Madame Talbot's Victorian Lowbrow

Let me introduce you to the most amazing and wacky website of an artist that happens to live in Oregon. Here's a description from her myspace page:

"Madame Talbot's Victorian Lowbrow™features the hand-illustrated pen-and-ink artwork of Ashleigh Talbot,who lives in a haunted house on the very edge of the Oregon Coast.Her many talents include her hand-drawn offset printed dark art posters, exquisite one-of-a-kind framed curio exhibits, old school sideshow items, limited edition hand-sewn and hand-painted mourning dolls, tombstone art, t-shirts, her own original pen-and-ink illustrations for sale, her handmade limited edition books as well as a strange collection of macabre collectibles."

Be sure to check it out. It's beautiful work! You will not be bored. And, you can't get much more hokum than this:

Madame Talbot's Victorian Lowbrow

Yes, I am now on myspace, too, but I can never get the link to work, so you will just have to find my page by searching "people". I invite you to come and be my friend. There you can make comments.

The Art of Amy Crehore

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

Marie-Guillemine Benoist's Beautiful Portrait

" Portrait of a Negress" 1800 by Marie-Guillemine Benoist, Louvre
"The Cat's Passenger" 1992 oil painting by Amy Crehore

Marie-Guillemine Benoist, born Marie-Guillemine de Laville-Leroux (1768-1826), was a French neoclassical painter. In 1800, she exhibited "Portrait of a Negress" in the Salon de Paris. Six years previously, slavery had been abolished, and this image became a symbol for women's emancipation and black people's rights. This picture was acquired by Louis XVIII for France in 1818. The bottom painting I did back in 1992 and I used the "Portrait of a Negress" as a reference for my little women perched on the back of a large house cat. Don't ask me what it means. It's surreal...or maybe it's folk art. Just a mood I was in at the time. But, I do love Marie's painting. It's a masterpiece!

Read more here: Marie-Guillemine Benoist

The Art of Amy Crehore

(thanks to www.printwomen.blogspot.com for reminding me of Marie)

Edward Lear was a Nut

Edward Lear (1812-1888) is hard to beat for humor and pure imagination. I like him almost as much as Heinrich Hoffmann, the creator of the "Slovenly Peter" book (which came out in 1845). In 1846, the first edition of Lear's "A Book of Nonsense" (pictures and funny limericks) was published under the name of Derry Down Derry. That same year, Lear gave 10 drawing lessons to Queen Victoria. He travelled all over the world in his lifetime and he sketched and painted as he went along. What I am showing here is just the tip of the iceberg of Edward Lear's works. He also painted in a very naturalistic style, mostly landscapes and birds.
Follow the link to read the limericks and to find out more about the incredible

Edward Lear
The Art of Amy Crehore

Works in Progress by Finkbuilt

Light Bulb Painting by Steve Lodefink at Finkbuilt
Finkbuilt blog is a fun and funny blog written and designed by Steve Lodefink. He painted this beautiful light bulb a while back. Right now, Steve is creating an oil painting of his kids in tones of blue. He lets us see his progress on his blog as he goes along. (Scroll down to June 2, 2007 for the beginning of the process.)
I also like his "mini-blog" that runs along the right side of the page. There you can find some lunch meat with a face on it (clown meat).
Finkbuilt
The Art of Amy Crehore

Yoko's Blog and some others

"Sleeping Gamblers" copyright Amy Crehore oil on linen, 24" x 20" 1995

At the moment, this painting ("Sleeping Gamblers") is hanging above my fireplace.

Yoko's Blog

(here is the English version) from Toledo, Spain has picked up on some of my larger, earlier works.

Perhaps they saw my profile in June's Monovita Magazine.

Also, here are some recent posts about my newest painting, "Wild Cat Fever" : Celebrity at Work, ArtNYC , Syntagma and Boingboing .

Don't forget to check out the Venus Show at Roq la Rue opening June 8, 2007!

The Art of Amy Crehore

People Who Live Underwater

The Underwater Sculpture Museum in Granada, West Indies

Sculpture by Jason Taylor 2006

(Thanks to Alison at Red Patience and boingboing)

The Art of Amy Crehore

East Asian Ads from 1920's and 1930's

Here is a beautiful and sometimes surreal collection

of East Asian Ads on Flickr from the 1920's and 1930's.

East Asian Ads

The Art of Amy Crehore

(Thanks to Internet Weekly- glad you are back!)

Little Nemo and Gertie

Poster from Gertie the Dinosaur 1914
Page from "Little Nemo in Slumberland" by Windsor McCay
I have always loved the comic strip "Little Nemo in Slumberland" by Windsor McCay. He created the strip from 1905-1911 for the New York Herald. His superb sense of design and his subtle, mischievous humor never goes out of date. It's classic! Just look at the beauty of this full page example (above). It is surreal and abstract at the same time- making use of geometry, forms and color while telling a fantastic story. I think I've seen some of those drippy backgrounds in some art being done today (green dreamy drips above). His bio says he never completed grade school, but he certainly completed a lot of great art.

"Winsor McCay (1869-1934) was one of the founding fathers of the US newspaper comic. His 'Little Nemo in Slumberland' Sunday page, with its world of magic, fantasy and dreams, visual virtuosity and inventive use of frames and page lay-out has not been equaled. But also McCay's other comics, like 'Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend' still stand out for their originality and artistic quality. In addition, McCay was a pioneer in animation art as well, and his 1909 film 'Gertie the Dinosaur' stands as the first commercial successful animated cartoon."-read more here: Lambiek.net and about Gertie here: McCay
The Art of Amy Crehore

Monovita Magazine!

Check out this brand new feature about my art at

Monovita Magazine

The Art of Amy Crehore

P.S. June 4, 2007 -This article just got boingboinged along with my newest painting, "Wild Cat Fever", which will go up to Seattle for the "Venus Show" at Roq La Rue. Don't miss this show! And buy the art. Contact Kirsten at Roq La Rue for purchases.

Amy Crehore's Venus Show Painting

Painting: "Wild Cat Fever" copyright 2007 by Amy Crehore, oil on linen panel (with carved black frame 11" square)

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE

Here is the new painting I did for the "Venus Show" at Roq La Rue Gallery opening June 8, 2007. This one is a little bit different. It has more of a jungle motif. The cat is an oncilla which I blogged about earlier. Other artists in the show besides me are: Lori Earley, Audrey Kawasaki, Travis Louie, Marion Peck, Glenn Barr, Kukula, Stella Im Hultberg, Isabel Samaras, David Bowers, Lynne Naylor, Chris Reccardi, Sas Christian, Gail Potocki, Joshua Petker, Fuco Ueda, Boomer, Krysztof Nemeth, Derek Nobbs, Jessica McCourt, Nicole Steen, Sarah Joncas, Rik Garrett, Sarah Bereza , John Brophy, Esao Andrews, Panni Malek, and Robert Pitt. This will be a fabulous show!

That Ain't Art Blog has some of the other paintings on display.

The Art of Amy Crehore

Go here for the link to MONOVITA Magazine with a new profile of Amy Crehore (me).

Free Readings

Just for fun, you can get free Tarot, Runes, Numerology and I Ching readings on this site. They have about 20 decks for the Tarot such as a "Cat People" deck or a "Voodoo Tarot of New Orleans" deck. I like the I Ching better than the Tarot, but the Tarot decks are cool.

Facade

The Art of Amy Crehore

Early Tarot Deck

Tarot Cards are always fascinating- the older, the better:

"Tarot cards by Nicolas Bodet (1743-1751). An early example of the 'Rouen/Brussels' Latin-suited tarot, probably the earliest we know actually made in Brussels."

Bodet Tarot Cards

The Art of Amy Crehore

My Drawings

First attempt for the "Banana Eater" copyright 2005 Amy Crehore
Drawing for the "Flower Muncher" copyright 2006 Amy Crehore
Drawing for "The Nibbler" copyright 2006 Amy Crehore
Drawing for "The Creature" copyright 2006 Amy Crehore

Drawing for "The Teaser" copyright 2006 Amy Crehore

I need to upload some of these drawings to my website drawing section. Right now, I only have my "Little Pierrot" drawings on display. But, the "Monkey Love" drawings (shown above) are pretty interesting and so are the "Blues Gal" drawings. There are other newsy things happening as well that I need to add to my homepage. I'm staying busy with a few little projects that I will tell you about later.

The Art of Amy Crehore

Remedios Varo 1908-1963

Remedios Varo

Remedios Varo was a very unique and imaginative surrealist painter who was born in Spain. She hung out with other artists in Paris for a time, but fled to Mexico in 1941 where she remained for the rest of her life. She died at the young age of 55 during the peak of her success. Her best friend was Leonora Carrington, another well-known woman surrealist who used to be Max Ernst's girlfriend. These are the things that I find fascinating about Varo: her use of architecture, her inventions of strange vehicles, her big-eyed spooky characters that seem to emerge out of the ether and aren't quite real, crazy hairdos and weird costumes, her creative story-telling qualities, and the many different textures she created for backgrounds in her paintings. She had an imagination that didn't quit!

Varo was an intellectual and "was influenced by a wide range of mystic and hermetic traditions, both Western and non-Western. She turned with equal interest to the ideas of C. G. Jung as to the theories of G. I. Gurdjieff, P. D. Ouspensky, Helena Blavatsky, Meister Eckhart, and the Sufis, and was as fascinated with the legend of the Holy Grail as with sacred geometry, alchemy and the I-Ching. She saw in each of these an avenue to self-knowledge and the transformation of consciousness."-read more:

Remedios Varo

The Art of Amy Crehore

100,000 people

As of today, this blog has had over 100,000 unique visitors since July 2006 (that's when I started counting).

The Art of Amy Crehore

Carlo Carra and Metaphysical Art

La Figlie di Loth 1919 by Carra

Madre e Figlio 1934 by Carra
Daughters of Lot 1940 by Carra
Italians Carlo Carra and Giorgio De Chirico were friends. They created an art movement called Pittura Metafisica or Metaphysical Art (1917) which influenced surrealism and dada. Mysterious, poetic and dreamlike, their paintings looked to the past for inspiration - to the work of Italian artists like Giotto in particular. They made poetry out of familiar objects by isolating them or placing them together in claustrophobic rooms or outdoors in shadowy Italian squares. Both painters were concerned with giving the objects an inner life of their own through odd juxtapositions and simple, almost stark rendering that pointed to a "higher, more hidden state of being" (Carra). This selection of Carra paintings are later works, but they still show his metaphysical tendencies. I have always been very inspired by the works of Carlo Carra (I don't really relate to his early futurist works, however) and by the metaphysical works of Giorgio De Chirico.
Metaphysical Art
The Art of Amy Crehore

Der Golem

Strange Monster from German Expressionist Cinema: Der Golem

"In the 16th century, the Jews of Prague face persecution. Rabbi Loew creates a giant golem out of clay to protect the people. Unfortunately, the creature rebels and wreaks deadly havoc. In the end, a small girl stops the golem by removing the magic star from its chest."

Starring Paul Wegener as the clay monster which inspired other monsters in cinema.

It ran in NYC for ten months in 1923. I like the poster art.

The Art of Amy Crehore

Kazoos and Old Lures

Cat Kazoo with Plaid Britches

1907 Kazoo fishing lure
Rhodes Mechanical Frog lure - before 1910
Antique Lures
Electrizooka via Makezine (How to make an electric kazoo)
Tin Man Tin Toys (Cat Kazoo)
Kazoos (Kazoo in Popular Music)
Here are some links that I found while surfing around. The Hokum Scorchers always played kazoos, a popular instrument in hokum music. I like this cat kazoo that I found on a tin toy site. Kazoos come in all shapes and sizes, but the metal ones are best. Makezine blog featured an "electrizooka" that someone invented. I also found an old fishing lure called the "Kazoo". This antique mechanical frog lure is pretty cool, too.
I will actually be painting a fishing lure sometime soon. I'll tell you more about that later.

The Art of Amy Crehore

Paintings

Armand Point painting
Robert Henri Painting
Bernhard Gutmann Painting
Arthur Hacker Painting

Paintings by painters. A timeless art form.

Even in this digital age, people are still sucked in by the quiet power of soulful painting.

The Art of Amy Crehore

And Venus was Her Name

Oncilla-spotted South American wild cat

This exotic creature may just show up in my next painting.
I'm currently working on something for a show at Roq la Rue gallery in Seattle, WA -opening June 8th -"Venus" - an invitational group show exploring the theme of the feminine as muse, in whatever incarnation that may take - Artists: Lori Earley, Audrey Kawasaki, Travis Louie, Marion Peck, Glenn Barr, Kukula, Stella Im Hultberg, Isabel Samaras, David Bowers, Lynne Naylor, Chris Reccardi, Sas Christian, Gail Potocki, Joshua Petker, Fuco Ueda, Boomer, Krysztof Nemeth, Derek Nobbs, Jessica McCourt, Nicole Steen, Sarah Joncas, Amy Crehore, Rik Garrett, Sarah Bereza and Robert Pitt. Stayed tuned. (P.S. Actually had a cat named "Venus" once and she was wild, too.)
The Art of Amy Crehore

Sappho - A Passionate Muse

Sappho by Dannecker 1800

Sappho 1877, Charles-August Mengin (1853-1933), Oil on canvas
Sappho, World Noted Women. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1883.
Sappho , (Le coucher de Sappho), Charles Gleyre, 1867
Sappho was a Greek poet who lived around 600 BC. She wrote about love, yearning and reflection. "Most of her poems (Aeolic dialect), which were always set to music, describe erotic passion and its consequences. She was a lyric poet who developed her own particular meter, known as sapphic meter, and she was credited for leading an aesthetic movement away from classical themes of gods, to the themes of individual human experience. Sappho speaks in the first person and describes her own experiences."
-Read more HERE by Michael Lahanas
Also, there is a nice collection of female images, including Mengin's "Sappho" (which I think is an amazing painting), at Sensual Arts

The Art of Amy Crehore