Friday, March 15, 2013

"Please Don't Wake It Up"- performed by The Hokum Scorchers


In 1992, the Hokum Scorchers recorded the Mississippi Sheiks' "Please Don't Wake It Up" (a song from 1931). Lou Reimuller is on National guitar and I am playing a snare drum. We both sing. Have a listen.

The Art (and music) of Amy Crehore

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Paintings on Walls (Crehore)

One side of the room...
...the other side of the room.
These photos show some earlier works of mine hanging on walls:  I exhibited a couple of these paintings at the Portland Art Museum (Crosscut show) and they also won "best in show" at the Corvallis Arts Center. Others were winners in Communication Arts Annual Competions or were exhibited at the Hult Center (in OR). You can see some of my vintage ukes that were painted for my Los Angeles solo show, "Dreamgirls and Ukes" in the top photo. At least one of these paintings has never been exhibited anywhere. And so it goes..the life of an artist.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Enjoy An Interactive Armory Show 1913, Chicago

After NYC, the historic 1913 Armory show travelled to Chicago. The Art Institute of Chicago has a new website feature where you can click on the gallery map and visit each room of the Armory Show of 1913. Mouse over each painting and you can read information about it.
LINK 
Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso, Gauguin, Rousseau, Maurice Denis, Jules Pascin, Augustus John and many more were included in this show. Americans saw their "modern" work for the first time and many were shocked. It is so beautiful to see these photos and take the tour.
 

Wednesday, March 06, 2013

Pietro Antonio Rotari Portraits





 
Pietro Antonio Rotari was an Italian painter (1707-1762) of the Baroque period.
Here are some of his unusual portraits of young women -shyly peeking out from behind a book or a cape, dozing and crying. There is something wonderfully modern about these compositions.
Art history never ceases to amaze me. I keep on discovering.
Out with the new and in with the old.
 


Monday, March 04, 2013

Armory Arts Week ArtSlant Feature: Amy Crehore

 
Armory Week is important to me because it is the 100th Anniversary of the 1913 Armory Show in NYC. That particular show opened American eyes to a "Modern Art" movement that was happening in Europe at the time. Organized by the Association of American Painters and Sculptors, it also travelled to Chicago and Boston. ArtSlant did a special feature on me to help me celebrate and I could not be more thrilled. Check it out!
Here's the LINK.

"Song of the Sea" was painted for my L.A. solo show, "Dreamgirls and Ukes".
I have a signed, limited edition print available: LINK
Inquire about collecting my original work: amy@amycrehore.com
 

Sunday, March 03, 2013

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Another Look at Margaret Kilgallen

I love this little film of artist Margaret Kilgallen. (Art21)
Her Wikipedia entry says: "Kilgallen was an avid reader and thinker, looking to Appalachian music, signage, letterpress printing, freight train vandal art, and religious and decorative arts to inform her work. Her work demonstrates her respect for and engagement with craftsmanship and the stories of everyday peoples' lives. She was especially interested in "the evidence of the maker's hand."
She explained- "I like things that are handmade and I like to see people's hand in the world, anywhere in the world; it doesn't matter to me where it is. And in my own work, I do everything by hand. I don't project or use anything mechanical, because even though I do spend a lot of time trying to perfect my line work and my hand, my hand will always be imperfect because it's human. And I think it's the part that's interesting, that even if I'm doing really big letters and I spend a lot of time going over the line and over the line and trying to make it straight, I'll never be able to make it straight. From a distance it might look straight, but when you get close up, you can always see the line waver. And I think that's where the beauty is." Quote from Wikipedia 
She died at 33 years of age in 2001 of breast cancer, 3 weeks after giving birth to her daughter Asha.