Holiday Retreat

"Homage to the King of Cats" copyright 2001 Amy Crehore
"The Organ Grinder" copyright 2002 Amy Crehore

"Checkers" copyright 2003 Amy Crehore

I am taking some time off for the holidays

and I will not be posting for a while.

Happy Holidays to everyone and I will see you again in 2007.

The Art of Amy Crehore

Hans Bellmer 1902-1975

La Poupee by Hans Bellmer

This post is for the people who got freaked about Teenar and other doll-type art. Hans Bellmer, the great surrealist, started it all and no one can quite compare to him. He made dolls and took photos of them in the early 1930's as a protest against the Nazi regime.

He was an ad agency guy before he was a doll artist.

"Bellmer's doll developed from a series of three events in his personal life: meeting a beautiful teenage cousin in 1932; attending a performance of Jacques Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann (in which a man falls tragically in love with an automaton); and receiving a box of his old toys. After these events he began to construct his first doll."

read more here: Hans Bellmer

There are some great books and historical documents about

Hans Bellmer which can be found easily with a google search.

The Art of Amy Crehore

Lizzie Douglas (1897-1973)

"The Story of Memphis Minnie", painting by Amy Crehore (click on image to enlarge)

I love tobacco-chewing, badass Lizzie Douglas a.k.a. Memphis Minnie. She could play guitar circles around the boys. She made a hot team with Kansas Joe McCoy. In this large work, which took me 6 months to paint back in the early 90's, I painted a tribute to them and their song, "Bumble Bee Blues" (1929). On the left, is the young Lizzie "Kid" Douglas who played the streets and even joined the Ringling Bros circus for a time, and in the middle, is Minnie as a strong and sexy solo artist with her National guitar. She was one of the great blues artists of all time.

Read up on Memphis Minnie here and here.

The Art of Amy Crehore

Lulu is 100

"Lulu" could not stand fake people. She fled Hollywood. She was too real. And, she was cool!

The American silent-film actress Louise Brooks (1906-1985) is one of the great female icons in the history of the cinema. Celebrating the 100th anniversary of her birth, The International Center of Photography in NYC will have an exhibit of Louise Brooks images from the George Eastman House archives, Jan 19-April 29th, 2007.

Louise Brooks and the "New Woman" in Weimar Cinema

The Art of Amy Crehore

Bubble Gum

" Bubble Gum Encore" by Amy Crehore
" Bubble Gum Music" by Amy Crehore
" Blue Orb" by Amy Crehore

CHEW ON IT

The Art of Amy Crehore

Thumbs Up for Teenar

Teenar, Girl Guitar gets a "thumbs up" at Coolest Gadgets .

Edwin writes: "It never ceases to amaze me what men (and women, of course - I’m just talking in an extremely general manner, so please don’t get overtly PC on me) can do with a little bit of imagination, some D.I.Y. skills, and a passion to create something totally new that blows our collective minds away." (read more review here)

Also,Table of Malcontents (blog at wired.com), Ubergizmo, and Born Rich recently wrote interesting posts about it along with countless other blogs making Lou Reimuller's Teenar a new sort of Icon of the Millenium, right up there with the iPod. Teenar is becoming an internet "hit wonder".

The chain-reaction first started when Mark Frauenfelder at boingboing decided she was cool. Thanks, Mark! Stay tuned for more news about the history of Teenar, hokum music, Amy's art....

The Art of Amy Crehore

Daily Dreamtime

" Moon Tea House" by Christopher Keeley Copyright 2006

If you haven't yet discovered "Daily Dreamtime, Secret Surrealist Society", then let me introduce you to it. It is a most wonderful daily journal written by Christopher Keeley where he posts his own art/documentary/portrait photographs (soon to be a book called Paradise Life), plus a continuous stream of glimpses into other surreal and unusual artists, alive or dead, with lots of links. And, he's got great taste! He also writes about politics and what's happening in the world. Check it out! It's guaranteed not to bore you!

The above photo was a Christmas card he sent me recently.

Daily Dreamtime

The Art of Amy Crehore

Teenar Reaction

For better or worse, dragging "Teenar" out of the mothballs has caused a worldwide chain-reaction of massive hits to my blog post about Lou Reimuller's Girl Guitar. Right now, "she" has captured the imagination of Japan and shows no signs of stopping. The amazing thing is, a lot of people seem to think she is a "real" girl (especially crazy Americans).

I found this photoshopped image of her on a blog in Taipei: Jas 9 . I like it! I have no idea what the blog post says.

The Art of Amy Crehore

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

Austin Chronicle Review of "Blab! 17"

"Banana Eater" by Amy Crehore appears in "Blab! 17" (click image to enlarge)

This review of "Blab! 17" by Wayne Alan Brenner in The Austin Chronicle put a smile on my face:

"Each year, Monte Beauchamp harvests and designs a collection of work from the world's diverse crop of illustrators, sequential artists, and the graphically obsessed. Each year, Fantagraphics publishes this collection in a glossy-paged, full-color edition. And each year, we receive the thick and perfectly bound document, eager to see if Beauchamp can replicate or better his successes. There's no disappointment to be found this year: Image after image, alone or in the context of some potent narrative, sears itself into our rods and cones, while still others serve to soothe those burning receptors with pastel hues and whimsical setting. Sue Coe's unnerving rendition of Judith Brody's take (in verse, no less) on the Katrina tragedy plunges us into a swamp of sympathy and righteous anger; Amy Crehore's gentle depiction of a Polynesian idyll floats us on a lagoon of enchantment; "Sun Rays of Death" by Ryan Heshka captures, in bold Forties-era style, the way the media play upon the public's shallower fears; " read more review here: The Austin Chronicle: Books, Reading- Dec 8, 2006

The Art of Amy Crehore

Mannequin Warehouse

Photo by Kunio Monji, eyedia.com

I wonder what these mannequins are thinking? Do they want to be rescued like the beautiful Teenar, Girl Guitar was? Would they like to be converted into art now that they are old and abandoned? Would they like to become musical instruments?

Marcel Duchamp, king of Dada and Surrealism said it best:

"The creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the art in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting it's inner qualifications and thus adds his contribution to the creative act" (Marcel Duchamp)

The Art of Amy Crehore

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 .

Interview w/ Amy Crehore, Part 3

"Black Snake Wiggle Blues" 2006 Amy Crehore, Painted for Blab! Show

New! Part 3 of an interview by Marshall Sponder at:

ArtNYC

The Art of Amy Crehore

Free Shipping on Amy Crehore's "Little Pierrot" and "Monkey Love" Prints

"Pussy Cat Rag" by Amy Crehore
"The Charmer" by Amy Crehore

"Little Pierrot" or "Monkey Love" Signed, Limited Edition Giclee Prints

Order your prints while they last.

Free postcards of "The Charmer" and "Pussycat Rag" (above) enclosed with orders.

The Art of Amy Crehore

Hokum Scorchers

Here's a photo of Lou Reimuller a.k.a. Sunset Lou (creator of Teenar, Girl Guitar) doing what he does best, playing hokum music in the Hokum Scorchers band (with me). Also, here is a painting I did for a music cassette cover which has an image of my "Feed the Kitty" sculpture on it. And here is my actual "Feed the Kitty", a hand-crafted piece of folk art which I dragged around to gigs such as the Seattle Folk Festival and Bumbershoot. It was equipped with a foot petal that made the tail move up and down that we activated when people put coins in the mouth of the cat.

(All images from the '90's.)

The Art of Amy Crehore

More Comic Covers

Amy Crehore back in the day of "Boys and Girl's Grow Up", co-editor and publisher

(photo by Tom Campagnoli)

Cover by Les Smith 1983
Cover by Amy Crehore 1981
Cover by Amy Crehore 1982
Cover by Amy Crehore 1985

Here are some more "Boys and Girl's Grow Up" comic covers from 1981-1985.(See previous post for comic cover #4.) All were drawn by me (Amy Crehore) except for # 3 , In the Atomic Age by Les Smith. You can still find copies at Mile High Comics or Last Gasp or sometimes on Ebay.

The Art of Amy Crehore

"Boys and Girls Grow Up" Revisited

Back cover of "Boys and Girls Grow Up" Number 4, 1984 by Amy Crehore (Breck Girl)
Tom Campagnoli, co-editor and publisher "Boys and Girls Grow Up"

Front Cover "Boys and Girls Grow Up" Number 4, 1984 by Amy Crehore

I spent the Thanksgiving holiday in Virginia this year and it was unseasonably warm. The temperature was a perfect 73 degrees and sunny.

My return trip cross-country from VA back to OR took me 24 hours door-to-door. I won't go into the details here, but the airline was kind enough to provide me with a suite in a fancy new Hilton in San Francisco to make up for hours of waiting and missed connections.

While in VA, I visited some of my best friends like Tom Campagnoli. He and I actually published a comic book (much like the early "Blab!" issues) in the first half of the 80's called "Boys and Girls Grow Up". Somehow we managed to keep it going for 5 issues and had it distributed by Last Gasp. Comic artist Peter Bagge (creator of "Hate") wrote a review of our book in an issue of R. Crumb's "Weirdo".

"Boys and Girls Grow Up" was especially sweet because it was a collection of comic art done by some of our closest art school buddies. We all went to V.C.U. in Richmond. From what I hear now, V.C.U. has grown to be one of the largest art schools in the country, if not the largest.

Richmond is also the home of "The Drama" art magazine. I saw some issues of "The Drama" at a Richmond gallery and shop called Quirk along with designer toys and many other cool and unusual things while I was there this past week.

Good ol' Richmond, VA.

The Art of Amy Crehore

Hokum Images

I came across these images on forums recently.

They made me laugh.

It's hokum, folks!

Leslie Garland Bolling's Nudes (1898-1955)

The Library of Virginia recently held an unusual exhibition of masterful wood carving: figurative sculpture by an obscure artist named Leslie Garland Bolling. He was an African-American self-taught artist who lived in Richmond and made more than 80 carvings of working people and nudes from the period of 1926-1943. His nudes are particularly wonderful in their stylization of women's curves. A lot of feeling went into these pieces.

In this series of photos, you can see him working on one of these pieces in his home studio.(Credit: Bolling Carving "Queen of Dreams", Harmon Foundation).

Read more about him and view more works on the Library of Virgina website here:

Leslie Garland Bolling

Pagebull.com Launched

A unique new search engine was just launched on November 28, 2006. It shows a layout of 12 different screen shots per page with highlighted search words. Here's what a search of my name looks like on Pagebull:

Pagebull.com

(Thanks to Marshall Sponder at webmetricsguru for the link)

Published!

Cover by Jonathan Rosen

I finally got my copies of the new "Blab! 17" in the mail this week.

It was a long wait for me - a couple of years almost since I first started doing sketches for "The Banana Eater". The drawing took me months to work out. I decided that Devil's Island would be my backdrop and I had to do some research on plants, animals and people. I also had to make it really entertaining.

The painting was finished in June or July 2005, it was shown in the first Blab! Art Exhibit of Sept. 2005, and has just now been published in Nov. 2006.

The Art of Amy Crehore

Magritte at LACMA

The Rene Magritte exhibit opens November 19, 2006 at Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
There will be 68 works by Magritte. The exhibit was designed by John Baldessari and it looks super cool. Hope to make it down there before it closes.

Read about it here and see more images:

LACMA

Thomas Woodruff is Back!

Root Hare Painting copyright 2006 Thomas Woodruff from Freak Parade

There was a gorgeously painted fashion spread in "Swindle" magazine a couple of months ago and now this: an art show at Illinois State University Galleries.
Thomas Woodruff

is back in full force with a new large-format book out

called "Freak Parade" available through Last Gasp.

These are the paintings that he was working on over the last five years.

His work glows with animated, super-magical otherworldliness.

He paints a fanciful universe of weird beauty with an incredibly unique touch, using richly layered paint and subdued colors.
Lucky were the people who got to see this show Sept.25-Nov. 5, 2006. I already know what I want for Christmas this year! I saw some of his series paintings in person at the art museum in Eugene, OR and I will never forget those baby heads and sacred scrolls.

Check out the paintings here:

Freak Parade by Thomas Woodruff

and buy the book!

L.A. Art Shows

Painting by Michael Hussar 2006
Painting by Camille Rose Garcia 2006

Looks like it was an interesting Saturday night for art show openings in Los Angeles. Supertouch blog has photos of Camille Rose Garcia's new show at Merry Karnowsky and Michael Hussar's as well (at Mendenhall-Sobieski). Both are masterful painters with unique styles. I like Camille's new vibrant color palette and what Hussar can do in a minimal way with just red and white. Read about it on:

Supertouch

Antonio Lopez Garcia's Apparitions

Atocha 1963
Woman on the Beach 1959 Pencil Drawing
Antonio Lopez Garcia (born 1936)Standing Girl

Antonio Lopez Garcia.

He paints and draws surreal apparitions...with so much love.

I like his soulful sculptures as well.

More images: pintura.aut.org

Mark Frauenfelder, Wonderful Painter!

Mark Frauenfelder of boingboing.net
is having his first major painting exhibition of nine new works at

Roq La Rue Gallery

in Seattle, WA opening November 10 (6-9PM) though December 1, 2006.

He'll be showing his art along with with Wednesday Kirwan, Chris Reccardi, Lynne Naylor and Johnny Yanok in a show entitled Retrorama!

This looks like so much fun! Go see it if you are in the Seattle area.

(Permanent link: Mark's Art Show at Roq La Rue on Friday)

Botero's Political Nudes

Fernando Botero is pictured here in front of one of his new canvases depicting the atrocities at Abu Ghraib. This photo accompanies a fascinating interview at ARTINFO with the well-known Colombian painter.

He is having a show in the United States at Marlborough Gallery until November 18, 2006.

Marshall Sponder's review of the show at ArtNYC .