Art Online, Right on time!

Don't hate me cause this is late. I'm only human of flesh and blood I'm made. Sometimes things get prolonged cause life has a way of getting in the way, or I let it sidetrack me and get in the way. No matter how you want to look at it, the bottom line is, life got in the way, damn it! LOL

Salvador Dali

But I digress, this about art online and I have found in my social networking circles, sites that deliver an artful experience. They expand my ideas of what art is and provides new and inspirational ways art can change one's existence. There are some that are inspirational, funny and scary. I appreciate all of them in every format. Some have websites, a lot are located on Facebook.

Buddha Head

Being old school, I love going to museums and recently visited the Kreeger Museum, formally a home, this past weekend.  If you know anything about D.C., then you know that on Foxhall Road, there are many mini mansions. The Kreeger Museum is one of those places that was a home to art collectors, and now just houses the art. The museum is on a two lane road with no bus service and joggers run freely in the street, like animals on the loose. Around my way, they are called roadkill!

I must admit that the most of the museums have become boring, at least the big, free ones. Its the same 'ol art, by the same 'ol dead white males. Some of the same dead men's work are at the Kreeger too. They invested heavily in the works of "popular artists of the day" who just happened to be men, and white. Did you know that the Kreeger's never invested in any female artists works? Any works there now by females, have been "acquired", "donated" or loaned by the artist.  My former instructor and friend Kendall Buster has a sculpture piece out on the grounds. I noticed that all the women's artwork is outside. Most of the free museums only change out a few galleries and keep the permanent collection out to bore people to death.  The portrait gallery has had a few good exhibits, featuring more contemporary artists. Some of them are a mystery to me, as to how they made it as a contemporary artist, and who thought their work was relevant enough to be considered as such.

Kendall Buster

So, I have begun to go elsewhere for art and seek out places that have a variety of images in all mediums. Not enthusiastic about it being on line cause it can't be seen up close and personal, but you can't touch the art or get too close in the museum either, so either way there is a barrier. Choosing the lesser of two evils allows me to sit in my skivvies if I want and look at art anytime I want. There is a lot out there to see online. So I will focus on my faves and share them, maybe you have a few faves too that I don't know about, but most of the sites feature artists that are ALIVE and Kicking! If they are dead, at least they are not the same dead people called the Masters. 

Terrica Atkins

Sandrine Replat

First are the ones that show photos of art, sometimes there is an artist named. The images come from various sources. Some are images created that are more morbid and creepy, rather than scary. TerrorArtists images are more about the dead rising up and scaring the living and their life beyond our mere mortal existence. Like this photo to the right, it's an image that is based on Addams Family, somewhat, okay maybe not all. But you get the idea.

 TerrorArtists and The Macob and Beautifully Grotesque, both of which have imagery that can shock and amaze you. I find them to be thrilling, in that I really don't watch horror movies, my imagination is active enough and I can scare myself silly by looking in the mirror! LOL but I love the odd and mysterious, and my brain doesn't animate them and play back the scary parts over and over....while I'm sitting at the computer in the dark!

Leon Bonnat

From The Macob and Beautifully Grotesque- Bishop Denis, having alarmed the pagan priests by his many conversions, was executed by beheading with his companions on the highest hill in Paris (now Montmartre), which was likely to have been a druidic holy place. After his head was chopped off, Denis is said to have picked it up and walked six miles from the summit of the hill, preaching a sermon the entire way, making him one of many cephalophores in hagiology. 

I love the stories behind the imagery. Can't get any better than art and religion, the best stories come from here. So much contradiction, filled with juicy inexplicable acts beyond belief. Just think this is considered macob and grotesque, by some. All in the name of the church.

Paper Artist Jeff Nishinaka

Twisted Sifter features artists that defy all laws of nature. They go beyond ones perception of art and exposes you to illusions created simply by angling the art a different way and photographing it.  They also provide information about the artist that created the image, and often show other pieces that the artist has done and a brief bio. Totally cool, and often gets the reaction "how they do that!?"  Here's an answer somewhat.

From Twisted Sifter- Artist Jeff Nishinaka. Deragon and Phoenix-Relief Paper Sculpture. Los Angeles native Jeff Nishinaka is a relief paper sculpture artist who has a stunning array of work that needless to say can blow anyone away. His portfolio spans a wide range including Bloomingdale’s, Sprint, Visa, Penn State University, Paramount Pictures and Coca Cola. Over the years he has found various techniques in how to manipulate and bend paper to make these magnificent masterpieces.

Steampunk image

Others that rock, in a similar way are Ink Army, Steampunk and Megaphoto. Each one offers something different, like tattoo images  from Ink Army that are unreal, they make you want to bring the pain! for these images. The mixing of the Victorian era and Sci-Fi of Steampunk, which offers a real life connection through clothing, books, music and conventions. Photos of nature and life that maybe altered slightly, but still totally awesome from Megaphoto.

Daniella Bonachella

If you want something more gallery like and demure, try the online galleries of The Hemphill Gallery, Touchstone Gallery, The Baltimore Museum, Solomon R. Guggenheim, Woman Made Gallery, Saatchi Gallery and a host of others that I'm sure have more interesting work by working artists. Plus, they rotate on a more frequent basis so you won't get bored looking at the same thing every time you visit their site. One of my favorites is Artfinder which features artists work for sale. They often give background and artist website information. I find it interesting that some artists often copy in some way the work of an artist they admire. Gustav Klimt is one that has been copied and interpreted in more ways than can be counted. But I still love his work. Oh yeah, and he's a dead white male, but not considered a master.

Ceramique Contemporaire is a unique site that features the artwork of ceramic artists who push the art of clay manipulation to the extreme.  A lot of it is just plain beautiful to look at. Sculpture features, what else, sculpture. Something that I can admire, drool over and copy in my own special way. Yes, I ponder copying some of the sculpture pieces that are shown, but when I sit down to work, copying them escapes me. I infuse my work with the ideas of the sculpture I've seen. I would need it in front of me to remember to copy it. Must be the Tequila infusion.

Jean de la Huerta and Antoine Mounier

Mourners from the Tomb of John the Fearless and Margaret of Bavaria

1443-1457

On the lighter side of art is Last Kiss Comics; Humor, life with Lip, Third Eye Comics,World of Black Heroes, (yes, I said Black Heroes, there are a few, you know)
There are several online comics sites that show cover art and allow you to read online.

If you want a little art history and more of a story line, similar to religious art but not quite, check out the posts of Mark Dylan Sieber.  He will be featured on my blog in August. I follow him because he gives great background on the images he posts and I love the historical references and story line. This excerpt is from "Pompadours" in which he explains the images of outrageous hairstyles of women that actually existed. Some of the hair styles are totally out there! Tartuffe's Folly is a good post to follow, it can come to you via email.

"Fashionable hairstyles for women began their vertical climb in the late 1760’s, as they quickly raised the ire of social critics. Editorials appearing in London periodicals immediately decried the large headdresses that English ladies were all too eager to copy from their French counterparts.

These mostly late-18th century engravings, often hand-colored, capture such coiffed extravaganzas in grotesque caricature. Naturally, we still have quite the fascination with "big hair" today, as it is said to approach the heavens! Some of the images are modern interpretations of such an "art of hair" and its hived fashion.

Chronicling the rise and fall of the fashion takes us from the courts of France, to the print shops of London, and finally to the streets of Philadelphia, where all that the high roll represented in a new nation at war with an old empire was brought quite literally to a head." - Pompadours, Mark Dylan Sieber.

Pompadours

For a little inspiration via quotes and imagery, check out Rumi, the messages are always profound. Just as profound as the quote I memorized from Kung Fun Panda. Something about mysteries, histories, and the present being a gift. The Tequila infused margarita has a way of making me forget. I will remember the whole thing after I post this, no doubt. Sometimes Rumi strikes a chord within me with their inspirational messages, but so does the work of Salvador Dali, pictured at the top of the page. He's considered a Surrealist master that's dead and stinkin' but Dali was quite the character in his day and it's reflected in pictures of him with his mustache and artistic flare. Often images of him or his work is accompanied by poetry, mostly in Spanish. Se habla Espanol?

Uzumaki

This has only touched on a few on line/Facebook sites that can enlighten you. There are a million more and I've barely scratched the surface with my faves. Now, get on line and find a few faves for yourself, you can borrow mine, but it's always better when you find your own. 

Don't forget if your on Facebook, feel free to like my page StoneWomynArt. Your always welcome to follow me as well. I will get my shit together eventually, so if your a social network junkie, my bi weekly posts may not be enough for you and you may need other sites to fulfill your social junkie needs. I'm cool with that, just don't you forget about me! One day soon, I'm going to do an 80's music flashback, cause there are several in this post. 

Check out the new blue mist alabaster piece that I'm working on, click the StoneWomynArt sidebar. To see more of my work, check out that StoneWomynArt page on Facebook, and Women's Art Collaborative at zhibit.org.

Thank you for reading my blog, I'm getting myself together...honestly!

See you next time, Same blog time, same blog channel!

A Moving Experience

People let me tell you about the moving game. It's a lot of pain for a little gain. I was a pawn in the game and got played. Back pain, scratches and bruises magically appear at the end of the day. Who said moving is a great way to implement change? They aren't moving anytime soon are they?

Yes, I have moved and it has taken me since the last post not only to move, but try to recuperate and get set up in my new place.  Everyone doesn't move well, I am one of them, but a change was a comin'. It came and somewhat dragged me along, half of me went willingly, the other half went kicking a screaming. So what's the big issue about moving? Well, here's a little story and it goes like this.

After ten years of living in one place, it was time to move. At first, it seemed like a task that could be handled. Here was a chance to start over someplace new, then it became a daunting task, a major chore to complete. I did not know that packing up a house would be so....HARD! Since it was planned, I packed a little everyday, labeling boxes, sorting through old things and cleaning out the excess baggage that had lived with me all these years. Working within my budget did not include a moving company complete with helpers to get the stuff out the house.  No, it was me, my husband and one or two others who rotated in and out of the help zone and a U-haul. Never, ever again! I will save my pennies everyday until the next time just to have the luxury of a moving company come with people to help pack.

While sorting through the memories of the house, I found my class photo from high school, my cap and gown, my prom dress that my mom made for me and a host of other memories too numerous to mention. Did I mention that I was living in the house my mom bought back in 1979! When we moved in, it was already furnished and decorated with someone else's ideas and designs. I should have emptied it out then, but I was excited about being able to return to the home that I spent my early teens and twenties blinded me to the fact that if we ever moved, we would be the ones cleaning all this stuff out.

Once the packing began, my eyes opened up, real wide. There was sooo much stuff, especially in the basement, a culmination of our stuff and the 20 years prior that had accumulated.  We were overwhelmed with what to do with all this stuff. How do we get rid of it all? We wanted and needed to lighten our load, and I did not want my parents furniture. It was solid wood, heavy and bulky, it had served us well in the house. But we just couldn't fathom moving it out and moving it in somewhere else. Besides, I wanted my to be able to have my new home set up the way I wanted, with my own things. A yard sale was out of the question, the homeowners association doesn't allow it. The difference between a single family home and a town home is lawn space, so no yard sales. So I began calling places that would accept donations. My mom had a large formal dinning room set. Unlike today's  smaller dinning rooms, this was solid mahogany wood furniture made in the 1950's (no, not old enough to be antique and I wasn't holding on to it until it became one);  A one piece breakfront or china cabinet, buffet, tea cart, table that seats six. Yes, sounds lovely doesn't it, but I had no idea of how the movers got it into the house, but I was about to find out how it was going to be taken out. But before that could happen, it had to be emptied. I don't own a dinning room set, so I had no place to store the china she collected, nor did I want it. When my sister said she wanted it, I breathed a sigh of relief. She has a daughter to pass it on to, I don't. My niece probably could care less about the china, she's in college and it's not a thought for her right now. Here's the thing, my mom's been dead for 25 years, the furniture has been sitting unused for that long and was covered up for the last 10 years. At first my sister wanted the dinning room set so I didn't sell it, but she never came to get it. By the time we were getting ready to move, my sister had become ill and just getting the china was going to be a major accomplishment for her.  Needless to say, my aunt and I packed up the china and my aunt took the china to my sister. I donated the heavy dinning room set, and heavy bedroom furniture.

During the fifteen years between my mom's death and us moving in, my father had made the drawers in the dinning room his catch-all for things. What a pleasure it was to separate the good stuff from junk, I mean how far away was the trash can Dad!? Slowly, I was starting to feel like I was on an episode of hoarders, the light version. Little did I know that it was an actual episode when I hit the basement. I kept telling myself it wasn't that bad, we had cleaned out somethings when we moved in, guess we didn't clean out the right areas. O M G! the storage space under the basement stairs was crammed with stuff. Everything from big gift boxes of Xmas ornaments, cedar closets with clothes still in them, an old freezer, (I remember my mom buying things in bulk and then freezing them in it) an old grill, vacuum cleaner, books, dishes, my old roller skates along with every drawing and writing paper my son ever did, and that's only a few things found.  The space was super tight cause my dad had the basement finished and the contractor just built around those things I guess. There was about maybe 3-4 ft of space between the outer wall and the cedar closet doors. My aunt, God bless her, was small enough to be able to get in there past the cedar closet to the lower part of the stairs and  pull all the boxes out from that part. My fat ass wasn't able to squeeze between the wall and the closet doors at all. The basement just filled me with dread, I tried to avoid it and focus on the rest of the house. My dad and my husband had massive magazine collections, my dad collected playboy, my husband collected music mags.

When I went to clean out what was supposed to be a studio but ended up being a storage place for my work, I found my own hoard of stuff called Art supplies! My friend Sarah, came over to help me and I loaded her down with a bag of stuff. I then donated two bags of supplies to a teacher friend of mine for her school, packed what I wanted to keep and trashed the rest.  That should be the end of it, but no, that damn basement had more supplies in boxes that I had yet to uncover. The funny part of that is, I almost couldn't give them away. I offered a large garbage bag full of yarn, mostly new to someone that I knew made a living crocheting and knitting for $20, turned it down.  I finally found someone through my aunt, who wanted the bag and couldn't believe that I didn't want more for it. By this time, I just wanted to get rid of it. The same was true for my Masonite boards, they got trashed. The accumulated artwork seemed to come from nowhere, popping out the woodwork saying "hey, don't you forget about me, I'll be alone thrown out and broken baby."

By this time I was through, moving day just meant moving out the things I wanted to keep. I spent an entire week after moving still cleaning the house out. Meanwhile, my new home looked like one big storage unit. Ugh! now I have to unpack this stuff, my back, knees, arms, and eyeballs hurt from moving. All I could do was take Aleve and shake my head as I walked passed my own packed things in disbelief. I donated three times, and that's 3 times that a truck backed up to the door and took stuff out.  Bulk trash was called 4 times and I know they were hating me by then. Stored a few things at my aunts barn. She has an Alpaca farm, and I got to climb up a ladder w/my stuff in tow, working my fatback and bingo wings out (my arms for those who don't know what bingo wings are) Feel a slightly more toned now (look at that body ahw, I work out!) with more scratches on my hands and arms, then I get when carving stone. Still left a lot behind because every time we looked, there was another box, bag or something that had to be looked at. I was done looking and trying to figure out WTF to do with this shit. That's right shit, no longer our stuff, it was long past that. Hoarders would have had a field day with us. I needed an intervention and an ice cold beer. It took us a week before we could begin unpacking our own stuff. We just lived out of boxes and bags for that time. Even though we are more settled, there are still boxes and bags about, but my art space is set up. Did that rather quickly, since I lost a roll of fat moving all my....stuff. That beer still sounds really good.

Guess now I can focus on my new place and new beginning. I really like the diverse neighborhood we are in, with the Hispanic grocery stores bakeries and shops. I can work on improving my Espanol. Plus, I can get anywhere from here via bus, with little or no use for the subway or a car for that fact, buses run every 20-30 minutes, 7 days a week.  Bus hoping at it's best. Another way to work my body out, cause walking up the hill to the nearest bus stop ain't no joke, especially in the heat. That beer will be walked off in a matter of 12-15 minutes which is how long it takes to walk from my place to the nearest bus stop at a normal walking pace. At the old place, buses only run this frequently during rush hour, non rush hour and weekends they run every hour, nothing past 10 pm. Better have cab fare or good shoes on your dogs at that time.

It's on to bigger and better things. I will always have the memories of the house, but it was time to go and now it's a whole new world, so shiny bright and new! So onward and upward from here. BTW, come join me this Friday, June 7 6:30-8:00 for my first member show at the Touchstone Gallery, located on 9th and NY Ave. N.W. a short walk from Gallery Place 9th street exit. The exhibit will last until the end of the month.




Thanks for reading my blog. 

Chat with you in a week or so at the same blog time, same blog channel!

The Shmoo Review

What is a Shmoo? I would always get the snuffleupagus from Sesame Street and the Shmoo confused.  Thinking that shmoos were hairy and large, I called the bush in my front yard one and concocted a story about the gnomes that lived in it. My students would often ask for proof, like a picture, but other than showing them an over grown bush, I had no proof the gnomes, so the story couldn't go on for long. I also called one of my former bosses a shmoo, only cause she had a mustache and her whiskers stuck out to the side. LOL  Well, that's a better description of a shmoo, or at least the image of the creature.  So, I decided to look up exactly what a shmoo is, it was a trip back in time to the old comic characters that I read in the newspaper comics section, what I saw after school or Saturday morning in the cartoon lineups on the major networks. Let's find out about it, shall we?

A shmoo (plural: shmoon, also shmoos) is a fictional cartoon creature. Created by Al Capp (1909–1979), it first appeared in his classic comic strip Li'l Abner on August 31, 1948, and quickly became a postwar national craze in the USA.

A shmoo is shaped like a plump bowling pin with legs. It has smooth skin, eyebrows and sparse whiskers—but no arms, nose or ears. Its feet are short and round but dexstrous, as the shmoo's comic book adventures make clear. It has a rich gamut of facial expressions, and often expresses love by extruding hearts over its head. Cartoonist Al Capp ascribed to the shmoo the following curious characteristics. His satirical intent should be evident:
They reproduce asexually and are incredibly prolific, multiplying exponentially faster than rabbits. They require no sustenance other than air.

Shmoos are delicious to eat, and are eager to be eaten. If a human looks at one hungrily, it will happily immolate itself — either by jumping into a frying pan, after which they taste like chicken, or into a broiling pan, after which they taste like steak. When roasted they taste like pork, and when baked they taste like catfish. (Raw, they taste like oysters on the half-shell.)

They also produce eggs (neatly packaged), milk (bottled, grade-A), and butter—no churning required. Their pelts make perfect boot leather or house timber, depending on how thick you slice it.

They have no bones, so there's absolutely no waste. Their eyes make the best suspender buttons, and their whiskers make perfect toothpicks. In short, they are simply the perfect ideal of a subsistence agricultural herd animal.

Naturally gentle, they require minimal care, and are ideal playmates for young children. The frolicking of shmoo is so entertaining (such as their staged "shmoosical comedies") that people no longer feel the need to watch television or go to the movies.

Some of the more tasty varieties of shmoo are more difficult to catch. Usually shmoo hunters, now a sport in some parts of the country, utilize a paper bag, flashlight and stick to capture their shmoos. At night the light stuns them, then they can be whacked in the head with the stick and put in the bag for frying up later on.

Okay, they are shaped like bowling pens with legs, and are great to eat, and want to be eaten.  Not my idea of a shmoo, but hey, I didn't create the character. There is a great story about how Li'l Abner discovered them and I thought I would share a tid bit of it with you.

In a sequence beginning in late August 1948, Li'l Abner discovers the shmoos when he ventures into the forbidden "Valley of the Shmoon" following the mysterious and musical sound they make (from which their name derives). Abner is thrown off a cliff and into the valley below by a primitive "large gal" (as he addresses her), whose job is to guard the valley. (This character is never seen again.) 

There, against the frantic protestations of a naked, heavily bearded old man who shepherds the shmoos, Abner befriends the strange and charming creatures. "Shmoos," the old man warns, "is the greatest menace to hoomanity th' world has evah known!" "Thass becuz they is so bad, huh?" asks Li'l Abner. "No, stupid", answers the man — and then encapsulates one of life's profound paradoxes: "It's because they's so good!!"

Having discovered their value ("Wif these around, nobody won't nevah havta work no more!!"), Abner leads the shmoos out of the valley — where they become a sensation in Dogpatch and, quickly, the rest of the world. 

Captains of industry such as J. Roaringham Fatback, the "Pork King", become alarmed as sales of nearly all products decline, and in a series of images reminiscent of the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the "Shmoo Crisis" unfolds. On Fatback's orders, a corrupt exterminator orders out "Shmooicide Squads" to wipe out the shmoos with a variety of firearms, which is depicted in a macabre and comically graphic sequence, with a tearful Li'l Abner misguidedly saluting the supposed "authority" of the extermination squads.

Wow! a creature that makes a person to never have to work again. I thought that already existed! It may not be a creature, but some of its slang names suggest one - it's called money.

I watched The New Shmoo. The New Shmoo is an American animated series based on the character from the Li'l Abner comic strip created by Al Capp. It was produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions for NBC. The series aired in September 1979.  

Similar to Scooby-Doo, Where are You!, the show follows a group of teenagers—Mickey, Nita and Billy Joe—who solve mysteries and crimes with their friend, Shmoo. The teens worked for Mighty Mysteries Comics. Great! another mystery solving team. (Maybe this is why I like crime shows so much) Mystery solved by those meddling kids in thirty minutes or less. Scooby-Doo remains number one with me!

Another set of creatures similar to the shmoo is Gleep and Gloop from the Herculoids.  Their shapes are the same along with the button size eyes, but that's where are similarities end. No mustaches for these two, Gleep and Gloop are made of totally different components and they don't taste like chicken.

Gloop and Gleep (both voiced by Don Messick) - Two protoplasmic creatures. They are able to absorb and deflect energy blasts and laser beams, often placing themselves between attackers and other Herculoids to act as shields. They can also form shapes including, but not limited to: cushions, trampolines or parachutes to break falls; stretching themselves between tree limbs or rocks to act as slingshots; encircling an attacker's limbs to restrain them, or the entire body to squeeze and render them unconscious. Gloop is the larger of the two.

The Herculoids were cool, living in a prehistoric period where people are scarce on the planet, but there's always someone trying take over.

Cartoons have always been cool. Some more memorable than others.  During my search on shmoos, I found other cartoon shows that I used to watch, but have long forgotten. There are so many, and most are beyond stupid and brain numbing to watch now.  Back then, they were some of the best shows out and Network stations competed for young viewers attention and each had it's own Saturday morning lineup that started at 8 and ran until 11 am or noon. The afternoon weekday cartoons ran from about 4pm until 6 pm, each network station running their own afternoon cartoon lineup. Not like now, where cartoons are on designated channels such as Disney jr, DXD,The HUB,Cartoon Network, Boomerang, Nickelodeon, Nicktoons and all their east,west coast, jr, sr., Sprite and other sister/brother stations. Even PBS have their own cartoons.  So many to choose from, yet only a few really have good cartoons on them. At least what I consider good cartoons.

So now we know what a shmoo is, and how their distance relatives Gleep and Gloop are similar in shape but have different abilities.  Venturing back in time to a long lost cartoon, only to find it's been altered to appeal to a younger generation. Brings to mind that everything comes back around in time. Right now, the 80's are back in a horrible way, at least fashion wise. That's a whole other post that would be waaayy too long because some of it is just, well....WRONG! It would have pictures with just the words WRONG stamped across it! A photo essay! LOL. Well, I'm done shmooing around!

Check out my Stonewomynart page on Facebook, and the new Women's Art Collaborative art site at www.zhibit.org/womensartcollaborative. Always something new to see.

Thanks for reading my blog. Chat with you next time at the...

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Glass Stained, But Not Broken; An illustrated Connection

I have always found stained glass to be beautiful. Most of the stained glass that I have seen has been in churches.  I have found myself in places such as antique stores where there are often stained glass windows aligned along a wall. A lot of them with the window frame and mostly geometrically shaped images. While perusing my Facebook news feed I found this artist. His work is really beautifully done, especially the black and white drawings. It may be a far reach, but I also noticed some similarities between his work and Erte's work.  Their time periods overlap and perhaps Erte was influenced a bit by Clarke. While there is no evidence of that, after looking at both their work, I found they favored each other. Erte was more about fashion design and he created pieces that were fluid, graceful, dramatic and worn by the stars of his day. But the similarity is in the design of the images, especially the black and white illustrations. The way the women are posed, the detail and intricate design of their clothing. Their contemplative stare, forward or to the side, the boldness in the curves, lines, and details within the entire image.  Clarke's images are more brash, dramatic, stylized character illustrations created for Edgar Allen Poe and others. while Erte is more graceful, theatrical, fluid and bright. Look and compare some of their images, decide for yourself. We can agree to disagree.

Harry Clarke (1889 to 1931) was undoubtedly Ireland’s greatest stained glass artist. Internationally the name of Harry Clarke is synonymous with quality craftsmanship and imaginative genius in his stained glass work. His use of deep rich colors, his delicate depiction of beautiful elongated figures with their finely carved features and deep expressive eyes, is indeed magical to behold. During his short life Harry created over 160 stained glass windows for religious and commercial commissions throughout Ireland and England, and as far as the USA and Australia. Also an illustrator of books for Harrap and Co. in London, Harry illustrated books that show his undoubted genius in the area of graphic art.

Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen his first printed work, however, in 1916—a title that included 16 colour plates and more than 24 monotone illustrations. This was closely followed by  illustrations for an edition of Edgar Allan Poe's Tales of Mystery and Imagination: the first version of that title was restricted to monotone illustrations, while a second iteration with 8 color plates and more than 24 monotone images was published in 1923.

The latter of these made his reputation as a book illustrator (this was during the golden age of gift-book illustration in the first quarter of the twentieth century: Clarke's work can be compared to that of Aubrey Beardsley, Kay Nielsen, and Edmund Dulac). It was followed by editions of The Years at the Spring, containing 12 color plates and more than 14 monotone images; (Lettice D'O. Walters, ed., 1920), Charles Perrault's Fairy Tales of Perrault, and Goethe's Faust, containing 8 color plates and more than 70 monotone and duotone images (New York: Hartsdale House,1925). The last of these is perhaps his most famous work, and prefigures the disturbing imagery of 1960's psychedelia.

Stained glass is central to Clarke's career. His glass is distinguished by the finesse of its drawing, unusual in the medium, his use of rich colours (inspired by an early visit to see the stained glass of the Cathedral of Chartres, he was especially fond of deep blues), and an innovative integration of the window leading as part of the overall design (his use of heavy lines in his black and white book illustrations is probably derived from his glass techniques).

Clarke's stained glass work includes many religious windows but also much secular stained glass. Highlights of the former include the windows of the Honan Chapel in University College Cork, of the latter, a window illustrating John Keats' The Eve of St. Agnes (now in the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery in Dublin) and the Geneva Window. Perhaps his most seen work was the windows of Bewley's Café on Dublin's Grafton Street.

Clarke's work was influenced by both the passing Art Nouveau and coming Art Deco movements. His stained glass was particularly informed by the French Symbolist movement. 

Romain de Tirtoff (23 November 1892 – 21 April 1990) was a Russian-born French artist and designer known by the pseudonym Erté, the French pronunciation of his initials, R.T. He was a diversely talented 20th-century artist and designer who flourished in an array of fields, including fashion, jewelry, graphic arts, costume and set design for film, theater, and opera, and interior décor. 

Erté is perhaps most famous for his elegant fashion designs which capture the art deco period in which he worked. One of his earliest successes was designing apparel for the French dancer Gaby Deslys who died in 1920. His delicate figures and sophisticated, glamorous designs are instantly recognizable, and his ideas and art still influence fashion into the 21st century.

 His costumes, program designs, and sets were featured in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1923, many productions of the Folies Bergère, and George White's Scandals. On Broadway, the celebrated French chanteuse Irène Bordoni wore Erté's designs.

I think both of these artists are fabulous and are true genius' of their time. While the fashions of Erte's day may be long gone, his influence is still seen on Broadway. 

Now that I've either caused an up roar and I'm totally left field, or maybe I'm on to something.  It's a just something that caught my eye. Maybe I'm intrigued by all the detail and how beautifully the lines flow and curve. I'm a sucker for a nice curve! - Still regardless to which way you lean on this, you have to admit that they are both pretty amazing artist.

Found something new to add to my Steampunk Romantic interests. Dark Beauty Magazine's Steampunk Issue. One can only guess the wonders inside this magazine. I got a sneak peak of the fist couple of pages, but of course, we must support our romantic interests and pay to further dive into this seemingly wonderful issue. Perhaps I will, it may be worth it. Need a steampunk romance booster. Check it out at www.darkbeautymag.com.

Thanks for reading. See you next time at the.....

Same blog time, Same blog channel!

Don't blink - Weeping Angels on board

Cincinnati Spring Grove Cemetery & Arboretum

Statues of angels are usually found in cemeteries, an eerily quiet place often peaceful and beautiful to look at, even those that are centuries old, overgrown and run down, with big head stones and mausoleums. Angels are watchers and protectors but there are also other types of  Angels. Angel of Grief is an 1894 sculpture by William Wetmore Story which serves as the grave stone of the artist and his wife at the Protestant Cemetery, Rome.  The term is now used to describe multiple grave stones throughout the world erected in the style of the Story stone.  Angels are mysterious, beautiful and intriguing, I have created my own series of angels out of stone, none are grieving, but maybe they should, they would at least be more expressive.  But that's another story for another time.

William Wetmore Story, Angel of Grief

But what if Angels were beings that are of unknown origins; we assume all angels were created by the hand of God and given a purpose to serve. It could be argued that they are beings of unknown origins, depending on your religious views. This isn't about religion, not totally! - okay some aspects of this post has a religious base to it, but what doesn't!?  For the past few days, I have been watching Doctor Who and there was an episode called  "Blink," which is about weeping angels and come to find out there are other episodes that deal with them.  Being intrigued about angels, I began to research Weeping Angels. No, they are not just statues that are alive and move in Blink, but actual statues that can be found in cemeteries, arboretums or cathedrals. Which is a creepy thought all by itself, and if they moved, it would be terrifying and cool. There are also the Nephilim (my favorite), who are the offspring of the sons of God and the daughters of man.  Some say they are giants, monsters, or aliens, and still exist. Would have been great topic to explore on X Files. (Remember that show!) Now let's see what The Doctors Weeping Angels are about....

The Weeping Angels are an ancient race of aliens from the Doctor Who television series. Steven Moffat, their creator, attributes their appeal to childhood games such as Grandmother's Footsteps and the notion that every statue is secretly a Weeping Angel.

Their usual mode of feeding is to send their victims back in time, which creates time energy to feed on. When they are not being observed by another being, they can move very quickly and silently, but when they are being observed, they become "quantum-locked", occupying a single position in space and becoming stone. In this state, they are frozen and difficult to destroy. They cannot suppress this reaction. If two Weeping Angels were to look at each other at the same time, they would be trapped in stone form until an outside force moves them apart. To prevent this, they often cover their eyes while moving - this makes them look as though they are weeping.

According to the Doctor, the Weeping Angels "are as old as the universe (or very nearly), but no one really knows where they come from." He describes them as the loneliest beings in the universe, since their quantum-lock reaction makes it difficult for them to socialize; he also describes them as "the deadliest, most powerful, most malevolent life-form evolution has ever produced." That said, in all their TV appearances, the Angels could communicate with each other and work in groups. The quantum-lock is apparently an evolutionary, instinctive, uncontrollable reaction to being seen. However if the Angels are scared themselves, this reaction can be exploited to make them believe they are being watched when they are not. Though they themselves cannot speak, they can communicate through the voice of a person they kill by removing their brains and reanimating their minds. They are also very physically strong, capable of snapping necks, though physically killing a victim is rare for them unless the need arises (such as stealing someones voice). Not so alluring now are they?
But wait!  there's more....

The Weeping Angels possess several notable abilities. In "The Time of Angels" it is suggested that when Angels need bodies for communication they snap their victim's neck and rearrange the brains for their purposes. The Angels speak in their victim's voice, as "Angel Bob", a fallen soldier of the Church, becomes the "voice" of the Angels and explains the Angels' motives and thoughts to the Doctor. As they close on more aware victims, their features transform from calm angels with normal proportions to more horrific, bestial demons with wide open mouths baring vampiric teeth and clawed hands. Their paramount ability is their speed, as they are able to close distances of meters literally in the blink of an eye, allowing them to reach a victim or move to an unseen or darkened area before their quantum-lock freezes them again.

With a touch, a Weeping Angel can send a person into the past, to before his/her own birth. The Angels feed off the "potential energy" of the years their victims would have lived in the present. The Doctor describes them as "the only psychopaths in the universe to kill you nicely" because their victims are otherwise uninjured and may live out their lifespans in the past. They can drain other forms of energy, such as that from electric lights, as seen in the Season 3 episode "Blink", or other electronics. Without power, the Angels start to decay, turn to stone without being watched, and corrode as a statue does; their speed is also extremely hindered if Angels reach starvation, as seen in The Time of Angels, lessened from meters to a partial step in a blink. This can be undone by providing the Angels with energy, but it is implied they can no longer acquire energy themselves in this state. In "Blink," the Angels stole the Doctor's TARDIS after trapping him in the past. The engine of the vehicle contained enough energy to feed them for a lifetime.

They have also exhibited the power to project themselves through images. In "The Time of Angels", an Angel trapped in the vault of the Byzantium is able to control a video screen that was playing video footage of it. It overrode the screen controls and could control nearby electronic equipment as well. The Angel is able to take over the screen and come through it in an attempt to kill Amy because "that which holds the image of an angel becomes itself an angel", from a warning in an ancient book on the Angels, found by River Song. Also in the novel "Touched by an Angel", a starving angel no longer has a physical being, and instead exists in the image viewed by cameras. As such whatever is the sight of the camera is in range of the angel. The angel retains fast movement, but at the cost of range. Normally as in The Time of Angels the image would walk right out of the screen, when it is starving it cannot do so. To stop movement, simply viewing the screen is enough to lock the angel. Do you really want to be touched by these angels? Let's reach out and touch Faith....

“When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, The sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose.


Then the LORD said, “My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years.”

The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them.
They were the heroes of old, men of renown.” - Genesis 6: 1 – 4

I don’t know about you, but the mysterious Nephilim fascinate me.  I mean, why wouldn’t they?  These mysterious “sons of God” (sometimes called “Sons of Heaven”) coming down to marry the “daughters of man.”  Kind of romantic, don’t you think?

But who were the Nephilim? Well, if you listen to most modern day churches, the Nephilim were “fallen angels” sent to earth for being naughty.  I’m not sure how sending them to earth was going to solve anything.  All it did was make them naughtier.  I mean, they were all having sex (GASP!).  With daughters of man (GASP!), and having babies and stuff. SHOCKING! Pretty indicative of the Puritanical foundations of my fair country and it’s churches, if you ask me.  Having sex equaled BAD.  Therefore God had to go and smash everything like a child having a temper tantrum.

Maybe some will call that sacrilegious, but it makes no sense to me.  What does make a little more sense are passages in the Book of Enoch and the Book of Jubilee.  European churches tossed these books out ages ago as being of “questionable origin.”  (Uhm, excuse me, aren’t ALL the books of the Bible of rather questionable origin?  That’s unless you’re a several thousand year-old creature who was THERE when they were being written. No?)

In any case, according to these books, the Nephilim weren’t necessarily fallen angels, but rather “Watchers.”  Those charged with keeping an eye on humanity.  Some think they were already here on Earth when they first cast eyes on beautiful human women, while others believe that they chose to leave heaven and go against the dictates of GOD in order to be with these beautiful women (Not a lot of women in heaven, apparently).  Whichever way you want to go, the end result was that the Nephilim (Watchers) ended up having sex with human females and having giant children who were insanely greedy and violent, not to mention cannibals.

Even worse, the Nephilim taught humans the arts of sorcery and war.  Niiiiice.  Of course, they also taught useful things like astronomy and the movements of the moon and tides.  Good stuff.  So, I guess you could say there were good Nephilim and bad Nephilim.  But eventually the humans called out to God (though in some instances it’s claimed the good angels called God’s attention to the FUBAR) and God saved humanity by, uh, killing them,  with a flood.  A flood which killed off everyone but Noah and his family (because he was a good man and didn't go around fornicating w/others), but unfortunately left some of the Nephilim still alive.

Yeah, that worked out well.  Because we’re so peaceful and stuff now, right.

But this is not the end of the theories on the Nephilim.  According to the Ancient Astronaut theory, the Nephilim were actually not angels at all, but alien beings.  Only instead of having sex, they were running some kind of hybrid breeding program.  The giants (and other weird creatures of mythology) were early experiments gone badly awry.

You can see how our ancient ancestors would mistake aliens for gods or angles.  I mean, they had SPACESHIPS, for crying out loud.  They were powerful in ways that couldn’t be explained with the knowledge of the time and so it was considered “magic” instead of the advanced technology and science it really was.  Therefore, perfectly ordinary beings became gods.

So, what is the truth? Were Nephilim bad angels sent to earth as punishment?  Were they Watchers who fell in love and chose to leave?  Or were they beings from another world?  Are they ”Sons of Heaven” in the literal sense? And that’s just the tip of the iceberg as far as theories and opinions go. Either way, it’s an interesting little side-note in the annals of our history.  One I wish they’d spent a little more time on. Can you imagine the stories a writer could get out of that tiny little bit of information?  A forbidden romance between an angel and a human;  A bloodthirsty conflict between two warring angel races with humans caught in the middle;  Aliens visiting earth for mysterious purposes.

Did we touch Faith, or were we touched by Angels or aliens? You decide, my plan is not to Blink, don't look away, don't turn your back.  Did they move? 

Thanks for reading my blog, hope is was at least entertaining. Feedback appreciated.

See you next time,

Same blog time, same blog channel. 

Blink!