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There are some great books and historical documents about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