EEEkk!

Check out this website, it's crazy (from boingboing):

Animated haunted furniture
By Cory Doctorow
Scarefactory's Haunted Furniture page is chock-a-bloc with amazing haunted props for your haunted house. Makes me want to redecorate.
Reposed possessed girl flails up to begin violently thrashing front to back side to side to swirl & contortatop the bed. Includes steel queen sized mattress frame, character, mech & pneumatic pkg. Link (via Cribcandy)
3 References

Max Ernst & Erling Wold

My bookcase is filled with inspiring art books. I have three of Max Ernst's surrealistic collage novels. One of them is "Une Semaine De Bonte" which is a Dover book on Amazon for only $12. The other two must be harder to find because Amazon doesn't even have pictures of the covers and they are now in the $55.-$140. range - used. I love these books!

(See images above)

ErlingWold is a composer in San Francisco. He ordered a couple of my Little Pierrot prints recently which prompted me to go look up his website. Very intriguing!
By the way, he was also the winner of my blog guessing game...so I sent him an additional print. He, in turn, sent me a CD of soundtrack music that he composed for the film, "The Bed You Sleep In" (director, Jon Jost). It's darkly moody and also enchantingly spirited.

Apparently, he has done some surreal theater pieces including this chamber opera (as described in his extensive bio):
"His critically acclaimed work A Little Girl Dreams of Taking the Veil, based on the Max Ernst collage novel, was presented by the Paul Dresher Ensemble and ODC in 2000. It was given its European premiere in a German version by the Klagenfurter Ensemble in July of 2001 and toured to Max Ernst's hometown of Brühl. "

I may have to order the CD which looks quite wonderful.

Check out:

Erling Wold on Amazon

Website: Erling Wold

Amy_Crehore

Historic Kennedy School

I am taking a little trip up to Portland, OR this week where I will check out the new galleries and art museum. The photo above is historic Kennedy School where I always stay when I go to Portland. The old 1910 building has been converted into a "lodge" in the city with restaurant, bars, brew pub, suites that used to be old classrooms (complete with chalkboards), a movie theater in the old auditorium, a gym for concerts and a hot pool. The walls are chock full of folk art done by alumni and Portland residents: murals, mosaics and sculptures. There is even a "Detention Room" bar to smoke cigars in. It is always a lot of fun to stay there. (P.S. I don't smoke cigars.)

This is only one of the many McMeniman Brother's group of vintage buildings (lodges and pubs) in OR and WA that they have restored and decorated. Each one is unique and each one is full of artwork. I have not stayed in all of them, but I hope to some day.

McMenamin's Kennedy School

Interview with Fred Stonehouse

Little Bug, 20" x 16", Copyright 2006 Fred Stonehouse

courtesy of Blab Show

Go read Marshall Sponder's fabulous new interview with Fred Stonehouse:

Interview with Fred Stonehouse,

Great American Artist

See nine of Fred's paintings on the Blab Show website or go see them in person at Copro Nason Gallery, Santa Monica, CA. Show closes on Oct 21.

www.artnewyorkcity.com

art
Amy_Crehore

Walter Minus..."Darling Cheri"

Lenka, Alone At Home 39 1/2" x 39 1/2" Copyright 2006 Walter Minus (from the Blab show website- to be published in "Blab 18")
Walter Minus is one of the artists in the Blab Show this year. His paintings are very large and striking. Hanging next to each other, they seemed to have some sort of magnetic power.
Walter wrote me a nice note from Paris the other day telling me that he appreciated seeing the photos on my blog of the art show because he could not be there in person. He has a new Blab Storybook out now called "Darling Cheri". It's nice. You can order it from Amazon or Fantagraphics.

Go see Walter's paintings in the Blab Show before it closes Oct. 21st!

Picasso's "Parade" in Shopping Mall

Costume for "Parade"by Picasso
I came across this story online recently. About two years ago, last October, Picasso's huge curtain masterpiece, which he painted for the 1918 ballet, "Parade", was hung for 10 days in a glitzy shopping mall in Hong Kong. It was to celebrate 40 years of diplomatic relations between France and China. I love this period of Picasso's art. I love this curtain.

Jean Cocteau wrote the script for "Parade". Erik Satie was the composer. Picasso designed the sets and costumes. Some of his cubist-style costumes were made of cardboard! The painted sketches for the costumes are inspiring pieces of art in their own right. Great designs full of color and mischief. Jean Cocteau added crazy things to make noise such as a typewriter and a foghorn. Satie and Cocteau were labled "Cultural Anarchists" and Satie went to prison for 8 days. It all took place in Rome.

Hong Kong Exhibit Of Picasso's Curtain

Contest Over

Someone just guessed the right answer.

That's me in the middle of the photo in my previous post.

I will send that person a Little Pierrot Print.