Elvis by Joe Seigenthaler

Illustrated Book Plates

Alphonse Inoue

A. Odehnal

There are some beautiful etched book plates (Ex Libris) on this site. I like these two.

fuxianzhai

The Art of Amy Crehore

Photosculpture of the Hokum Scorchers in Los Angeles by Mark Lowrie

Click to Enlarge

Photosculpture of Hokum Scorchers Band Copyright Mark Lowrie

Mark Lowrie makes the coolest photosculptures! He came to my "Dreamgirls and Ukes" gallery show last year in Los Angeles and he took a series of photos of my band, The Hokum Scorchers, playing music at the opening. As you can see, Lou Reimuller is playing a banjo-uke and I am playing the washboard. My fine art paintings and my painted ukes hang to the side of us and behind us. This image shows just a small corner of my entire solo show which featured a total of 15 oil paintings and 13 painted antique ukuleles. Mark made this wonderful photosculpture with the photos he took that night.

See more of Mark's amazing art here:

MARK LOWRIE

Listen to the Hokum Scorchers band here. And on my website.

Mark documented my entire "Dreamgirls and Ukes" art show with his photos!: LINK

Thanks again Mark! It really meant a lot to me to have you there.

The Art of Amy Crehore

Old Illustrations of Mt. Vesuvius Erupting

Mt. Vesuvius erupting 1779

View some incredible images from this series here:

Bibliodyssey

The Art of Amy Crehore

Robot Violinist Shows His Stuff

Nick Cave Soundsuits in new issue of Vogue

I blogged about Nick Cave, Chicago artist, before (link ). Shown above: one of his hairier "soundsuits". He has an 8-page spread in the new issue of Vogue. For people in Chicago: From September 10 to 17 there'll be a video installation of the Soundsuits on the corner of South Michigan Avenue and 23rd Street every evening starting at 8 PM. A pop-up shop featuring items like prints and T-shirts inspired by the suits opens from 8 to 10 PM on September 10, with a Vogue-signing by Cave from 9:30 to 10, and continues nightly from 6 to 9 PM. Link Chicago Reader

The Art of Amy Crehore

The swan pram in 1906

The swan pram in 1906
Originally uploaded by lovedaylemon

From a set of "vintage decorated transport"
on lovedaylemon's flickr

Collage sent to Tristan Tzara, 1921

Erwin Blumenfeld: Bloomfield, President-Dada-Chaplinist. Collage sent to Tristan Tzara, 1921
Originally uploaded by kraftgenie

Erwin Blumenfeld: Bloomfield, President-Dada-Chaplinist.
(kraftgenie's flickr)

Circular Photos from No.1 Kodak Camera 1890

Boy paddling in the sea
Originally uploaded by National Media Museum

Boy paddling in the sea, 1890
from National Media Museum
set on flickr

"Shygals' Serenade" -New letterpress print by Amy Crehore

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Copyright Amy Crehore 2010

Tickler Production presents: "Shygals' Serenade", a beautifully hand-crafted 3-color fine art limited edition letterpress print - featuring two gals, two monkeys and a ukulele. It is an original design by Amy Crehore printed with archival inks on 13" x 10" 140 lb Holyoke Premium Cotton paper. Special price is $50. w/ free shipping in USA and Canada (limited time) . Each print is signed and numbered by me (Amy Crehore). Each print also comes with a signed certificate of authenticity. (This print was made from an original ink drawing and old-fashioned acetate overlays. I used a fine brush to do the work.) Here is the link to buy:

LINK

The Art of Amy Crehore

Great Galleries in San Francisco

Wilson Shieh, Swimmer, Crown Point Press

Alexander Gorlizki at John Berggruen

(abstracted miniatures with Indian influence and technique - he had an Indian miniaturist helping him realize his vision)

Gordon Cook, Lead Milk Bottle on a Stand at George Krevsky

Andrea Dezsö at Frey Norris

Remedios Varo, Study for Encuentro 1959, Frey Norris

Robert Schwartz at Hackett Mill

Gina Pearlin at Jack Fischer

Roscubas at Caldwell Snyder

Francesca Sundsten at Jenkins Johnson (this is a miniature)

Scott Greene at Catherine Clark

Last week, I went to quite a few galleries in and around Union Square, San Francisco. I really enjoyed seeing work by colleague Andrea Dezso at Frey Norris and talking to Wendi Norris about Remedios Varo in the annex.

I was able to study two incredible Robert Schwartz paintings at Hackett Mill Gallery. The imaginative details in his 8" gouache paintings are nothing short of astounding. Alexander Gorlizki's show at John Berggruen was on a miniature scale, too, as were Francesca Sundsten's tiny oils painted on top of antique cabinet cards.

The elongated Roscubas sculptures at Caldwell Snyder were a treat and Scott Greene's paintings at Catherine Clark were full of surprises and well-painted (this gallery also shows some of my other favs: Julie Heffernan and Sandow Birk). I saw a room full of Clare Rojas at the Museum of Craft and Folk Art. Here are links to some of the galleries I went to:

Catherine Clark, Jenkins Johnson, Caldwell Snyder, Jack Fischer, Hackett Mill, Frey Norris, John Berggruen, George Krevsky, Gallery Paule Anglim, Crown Point Press, Museum of Craft and Folk Art, etc.

I had a wonderful time walking from place to place.

The Art of Amy Crehore

Escape to San Francisco

I took a little trip to San Francisco last week to check out galleries and have some fun. I met my friend from L.A. and we stayed in the Westin St. Francis which was located right in the heart of Union Square. From there, we walked to galleries, restaurants, Chinatown and Market Street, museums, etc. The 20th floor, where I stayed, had a great view of the city, sky and water.

Here, I'm posing in front of a massage parlor near Union Square. I like the wacky window display. The city was super windy and you can see my hair blowing in this photo.

My favorite restaurant was Le Colonial, a French Vietnamese place (located in an alley) with an elegant dining room, plus an upstairs lounge that had a jazz/blues band. One could spend hours there with friends and not have to go anywhere else. The atmosphere was so perfect.

Here I am inside the beautiful Xanadu Gallery on Maiden Lane, San Francisco's only Frank Lloyd Wright Building. Frank renovated this building in 1948 (a gift shop) and used it as the prototype for the Guggenheim Museum. The people who worked here were super friendly, as were all of the people that I talked to in San Francisco galleries (which I will blog about next).

Posing outside of the Olympic Club which had two exceptionally well-endowed statues.

Inside Harry Denton's Starlight Room at the top of the Sir Francis Drake hotel. Incredible view of the city from the dance floor, plus funky vintage decor. Unfortunately, it was the wrong night and the wrong mood with pounding disco music instead of jazz.

The Art of Amy Crehore

Hobo Blues

John Lee Hooker live 1965 At American Folk Blues Festival

I'll be gone for a few days. I encourage you to investigate the archives of this blog

while I'm gone. See ya! Amy

Family Portrait, Arizona, Early 20th Century

f_dhs_5716x
Originally uploaded by ricksoloway

"These are some wonderful portraits discovered in an archive at the Douglas Historical Society that starts around 1905 and runs through the first two decades of that century. This is the era when Mexican populist rebel Pancho Villa was shooting up the area, and there was much turmoil on the Mexican border."
From Ricksoloway's flickr, Cochise County Set

Rare Fairies Vase by Overbeck Sisters on Ebay

There were six Overbeck sisters. Four of them established Overbeck Pottery in their home in Cambridge City, Indiana. They won many awards from 1911 to 1955. (Elizabeth Overbeck made the vase shown above.) Read about the Overbeck sisters HERE on a site dedicated to artists of Wayne County, Indiana. More history HERE.

Follow this link to see Fairies Vase on ebay:

An Overbeck vase on Ebay depicting the Cottingley Fairies has reached $21,000. but the reserve has not been met. About 7 hours to go....

I wrote about the mysterious Cottingley Fairies photographs (1917) HERE

The Art of Amy Crehore

Oskar Schlemmer's Triadisches Ballett, Stuttgart 1922

Oskar Schlemmer's Triadisches Ballett, Stuttgart 1922
Originally uploaded by kraftgenie

Photo of the day.

Devil Got My Woman, 1966, Skip James

At 99% Gallery, Brooklyn, Friday Aug 6

Detail of Hokum Hallelujah by Amy Crehore

I have a painting in the New Order Show. If you live nearby you can go to the closing reception on Friday, August 6, 2010. 7-10 pm. 99 N. 10th, Brooklyn, NY

 

New Letterpress Prints to be Released in Mid-August

Monkey with uke detail copyright Amy Crehore 2010

I will be releasing new 3-color letterpress prints in mid-August. Above is just a small detail of the design, but the colors will be completely different. Watch my blog for more news about this special artist-signed limited edition print....coming soon. (I'm sorry this project has taken so long, but we want it to be right.)

The Art of Amy Crehore

"Let Me Play With Your Poodle" performed by the Hokum Scorchers

Someone was just saying on boingboing (in the comments section) that the song "Let Me Play With Your Poodle" is the dirtiest little ditty ever.

So, I changed the song on my website player to "Let Me Play With Your Poodle" by Hudson Woodbridge (a.k.a. Tampa Red) 1942. My band, The Hokum Scorchers, recorded this song in 1992 for our "Feed the Kitty" album. Lou plays the National guitar and we both sing. The poodle double entendre could go either way - male or female. In the old photo above, Lou seems to be sporting some sort of "poodle hair" (photo taken at Ken Kesey's house). Have a listen here:

Hokum Scorchers

(scroll down for music player)

The Art of Amy Crehore

Current Inspiration, Another Dead Genius

I have a nice book on Robert Schwartz called "Dream Games" (published in 2004 by the San Jose Museum of Art). He has been a favorite of mine for quite a few years. Unfortunately, he died at age 53 of a rare protein disorder in the year 2000. His gouache paintings were very intricate, surreal and original. He packed a lot of soul into his tiny narratives. There is no one quite like him. I'd love to be able to see a few of these paintings when I visit San Francisco next month. (Hackett Mill Gallery: LINK to above images) Sadly, I can't find much about this GREAT painter on the internet. I'm glad that I own this awesome book to inspire me. You will find a few more images here: San Jose Museum of Art

The book has over 80 paintings and may be hard to find. There are a couple of copies on amazon: amazon.

The Art of Amy Crehore

The Pearl Necklace (1932-41) by Dod Procter

The Pearl Necklace (1932-41)
Originally uploaded by artinconnu

artinconnu has some great Dod Procter paintings
on flickr and their blog

A Pierrot Couple with Mandolin and Moon.

Here's another vintage pierrot postcard. Sent to me by my wonderful friend Valerie in Barcelona. Thanks, Valerie. You are the best! It's so beautiful and perfect - with the mandolin and the moon.

The Art of Amy Crehore

Etta James Sings "Something's Got a Hold on Me"

This is for my friend Ruth....

A Look at Picasso in the Met (Charlie Rose)

His portrait of Gertrude Stein was the 1st work by Picasso to enter the Met's collection in 1946.

Gary Tinterow speaks with Charlie Rose about the Picasso show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Here's the link-

LINK

Strange Sources of Music- Giant Ukulele 1926

Click to Enlarge

Miss Una Fleming from L.A. with her five-foot ukulele is featured on page 55 of the March 1926 issue of Popular Science Magazine. The photo is surreal - the giant ukulele dwarfs the player. Hawaiian coconut ukuleles are also featured (bottom right) as well as a jazzy clown one-man band (bottom left).

1926 was the peak year of the American ukulele boom. I wonder how many other magazines published articles on ukes that year? C.F. Martin produced 10,870 ukes in 1925 and a whopping 14,101 ukes in 1926. Production dropped off in 1927 to less than half of that. (1943,1949 and 1950 were also fairly large production years.) It's a trendy little instrument, falling in and out of favor.

The ukulele is back in favor again in 2010.

POPULAR SCIENCE ARCHIVES

(Thanks, Ted Dawson for sending me the article.)

The Art of Amy Crehore

Sunset Magazine Cover, Year 1900

This is my favorite Sunset Magazine Cover. So beautiful! It is from the year 1900. The magazine was first published in 1898.

Thanks, Internet Weekly

The Art of Amy Crehore

The Bee-Keepers 1568 by Pieter Bruegel The Elder

The Bee-Keepers 1568 by Pieter Bruegel, Berlin (click to enlarge)

This surreal image is for Mark Frauenfelder who writes about backyard beekeeping in his new book "Made By Hand". Yesterday, I bought a huge book of drawings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (Ludwig Munz, Phaidon Publishers, 1961). It is absolutely fascinating.

This is one of the drawings.

The Art of Amy Crehore

Josef Frank on Google

Josef Frank, an Austrian/Swedish architect, engineer and textile designer was born today. Google is celebrating and I am applauding. Here's a

LINK

The Art of Amy Crehore

Decorated bike and rider

Decorated bike plus queen bee
Originally uploaded by lovedaylemon

Reminds me of the vintage Rose Parade postcards
(Portland) with floats of roses.
Excellent bike decoration and bee costume!

Myriam Eykens' Figures

Tenderly- Terra Cotta

I like these sculptures by Belgian artist Myriam Eykens:

LINK and LINK and LINK

(Thanks, artinconnu flickr set)

Harvey Pekar Died Today

Maybe you saw this film of Harvey Pekar's life (with an unforgettable performance by Paul Giamatti) or maybe you read his autobiographical comic book: "American Splendor". His stories were illustrated by many artists including R. Crumb.

Rest in peace, Harvey. Wikipedia link.

Ukulele Dreamgirl Painting in Brooklyn, July 16th

"Hokum Hallelujah" by Amy Crehore 2009 (oil on linen 12" x 18")

This is the piece I sent to Williamsburg, Brooklyn (NY) for the group show at the new 99% Gallery. I am hoping that people in the NYC area will make it out to the opening.

There's a mini preview of the show on Juxtapoz.com (looks good).

It opens on July 16th, 2010 from 7-10 pm.

Location: 99 North 10th

Brooklyn, NY 11211

The Art of Amy Crehore