RIP Tony Curtis

Scene from the movie "Some Like it Hot" (1959):

Video for the Magritte Museum

Trench Art Flower Vases from WWI

Geometric vase 1917

Argonne Vase 1916

Grape Vase 1916

Pair of vases 1917 & 1918

The photo above shows two soldiers working on trench art. These flower vases are made from spent shell casings. They have a distinctive art nouveau style. The first 3 images came from a blog and book by Jane Kimball: TRENCH ART . The last 2 images are from Kitwood.com (World War One Trench Art). Fascinating stuff! You can read more about it on these two blogs.

The Art of Amy Crehore

Miniature Breasts for a U.S. Senator, 1828

Lovely watercolor on ivory by Sarah Goodridge 1828. This was a gift to Daniel Webster, U.S. Senator, from this Boston portrait artist. Size: 2 5/8 x 3 1/8 in.

In my opinion, it must have been love. Stunning technique!

Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Art of Amy Crehore

Pretty Nippon Beaded Patterns

This is an object that I have at home. I love the beautiful pattern on this antique beaded Nippon ewer. After painting my ukuleles, I started looking at designs on other objects and I became fascinated with art nouveau vases. Some of the the vases have romantic figures and faces incorporated into the designs which echo the paintings of the time. It's so much fun and educational to look at well-crafted objects of the past.

The Art of Amy Crehore

The Ventriloquist & Friends

Pierrot group
Originally uploaded by lovedaylemon

Another lovely pierrot group.

Gorgeous Corot Painting Found in Bushes

Seven weeks ago, a 5th Ave (NYC) doorman found Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot's "Portrait of a Girl" stashed in the bushes outside of the Mark Hotel and hung it in his bathroom for a while before he realized what it was.

Read NYPost for the convoluted tale. Corot is one of my favorite painters and this painting is a gem (worth over a million dollars).

The Art of Amy Crehore

Hilarious Piece of Folk Art Erotica

This pipe cleaner man jacking off in a tobacco tin sold for $25. at auction last year (it is from the 1940s). Some type of pull-string on wrist? LINK

I guess this was a fad because here's another one (from 60's?): LINK

Kam Wah Chung & Co.

photo from Kam Wah Chung State Heritage Park

Kam Wah Chung & Co., general store and herbal apothecary, is

an historic landmark located in John Day, OR that was

built by Ing "Doc" Hay and Lung On in the late 1800s

when thousands of Chinese miners came to the Oregon desert to

search for gold. There is a beautiful OPB video that shows the preserved contents of the store.

It is an amazing place to visit. I was reminded of it when a friend

showed me his pictures of a recent visit there.

You can find a lot more information and video here:

OPB

50 minute tube dress #2

50 minute tube dress #2
Originally uploaded by letslookupandsmile

From Life Magazine,
Feb 17, 1947

"The Laughter Makers"

"The Laughter Makers"
Originally uploaded by lovedaylemon

I can't help but blog
lovedaylemon's found images
(flickr).

Early Color Film Test for Kodachrome (1922)

via boingboing

The Beauty of Letterpress (New Print by Amy Crehore)

Click to enlarge

Shygals' Serenade 3-color letterpress print by Amy Crehore

I took a photo from the side just to show you the beauty of a letterpress print. The ink is pressed into the paper causing a deep impression. Please click on the photo to see what I'm talking about. I made an ink drawing with a fine brush first and then I used acetate to make overlays for each color (also using brush and ink). This is the old-fashioned way of doing it, so the result looks somewhat like an old children's book illustration. I used motifs from my paintings of gals and monkeys. I added a flyswatter and a ukulele for fun. I hand-lettered Shygals' Serenade with my own made-up typeface.

I want to thank a number of wonderful blogs for taking an interest in this print:

BoingBoing, Format, HeyStuff!, Internet Weekly, Inside The Rock Poster Frame, OrangeCulture, Creep Machine, The Little Chimp Society,

Ukulelia, Illustration Mundo

The Art of Amy Crehore

New Cloudy Collection Prints Released

NEW! The theme is: “Bunches, Crowds, Clusters, Piles, and Knots”.

What is it? A set of seven letterpress prints on 4″x6″ white bamboo paper with art by Frank Chimero (shown above) Maura Cluthe, Eleanor Davis, Matt Forsythe, Julia Sonmi Heglund, David Huyck, and Vincent Mathy

Get yours at:

CLOUDY COLLECTION

P.S. I had the honor of being in the very first Cloudy Collection Edition.

The Art of Amy Crehore

Check out My new letterpress print Shygals' Serenade , too.

Giuseppe Arcimboldo's Surreal Portraits

Vertumnus, 1590, oil on canvas by Giuseppe Arcimboldo

The Librarian, 1566, oil on canvas by Giuseppe Arcimboldo

The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. (one of my favorite museums) is having a show of 16 Giuseppe Arcimboldo portrait paintings. It opens on Sunday, September 19, 2010 and runs through January 9, 2011.

The show will travel to Milan, Italy after that. Guiseppe was born in Milan in 1527 and died there in 1593. "His portraits of human heads made up of vegetables, fruits, sea creatures and tree roots were greatly admired by his contemporaries and remain a source of fascination today" LINK.

These paintings are timeless. They are inventive, surreal, modern, masterfully painted and full of humor. Watch a video narrated by Isabella Rossellini on the National Gallery website.

On view together for the first time in the USA:

The National Gallery of Art

The Art of Amy Crehore

Sweetly Surreal Japanese Schoolgirl Paintings

Some beautiful compositions by artist

Jun Kumaori

Thanks, Internet Weekly!

The Art of Amy Crehore

Female pierrot troupe

Female pierrot troupe
Originally uploaded by lovedaylemon

Elvis by Joe Seigenthaler

Illustrated Book Plates

Alphonse Inoue

A. Odehnal

There are some beautiful etched book plates (Ex Libris) on this site. I like these two.

fuxianzhai

The Art of Amy Crehore

Photosculpture of the Hokum Scorchers in Los Angeles by Mark Lowrie

Click to Enlarge

Photosculpture of Hokum Scorchers Band Copyright Mark Lowrie

Mark Lowrie makes the coolest photosculptures! He came to my "Dreamgirls and Ukes" gallery show last year in Los Angeles and he took a series of photos of my band, The Hokum Scorchers, playing music at the opening. As you can see, Lou Reimuller is playing a banjo-uke and I am playing the washboard. My fine art paintings and my painted ukes hang to the side of us and behind us. This image shows just a small corner of my entire solo show which featured a total of 15 oil paintings and 13 painted antique ukuleles. Mark made this wonderful photosculpture with the photos he took that night.

See more of Mark's amazing art here:

MARK LOWRIE

Listen to the Hokum Scorchers band here. And on my website.

Mark documented my entire "Dreamgirls and Ukes" art show with his photos!: LINK

Thanks again Mark! It really meant a lot to me to have you there.

The Art of Amy Crehore

Old Illustrations of Mt. Vesuvius Erupting

Mt. Vesuvius erupting 1779

View some incredible images from this series here:

Bibliodyssey

The Art of Amy Crehore

Robot Violinist Shows His Stuff