Wednesday, June 04, 2008

I Love Flickr

I was uploading some photos to flickr today and look what I found -a nice interpretation of my "Roaming Tomcat Rag" painting by Knotty Rhonda starring Bootsy and Meeka!

P.S. I recently added flickr photos and an email subscription link (for those who want to get my blog sent to their email address) to the sidebar of my blog.


Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Bo Diddley and Go Go Girls

In honor of Bo Diddley's recent passing. I do miss those TV shows with go go dancers.

Now that's hokum team spirit. :)

Video clip thanks to sixtiesalltheway via easydreamer

The Art of Amy Crehore

Dod Proctor 1892-1972

"Dinah Reading" by Dod Proctor


'The Orchard" by Dod Proctor
Portrait by Dod Proctor
"Morning" by Dod Proctor
One of my favorite pictures of all time is "Morning" by Dod Proctor, who painted it when she was 34. They say it made her famous overnight. To me, this represents art deco period painting at it's finest. The sculptural quality of this figure is astounding. This painting is in the Tate.
"This was voted Picture of the Year at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition of 1927 and bought for the nation by the Daily Mail newspaper. From c.1922 Dod Procter had begun to paint a series of simple, monumental portraits of young women that she knew, utilizing the fall of light across the figures to give a powerful sense of volume. The model was Cissie Barnes, the sixteen year old daughter of a fisherman from Newlyn, the Cornish village that was home to Dod Procter for most of her working life. The popularity of this painting led to its being displayed in New York, followed by a tour of Britain from 1927 to 1929."
Here is a slide show of more of her remarkable work from the First Post website:
More Than a One Hit Wonder - Dod Proctor

She was a genius. I only knew about the painting called, "Morning"...until now.
The Art of Amy Crehore

Sunday, June 01, 2008

Hokum Scorchers Perform "Violent Love"

Here is a picture of the remarkable bassist and songwriter, Willie Dixon.
Check out this list of classic songs that he wrote and all of the people who performed them.
So, it's Sunday night and I just switched the song on my website player. Listen to an adapted version of Willie Dixon's "Violent Love" (1950's) performed by the Hokum Scorchers Band. Lou Reimuller is singing and playing a National guitar and I am playing the washboard. Both of us are playing kazoos. Recorded in 1990. Follow this link and scroll down for song.
Hokum Scorchers
The Art of Amy Crehore
This song changes every Sunday nite, so it will be different by the time you read this post.

Saturday, May 31, 2008

Ancient Sketchbook

Shown here are 2 pages from Stephan Schreiber's practice sketchbook book for illuminated manuscripts (West Germany). See more of this amazing sketchbook full of ideas and miniature designs from the year 1494 (!) on BibliOdyssey. Lovely to see the process.

Cat Masks

There's a group on flickr that has a fascinating set of cat masks. Have a look:

Friday, May 30, 2008

Treasures under the Bed


Check out this gold cup that a guy had hidden away under his bed- a gift from his grandpa. It's ancient and it's worth a million dollars. He abused it as a child, thinking it was only a nice old cup from grandpa. Also, this Freemason padlock sold on ebay for a nice chunk of change. I love the designs on both of these objects. Reminds me, I have started to sell some things on ebay from under my own bed. It's better than a yard sale and, lord knows, my house full of junk...er, I mean treasures.