vince’s ear

Pablo Picasso. Is there any other artist so versatile? The man felt it a tragedy if a person stayed the same, with the same style their whole life. The world changes all around, and one must constantly change along with it. The co-inventor of Cubism (along with Georges Braque) had a long, successful, and prolific career as a painter, sculptor, and potter. Nine of his paintings are in the list of the 25 most expensive paintings sold at auction. He is truly one of the most well known artists of the 20th century.

Early Art: Shades of Blue and Red

Pablo Picasso was the son of Jose Ruiz y Blasco, a painter and art professor, perhaps influencing young Pablo into a life of art. But according to his mother, Maria Picasso y Lopez, Pablo’s first word was “pencil,” thus the boy was born to be an artist. Picasso would reflect, “My mother said to me, ‘If you are a soldier, you will become a general. If you are a monk, you will become the Pope.’ Instead, I was a painter, and became Picasso.” He received his first formal training under his father and began with academic realism. Slowly, being influenced by El Greco and Edvard Munch, he developed a more modernist style.

His career can be broken down into several periods. His Blue Period (1901- 1904), is rightly named for the characteristic somber hues and sad subjects that dominate these canvasses. Often poor mothers with undernourished children, sad lower class families, and overall just depressed people in desolate surroundings were the main subjects. His bleak outlook on life at this juncture was probably the result of losing a friend to suicide.

The Rose Period (1904- 1906) marks a change into a happier era for the artist. “Boy With Pipe” which is the highest selling Picasso at auction, was painted during this period. This happier time was when Picasso met Fernande Olivier and is reminiscent of happier times earlier in his life before the Blue Period. You’ll see many acrobats and Harlequins in this period.

African Influences and Cubism

You begin to see a change in his style in the African Period of 1907 - 1909, away from more realistic representations of everyday people to much more expressive depictions. As the name of the period implies, this is when Picasso was influenced by African culture, particularly works of art in sculpture, which were being brought back to France during their expansion into the African continent. His most important work of this period is the “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.” Particular importance are the two figures to the right, whose faces resemble African masks, and show the first signs of Cubism.

The “Avignon” painting marked a transition into the Cubism periods, Analytic Cubism and Synthetic Cubism from 1909-1919. Collaborating with Georges Braque, the two men invented a new type of art where the artist would analyze the subject and break it down into its basic shapes. Objects can be depicted two dimensionally but from many different angles and viewpoints. All depth is removed, and the foreground object and background blend and mingle into each other. This style of painting would apply to sculpting and collage, the new method invented by Picasso, Braque and others, of cutting paper and arranging the shapes in a composition.

Later Art: Classical, Surrealist, and Sculpture

Around the time after World War I, Picasso switched to a more classical style, following in the Neoclassical footsteps of Giorgio de Chirico and others. Drawings and paintings of this period often include the minotaur, which would lead into more surrealistic artwork.

It was in the 1930s when Guernica was painted. Probably one of Picasso’s most famous works of art, it shows the horrors of war and the agony of the innocent in detail, as the Nazi bombs drop on the Spanish town.

Picasso got into sculpture and pottery and in the summer of 1949, he along with Jacques Lipchitz and 248 other sculptors exhibited at the 3rd Sculpture International at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In the 1950s he would move on to yet even different styles, doing versions of Velazquez’s Las Meninas, and other famous works by Goya and others. He was commissioned to do a 50 foot public sculpture for $100,000 for the city of Chicago. He refused the money and donated it to the people of the city.

Picasso died in 1973, leaving no will, but instead leaving his works, along with many Mastisse’s to France. These works form the collection of the Musée Picasso in Paris.

Picasso In Modern Culture

Pablo Picasso is probably the most well known artist of the 20th century. When people are asked to name an artist, any artist, Picasso most often comes to mind first. His innovative styles have been copied by professional and amateur artists alike.

One very good movie about him is “Surviving Picasso” with Anthony Hopkins as the artist. Shot in Paris and outlying areas, it’s about the relationship with the artist seen through the eyes of Francois Gilet, played by Natascha McElhone. The movie shows most of the women in the man’s life, often meeting one another in sometimes awkward and comical ways.

Toward the beginning of the film, Germany occupies France and a few soldiers are inquiring of the value of some of Picasso’s paintings. Picasso had a knack for dealing with people, and often got his way, as he tricks the soldiers into believing the better paintings were really junk, and the bad ones the more valuable. He even gives one of the worser ones to one of the soldiers to give to his wife.

Another scene shows a parlor full of art dealers and collectors impatiently waiting in line to see the great artist, who pays them very little mind. Every so often he will come out and give all attention to one art dealer while completely ignoring all the others, even the ones he knows very well. Once in, a certain groveling collector begs for the most recent “Picasso” so he can take it back to New York. Picasso knows the guy is just kissing up to him, so he has a little fun and asks, “How about this one, you interested?” The man joyously says, “Am I? Of course I’m…uh…” only to see a few lines drawn on a scrap paper.

Technorati Tags: picasso, art, artist, painter, cubist, cubism, modern art

I feel it appropriate to complement a post on Pieter Bruegel with one on Hieronymus Bosh. The two men lived at different times but one can draw parallels between them. Both were active in the Low Countries of Renaissance Europe, both had a tendency for including peasants as the main characters in their paintings, both have a similar style- Bruegel was highly influenced by Bosch who died nine years before Bruegel was born.

The two are showcased currently at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in a special exhibition to run until February 7th, 2008. The small exhibition shows several works by both the artists as well as several of their followers done in each respective styles.

Hellish Hallucinations

Hieronymus Bosch was inspired by literary works such as “The Ship of Fools” and the writings and sermons of monks. He could possibly have been influenced by religious ideas but at the same time one can argue that his religious themes were often sacrilegious. It is difficult for art historians to judge his unique art as religious or not. It is difficult to make heads or tails of much of his work, as it was very different from the contemporaries of his time, and its feverish visions of hell and otherworldly beings have not been matched to this day.

Religious or not, much of his work tends to have moral messages. His “Hay Wain” is based on the Flemish proverb “All the world’s a mountain or hay, and everyone grabs as much as they can.” The mountain of hay symbolizes man’s greed, and is dragged along on a path to hell by half-human monstrosities. Everyone from the paupers to the Pope take part in this human procession, mad with worldly delights, unknowing of their impending doom. Above Christ watches, ignored, with hands outstretched as if to shrug and ask, “why?”

Another darker painting is the triptych (three paneled) “Temptation of Saint Anthony.” Here unfolds the story of Saint Anthony, forced to watch as a black mass is celebrated. The saint is carried away and dropped by a toad demon. Off to the right is a hermit, trying as best he can to read his holy books and ignore the insanity present all around him. Speaking of insanity is almost difficult to imagine a perfectly sane person conjuring up such a painting. With people riding flying fish, hybrid monsters torturing innocent people, flames, ghouls, skeleton, and beasts running amok, it might be correct to say that Bosch has probably seen this in a dream. What imagination!

The pièce de résistance of all this is clearly Bosch’s “The Garden of Earthly Delights.” It is considered by many to be the most enigmatic and widely interpreted work of art in all of Western art. It is a triptych (center panel shown above) with the creation of Eve on the left, the garden of Earthly delights in the center and hell on the right, all meant to be read in that order.

One could spend literally hours studying this painting. It is full of allegories, symbols, and hidden meanings and messages. Lust is a dominant theme in the whole of the triptych, with only the creation of Eve, rather than the whole story of Creation and the Garden of Eden. Even though the Eden on the left seems normal and serene, at closer inspection a strange black pond exists in the foreground with a black beast with a long nose reading a book symbolizing evil. This blends the panel into the center panel.

The center panel is full of people. Humanity going about their usual business, committing sin and acts of lust coming from the original creation of woman (Eve). A couple engrossed with each other float on a strange plant in a glass bubble signifying the Flemish proverb, “Happiness is like glass, easily shattered.” Strange beasts dot the landscape, with the usual flying fish and fairies; birds are everywhere in the picture, as well as elephants and giraffes and animals of exotic lands. Berries of all kinds symbolize greed. People live in fruit, plants, and strange orbs and danger seems to lurk by at every corner.

Then we move along to hell on the right panel. After living a life of lust and greed, our citizens of this horrible visions are to serve in eternity a miserable existence being tortured by lutes and hurdy-gurdies by demons of all shapes and types. Maniacal horror exists at every turn, with the people undoubtedly wishing they had changed their evil ways earlier in life. In the center of this panel, coming from tree stumps resting on boats, with demons shown inside taking a break in a bar, is the ridiculous mocking self portrait of Bosch. He has a rotating disk for a hat, with a bagpipe, a symbol for evil and lust. Off to the left is a knife slicing ears. Some interpretations have it that Bosch meant it to be the message that people should have listened to the New Testament, and other warnings of hell.

Technorati Tags: artist, art, painting, bosch, renaissance

As I look out my window I see a dark winter afternoon. Dark as it is, there is no snow and the temperature has not yet dropped to its bone chilling winter potential. But soon enough the landscape will once again be covered in snow. And as the snow lay round about, deep and crisp and even, I’ll be forced to come about and gather winter fuel. Then I can warm my bones by the fire.

I love looking at wintry snowscapes in artwork. As long as I’m indoors I can find comfort knowing that I’m warm and out of the cruel elements. The same is true when reading poetry such as “Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost. When reading the poem you get to visualize the soft snowflakes drifting down, and the quiet forest. I do remember some good illustrations of that poem as well.

One of my favorite winter scenes is “Hunters In The Snow” by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, as seen above. It was painted in the 16th century and depicting a time when the winters were quite rough for the poor. You can see a fire off to left and some peasants gathering around. The bare trees offer their sticks to contrast against the cold sky. Down below the frozen pond keeps the children busy with games and skating, with the adults going about daily activity in the village as best they can. Look closely at the water mill with the icicles. Off into the distance are icy mountains, with the threat of more snow no doubt nearby.

This was painted as part of a seasons series and is probably the most popular. The series most likely consisted of six panels, though only five survive. I had the opportunity to see “Harvesters” in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The “Harvesters” is as hot as “Hunters” is cold, showing the peasants in the foreground of a wheat field practically passing out from the heat.

One of his other chillier paintings include “Census At Bethlehem,” which also consists of a village hustling and bustling in the cold air, with peasants taking advantage of the frozen pond carrying materials across town. The foreground is loaded with activity on the left with a crowd of people huddled toward the entrance to a building as if to feel what little heat they can get from inside and get out of the chill.

A good snowy depiction is “The Adoration of The Magi.” You can’t help but feel a little cold just looking at the snow falling. The painting shows the snowy Flemish village bustling with daily activity with the Magi merely there as extras, barely the center of attention of the painting.

Bruegel certainly had a talent for accurately portraying seasons. Of course he was great at portraying all kinds of things, mostly involving Flemish peasant life. His sons Pieter Brughel the Younger, and Jan Brughel The Elder, and grandson Jan Bruegel the Younger would follow in the elder Brughel’s footsteps and also have prolific careers as painters.

How do you picture a nightmare in 2D? Two words: Henry Fuseli. Fuseli’s famous “The Nightmare” is the epitome of night terror depiction: a lady on her back in her bed chamber either asleep or otherwise unconscious, with an unwanted visitor, a grotesque imp, squatting on her body. Perhaps the scariest part of all is the mysterious horse’s head looming into this array of bad dreams. Another similar painting of his was his version of the folk tale Hag, a nightmare spirit.

Henry Fuseli’s artwork often delves into the world of the subconscious and the supernatural. His pieces give the art viewer a mood not unlike one would feel while traveling through their own dreams. He was commissioned to illustrate Shakepeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and offered a wonderfully fantastical portrayal, complete with his signature eeriness.

William Blake has said he was inspired by the work of Henry Fuseli and it shows. Blake was also one for the mysterious and fantastical. Both artists are worth checking into. Included below are some thumbnails of some of Henry Fuseli’s fantastic paintings.

But I must warn you, they may give you nightmares.

Meet James Ensor, painter of masks and skeletons. What was it all about, those skulls and masks painted in such loud colors? What it was was a unique mastery unlike any other that has come before him or since. Born in Ostend, Belgium he quickly attained the master painter title, originally painting quite serene and realistic canvases. He founded the group “Les XX” or “The Twenty” but soon broke away to seclusion.

Bit by bit his paintings ventured into unknown territory becoming more and more bizarre. The painting “Scandalized Masks” marks a turning point away from conventional style and subject. Perhaps inspired by the dolls and masks sold in his mother’s gift shop, his paintings were dominated by masks and masquerade themes. Thin skinned and self conscious, he didn’t take it well when art critics thrashed his artwork saying it was too macabre and disturbing. They saw the paintings as too hideous which you might agree after looking at some of some of the more gruesome titles as “Skeletons Fighting For a Smoked Herring,” and “Skeletons Fighting For a Corpse.”

For Ensor, these paintings were allegories of the political and social climate of modern times. Rich with symbolism, his pictures were often satirical parodies of the behavior of his fellow Belgians and of humanity in general. A political satire he executed in 1888 was probably his most famous work, “Entry of Christ Into Brussels.” Here we have the biblical second coming of Christ into the capital city in modern times, met with the citizens as if it was a parade. The mayor, the upper crust, the politicians and advertisers use the event for their own personal gain and publicity. The people are drunk with self interest as they yearn to be seen in such a spectacle. The parade shadows and belittles the main event, Christ himself, who is barely seen in the street on his donkey.

His many mask paintings show crude and inhuman people wearing a mask over a mask, clearly signifying people’s two-faced nature. He expressed his opinions through his pictures not just of his critics and contemporaries, but of mankind in general, making quite a statement. Despite the rejections of many of his seemingly more scandalous works, his paintings continued to be exhibited. More and more his Belgian public cherished him and his works. He was eventually made a baron, and although his creative genius waned in his later years, he died a much loved national celebrity.

He would influence the Expressionist and Surrealist art movements and artists such as Emil Nolde and Paul Klee. He can be found referenced in modern pop culture in the “They Might Be Giants” song “Meet James Ensor” seen in this video.

See “Self Portrait in 1960,” “Self Portrait With Masks,” and “Self Portrait in a Hat”

Also see our model of “Scandalized Masks” by me and Noah,

and Have Fun With Art

Antonio who? Chances are you’ve probably never heard of the nineteenth century Realist painter Antonio Mancini. But if you have, or if you had the pleasure of seeing the recent special exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, you’ll wonder how such a great painter slipped through the cracks of art history and became unknown.

At the young age of twelve when other boys were playing street sports, goofing off, and otherwise just plain being young boys, little Antonio was admitted into the Institute of Fine Arts, Naples. At the age of twenty he exhibited two paintings at the Paris Salon. This was an accomplishment for an artist of any age, but for the young artist it would begin a long and prolific career. He would produce painting after painting, masterpiece upon masterpiece.

Mancini was commissioned for high society portraits to earn a living but his favorite subjects were young acrobats and street performers. The “Saltimbanco” seen above was a common subject, with his favorite model Luigiello making common appearances.

In Paris in the 1870s, Mancini met up with the Impressionists Edgar Degas and Edouard Manet. More importantly was the meeting of John Singer Sargent who would later call him “the greatest painter who ever lived.” That’s quite a compliment coming from one of the most successful portrait painters of their time. Sargent was integral in Mancini’s success as he introduced him to many of the rich patrons who could never have too many portraits of themselves.

Innovation was definitely a quality this painter possessed. He invented a grid screen from strings and placed it between himself and the sitter. Another grid would be placed in front of the canvas so the perspective would turn out perfect. Sometimes the grid marks would be deliberately kept on the canvas. On some paintings this would be very obvious and would give them much character.

In 1881, Mancini suffered mental illnesses which would land him in a psychiatric hospital. After this time he was still productive with his art, but found hard financial times, relying on friends to stay alive. After World War 1 he was able to once again live comfortably and paint. He died in Rome in 1930.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art has a current [01/08] special exhibition on show until January 20, 2008. It shows many portraits in oil and pastel, several self portraits from different phases of his life, many of his saltimbanco Luigiello in different compostions including “After the Duel,” “After the Performance” and the huge canvas “Il Saltimbanco” (detail above). Fifteen of the paintings are now a part of the museum’s permanent collection as a gift from New York art dealer Vance N. Jordan.

Technorati Tags: artist, art, realist, mancini

Giuseppe Arcimboldo was born in Milan and lived in the 16th century. He is known for his feverishly grotesque portraits of humans made entirely out of non-human material. Paintings of people as books, vegetables, fish, plants, birds, the elements, and what ever fantasy he could think of dominated his canvases. The further into his career the stranger and more unreal his hallucinations seem. One may argue whether these works were due to strange apparitions in his mind from insanity, a sick sense of twisted humor or the imaginative output of a genius. Perhaps it was all three.

Ahead of His Time

Known in some circles as the Father of Surrealism, he actually predates the movement by about four centuries. In a time when other painters were careful to paint everything exactly as seen in reality, being sure to show no sign of craftsmanship or brushstrokes on their canvases, Arcimboldo boldly paints people in a fantastically unreal way. Was this perhaps the way he saw people? His subjects didn’t mind being portrayed as fruits and twigs, however, even receiving such high society commissions as the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II and later Rudolph II.

Rudolph II would be depicted as “Vertumnus,” the god of the seasons, in part of his “Four Seasons” series. He would look like vegetables, fruit, nuts, berries, and some flowers. “Winter” can be seen above at the top of this article as a man made of the twisty stump of an old tree with a broken branch stump for a nose, moss for a beard, and tree mushrooms for lips. What imagination!

“You Are What You Eat”

The first time I ever heard of Giuseppe Arcimboldo was when I was probably about eight or nine years old when my parents got me a picture medical book for kids. This was a great book with all kinds of neat illustrations about human anatomy, bodily systems, and nutrition among many other things.

The funny thing was the chapter involving nutrition with a section titled “You Are What You Eat” or something along those lines. I remember it showed a cow drawn entirely out of grass and the portrait of a boy made from vegetables and fruit. I guess it made sense to me. The picture was probably “Summer,” in Arcimboldo’s Four Seasons.

A Very Thin Line

What started out as simple variations of reality, such as a self portrait in the likeness of sheets of paper, would eventually lead to what appeared to be downright derangement. What could be categorized as his “Professions” paintings, the subjects could barely be classified as humanoid. An interesting example here is the “Lawyer.” Something tells me he didn’t intend this as a gift for an attorney friend. Also take the “Librarian,” which is basically just a stack of books. Here the humans have almost completely transformed.

It takes a genius to be able to shatter perceptions of reality like this. No one can argue against his innovative genius, being so ahead of his time it would take the world centuries to catch up in terms of artistic expression.

One may never know now what was really going on in the mind of Giuseppe Arcimboldo. Art historians are kept busy pondering the idea that his genius led to madness or vise versa. Take a look at some of these Arcimboldo paintings, and decide for yourself.

Technorati Tags: arcimboldo, surrealism, surrealist, painting, artist, art

As I wrote the title for this post I considered not comparing the two artists as it may subordinate one to the other. I speak of course about the Italian Baroque painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, not to be confused with Michelangelo Buonarroti, who did the Sistene ceiling and David. As you can see the two share a given name although the former is known as Caravaggio, the town from whence he came, and the latter simply as Michelangelo. The two men had the same name but were great each in their own way.

The two artists were both Italian but lived at different times; Caravaggio was born seven years after Michelangelo’s death. Both could have been seen as arrogant and had personalities larger than life. While Michelangelo was an extremely versatile artist, he generally had a disdain for painting (although he did it masterfully). Caravaggio on the other hand was generally known for his paintings.

Master of Light And Shadow

Long before Rembrandt stepped onto the scene, this enigmatic Italian painter was innovating the use of chiaroscuro in his works. He is attributed with the invention of “tenebrism,” the use of extreme contrast of light and shadow for dramatic effect. This generally came in handy when portraying his religious themes, which dominate his resume. In the “Calling of St. Matthew” (see above) a single ray of light leads Christ’s gesture to the uncertain St. Matthew, as if to point to him, allowing the viewer’s eyes to follow to the focal point.

Artificial means were used in the studio such as mirrors and other highly reflective materials to shine light on his models. What results is almost theatrical in depicting his subjects flooded with light, producing strong shadows and contrasts.

Humble Models, Holy Subjects

Normal and plain looking people often found themselves in Caravaggio’s grand canvases, religious theme or not. What he loved most were his scugnizzi, or street boys. What he would accomplish was a unique envisioning of saints and angels as average looking common-folk. He would take these boys, who were anything but conventionally attractive, and raise them to a glorified status. A case in point is Bacchus. Here we see a young man lacking striking good looks, with an average adolescent’s musculature reclining in a slightly drunken manner, struggling to hold the wine glass still. Hardly a god, is he?

Another example was the “Madonna di Loreto” showing Mary, the Virgin with infant in a doorway with peasants kneeling before her feet. This painting was met with much criticism, looking far too common for a Heavenly subject. A wall with bricks falling apart, the dirt on the peasants’ feet, the plain clothes of the Mother of God were too worldly and lower class for the prominent art world at the time.

A Modern Look For Classic Content

Caravaggio was known for his wide use of anachronism in his paintings, often depicting classic or biblical stories with modern elements in them. See in the “Calling of Saint Matthew” above a Christ dressed in clothes of the 1st century Anno Domini in the room with men wearing contemporary Italian attire. You may see soldiers in armor of the 17th century shackling Christ, and characters in Baroque style feather caps, etc.

This style has been used throughout the history of art and is still used today. You can see it in cinema such as Julie Taymor’s depiction of Titus, but relevant here is Derek Jarman’s 1986 film Caravaggio. Following in the same style as its namesake, the film would show “Michely” in a bar with the ambiance of a television sports commentator in the background, or a miserly art patron using a calculator.

This movie is definitely worth checking out if you’re an art or Caravaggio fan. I must warn it is mostly fictionalized, but it does have an interesting story and is extremely poetic in its narration. The most interesting aspect is Jarman’s use of live models posing for actual Caravaggio paintings, whether it is for the actual painter to paint or just for show (when Caravaggio dies, posing as the “Entombment of Christ.”)

On The Run

Throughout his life, Caravaggio was known for his short temper and argumentative demeanor. He was a bawler liable to throw down at the drop of a hat, and it would eventually bring his downfall. In 1606, being prone to outbursts, our painter killed a tennis opponent over an argument about a match. Normally his friends in high places would get him out of trouble, but this proved too serious and they could do nothing to come to his aid. The last four years of his life were spent in exile and on the run from the authorities.

Caravaggio would flee to Naples, Malta, and Sicily all the while searching for a patron of power to help expunge his crimes. You can note the further toward 1610 and the farther he traveled the propensity toward gruesome and depressing paintings, most of which involved biblical stories. Scenes of decapitation became common, sometimes putting himself as the unfortunate receiver. Finding enemies everywhere, “so many labels on the luggage and hardly a friendly face,” it was impossible to settle down and escape the fear.

Eventually, in 1610 Michelangelo Merisi set out to beg the pardon of Cardinal Scipione Borghese with three final paintings intended as gifts. He never completed that journey and was never seen again. With no body found, his death remains a mystery to this day but most accounts claim he died of fever near Tuscany on July 18th.

Resources

An in-depth look into the life and works of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio is definitely recommended for further knowledge on the Italian Baroque master. An article worth reading is the Wikipedia article found here

Another great article is on Charley Parker’s Lines and Colors, which you can link to on the right on the sidebar. The Caravaggio article can be found here.

One of the best websites I have ever had the pleasure of viewing on any artist is the “Complete Works of Caravaggio: An Impossible Exhibit.” This website shows the actual exhibition of 54 digital reproductions of Caravaggio paintings shown in one place. You can click on any painting to get an in-depth study. You can zoom in completely to see minute details, and hear commentary by several professionals about the works in detail. The website goes into the life and times of Caravaggio in depth. I don’t know of any other website that contains as much information on a single artist.

You can visit the website here or copy and paste:

http://www.caravaggio.rai.it/index_en.htm

Technorati Tags: Caravaggio, art, artist, painter, Baroque

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to the wonderful world of the puppetry of Noah. You will find the new Puppets Gallery to your right, which I highly recommend browsing. Its actually a collection of his puppets, dolls, marionettes, masks, and I think a few sculptures got in there too. You’ll also find I updated the Sculpture Gallery with a few of Noah’s older classic sculptures most of which were inspired by H.P. Lovecraft stories. They’re very creative works.

An Unusual Gas Station Attendant

The beauty of these puppets and dolls are that most of them were creatively put together with only materials found at a gas station. So you have these dolls or marionettes that came from the simplest everyday items. If something else was added to help make them it was considered cheating.

The marionette above was made to be Noah’s surrogate attendant so he could sleep in the back. Just kidding, but he did position it behind the counter so people coming in to pay for gas would see this unusual attendant wearing a uniform and watching the counter. It would be interesting to find out the strings were there to operate it from elsewhere in the shop, collect money, etc. I don’t think the puppet would pump their gas though.

Paper Clips, Masking Tape, and Coffee

As I said only the bear essentials went into the creation of these puppets, so if it wasn’t found around the convenience store it wasn’t used. The clothes were made from rags or other fabrics found around the store and sometimes soaked in coffee to stain them brown. If you look at their faces some of them were constructed with a paper clip frame and covered in masking tape. Sometimes these faces were covered in “puppet skin,” which hardens and makes a decent skin. I think the actual recipe is classified.

Some of the interesting ones are the little dolls. These little things seem to come from all walks of life ranging from everyday Joe to pirate. There’s even a bondage fetishist! These things wear little clothes sometimes soaked in coffee and whatnot and sometimes colored with markers.

The wire structures inside the heads are pretty intricate with moving mechanisms controlling the eyes and jaw.

Workspaces

There are pros and cons to working on puppets at a gas station. For starters with not much to do as far as workload you may as well spend your time constructively, and getting paid to make art is not a bad gig at all so I think we can call that a pro. A con would be that although it forces creativity to use only found materials, being constricted to use what you see around you may not produce the results you want every time. So aside from the Shell puppets, more complicated puppets can be conceived in the “workshop.”

The workshop wasn’t used entirely for puppets but was initially meant for it, as you can see in this picture. The whole workshop was the rest of Noah’s attic and was the place where many a good artwork was created. It is in the workshop where I made my only sculptures, in the middle on a little sculpture table with a drawer to include all the necessary tools.

So there you have but a glimpse into his puppets but you can see the rest here. Don’t forget to check out the sculptures too.

If you appreciate Noah’s puppets or his methods, let him know by leaving a comment. Until next time, take it easy.

Technorati Tags: puppets

Being new to the blogosphere, I’ve been doing a little research and reading a bunch of “how-to” articles. Some of the stuff was on blog etiquette, and don’t you know there are some rules for the blogger. One of the cardinal rules of a good blogger is to not be a shameless self-promoter. Well, I’m afraid I’ll have to break this rule just a tad while I’m new and can get away with it. But hey, I set out to do a blog about art including paintings and darn it, that’s what I aim to do.

These paintings are all my own work, you can view the entire gallery here. They are all in oil on canvas, my favorite medium. They are currently not for sale but if someone were to make me an offer I couldn’t refuse… They say Vincent van Gogh sold only one painting in his life, and at that rate old Vincent’s got one up on me. But I’m no van Gogh, of course. I admire the master, and try to emulate him. Speaking of this site’s namesake, the first picture I’ll show was painted by me but is actually a reproduction of one of van Gogh’s myriad auto-portraits.

My sister gave me the frame for Christmas one year and I knew right away which picture it was going to frame. Wherever I live there will always be this portrait of Vincent van Gogh on my wall. This self-portrait he dedicated to Paul Gauguin who lived with him for a short period in 1888. This famous clashing friendship would result in many beautiful canvases that they believed furthered their cause. The original is now housed in the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University Art Museums.

It was very fun to paint, as is any van Gogh. For someone just starting out in oils its very beneficial to copy some of the famous artists that you like. This way you can find your own style, while gaining valuable brush stroke experience without having to worry about your own composition. Van Goghs are particularly easy to recreate because of the expressive brushwork which you can match stroke by stroke. Actual blending is not required, as the Impressionistic style blends in the viewer’s eyes a few feet from the painting. Painting his beard was fun, using a little bit of orange hues and burnt sienna, which follows suit in his jacket.

Every painting is a practice. Each time I put brush to canvas I learn something new and hopefully gain from the experience. No matter how many years I paint there will always be some new technique or style to master. This next one was probably the first time I used any real depth and minded the composition as a whole. It’s actually one of my favorite pieces. It is a portrait of the family cat.

I love the depth and expression and I haven’t really matched it since. The way the tail curls inward really gives it a nice 3d presence. The colors are true to life I believe, she is a black cat with all kinds of colors going on on her back. Another reason this one is a favorite not only for me but amongst my family members is the personality. It matches 100%. It’s almost as if someone came up behind her and she just doesn’t want to have anything to do with the individual. She’s not a mean cat but she does get moody, and I think you can see the expression on her face in this picture and say, “yep, that’s her.”

The next picture I painted in response to a tragedy which occurred not too far from me in rural Pennsylvania in Lancaster County on October 2, 2006. A man went into a school and held hostages resulting in the deaths of five girls before he eventually turned the gun on himself. The event was devastating and caused me much emotion. I hope the emotion shows in the painting.

I was inspired by the media of the event showing the Amish community reacting to the massacre. The symmetry is purposeful, hopefully adding to the tension. I could’ve left out the police line at the bottom but for me it definitely completes the canvas, as a blatant and bright barrier just as in real life.

In this work I experimented and accomplished several things. I particularly did some nice color mixing if I might say so myself. I used beautiful Naples Yellow in the hat, and showed some light effect on it. The greens in the picture are actually mostly from an olive green mixture of Mars Black and Cadmium Yellow, the sky blue was made from my favorite blue Cerulean, and the nice looking flesh came from mixtures involving Grumbacher Flesh Tint. I hoped to attain a certain psychological effect on the shadows of his face, which a more astute observer might find are reversed, physically perhaps from some light reflecting from below his hat.

These, ladies and gentlemen are just a few of my works and I may showcase some others, particularly as I paint them. Like I said before, if you are interested, eventually you will be able to see the bulk of my paintings in a photo album.

In the upcoming posts I plan on showing some of my sculpture which, combined with some of my paintings, start off the blog properly I think. In time I will write about some particularly famous paintings I enjoy and would like to share with you. I will also travel personally to several museums and exhibits and do a little journalism. Maybe I can share something you wouldn’t have known. Maybe you can give me some of your own insight.

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