Monday, February 28, 2011

Winner of my "Barbie as a Saint" contest


A guy named "Kevin" won this piece of original illustration art by me (Amy Crehore) with his answer:
"Saint Barbie of Kitsch, Our Lady of Plastic Curves"
Achieved sainthood after transcending from her born position as the beloved slave/servant of impossible glamour and conscripted consumption to which young hearts and minds were to be warped and molded for the greater corporate benefit to her current status as an icon of impossible glamour, conscripted consumption, transient job security, sexless love, and plastic surgery for an ever widening variety of worshipers who pray to the saint of crushed childhood dreams and plastic curves.

Please email me Kevin!

amycrehore@hotmail.com

Thank you all for participating. I hope you had fun!

The Art of Amy Crehore

Friday, February 25, 2011

Final 24 Hours to enter my "Barbie as a Saint" Contest


Win an original piece of illustration art by me (Amy Crehore). I painted it many moons ago for Playboy magazine. (detail shown above)
The contest ends at noon PST, Sat. Feb 26, 2011.
Here's the LINK with rules to my contest.

Dzama at Zwirner


Marcel Dzama's "Behind Every Curtain" Exhibit (Feb 17-March 19, 2011) at David Zwirner in NYC looks interesting. Photo above shows a section of the exhibit and below is a trailer for a surreal film that he made, also part of the exhibit. I'm reminded of wonderfully inventive "theater of the absurd" or dada artists: Alfred Jarry (his Ubu Roi 1896), Hugo Ball and Hannah Hoch who came a bit later.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Sweet Crying Virgins

The literal translation means "handsome candy" or "sweet name". There are many crying virgins on this site and they are rated by viewers. Here's number one: Dulce Nombre de Malaga. She has beautiful crystal teardrops. (Spain)
antena3.123listas: LINK

Monday, February 21, 2011

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Cartoon about Uke Craze 1916 by Louis M. Glackens

Click to Enlarge!
The Backward Ukulele Player, a great ukulele blog, posted this cartoon from the New York Tribune, illustrated by Louis M. Glackens in 1916. This is perhaps the earliest depiction of the American uke craze that I have seen. It's the NYC craze! The drawing style is fantastic and super funny. This obscure illustrator is the same one that illustrated "Tell 'Em Again Tales" (1924), a children's book written by Marguerite Day, my grandmother's aunt. I did an earlier post about that book: LINK . Louis M. Glackens is the brother of the more famous artist, William Glackens. Not much can be found about Louis online, so I was super glad to run across this rare gem on The Backward Ukulele Player. Big thanks!

Friday, February 18, 2011

5th Anniversary of Little Hokum Rag: contest to win a piece of art by Amy Crehore

Piece of original illustration art by Amy Crehore (painted in oils on flat canvas, image is 7 3/4" x 5 3/4")
As you may know, I illustrated for many of America's top magazines starting in 1991 with Esquire and Playboy (my first big jobs). I'll never forget what a thrill it was to have my mug appear twice that year on the "Playbill" page. The magazines I have worked for over the years include: The Atlantic Monthly, Business Week, ESPN Magazine, Esquire, Forbes, GQ, Islands, The Los Angeles Times, MS., The New York Times, Outside, Playboy, Prevention, Redbook, Rolling Stone, Texas Monthly, Utne Reader and many more. I also did book covers for publishers such as Simon and Schuster and Houghton Mifflin. I even did a picture book once. I have drawers full of original illustration art. Most of my illustrations are oils on a piece of canvas taped to a board or on gessoed watercolor paper.
I plan to set up an online store soon to sell this illustration art (none of which appears on my website). Today, however, I am announcing a giveway contest for one of my originals. This one happens to be "Barbie as a Saint" (an illustration I did for Playboy).
CONTEST RULES:
Give this Barbie a saint's name and tell me what she did to deserve sainthood.
I will then pick the one I like the best and ship this painted little piece of "pop surrealism" to that person.
You have until Feb. 26th, noon PST to leave ONE comment on my blog. Anyone who leaves more than one comment and/or more than two sentences will be disqualified. I will decide who the winner is by Sunday night Feb. 27th, 2011, so watch my blog. I will ask that person to contact me via email.
Good luck and have fun! Love, Amy

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

"Thrush" Is a Great Little Film

I LOVE this little film that Xeni blogged on Boingboing

Thrush from Gabriel Bisset-Smith on Vimeo.

A Look Inside Dubway Recording Studio, NYC

Watch as my brother, Mike Crehore, and Al Houghton of Dubway Recording Studio in NYC present two artist-musicians, Vienna Teng and Ben Arthur, in a series of videos via Breakthrough Radio. Here is PART ONE and here is the LINK to the others which will air every day this week (also on YouTube). DUBWAY

Monday, February 14, 2011

Tuesday, February 08, 2011

5th Year Anniversary of "Little Hokum Rag"

"The Creature" painting, 2006, by Amy Crehore

On Feb. 18th, it will be Little Hokum Rag's 5th year anniversary. I plan to do some things to celebrate. Stayed tuned for another contest to win art. Meanwhile, have a look at my archives. For instance, here's a very happy memory from the summer of 2006, Santa Monica, CA:
If you don't see my archives to the right of this post, please access my archives by clicking on banner at top of page and going to home page.

Thursday, February 03, 2011

Year of the Cat and Year of the Rabbit

Nip-Cat ukulele headstock image by Amy Crehore
Rabbit Foot Blues 1920s image- song by Blind Lemon Jefferson
You can still buy 2011 calendar with free CD at Bluesimages

"The Chinese word for rabbit is 'mao', which sounds like 'meo' in Vietnamese, where it means cat."

Tuesday, February 01, 2011

Fascinating Human Forms

Sculpture by Li Xiaofeng
Sculpture by Anders Krisár

Artist Li Xiaofeng likes to buy shards of broken porcelain recovered from ancient archeological digs for his sculptures. There is an interesting article about him with more images at Yatzer.

At Yatzer, I also read about a new book called "Doppelganger, Images of the Human Being" by Gestalten which features artists who are interested in the human form, like Anders Krisar. His woven human torso is shown above.
Article plus more images: LINK on Yatzer
Thanks, Lori, at Automatism

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Dali Loved Harpo Marx


Top photo shows a harp with barb-wire strings that Dali gave to Harpo Marx as a gift. In 1937, Dali wrote a surreal screenplay, Giraffes on Horseback Salads (LINK), for the Marx Brothers. It never got produced. The drawing "Surrealist Gondola Above Burning Bicycles" is connected with that script. READ a fascinating article about Dali's love for Harpo and see more pictures at :


Friday, January 28, 2011

Beauty in the Eye of the Beholder

Via Boingboing comes this beautiful collection of worn down and weathered children's playground folk art (from Russia with love) : LINK
Scroll and pick your favorite.

Dyed Potato Starch Grains Produced This Color

"Auguste and Louis Lumière, inventors of the motion picture camera, also invented autochromes in 1904. The process used a screen of tiny potato starch grains dyed orange-red, green and violet. Dusted onto a glass plate, the dyed grains were covered with a layer of sensitive panchromatic silver bromide emulsion. As light entered the camera, it was filtered by the dyed grains before it reached the emulsion. While the exposure time was very long, the plate could be processed easily by a photographer familiar with standard darkroom procedures. The result was a unique, realistic, positive color image on glass that required no further printing." Check out Autochromes set on the George Eastman House flickr.
(Thanks, Mr. Powell)

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Got A Ukulele?

Baz, a guy from UK, has got a ukulele blog called Got A Ukulele Blog . He wrote a nice little piece about my hand-painted fine art ukes (shown above lined up on the floor of gallery in L.A. ). Thanks, Baz. Gotta love those Brits.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Black is Beautiful

Some really nice clips of Josephine Baker on this mini-film.


This is for my pal, Ruth.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Martin, Bogan and Armstrong with Jethro Burns

A couple of videos on YouTube from University of Chicago Folk Festival in late 1970's. Produced by David Affelder.
(Thanks for the tip, Jad Fair)

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Miss Alma's Tattoos


Miss Alma
Originally uploaded by josefnovak33
The emperor Franz Joseph I. devotee.
RPPC

Photo is copyrighted by
josefnovak33 flickr.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Dark Pop 3.0 Show NYC, Opened Jan 15, 2011

"A Moonlit Ride", oil on linen by Amy Crehore

Here are some photos of the show I'm in at Last Rites Gallery (NYC). These two photos show my painting on the wall hanging next to Esao Andrews "Hare" piece. Looks like a great show! More photos on this
(Thanks, arrested motion blog!!)

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Paintings Sold (Crehore)

"The Waiting Pool", oil on linen by Amy Crehore 24" x 12" (sold)
(Please click on image to enlarge for full effect- this is a much larger painting than I can show here.)
"Mystery Song", oil on linen by Amy Crehore 5"x7" (sold)
"French Bubble Gum Encore" oil on linen by Amy Crehore 18"x12" (sold)
"Black Ball Finale" oil on linen by Amy Crehore 16"x 16" (sold)
"A Curious Shelter" oil on linen by Amy Crehore 5"x7" (sold)
"Wild Cat Fever" oil on linen by Amy Crehore 8 3/4" x 8 3/4" (sold)
Please click on images to enlarge.

These paintings have all found wonderful new homes.
Here's a list of SOLD works from a year ago: LINK

Go see my "Moonlit Ride" painting at Last Rites Gallery, Dark Pop 3 show, if you are in NYC opens tonight 7-11pm!

Friday, January 14, 2011

Blond Slingerland Painted Banjo-uke Photos (Crehore)

Click photos to enlarge:
Side view of painted banjo-uke by Amy Crehore showing birdseye maple veneer.
Front of "Dirty Blond" Banjo-uke by Amy Crehore 2010
Headstock with authentic antique uke tuners.
Close up of painting with little pierrot on banjo head by Amy Crehore
(note: this photo does not show the original tailpiece which comes with this uke)

I finally got around to taking some real photos of my "Dirty Blond" (Slingerland) banjo-uke from the 20s. I still need to add the original tailpiece and bridge, string it up and take another photo. But, here, you can at least see a shot of the entire instrument. It's been restored and shined up by the luthier and painted by me. I've now added these photos and the photos of my green "Nip-Cat" uke to my set on flickr called Hand-painted Antique Ukes (have a look!)
Each Uke is a one-of-a-kind fine art object and playable musical instrument. Quite a few are from the 1920s which makes them quite old and rare at the same time.
(Thanks again A. Barrett)
Also check out my 2 ukes built from scratch by a luthier:

Thursday, January 13, 2011

My Green "Nip-Cat" Ukulele (Crehore)

"Nip-Cat" fine art ukulele, hand-painted design by Amy Crehore 2011
Back of Nip-Cat Ukulele showing green and silver duco finish from the late 1920s
Headstock design on Nip-Cat with gold letters (matching gold colored frets)
Design on front of Nip-Cat (devil-woman cat perched on top of brick wall, chewing on catnip-like plant)
Side-view of Nip-Cat ukulele (originally painted duco finish from 1920s)
PLEASE CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE

Here's is my finished "Nip-Cat" fine art ukulele. I believe this model is a Regal from the late 1920s. It was stored in it's original Montgomery Ward mail order box and had never been played. There was no label or name on it. It has original tuners. The original finish is a wonderful green and silver (or grey) duco finish. I enhanced this antique ukulele with my own design. I had previously painted a black duco model called "The Demon" for my "Dreamgirls and Ukes" art show in Los Angeles. This one is a lot like it, although the headstock is shaped a little differently.

Reminder: If you happen to be in NYC this weekend, you are invited to Last Rites Gallery for the Dark Pop 3.0 Group Show (a group of artists who don't normally do dark art were asked to tap into their dark side). It opens Saturday, Jan. 15th, 2011 (from 7-11pm) and continues until Feb. 12, 2011. I did a special painting for it called "A Moonlit Ride" and I blogged about it here: LINK
View the show's online preview. Contact Last Rites for more info: LINK

Monday, January 10, 2011

Juxtapoz has a new website

"Second Fiddle Infatuation" oil painting 2009 by Amy Crehore
Juxtapoz Magazine has a clean new website. I can make a search for my name and revisit some posts about my art.

Friday, January 07, 2011

Gauguin's "Still Life has Hope" up for auction

"Hope" by Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (see reference to Gauguin on this link)
"Nature Morte à L'Espérance" by Paul Gauguin
A painting by Paul Gauguin will be up for auction at Christies in February. They say it is a tribute to his friend Vincent Van Gogh who had committed suicide 11 years earlier. The main subject is sunflowers (shown above), but the painting's title, "Nature Morte a L'Esperance", means "Still Life has Hope" and in the upper left hand corner is a reproduction of my favorite Pierre Puvis De Chavannes' painting called "Hope" (1872). Gauguin painted this nude with a slight turn of the head, but the title of his painting and the nude on the wall definitely pay tribute to Pierre Puvis De Chavannes. There is also a small B & W image on the wall that looks a little like a french nude postcard, but one article says it is a nod to Degas. We can only ponder the meanings. The year Gauguin painted it (in Tahiti), 1901, there was also a retrospective of Van Gogh's work in Paris. Two years after painting it, Gauguin died at age 54. LINK

Thursday, January 06, 2011

Wednesday, January 05, 2011

Photographer Vivian Maier

Thousands and thousands of images shot by a nanny who lived in Chicago and captured it's essence from the 50s through the 90s. Read about the incredible photographer Vivian Maier who was discovered after her death by John Maloof at an antique auction, watch a news video of her story and look for an upcoming exhibition at the Chicago Cultural Center. Here's the link to John's blog with more of Vivian's memorable and artistic photos such as the one shown above: LINK (Thanks, Raleigh Powell!)

Saturday, January 01, 2011

New Painting- "A Moonlit Ride"(Crehore) for NYC show

"A Moonlit Ride" oil on linen, showing frame
Click to Enlarge
New! "A Moonlit Ride" by Amy Crehore (direct scan)
Please Click to Enlarge
You may remember the drawing I did. Well, here's the finished painting, "A Moonlit Ride". It's oil on stretched linen, 12" x 10" (with 15 1/4" x 13 1/8" chocolate-colored carved frame). The painting will be part of the "Dark Pop 3" fine art show in NYC.
Looks like a good show: includes me, Buff Monster, Esao Andrews (art shown), Scott Musgrove, Mark Dean Veca, Daniel Hyun Lim, Glenn Barr, the Pizz, Brian Despain, Mr. Christopher, Beau Stanton, Molly Crabapple, Michael Page, Mark Elliot, Mark Garro, Gaia, Nouar, and more! Opens Jan 15th, 2011 (7- 11 pm) at Last Rites Gallery, NYC.
P.S. Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year!

I like the way my "favorites page" looks on flickr: LINK
Here, I can collect inspiring images from my flickr friends.