Penny Arcade Cards

Ebay's got some penny arcade cards from the 1940's up for bidding. Who are these women? Is there such a thing as an ideal love mate? Young boys and girls who partied in the arcades could dream about their future. To get one of the pretty girl cards in the machine instead of a homely one was a boy's lucky day.

I used to love to roam the penny arcades at Asbury Park and Wildwood, N.J.

The Art of Amy Crehore

B & W Movie Stills

"Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" 1958 Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor
"A Place in the Sun" 1951 Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor
" The Blue Angel" 1930 Marlene Dietrich

"Sadie Thompson"1928, Gloria Swanson
"The Lady From Shanghai" 1948 Orson Welles, Rita Hayworth

There is a great site called "The Palace" put together by Michael Mills with articles and images, links and audio clips about the history of Hollywood films. I picked out a few beautiful stills from a few great films that I like. Who doesn't like Tennessee Williams stories or Orson Welles films? Who isn't inspired by great old films with wonderful narratives? Somehow black and white is way better than color - it's a lot more dramatic. Check out the eyes on Elizabeth Taylor and Gloria Swanson. I know how they feel.
The Art of Amy Crehore

Strange Sisters

A collection of silly 50's and 60's pulp fiction covers

from the who-needs-men side of the tracks.

Strange Sisters

The Art of Amy Crehore

A Uke is all I Want

Uke gal

This cool vintage photo came from from Wikipedia (it's a Ziegfeld Follies Girl) via Steve of Finkbuilt Blog . Steve thought that it might spruce up my blog, which it does. Thanks, Steve! Finkbuilt Blog has a review of Mark Frauenfelder's great new book (which I am reading right now) called "Rule the Web" . There is also a section on ukes at Finkbuilt that you might find intriguing. I am finishing up my paint job on a hand-built uke right now. It should be ready for viewing by next week.

The Art of Amy Crehore

Henri Rousseau 1844-1910

The Sleeping Gypsy 1897
The Dream 1910
The Snake Charmer 1907

One can't underestimate the power of Rousseau. It is easy to take him for granted. The large tropical masterworks that he dreamed up in his studio were like no one else's art at the time. Truly modern, yet traditional. Naive and wise all at the same time. A singular style. Surreal. Funny. Dreamlike. Unforgettable. "The Sleeping Gypsy" is my fav.

Henri Rousseau

The Art of Amy Crehore

Harlequins in Art

Antonio Donghi
Antonio Donghi
Andre Derain
Paul Cezanne
Pablo Picasso
Picasso did it countless times. Antonio Donghi did it more than once. Derain did it and even Cezanne did it. What did they all do? They all painted the Harlequin.
Picasso painted numerous circus families and harlequins in his early periods (those are my favorite) before he became a self-confessed "charlatan".
Here is a quote from Picasso about what happened to him after Cubism:
"From the moment that art ceases to be food that feeds the best minds, the artist can use his talents to perform all the tricks of the intellectual charlatan. Most people can today no longer expect to receive consolation and exaltation from art. The 'refined,' the rich, the professional 'do-nothings', the distillers of quintessence desire only the peculiar, the sensational, the eccentric, the scandalous in today's art. I myself, since the advent of Cubism, have fed these fellows what they wanted and satisfied these critics with all the ridiculous ideas that have passed through my mind. The less they understood them, the more they admired me. Through amusing myself with all these absurd farces, I became celebrated, and very rapidly. For a painter, celebrity means sales and consequent affluence. Today, as you know, I am celebrated, I am rich. But when I am alone, I do not have the effrontery to consider myself an artist at all, not in the grand old meaning of the word: Giotto, Titian, Rembrandt, Goya were great painters. I am only a public clown - a mountebank. I have understood my time and have exploited the imbecility, the vanity, the greed of my contemporaries. It is a bitter confession." - Pablo Picasso, Space and Motion

The Art of Amy Crehore

The Art of the Print

Harlequin, 1870, Lithograph, A. Hoen & Company, Richmond, Virginia
Nellie's Dream, Harper's Weekly 1881, Wood Engraving
This website has some really beautiful original prints on it that you can buy (or look at) from all over the world. Here are two vintage images that I like.
The Art of the Print
The Art of Amy Crehore