vince’s ear

I talk about coloring books so much (Coloring outside the lines, etc.) you’d think all I do is sit on the living room floor with those big Crayolas in my fist and color away. Would that be such a waste of time?

I stumbled across this website showing these Asian coloring books for adults which you have to check out. There’s everything from mandala designs and Manga cartoons to anatomy books and Jagdpanther German tanks. There is even one with Led Zeppelin characters which you can dress.

The idea is that no matter what age you are the physical act of coloring can relax you, and the choosing of the colors can enhance your creativity. In our rough and tumble world, sitting down on that living rug and putting crayon or pencil to coloring book sounds very therapeutic. Does it not?

Of course these are only a few of what’s out there, but they seem to be a good start. There are links on the page which send you to the Japanese Amazon- just click on the “translate to English” link on the right side of the screen to do just that.

Maybe I’ll give that Nazi tank buster an Andy Warhol camouflage look.

PinMag- Tokyo based magazine about “Design and Making Things”- Coloring books

Some of the best art in history took the status quo and tore it to shreds. Brilliant new ideas are always met with skepticism, doubt, and often anger. When a painter makes such a statement which will change the way the world sees art, the public at first responds clearly. Don’t rock the boat- we like calm waters.

People like their comfortable bubbles and would much rather stay in their zones than explore new horizons. Sometimes writers and painters need to snap people out of their daze. These artists need to drag the masses kicking and screaming and force them to see art history unfold before their eyes. Sometimes this means shocking the hell out of them.

Other times the forgers of new art were better off forgetting about the public and the snide critics with a “damn the torpedoes” attitude. Regardless of each artist’s personal beliefs at the time, we’re lucky to have these brazen pioneers. They often sacrificed their own success for the good of art and many went unappreciated in their day.

Michelangelo

Michelangelo Bounarotti, the High Renaissance painter, sculptor, and architect, was fairly successful in his day. If you saw him you’d say he lived in squalor, unkempt and with raggedly clothing. He avoided social situations like the plague.

Like the man himself, his art was often misunderstood. Julius II’s entourage of cardinals called the naked figures of Michelangelo’s ceiling vulgar and pornographic. The rippling muscles, the veins, the strong masculinity of the figures had no place in what should be an idealized representation of biblical themes, they said. Michelangelo’s response: “Did God no create Man in his image?”

Caravaggio

Not much after the Florentine Michelangelo came Michelangelo Merisi, known as Caravaggio. Besides having the same name as the previous master, Caravaggio had some big shoes to fill as he would also make most of his career painting for the Church.

His art, however, contrasted with the perfect bodies of Michelangelo and instead portrayed his religious subjects exactly how they were- nothing more than human. This, of course, outraged many Church officials who were embarrassed that the dirt was so visible on the peasants’ feet as they knelt before God. Saint John the Baptist (above) is a homage to Michelangelo. It shows how he can create art just as beautiful, but only depicting the street boy posing not so much as saint, but how he was- a gleeful young kid posing in a studio.

Claude Monet

Where could art be today without pioneers such as Claude Monet teaching us to paint as we see and not what we know? When Monet first came onto the art scene, his contemporaries were fixated on emulating the old masters. He instead insisted on painting what he saw- all we see in nature is simply light reflecting off of objects, giving us an impression. Of course he went on to found French Impressionism. This would forever change art history and sculpt art as we know it today.

Vincent van Gogh

Van Gogh- the epitome of the misunderstood genius. His vibrant expressions were like none the world had seen before. It’s such a shame he never found success in his lifetime yet today he is held in such high regard. The people of his time were simply not ready for him. They said his paintings were ugly and wouldn’t look good hanging above the mantle in the living room. Van Gogh gave us so much, such as the ability to feel with our eyes, to not only see the light coming from the lamps in the room, but to swim in the rays which dance around it. There isn’t a painting by the Dutch master which you can’t feel the energy from it.

Pablo Picasso

After Monet gave the world Impressionism, great artists like Paul Cezanne innovated and built on the style to pave the way for 20th century Cubism, which would be co-founded by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. Picasso’s Cubism philosophy rejected naturalistic approaches to art and broke visual elements down to basic geometric forms.

One of Picasso’s greatest works is the painting Guernica (above), which shows the Nazi bombing of the Spanish town. Nothing found in the newspapers could rival the imagery in this painting. With his cold depiction, Picasso shows the people of the world exactly what it is like for civilians to have their town obliterated in war. The twisted bodies of citizens and livestock writhe in pain and horror as their homes and lives are destroyed. Great artists like Picasso are owed a great deal for successfully portraying the horrors of war to a public which is too often left in the dark of the details.

Thomas Eakins

What we would consider quite tame and prudish by today’s standards was a whole different story in the nineteenth century. Thomas Eakins, Philadelphia artist and professor, was kicked out of his tenure for removing the loin cloth of a model in his art class to show the full anatomy. He accepted his ousting but rejected the attitude behind it. Eakins was not shy of the human body; he was an avid photographer of nudes, himself posing nude.

Besides encouraging the painting of the full human anatomy, Eakins would get himself in trouble with other unacceptable material. This time it happened with his greatest accomplishment, the Gross Clinic (see above), showing prominent Philadelphia surgeon Samuel Gross at work teaching his students his revolutionary surgical procedures. The painting was rejected with strong criticism for its graphic nature. Eakins’ paintings are true realism, unabridged and uncensored.

Wassily Kandinsky

Kandinsky discovered painting late in his life after a career as a lawyer. Posterity thanks him for starting late, rather than never, as he gave the world some of the best and most colorful paintings of the 20th century. Kandinsky painted some of the first purely abstract paintings, thus he could be credited with helping start the Abstract movement. His philosophies concentrated on color theory, symbolism, and spirituality. His paintings often were meant to be like music; you can almost hear it playing while viewing some of his artworks, how they flow and vibrate.

These artists are only a few of world-changing pioneers, of course, but it is the type of artist they represent that is important. None of these men had any idea how their art would turn out. They had the guts to follow their passion and their dream and the world has benefited from their efforts. We should salute those who challenge convention, whether they are successful in the long run or not. Raise a glass to the pioneers!

Every now and again this blog strays just a tad off the path of fine arts such as painting and art history, to more of an arts and crafts topic meant for artisans. Many of you might appreciate this, as I notice many artists have eclectic interests and try to get their hands on all kinds of creative projects.

That’s exactly what I sought to do with my new wood-turning hobby. I got myself a nice little mini lathe and I expect to turn chess set after chess set in all kinds of styles. I always wanted to get my hands dirty with carpentry but never really had the means. With wood turning I won’t be making any old mail boxes, but rather I’d be embarking on an artistic journey where I can really use my creativity.

It started when I carved my Alice In Wonderland chess set out of clay not too long ago. The combination of the Alice themed chess set and a rekindling of an interest in the game drove me to set up a chess website called Blitzqueen.com (blitz is a really fast game of chess, and the queen is the most powerful piece). That’s Arthur Rackham’s Red Queen in the logo above.

So far the site has a history of chess page, a “how to play” page, and a work in progress “strategy” page which seems to be getting pretty popular already. I’m working on either borrowing or (God willing) writing some java to include examples of historical games that you can navigate through. Eventually I’ll get some freeware up so visitors can play online, or download a program.

The ultimate goal, however, is to supply as many styles of chess sets people can purchase cheaply for themselves or as gifts. I plan on carving more themed sets like the Alice set, as well as some classical medieval sets such as the Lewis pieces of ancient Scotland, and military sets such as Napoleonic, American Civil War, etc.