Bob Dylan's "Opium" Painting

Top photograph (an autochrome) was taken by Leon Busy around 1915 in French Indochina. Bottom image is a painting called "Opium" by Bob Dylan (2010) from the Gagosian Gallery website. 

Looks like Bob Dylan used the Leon Busy photo as a reference for his painting.

 From Sept. 20, 2011 - Oct. 22, 2011, Bob Dylan will be showing his paintings, "The Asia Series", at Gagosian Gallery's Madison Ave. location. 

Bob Dylan had a show of 40 paintings just last year at the National Gallery of Denmark called "The Brazil Series".

You can see more photos like the one above on Steven Martin's Opium Museum website. Steven has a book out called the Art of Opium Antiques. He is also working on a memoir about collecting opium-smoking paraphernalia, to be published in 2012 by Villard, an imprint of Random House. Thanks go to Steven for finding the Leon Busy photo posted above.

The Art of Amy Crehore

Gweek 015 features Craig Yoe + another Hokum Scorchers' song

Check out the interview with Craig Yoe, designer and comic historian, on a brand new episode of Boingboing's Gweek podcast (015). Also, my band, The Hokum Scorchers, plays a version of Luke Jordan's 1927 song "Pick Poor Robin Clean" at the end of the podcast. Luke Jordan was a blues guitarist and singer from Lynchburg, VA. We recorded this song in 1990.

Lou Reimuller - National guitar/kazoo/vocals, Amy Crehore- on the washboard/kazoo/vocals.

GWEEK 015

The Art of Amy Crehore

Our recording of "Pick Poor Robin Clean" is also found here.

Ode to Marihuana 1934

The song, "Sweet Marihuana", was performed in the movie "Murder at the Vanities" by Gertrude Michaels. This was made in Pre-Code Hollywood right before the Hays Code was strictly enforced in 1934. What is pre-code Hollywood? READ HERE . The Hays Code was a set of film industry moral censorship guidelines.

Thanks, Internet Weekly

"Bumber By Number" Art Show, Bumbershoot Festival, Seattle

Bumber by Number is an interactive art exhibit curated by Jo David and Marlo Harris for the 2011 Bumbershoot Festival in Seattle, WA. There will be a preview on Thursday from 3pm -9pm and the exhibit will be open 11 am- 8pm, 9/3/11 - 9/5/11. The theme of this special art show is paint-by-numbers. It will be located in the Seattle Center Pavillion at the Bumbershoot Festival.

For a slide show preview of altered paint-by-numbers by an impressive list of featured artists please follow this link (scroll down):

BUMBER BY NUMBER

If you are going to the festival, don't miss this art show! My band,The Hokum Scorchers, played music in Seattle at Bumbershoot and Folklife festival in the past and we always had a ton of fun.

NEW: Gweek 014 Podcast and The Hokum Scorchers

Gweek is Boing Boing’s cool new podcast about "comic books, science fiction and fantasy, video games, board games, tools, gadgets, apps and other neat stuff". Here’s the lineup for episode 14 .

You can hear my band, The Hokum Scorchers (Amy Crehore and Lou Reimuller), playing a version of "You May Go", a Memphis Jug Band song (more details here) toward the end (56:30) of the new episode of Gweek 014.

Above is a detail of my painting "The Angel at Gossamer Creek". Links to blues, rags and jug band songs performed by The Hokum Scorchers (recorded in the 1990s) can be found here. (boingboing recently blogged ten songs).

Thank you Mark Frauenfelder of BOINGBOING.

Be sure to check out ALL the episodes of Gweek (free on itunes).

The Art of Amy Crehore

Unusual National Triolian Mandolin Paint Job

We bought this 1930s National Triolian resonator mandolin a little while ago. The unusual thing is the paint job: a solid pale yellow with custom pinstriping done by hand and a flower (?) design sprayed on the cover plate. I have never seen one exactly like it before. It's in great shape except for a spot where some of the paint is worn away from heavy playing. Wondering if maybe there was a set of them? Perhaps there was also a National Triolian guitar, plectrum guitar and tenor guitar painted to match. I can picture a hip 1930s band playing matching instruments.

The Art of Amy Crehore

P.S. The big instrument in the photo is a Gibson mandobass and the one on the wall is a Lyon and Healy Camp Uke.

Amazing Display of Botanical Paintings by Marianne North (1830-1890)

Marianne North, photo by Julia Margaret Cameron (in Ceylon around 1878) Wikipedia link

Over 800 of her paintings are in her own special gallery at the Royal Kew Gardens.

Marianne North (1830-1890) began her journey around the world at the age of forty. For 14 years she painted the plants of many different countries and wrote in her diary. When she returned, Marianne oversaw the design and construction of a gallery at the Royal Kew Gardens to house her work. She hung the paintings herself and painted decorative panels around the doors. The gallery opened in 1882. It has recently been renovated. Rocky Mountain Land Library has a nice post about Marianne on their blog, including a video of this amazing gallery at the Royal Kew Gardens and links to two books about this amazing woman. Kew Gardens is 10 miles from central London on the river Thames. My parents used to live near the river Thames and I remember going to visit Kew Gardens a long time ago. Please follow this link to read more and see video:

Rocky Mountain Land Library