Basil Wolverton - Acoustics in Comics!

A great comic art exhibit just opened last weekend at the Grand Central Art Center in Santa Ana, CA (continuing until Nov. 11, 2007) of original art by Basil Wolverton. Wolverton was a master of comics with sound effects. There is an article on the ASIFA website that Wolverton wrote in 1948 for the Daily Oregonian that you must read! It's called appropriately, "ACOUSTICS in the COMICS". It tells the tale of how he came up with "realistic" sound effects for his comics after his publisher saw him using the word "cranch" in one of his cartoons:

' "I want realism!" he (my publisher) had bellowed. "No more of this wild imaginative stuff that's causing some people to want to ban our comic books! From now on, get that realism in there, and your strips will be horribly funny! Then the readers will go into hysterics and laugh like crazy, and our books will be acclaimed the most laugh provoking on the stands!" That meant that an imaginative word like CRANCH was taboo. It was up to me to get the real sound word.'-ASIFA LINK to PART ONE

And be sure to read PART TWO which tells us that his publisher actually insisted that he act out the situations to produce zillions of his crazy new "sound-words".

Thanks to John Brownlee at ECTOMOPLASMOSIS for the heads up!

The Art of Amy Crehore

Hey, Doll Baby

CLICK TO ENLARGE IMAGES for the full effect

Beautiful and unusual photos of Ziegfeld Girls by Alfred Cheney Johnston

on Doctor Macro

Link courtesy of Lloyd at mardecortesbaja

(where you can read about Lloyd's travels in Mexico and all about the history of cinema)

The Art of Amy Crehore

Dice Games Anyone?

These look funny! From Zee-Best Store.

Nuthin' but zee best! For all your party needs. These games are dicey!

The Art of Amy Crehore

Contemplation

Detail of Face in "Snake Tamer's Ditty" Copyright 2007 Amy Crehore

Do you know how many times I painted this face over and over again and wiped it off and sanded it down? Neither do I. Too many times to even count! It's a completely made up face...straight out of my imagination.

The Art of Amy Crehore

CRANKbait!! Online Exhibition!

A most unusual art show is going on now! Collectors take note! The following fine artists have painted one-of-a-kind fishing lures, the likes of which you will see nowhere else on the planet:

Mark Frauenfelder, Sandow Birk, David Krys, Amy Crehore, Wednesday Kirwan, Scott Harbine, Natalie Parks, Elyse Pignolet, Ape Lad, Devi Pellerin, Becky Harbine, Skot Olsen, Hugh Macdonald, Ken Barrett, Justin Morrison, Steve Lodefink

Hurry on over to FINKBUILT blog to see the newest exhibition in Finkbuilt Gallery: "Lures of Distinction" (click on artists' names for more details of lures and mini-interviews):

CRANKbait!! Art Show

Thank you, Steve Lodefink, for organizing this unique art show.
The Art of Amy Crehore

Cemetery Statues

Photo by David Robinson
Cemeteries and cemetery statues have always been fascinating to me - the more ancient the better. Here is a selection of soulful statues from all over the world. I love how the guy's face in the top photo is half gone. The bent-over women in the middle photo - look at her hand- it is so tense with grief. What an amazing sculpture. My favorite cemetery is located in Richmond, VA. It's actually called Hollywood Cemetery. I spent a lot of time in my youth roaming around this place. Located on a scenic bluff overlooking the James River, it's a place full of history and beauty - take the virtual tour:

Hollywood Cemetery

The Art of Amy Crehore

Miniatures from Topkapi Museum

The portrait of Sultan Mehmet, the Conqueror.ascribed from Sinan Bey.

From Sarai Albums.Istanbul, towards end of 15th century.

Wash-basin in the form of a peacock -Illustrations from al-Jazari 1205

This museum has an outstanding group of Islamic miniature paintings, found in illustrated copies of classic works and as surviving fragments pasted or bound into albums in the former royal libraries. Here's a portrait of a Sultan sniffing a rosebud and grasping his hanky in case he might be allergic. That's how I see it anyway. And here is a mechanical drawing of a wash-basin with a beautiful peacock design from 1205. I always loved the fine-lined delicacy of Persian miniatures.

Topkapi Museum Miniatures

The Art of Amy Crehore