are like puzzle pieces. I usually have so much going on in my paintings. I scanned some 4x5 transparencies and it's hard to get an exact match of color here. This is pretty good. I'm still messing around in photoshop. I also finished two miniature paintings yesterday and took slides with the frames this morning. And I will blog those as well later on. I have two shows coming up in July - NYC and Las Vegas. I apologize for not blogging more lately, but I have been busy. :)
The Art of Amy Crehore

"Loan Me Your Heart", a Papa Charlie Jackson Song

Papa Charlie Jackson portrait by Amy Crehore

I love Papa Charlie Jackson's music from the 1920s. He played a 6-string Gibson guitar- banjo. Check out the huge head on this banjo (above). I painted this portrait of him in the 1990s. Our little band, The Hokum Scorchers, did a few of his numbers. One such song is "Loan Me Your Heart". I love this song. 

You can listen to our version (recorded in the 1990s) HERE. 
(I play washboard/cups and Lou Reimuller plays guitar and sings).

P.S. Another song by Papa Charlie Jackson is "Papa Do Do Do". Our version of that song can be found here: LINK 

The Art of Amy Crehore

The Original "Mousegetar"

(Photo credit: Megan Duffy flickr)

I play tenor (sometimes) and I find this little guitar fascinating. This is the original tenor "Mousegetar" from the 1950s that is on display in the Disney Museum.

Read about it and listen to Jimmy Dodd play this special guitar with Doreen singing (on youtube) at

GUITARZ Blogspot