Intricate Tapestry Designs

Design based on Jan Snellinck the Elder, Michiel Coxie, Netherlands 1652

Hans Kneiper Design Denmark 1585

click to enlarge

The Metropolitan Art Museum recently had a special exhibition of baroque tapestries. Here are two amazingly intricate examples from long ago. To view more of the exhibit click here : Threads of Splendor
Thanks to Marshall Sponder for hiking all over NYC to art galleries and museums to blog about these shows for the rest of us who don't happen to live there :
Art New York City .

The Art of Amy Crehore

Bloody & Beautiful Vintage Theater Posters from Paris

Grand Guignol means "big puppet show". Here are some posters from the Theatre of Grand Guignol. They are gory, but graphically interesting! "In 1897, the French playwright, Oscar Metenier, bought a theater at the end of the impasse Chaptal, a cul-de-sac in Paris' Pigalle district, in which to produce his controversial naturalist plays." read more history here.

View more posters here:

Grand Guignol Posters

Thanks boingboing via

FURTHER

The Art of Amy Crehore

Paintalicious!

Bee by Trevor Brown (Check out his wacky blog)
Blackbird & Blackbird Detail - Giclee print on paper by Ray Caesar (buy his upcoming book )
La Robe Rouge by Mike Worral ( Beinart surreal collective)

If you like these, and I do, do, do, you must check out:
Paintalicious

The Art of Amy Crehore

P.S." Vote for me " if you like this blog

My New Website

"The Creature" by Amy Crehore 2006

I thought I would post my "Creature" painting again for all of the ukulele fans out there. (Actually it's not mine anymore, it's the Frauenfelder's.) Hey, my new website is looking pretty good now finally. I had to rebuilt it all because the webhost updated their template program. It's just as well because my old sight was sort of cluttered. This one is clean, but I'm sure I will clutter it up eventually, too. Just like my house. Sometimes I think I'll have to move to a new house in order to throw stuff away and start over with a clean slate.

Anyway, I have a few new things happening in a couple of weeks that I'm excited about. Check out the January "news" section on my homepage for a hint of what's to come.

And have a look around. (Still working at fine tuning it, though.)

I even have a music player with a Hokum Music ditty.

The Art of Amy Crehore

Cat on Bottles

Here is one irresistible image of "17 year old Bianca Passarge of Hamburg dressed up as a cat, complete with furry tail dancing on wine bottles, June 1958. Her performance was based on a dream and she practiced for eight hours every day in order to perfect her dance."

via Cannibol . Thanks, Vince! :)

The Art of Amy Crehore

P.S. Click on "Vote for me" if you like my blog

Johnny Depp's Brother, Gustave Courbet

Yes, it does look like Johnny Depp! It's Courbet's self-portrait, a "Desperate Man". You can view the current Courbet exhibition in Paris in a video tour (including "Nude Woman Reclining" ) here:

Art News Portal

Gustave Courbet’s sensuous “Nude Woman Reclining” is now hanging at the Grand Palais in Paris. It was previously thought to be lost. Read the story here. The Courbet show heads to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art in February! You can also see the painter’s most infamous work, “The Origin of the World" in this retrospective show. Might be worth a trip to NYC.

The Art of Amy Crehore

NOSLO Cartoons and Games

This little dog eats marshmallows (click on image)...and follow the link below for more

"sacks of joy" like this one.

NOSLO Cartoons and Games
(Thanks, STWALLSKULL)

The Art of Amy Crehore

My Friend is in the Saatchi Showdown

Painting of Tree Branches in Acrylics by Mary Crenshaw 2007 200 x 300cm

My good friend Mary Crenshaw who lives in Milan, Italy is a finalist in the current "head to head" Saatchi Online Artist Showdown. Here is the link to vote for the Mary Crenshaw painting shown above. You might want to check out her portfolio on the site. Lovely work. Go Mary!

The Art of Amy Crehore

Andrea Dezso

Book Jacket cover from McSweeny's 23 by Hungarian artist Andrea Dezso that folds out into a poster.

What can I say about Andrea Dezso? I saw this McSweeny's jacket in the book store and was very intrigued. I know that she has also been in "Blab!". Today, I happened upon her website. It's a revelation. She's a prolific artist, designer and assistant professor at Parson's. Read more about her life and check out her amazing sketchbooks, cut outs and other art, including a subway mosaic in NYC, here:

ANDREA DEZSO

The Art of Amy Crehore

Barber Shop & Trade Signs from West Africa

King Jesus Shoe Repair Ghana
Ici Bonne Tress Ivory Coast

Medical Sign Togo

Hair Braiding Sign Benin

There are some beautiful trade signs from West Africa available to buy at

Indigo Arts Gallery

151 North 3rd Street • Philadelphia, PA 19106.

Have a look at their website!

The Art of Amy Crehore

What was the Watusi?

"The Watusi was a dance that enjoyed brief popularity during the early 1960s. It was almost as popular as the Twist. In 1961, Puerto Rico jazz musician Ray Barretto had his first hit with a song called "El Watusi" and although he didn't invent the style, he came to be typecast as connected to the style.
The Orlons, a vocal quartet from Philadelphia, had the biggest hit of their career as recording artists with their recording of "The Wah Watusi" (Cameo 218), which debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart on June 9, 1962 and remained on the Hot 100 for 14 weeks; it peaked at #2 and held the position for two weeks.
Barretto's recording, "El Watusi" (Tico 419), debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart on April 27, 1963 and remained on the Hot 100 for 9 weeks; it peaked at #17 for 9 weeks.
Its name came from the Batutsi tribe of Rwanda." from Answers.com

Morbid Anatomy

Click to enlarge illustration

"A. Friedländer, Plakat für ein anatomisches Museum, Hamburg, 1913, Münchner Stadtmuseum, Puppentheatremuseum." From the wonderful book Ebenbilder. Kopien von Körpen - Modelle des Menschen

From MORBID ANATOMY blog

via ectomo (Ross Rosenberg)

The Art of Amy Crehore

Genius Paintings

Sleepers, bathers, children, landscapes, portraits, ballerinas, field workers. Is there anything she couldn't paint? View 334 soulful images by this great woman painter:

Zinaida Serebriakova

This is an "encore" post because I am in awe of her skill and so happy to discover her.

Women Dreaming, Dreaming...

Julius Troschel: Ruhende. 1860
Sleeping Nymph, c. 1535
Alexandre Schoenewerk: La jeune Tarantine, 1871

Wikimedia Commons has a fascinating page of sleeping women in art. I can think of a few more images to add - paintings by Balthus, for instance. I have even painted some sleeping women myself. It's one of my favorite things to paint! I chose a few sculptures to post here.

Sleeping Women in Art

Thanks again to Internet Weekly for the heads up!

The Art of Amy Crehore

Panda Love

Photo from the economist.com

Apparently there is a boom in panda production. Good! These are the cuddliest things I have ever seen. Read more about the sex life of pandas:

Economist

The Art of Amy Crehore

Zinaida Serebriakova - the Great

These paintings were done by a GREAT Russian woman artist named Zinaida Serebriakova (1884-1967). She belonged to the artistic family of Lanceray and married her first cousin Boris Serebriakov. She spent time in Italy and studied in Paris from 1905-1906. Unfortunately, after spending some happy years painting up a storm, she experienced some tragic times and poverty when her husband died during the October Revolution (1919) and she was left with 4 children. She moved to Paris in 1924 to work on a commission with only two of her four children and, after that, was not allowed to have contact with the rest of her family until 1960. A year before her death she was celebrated in Russia as one of the greats and became very popular there. I first discovered her on the childrenincinema website and then again on femme femme femme. She not only painted a charming pierrot (female), but also, quite a few joyful female nudes. There is something so relaxed and natural about her style. Something so beautiful about her technique. Amazing work.

ZINAIDA SEREBRIAKOVA

The Art of Amy Crehore

American Clowns

Barnum and Bailey -Reproduction of Vintage Poster
"Clown"- Authentic Hopi Katsina Doll by Andrew Duwyenie
Early Barnum and Bailey Clown

This authentic Hopi Kachina or Katsina figure reminds me of this clown from the early Barnum and Bailey days.

The Art of Amy Crehore

Sightseeing in America

Crehore with Lou Reimuller, Grand Tetons, Wyoming

Crehore at Crater Lake, Oregon
Crehore with Kachina at Ft Cody, Nebraska
How about another look back in time? I've been scanning old slides. I drove cross-country three times in a row in my early 30's. The first time was with a girlfriend name Virginia and the second time was with Lou Reimuller. The third trip I took all by my little ol' self. There is nothing like camping out across the USA. I wouldn't have missed it for the world.
The Art of Amy Crehore
(For you, Raliegh!)

A Snowglobe Family

Jo David and Marlow Harris of Seattle had Mike Leavitt (of Art Army fame) sculpt their whole family into cake-topping action figures and then they made this holiday card (using photoshop) to send out to their friends. Now, that's a family that knows how to have fun. Although the little figures really live under a bell jar at their house, they are trapped inside a snowglobe especially for this year's card. Here are some more of their unusual holidays cards from the past: Flickr

And, the reference photos that Mike used for the little sculptures.

Jo David and Marlow Harris certainly have the hokum spirit.

The Art of Amy Crehore

P.S. Click "vote for me" if you like my blog!

Woman, Woman, Woman

I like these two drawings by Hugo Boettinger.

The Femme Femme Femme blog (Paris)

would probably like them, too. In fact, they just posted a slide show of my work to bring in the new year. Have a look! Thanks, nibelle & Baudouin. Happy New Year to you!

The Art of Amy Crehore

Banjo Gal

One of these days I'm going to add some Hokum Scorcher music to my website. Soon, I hope. Look at my hand in this photo. Funny! I like this little no-name vintage tenor banjo.

The Art of Amy Crehore

My Beautiful State

This is a picture of me taken shortly after I "ran away" from the east coast to live in Oregon. About age 33, I believe. Happy as a clam on an Oregon beach. There is never anyone on the beach in Oregon. Maybe that is why I like it. Devoid of humans.

I am working on a new website this week.

It has a cleaner look to it now, kind of like this beach:

The Art of Amy Crehore

It's not all up yet, but it's getting there. Change is good.

Happy 2008!

Toy Club Website - Japan

Thanks again to Internet Weekly for pointing out another great website with vintage advertisements, posters and display figures. Also, many vintage clockwork moving toys and tin toys!

TOYS CLUB

(babelfish)

The Art of Amy Crehore