Banjo History

Twin Minstrels playing banjos behind their heads
S S Stewart's Sons Professional by Rettberg and Lange 1902
Click to Enlarge

S.S. Stewart factory illustrations 1883

Banjos are important American instruments. Banjos descended from gourd instruments brought to the New World by enslaved Africans as early as the 17th century. By the 1840's white musicians were playing them in minstrel shows. Later on they were heard in the Victorian parlor. Later still, banjos were used in hokum, ragtime, jazz and bluegrass music.

Primitive Banjos, Guitar Banjos, Mandolin Banjos, Banjo Ukes, Tenor Banjos, 5-string Banjos.

I always loved the details on the S.S. Stewart banjos. There are many wonderful vintage images of banjo players.

I found these pictures by following the links at

Classic Banjos

to Dr. Horsehair's Site and Mugwumps Online

Read up on the history of the banjo. A great American instrument. I have used them in my artwork because I love them.

The Art of Amy Crehore

Tickler Ukes

Tickler Brand Uke 2007 -Back design by Amy Crehore
Tickler Brand Uke 2007- Front design by Amy Crehore

It looks like the very first Tickler Brand Ukulele (built by Lou Reimuller, designed and painted by Amy Crehore) has now sold. There will never be another one like it. It's one-of-a-kind. The number two Tickler Uke is slowly being built and should be finished around the first of the new year. It has completely different features- a different shape, an exciting mother-of-toilet-seat fingerboard and a carved headstock. It won't be fully painted on all sides like the first one. Instead, it will have more wood showing and some other details. I hope to be finishing up the Tickler T-shirt design this week. I have to upgrade my website before Jan 1, also. Lots to do!

The Art of Amy Crehore

Vegetarian Museum

I had tofu turkey this year at Govinda's restaurant in Eugene, OR. I often eat regular turkey for Thanksgiving, but sometimes I don't. I was vegetarian for a couple of years after I got out of college. "Diet for a Small Planet" was my guide book and I had a macrobiotic cookbook. My pure vegetarianism didn't last long, but I never went back to eating red meat.

"The Vegetarian Museum"

is a website founded by Karen Iacobbo and Michael Iacobbo, authors of "Vegetarian America: A History" (Praeger, 2004- book shown above which you can order right on the website). In the "museum" you can find all kinds of tidbits, articles and images about the history of vegetarianism from the 18th century on in America. That is where I found the holiday postcard and the vegetarian muscleman. Interesting!

Thanks for the link Internet Weekly.

The Art of Amy Crehore

"Honeybee" Painting by Amy Crehore- Finished!

"Honeybee" copyright 2007 Amy Crehore 8"x8"

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE
Here is my little "Honeybee" painting all finished. I just shipped it off to Mark Murphy who will take it to Art Basel Miami and exhibit it in the "KNOW" exhibition where he will be selling his art books, plus original art from over 40 artists.

F E A T U R I N G: Robert Bellm + Cathie Bleck + Marc Burckhardt + Cynthia von Buhler + William Buzzell + Luke Chueh + David Chung + Amy Crehore + Warren Dykeman + P-Jay Fidler + AJ Fosik + Keith Greiman + Matt Haber + Brent Harada + Ryan Heshka + Jordin Isip + James Kirkpatrick + Pamela Jaeger + Travis Lampe + Lola + Daniel Lim + Tommii Lim + Anthony Lister + Jen Lobo + Jason Murphy + Mark Murphy + Joel Nakamura + Kathie Olivas + Brandt Peters + Chris Pyle + Jermain Rogers + Chris Ryniak + Erik Sandberg + Greg Simkins/Craola + Kim Scott + Keith Shore + Jeff Soto + Matt Stallings + Peter Taylor + Mark Todd + Jonathan Viner + Amanda Wachob + Esther Pearl Watson + Damien Weinkrantz + Gord Wiebe + John YanokI

KNOW: Art Exhibition Curated by Mark Murphy : Art Now Fair : Art Basel Miami : Murphy Design : Booth No. 215 December 6 – 9 : 2007 Thursday – Saturday : 10 am - 8 pm : Sunday : 10 am – 6 pm

Claremont Hotel, 1700 Collins Avenue, Miami Beach, FLA

If you are interested in acquiring this small painting please contact Mark Murphy: murphy@murphydesign.com

See more art and a blurb about each artist in this exhibition on: Scribble

This is the final version of the painting that boingboing posted about earlier ("Amy Crehore Paintblogging"), for those who were following my progress.

The Art of Amy Crehore

"Deja Vu Waltz" by Amy Crehore on view until December 22, 2007 at Robert Berman Gallery, Santa Monica, CA

"Deja Vu Waltz" copyright 2007 Amy Crehore 28" x 28" framed, oil on linen

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE FOR THE FULL EFFECT

I just want to remind anyone who missed the opening of the GREEN Show curated by Mark Murphy at Robert Berman Gallery last Saturday night, that my painting will be on display until Dec 22, 2007 alongside of lots of other wonderful paintings by many great artists. If you live near Santa Monica, try to see it in person. This is my first major large-size canvas combining all of my characters from my series work of the last couple of years: the blues gal, the little pierrot, the monkey with sailor hat, the cat, and the demon. Go see it in it's custom frame.

Contact:

Robert Berman Gallery

I want to thank some people for mentioning or reviewing my painting and this show: Ert at Juxtapoz , Marshall at Art New York City , Chris at Daily Dreamtime, Mark at boingboing and some others that I linked to in earlier posts.

The Art of Amy Crehore

The Exquisite Drawings of Seurat

Georges-Pierre Seurat was only 31 years old when he died in 1891. Everyone knows his 10 foot long pointillist masterpiece, Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, which took him two years to complete. He apparently made over 60 studies for this painting. It is now hanging in the collection of The Art Institute of Chicago .

He also did many drawings during the last ten years of his life. He used conte crayon on hand-made French paper and the effects he obtained are unique and quite beautiful. He loved to draw the theater and you can see a pierrot dancing in the top image. These drawings are the focus of a new show at MOMA that recently opened Oct 28, 2007-Jan 7, 2008. You can purchase the exhibition catalogue here. And here is a link to the

Seurat Drawings online exhibit at MOMA. It's worth a trip to NYC.

(Thanks for the heads up artnewyorkcity and drawn!)

The Art of Amy Crehore

The GREEN Art Opening, Robert Berman Gallery

The Modlins photo by Mark Murphy
I am slow to get my photos up, but Mark Murphy (I finally got to meet the man -very friendly and nice!) has posted lots of photos from the Green Show opening on his blog. So, follow that link and have a look. Bergamot Station in Santa Monica (where the show was held at Robert Berman Gallery) has dozens of galleries all in one complex. Saturday night, Nov 17, was fully packed with people as there were many other openings that night and people walked from gallery to gallery. Erling Wold, the composer from S.F., was in town and stopped in at the show. He has blogged about meeting me here. (Flattery will get you everywhere, Erling.)
I also talked with Mark Frauenfelder and my friend George from Eugene. I met Bob Dob, Cathie Bleck, Nathan Ota and more. I just missed Lisa Mertins (who drove all the way out to meet me, but didn't know what I looked like) and who knows who else. It was so packed that it was hard to meet everyone. Mr. Robert Berman, the gallery owner, was absolutely the coolest guy. The Modlins entertained us with their music.

The Art of Amy Crehore