Tuesday, January 22, 2013

350 William Blake Etchings Found



Hundreds of William Blake's commercially designed etchings were hiding in the University of Manchester's  Library. After two years of searching, students (under the guidance of an art historian named Colin Trodd) found 350 of them. Here are a few examples and I love these so much.
William Blake, artist and poet- born 1757-died 1827.
I am newly inspired.
LINK


The Art of Amy Crehore

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Happy Birthday, Eartha Kitt


Did you know she had a Spanish album? Here's a sample.
(Eartha Kitt born Jan 17, 1927, died in 2008)
My friend, artist Carlos Lara, pointed out to me that she sings in perfect Spanish.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

My Painting for Garrison Keillor's article

Nostagia Man painting by Amy Crehore 1996 9 1/2" x 10 1/2"
Over the course of my career, I painted many illustrations for top American magazines. My illustration for Garrison Keillor's 1996 article for the New York Times Magazine called "The Future of Nostalgia" now accompanies a brand new article published today by Matt Novak on Smithsonian Magazine's blog PALEOFUTURE. 
Shown above, the surreal oil painting I did in 1996 for the original article in the New York Times Magazine. It certainly was fun illustrating something that Garrison Keillor wrote.
I'm calling it "Nostalgia Man".
P.S. The many magazine (and book) illustrations that I did over the years are not currently on my website. I am still organizing them and I hope to add them in a special section sometime in the future. You will, however, find many other paintings on my site, such as the fine art works in my previous blog post. (Follow link above)

Monday, January 14, 2013

2012 Paintings by Amy Crehore

 Blue Mirror, oil on linen, 16" x 16" by Amy Crehore © 2012
 Rose Quarry, oil on linen, 12" x 14" by Amy Crehore © 2012
 Basker's Cove, oil on linen, 18" x 24" by Amy Crehore © 2012
Girl With A Fig Leaf Parasol, 16" x 20", oil on linen by Amy Crehore © 2012

Friday, January 11, 2013

Stu Mead and Dorothea Tanning exhibits

Ape-Girl-Artist painting by Stu Mead 2012
 Birthday drawing by Dorothea Tanning 1976

 There are a couple of events happening in California tomorrow (Sat. Jan 12th, 2013) that I would not mind going to. The first is a Stu Mead exhibit at Hyaena Gallery (1928 West Olive, Burbank, CA). The opening party is from 8 pm til midnight. What fun! I can't go because I live up in Oregon, but I would if I could. Stu Mead lives and works in Berlin, Germany. His solo show will be up until January 31st, 2013.  I just ordered his new book Fentasia.
The second event is a scholarly one called A Dorothea Tanning Round Table Discussion from 2pm - 3:30 pm at Gallery Wendi Norris (161 Jessie Street San Francisco, CA). The gallery is currently having a Dorothea Tanning exhibit: Unknown, But Knowable States (Jan 10- March 12th). Dorothea Tanning, surrealist painter, lived to be 101 years old. She passed away about a year ago. I like this drawing she did called "Birthday" (same title as one of her books).

Thursday, January 10, 2013

What Am I Reading?

I received these two books in the mail from Amazon yesterday.
GOYA by Robert Hughes and Los Caprichos, Goya's etchings (a Dover book). 
The actual Robert Hughes book was cheaper than the kindle version. 
A beautiful book it is, with illustrations throughout.
 This will be a good excuse to shut off the television and the computer at night. 
I miss Robert Hughes and I know these two books about Goya will inspire me. 

P.S. As you can see, Little Hokum Rag looks totally different now! My list of blog links disappeared and I will try and get them back. I also lost my feedburner counter which showed that I had almost 13,000 readers. I do think that you will find this blog easier to read and to navigate. The archives are still intact, so all is well....I hope you will continue to follow my future posts and read the old ones as well. Thanks! Amy