Crehore Playing Cards 1802

Collection of Tom and Judy Dawson

My ancestor, Thomas Crehore of Boston, manufactured and designed some of the first American Playing Cards between 1802 and the mid-1840's. I think he had a unique illustration/graphic arts style. More here:

52 Plus Joker

The Art of Amy Crehore

Folk Art Portrait of Little A.E. Crehore

Photo courtesy of Maine Antique Digest, from the article

"The Susan and Mark Laracy Sale" by Lita Solis-Cohen

(I wonder if this little girl is a relative of mine? I know some early Crehores lived in Milton, MA. If this portrait of little A.E. Crehore could talk, it would say,"I am worth $216,000".)

"This watercolor and ink on paper by John Ritto Penniman (1782-1841) of a young girl is labeled by the artist “A.E. Crehore AEt. 1 year & 6 mo.” She is wearing a yellow dress and standing in a landscape with her dog and the Charles River, the Boston State House, and the Park Street Church in the background. Penniman signed and dated it “J.R.P. Pinxit 1836.” The sitter lived in Milton, Massachusetts." read more article here

at Maine Antique Digest

The Art of Amy Crehore

More Paint-by-Numbers Fun!

YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS!!
Click these links for more fun:
Paint By Numbers House on "Unusual Life Blog"
Virtual Tour of Paint By Numbers House

The Art of Amy Crehore

BoingBoing: "Pop Surrealist Luminaries"

I was thrilled by Mark Frauenfelder's recent boingboing post mentioning me:

Charity art auction on eBay

"There are two days left to bid on paintings from the Charity-By-Numbers art show curated by Gary Baseman. Biskup, Ryden, Baseman, Schorr, Crehore, and many other pop surrealist luminaries are featured in the show. The money goes to a good cause, The Alliance for Children's Rights. Link "

Mark Frauenfelder, link

The Ebay art auction for my Monkey Love piece ends Sat. February 17!!! See more Monkey Love paintings on my website:

The Art of Amy Crehore

P.S. Mark Frauenfelder will appear on "The Colbert Report" on March 6, 2007 (nofactzone.net)

Amy Crehore's "Charity By Numbers" Monkey Love Painting

In the glare of bright lights at Corey Helford Show w/ frame

courtesy of TACO blog.

Original 1955 paint-by-numbers painting

Detail of Girl's Face from Amy Crehore's newly transformed painting
Amy Crehore's "Charity by Numbers" painting. (for even Larger version)

Detail of monkey from Amy Crehore's painting for "Charity by Numbers" ebay auction

The "Charity by Numbers" art show went up on ebay after a gala event at the Corey Helford Gallery in Culver City, CA on Saturday night, Feb 10, 2007. The ebay auction, which is happening right now, will benefit the Alliance for Children's Rights 100%. Over 100 top alternative artists transformed vintage paint-by-number paintings into wacky, beautiful and surreal works of art. More and more paintings are being added to the auction with more and more well-known names. Here are some details of my painting that the ebay auction site does not show (it is the size of a large FED EX box, plus frame).It is really quite exciting to watch this auction with so many cool artists.Come on and try your luck!

Ebay auction for AMY CREHORE will continue only until Sat., Feb 17, 2007 at 4:07 PM PST! Don't miss your chance to win a very rare Monkey Love Painting for Charity. "Charity by Numbers" Or here's a better link: Ebay Seller

My painting is featured on Internet Weekly. And "Notables" on Ozoux (via NotCot), Table of Malcontents (WIRED.com) and artNYC. See my other Monkey Love art here: The Art of Amy Crehore or Blab! Show or boingboing.net.

Old Books filled with Treasures

Moleskin notebook designed by Mark Frauenfelder

Hollowed out books by Mark Lowrie on Flickr

Mark Lowrie says these books are: "Part of an ongoing project to combine hollowed out books with interesting contents similar to the fluxus movement or Joseph Cornell. The Vice Control book, filled with vices; or the vintage pulp book filled with journals and writing supplies for my daughter.(Notebook in the book on the right was designed by Mark Frauenfelder) "

My friend, Mark Lowrie, crafted these cool art objects out of old books using funny, unique and useful contents and gave them as gifts to his family members.

The top photo is a blue gremlin moleskin notebook that I received yesterday in the mail from Mark Frauenfelder. Here's the link to the notebooks on boingboing

The Art of Amy Crehore

"Feed the Bear Blues" Painting

"Feed the Bear Blues" copyright 2007 Amy Crehore

Here is one of my brand new "Blues Gals" paintings. This one has a bear holding a vintage Gibson mando-bass and it is called "Feed the Bear Blues". My other new painting is called, "Losin' My Cones Over You" (just featured on boingboing). I had a third painting up on my website ("Green Snake Stumble"), but I decided that it needed more work. So, I am back in the studio making some additions and finishing it up.

My oil paintings all have many layers of paint to intensify the colors and to make the figures fully-realized. Sometimes I will paint all day on a face and not like it, so I wipe it off and start again the next day. I even sand it down if I have to. I painted the face on the "cones" painting probably 100 times until I felt it was right. That's how it goes. Nothing comes easy!

See my other Blues Gals Paintings in the series at:

The Art of Amy Crehore