Mondo Bizzarro International at Studioventuno

I'm in a show in Salerno, Italy Sept 16-Oct 27, 2012

sponsored by Mondo Bizzarro Gallery of Rome (they have a selection of my prints).

For photos of the show at Studioventuno and more
INFO 

Click on poster above to enlarge for names of artists in the show with me.

 

The Art of Amy Crehore 

Gerda and her husband Lili

Painting by Gerda of her husband.

Read the intriguing story of art deco painter/illustrator Gerda Wegener and her husband Einar Wegener (a.k.a.Lili Elbe) who was also an accomplished painter (he did landscapes). They married young and moved from Copenhagen to Paris in 1912. He used to pose for his wife's paintings- dressed as a woman (above). A little later, he was one of the first people to have sex re-assignment surgery (his autobiography was published in the 1950's-book shown above). Coilhouse has the story along with some examples of Gerda's whimsically erotic illustrations. The ending is a sad one, unfortunately. LINK

 A movie called "The Danish Girl" is being made with Nicole Kidman as Lili.

Girl on a Swing (Banksy Animated)

Thanks madebyabvh tumblr. I could look at this animated Banksy all day.

(follow link for more)

Photo of the Day

okay…, a photo by leslie m k on Flickr.

Cats love to jump on beds.This cat looks a lot like mine. Now why didn't I think of this? :)
(by leslie m k flickr acct., thank you)

My 3rd Essay for Boing Boing! by Amy Crehore

 I wrote an essay about Seth's wonderful picture-novella

 It's A Good Life, If You Don't Weaken

for the Boing Boing's series on Great Graphic Novels.

LINK 

The Art of Amy Crehore
My other two essays for boingboing are about Joseph Cornell(Utopia Parkway) and Ghost World (the movie): LINK

Photo of the Day

This seems familiar to me somehow. link

Emma Watson Portraits

Artist Mark Demsteader did some wonderful portraits of actress Emma Watson. They were shown in a gallery in June 2011 where a portion of sales benefitted a charity for the education of girls in Africa. Story: LINK

Wizard of Oz 1902

Click image to enlarge.

So beautiful. More images at Retronaut

Dreams of Toyland 1908

 

(Thanks, Kim Deitch)

Folk Art Find: Electric Pencil Drawings

I like these naive drawings that John Foster found on ebay by James Edward Deeds, Jr. View more images and read the story about them here:

Design Observer 

 

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Photo of the Day

Here is a photo of Catherine Deneuve and her sister Francoise Dorleac (French actresses) when they were very young. Sadly, Francoise died at age 25 in a car crash. Catherine is still as beautiful as ever. I never knew the story of her sister, but I looked it up yesterday.

Thanks go to mardecortesbaja: LINK

Kesey Party 1992

Ken Kesey

Hokum Scorchers (Lou Reimuller and Amy Crehore)

Okay, so Jerry Garcia got sick in August of 1992.The Grateful Dead were supposed to headline an event called "Field Trip" in Veneta, OR, but they cancelled due to illness. So, the musicians that were also supposed to play at the event headed out to Ken Kesey's property. My band, The Hokum Scorchers, played music for 20 minutes on a makeshift stage in a field next to Kesey's house. All the food was gone when we got there, so we played on an empty stomach. I think they paid us $5.

Here's my badge (front and back views above) sporting Kesey's own psychedelic artwork. I believe Gus Van Sant was there that day, too, filming the part where Kesey read his childrens' book on stage (wearing a bear costume).

Unfortunately, Kesey's outfit caught on fire as he was doing his thing. I think I heard him scream, "Turn the cameras off!!". My memory is foggy, but I know that I wore my vintage Foster Grant sunglasses like I always do when we play hokum music. I remember asking Ken Babbs if Robert Stone was there because I had just illustrated a story of his for Esquire magazine. "Nope, he's not here, but Timothy Leary is supposed to show up". I remember knocking my microphone completely off the platform. Ka-Plunk! Everyone in the audience was stoned, so it really didn't matter what anyone did on stage. We walked past an old junker on our way out...it was "Further", the original hippie bus (photo above). Later, we would get to play music on Ken Kesey's float in the annual Eugene parade. He made us do a version of the song "Gloria". It must have been one of his favorites. There is a film of that somewhere...

The Art of Amy Crehore

P.S. I posted this story 3 years ago, but I am posting it again this morning as I head out to see the Eugene Celebration parade. I will always remember riding on that float with Ken Kesey who was dressed in his shaggy bear costume. Standing at the front of the float, he almost hit his head on a tree limb as we made our way down the streets of Eugene, OR. There is now a statue of Kesey in the middle of town. He is reading a book to children.

The Paternal Suit by F. Scott Hess

The Paternal Suit consists of over 100 paintings, prints, and objects created by artist F. Scott Hess as his own "family heirlooms" and presented as legitimate historical artifacts. It opens tonight: Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art, watch video and see more images here: LINK 

Exhibit runs: Aug 24- Oct 6, 2012

161 Calhoun Street
Charleston, SC 29401
 843.953.HICA (4422)

Wonderful idea and execution, with a good dose of humor.

The Art of Amy Crehore 
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Geishas as Bathing Beauties (1900)

These geishas-as-bathing-beauties (1900) came from Okinawa Soba flickr

(featured on retronaut blog today)

 These are inspiring to me as I have been painting bathers for a while. So charming!

 

The Art of Amy Crehore

Fantasmagorie 1908 - Early Animation

This film is by French artist Emile Cohl 

Here's another link.

(Thanks, Moira Hahn for Youtube link)

Royal French Ballet 1620s

Click to enlarge image

The Hazardous Perrette and a Cat, Daniel Rabel 1620s Royal French Ballet

Ballet des Fées de la forêt de Saint Germain

Music Recital for grand Ballet.

More illustrations like this at BibliOdyssey

The cat above reminds me a lot of my little pierrots that I painted from my imagination in 2004-2005.

The Art of Amy Crehore

Kusama and Cornell

 Yayoi Kusama with Cornell 1970

(he looks a little like he's choking her, but she looks happy)

Yayoi Kusama Age 10 1939

Blouin Artinfo has more photos of Kusama (that's where I got these).

Link to my recent boingboing essay on the book about Joseph Cornell, Utopia Parkway.

Kusama and her relationship with Cornell is mentioned in the book.

The photo (above) was taken in 1970, he died in 1972.

Ladies on Bicycles 1899

What am I up to?

Here are some details of a larger oil painting that I am working on.

These are just some quicky ipod glimpses of the unfinished work.

The temporary title is "Fig Leaf Parasol".

The Art of Amy Crehore 

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Painting of the day by Ilya Repin

 I like this painting by Ilya Repin called "Dragon-fly". It is a portrait of the artist's daughter, Vera Repina (1884, oil on canvas). More about Repin here. He was born on August 5, 1844, so it's his birthday today. He was a great Russian realist painter.

The Art of Amy Crehore 

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My essay about Utopia Parkway (the book) for Boing Boing

I wrote an essay about one of my favorite books- Utopia Parkway, The Life and Work of Joseph Cornell by Deborah Solomon (shown above)- for Boing Boing's Enthralling Books series. It is an absolutely wonderful biography of an eccentric man who became a great American artist.

Here's the LINK to my essay.

Here is a link to the works of Joseph Cornell. (artnet)
One thing that touched me about Cornell, which I failed to mention in my essay, was how he cared about and related to children. Shortly before he died in 1972, he had a show at Cooper Union School in NYC. This show was just for children and his works were hung at the child's-eye level. He actually attended the opening and they served cherry coke and brownies (which I am sure he gladly scarfed down). Shown here are a few pictures of the event (from A Joseph Cornell Album - Viking 1974- courtesy Dore Ashton/Denise Hare). You can see more photos at: Stopping Off Place Blog

The Art of Amy Crehore

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Historic Mechanical Instruments and Figures

Watch this amazing "clown illusionist" in action - the Morris Museum website (follow the link below) has sound clips and video clips of 22 historic mechanical figures and instruments from the Murtogh D. Guinness collection. You can visit a permanent collection of these (700 objects) if you live near Morristown, NJ. (I used to live near there myself, but this collection was not available at the time.) 

 LINK

The Art of Amy Crehore

Photos of the Day: Brigitte Bardot 1953

Retronaut has 12 stunning photos of Brigitte Bardot on the beach at Cannes in 1953 (from LIFE magazine archives). These really show her personality. 

LINK

I am working on paintings with swimmers/bathers lately, so it is nice to see these. Stay tuned to this blog for another new painting of mine to be posted soon.

The Art of Amy Crehore

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Herge and Luke Davies

When author Luke Davies was a young boy he corresponded for a few years with none other than Herge himself, the creator of Tintin. Read his surprising story and see a collection of letters and drawings here:

 LINK (theage.com.au)

Luke is a fan of my art, too. Thanks, Luke!

The Art of Amy Crehore 

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Wedding Waltz by Eleni Karaindrou

Just for your quiet listening pleasure today.

Rare Footage of Frida, Diego and Trotsky 1938

(Thanks, T. Tex Edwards and openculture )

Joni Mitchell, Mama Cass and Mary Travers Sing Together 1969

Robert Schwartz Paintings on View in San Francisco

( Click to enlarge) The Tight Fit 6" x 7" 1993 by Robert Schwartz

A Clay Horse on Wheels 6.5"x8" gouache on paper 1994 by Robert Schwartz

One of my favorite artists, Robert Schwartz (deceased),

 will be part of a show with sculptor David Beck

opening on Friday, July 13, 2012 5-7pm at

Hackett/ Mill

 201 Post Street, Suite 1000, San Francisco, CA

July 13- September 28, 2012

Don't miss seeing these small gouache paintings if you live nearby.

I saw his work a couple years ago at Hackett/Mill and it is amazing.

I'm lucky to own a book of his work: "Dream Games".

Looks like you can still get one through amazon ,but it is expensive.
Here is a link to more work by Robert Schwartz (a show last year at Babcock in NYC).

Art of Amy Crehore

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Polka-Dot Kusama Clothing Line Unveiled

To coincide with the Yayoi Kusama Retrospective at the Whitney Museum:

Vuitton and Kusama Collection 

(slide show, Vogue)

Kusama is 83 years old.

Sometimes Mothers Are Furniture

I'm jumping on the "hidden mother" bandwagon. These Victorian portraits are too good to pass up: mothers are hidden under blankets and curtains, literally becoming pieces of furniture, just to get their kids to stand or sit still for a cabinet photograph (which took a lot longer to shoot back then).

For more examples follow LINK , LINK , Hidden Mother flickr group.

Thanks, Carlos Lara 

The Art of Amy Crehore

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