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I’ve been painting tiny pictures lately (see the elephant here and the bunnies here), in order to fit painting for fun into my schedule. My third tiny painting was a girl blowing a bubble with her bubblegum. I broke out my watercolors and colored pencils and painted a picture so horrible that I had to rip it up. Seriously. All it takes to ruin a small watercolor painting is a couple of misplaced brush strokes. However, I still liked the sketch, so I made the bubblegum girl into a digital illustration. The image is 2″ x 2″ like the paintings.
Bubblegum Girl
I like how she turned out, but I still wanted to paint something. A picture of a cow blowing a bubblegum bubble seemed like a fun take on the original, and worked out well, because it fits several art prompts all at once (see list below the picture). I used watercolor and colored pencil to make the image. I’m happy with the way both pictures turned out, but I have to say, the more I look at them, the weirder they look. Of course, if you looked at a photograph showing a side view of someone blowing a bubblegum bubble, that would probably look weird after a while, too.
Bubblegum Cow
The CBIG prompt this month is fantasy – a cow blowing bubblegum bubbles is definitely fantasy! Bubblegum Girl also works for fantasy. She wants to blow the biggest bubble ever and win the national bubblegum bubble blowing contest (which they actually have – I saw it on TV a couple of years ago).
The Watercolor Wednesdays prompt for last week was to create a greeting card image for a child – the bubblegum sort of looks like a speech balloon, where the cow could say, “Happy Birthday!” Bubblegum Girl also works for this week’s prompt, to illustrate a favorite toy or game … not that gum qualifies as a toy, but trying to blow the biggest bubble could be a game, so I think that counts (or at least it works for me – I went to art school; I can justify anything).
The Illustration Friday prompt this week is brave – that cow is really brave to be blowing bubblegum bubbles. What if it pops and goes all over her face? Bubblegum Girl also works for brave. She knows what will happen if the bubble as big as her head pops!
Are tiny paintings the next big thing? Maybe not, but I’m having fun with them
3 Comments on bubblegum cows and bubblegum girl, last added: 3/11/2010
I like them both & think the greeting card idea would be fab!
stephanie said, on 3/11/2010 10:47:00 AM
Thanks Dayle!
Thanks Julia! Van Gogh-ish? Cool! I did have to stand by The Starry Night painting a lot when I worked at MOMA. Maybe it rubbed off on me. I’ve been thinking about doing some greeting cards and opening an Etsy shop …
How many of us think about the world we know versus the world to which we wish to travel? Cora Bradley is wishing for an escape, anywhere but her angry and sorrowful home since the death of her reckless brother Nate. Then add entering high school, changes in her best friend, and having art with Damien who was in the car when Nate wrapped it around that tree.
Cora draws exquisite maps of the world she wishes to see, and ends up creating a map of the world she knows. I have not read such a profound book about the different faces of grief. Will her parents loosen the vise of protection from her? Will Cora be able to accept the summer art program? Will Damien prove just as volatile as her brother?
I just drew you, man! It's strange it had to end this way—no one should die so young—but thanks for the memories. You were awesome in Lucas, and back in the day, every teenage girl had a poster of you on her wall. My prayers go out to your friends and family. May you rest in peace.
And just as I titled my piece, the toast bears repeating: L'Haim!
1 Comments on R.I.P. Corey Haim 1971-2010, last added: 3/14/2010
My etching class ended last night. I was able to pull one more print that I’m almost happy with, but will now be renting space at the Atlanta Printmaker’s Studio in order to study the craft and practice more. In the meantime, here is last night’s progress on the hummingbird piece. The drawing looks a little labored due to my having to redraw through the hard ground and having to reapply and redraw the soft ground details as well, and in this printing, I left a fair amount of ink on the plate for more plate tone….
My instructor, Kathy Garrou, brought in a book done completely in engraving! How crazy that? It’s a GORGEOUS book called TRICK OF THE TALE, written by John and Caitlin Matthews and illustrated by Tomislav Tomic. This book is published by Candlewick Press, who is ironically the publisher of my next book, WHITE WATER~ I can’t wait to add this book to my collection.
From the publisher: Enter (carefully) the world of the tricksters, those wily creatures who lie their way out of trouble, cheat when they get a chance, and devise elaborate tricks to get what they want — with delightfully unpredictable results. This truly diverse, elegantly illustrated collection follows such clever characters as Anansi, Coyote, Brer Rabbit, and others who play a role in a multicultural array of storytelling traditions, from African to Inuit to European, Tibetan to Native American to Japanese. Celebrate the slyest trickster tales from around the world in a lavish volume that gives a well-loved story tradition its rightful due.
Speaking of WHITE WATER…back to work~
0 Comments on Printmaking in books as of 3/10/2010 9:47:00 AM
I was browsing the Rabid Children Flickr group for artwork inspired by the music of They Might Be Giants, which introduced me to the work of Vancouver artist Hine Mizushima, whose little felted characters blew me away with pure cute (more at her Flickr stream).
I was then immediately reminded that she was responsible for the stop motion video for TMBG’s Why Does the Sun Shine? from their wonderful Here Comes Science:
I attended three illustration workshops in January and February. The talks were given by Steve Metzler (Dutton), Patrick Collins (Henry Holt), and Regina Griffith (Egmont). Here are some notes from those sessions that I thought might help both illustrators and writers.
Steve Metzler gave a talk about Dutton, then reviewed several portfolios, including mine. I learned almost as much from what he said about other portfolios as I did from what he said about mine. If you have a chance to have him review your portfolio, take it.
- Characters are selling in picture books and graphic novels, especially quirky characters (like Fancy Nancy, Skippy Jon Jones, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and Baby Mouse).
- A good character leads to a good story.
- He likes to see people in portfolios, not just animals.
- 2012 is supposed to be the height of the new PB market (baby boom in 2006).
- If you’re an illustrator, also be a writer.
- He works on everything from PB to YA.
- Sees a need for graphic novels for boys (7-9 year olds).
- Don’t ever do a PB dummy where it’s all the same (all full page spreads, all vignettes, all single pages, etc.)
Patrick Collins gave portfolio reviews to three lucky people, followed by Q&A at a local SCBWI meeting. He didn’t review my portfolio, but I learned a lot from the portfolios he did review.
- A publisher might choose your art or your writing, but not always both – even if you do both.
- Try to have a focus in each image. How do you get the focal point of the image to come forward and have everything else fade into the background? Try varying the tones/values.
- Kid’s books are all about characters and storytelling.
- Pay attention to how you draw people and animals and how you incorporate them into your backgrounds.
- You really need to put in the time to make progress if you want to have a career in art.
- Make sure you have character in your characters. They should look like living people, not mannequins. (You can achieve this through expressions, body language and interaction between characters.)
- Need to have more than one perspective/point of view.
- Think about how you can show focus in a busy image. You don’t want people to miss the important part of the scene.
- The reason an art director looks for a consistent style is so they know what you can/will do if they hire you. You can always market a different style later. Show your best style at the time.
Regina Griffith gave a talk about Egmont, then reviewed several portfolios, including mine. As with Steve Metzler’s talk, I learned almost as much from what she said about other portfolios as I did from what she said about mine. Regina was really great about reviewing a portfolio and then talking about what was working or not with the whole group. If you have a chance to have her review your portfolio, take it.
- Not publishing many PBs right now. Focusing on older books.
- She’s looking for a broad range with real kid appeal.
- Most of the books on their list right now are US books, but they do have a couple that are foreign books.
- No graphic novels yet, but maybe in the future.
- Can’t imagine not liking animals in clothing. It depends on the text though. (In response to a question about anthropomorphized animals.)
- Picture books should have a plot.
- In a crowd scene, everyone should have different personalities.
- Page turn surprises in picture books are a good thing.
- It’s good to show you can fill a page with spots/vignettes or with full page spreads.
- It’s good to have black and white images in your portfolio when picture books are in a slump.
1 Comments on notes from 3 illustrator workshops: Steve Metzler, Patrick Collins and Regina Griffith, last added: 3/5/2010
Fancy Nancy Illustrator Robin Preiss Glasser said, on 3/5/2010 2:31:00 PM
Hello,
I always have great fun putting myself in Nancy’s fancy shoes when I receive each of Jane O’Connor’s manuscripts for a Fancy Nancy book. Our latest collaboration is no different.
Fancy Nancy: Poet Extraordinaire celebrates Poetry Month. Nancy’s love of fancy, beautiful language makes her just the right guide for young children to explore and have fun with poetry.
When I first got the story, I started to imagine what kind of dress-up Nancy would pull together to wear for writing poetry — something Shakespearean perhaps, or reaching back even further to Homer? Then came the footwear! Ever crafty, Nancy could easily assemble her version of ancient footwear with a pair of flip flops and some ribbon. Voila! The cover illustration started to take shape in my mind…
Once Upon An Ordinary School Day by Colin McNaughton, illustrated by Satoshi Kitamura has been on my to-review list since last summer. I had hoped to write about it when M started school, but it is only now, half way through the year (!) that we’ve managed to do the activity that Once Upon An Ordinary School Day has been crying out for us to do! It involved lots of duvets, quilts and wonderful music…. and was a great deal of fun! But first of all, a little about this lovely book.
Once upon an ordinary school day,
an ordinary boy woke from his ordinary dreams,
got out of his ordinary bed, had an ordinary pee,
an ordinary wash, put on his ordinary clothes,
and ate his ordinary breakfast.
The ordinary day continues, the boy makes his way to school, and settles himself down for his first class. So far, so ordinary. But then, something quite out of the ordinary happens…
It turns out that the class has a new teacher, Mister Gee. The kids don’t know him, and he doesn’t know the kids, but he does have a great idea for changing this. First he puts on some music for the class to listen to and encourages them “to let the music make pictures” in their heads.
The kids are rather taken aback by this strange task, but the music is so wonderful it wins them over. The music conjures up different images in different children, and Mister Gee asks his class to write down what each of them hears so that he can read each child’s story that night. Suddenly the ordinary boy’s day has been transformed into something extraordinary – the music has acted as a catalyst, releasing a tremendous stream of creativity, excitement and a real enjoyment of writing.
And as the music
grew and swooped and
danced and dived once more,
the ordinary boy began to write.
He used words he didn’t fully understand
and his story made no sense but it didn’t matter
and he didn’t care. And he wrote as fast as he could
but it would never be fast enough – there was just too
much to say. It was as if a dam had burst in his head
and words just came flooding out…
I adore this tale about awakening a love of words, about a creative approach to literacy, about the power of music. It is beautifully written and stunningly illustrated. The opening few pages, as we follow the boy on his ordinary start to his ordinary day are all grey but as his day is transformed, more and more colour is introduced. Kitamura’s drawings are deliciously detailed, from the scattered contents of his school bag to the thousands of bricks in the buildings he walks past on his way to school – there’s plenty for reader and listener to pour over and enjoy.
In respons
4 Comments on Putting images to sounds, last added: 3/4/2010
I can’t wait to read this book! A comment regarding your feet painting – I do a similar activity with my students called “magic paintbrushes” the only difference is that the children only imagine that they have paint on their feet as they dance across the floor and we discuss the imaginary paintings that they produce. Have you ever read Eric Carle’s “I See a Song,” it would fit in well with this theme.
jojoebi said, on 3/3/2010 7:08:00 PM
How strange, my son is just doing a picture to the song Country road take me home, I had him listen to it a couple of times then draw a picture from the music. Whilst he was drawing I thought I would catch up on some blog reading and here is this post!
Zoe said, on 3/4/2010 5:49:00 AM
Hi Andi, I don’t know that Eric Carle but I shall certainly look for it now – thanks for the tip.
Hi Jojoebi, Lovely to see you here! I love your recent slippers by the way I’d love to have seen Ebi-Kun’s picture.
Amy @ Hope Is the Word said, on 3/4/2010 6:26:00 AM
Well, this is just a lovely post. I’m SO GLAD you linked it up to Read Aloud Thursday!
This looks like a terrific book–I’ll have to search it out and borrow your idea!
In the world of "Forts" there are a hundred doorways leading to a hundred different worlds. While I won't be able to visit them all over the course of the three books, I thought it might be fun to add to the mythology by sketching up a few alien races on the spot.
Here's the second in the series.
Steve
1 Comments on 100 Worlds - 100 Creatures Episode 2, last added: 3/3/2010
Paul Woodruff is a professor of philosophy and classics at the University of Texas at Austin. In his latest book, The Necessity of Theater, Woodruff articulates why we created theater, why we practice it, and above all, why we need it. Throughout book, poignant examples of our day to day need for watching and being watched are weaved in with cornerstones of our traditional definition of theater—football is compared to Hamlet, family weddings with Waiting for Godot. In the following excerpt, Woodruff picks apart the role of spatial definition in both traditional and day to day theater.
Why does theater need a measured space? In order to practice the art of theater successfully, some people must be watching the actions of others. Whether your job tonight is to watch or be watched, you need to know which job is yours; the watcher-watched distinction is essential to theater. We shall see that even this can break down at the end of a theater piece, with marvelous consequences. But one of those consequences is that the event is no longer theatrical. When no one is watching, it’s not theater; it has grown into something else. Marking off space in theater is a device for meeting the need to distinguish the watcher from the watched. In most traditions there is a circle or a stage or sanctuary or a playing field.
Plot measures time better than a clock does, but what could measure space? This is a hard question, because theater space seems to be much more elastic than theater time, and nothing serves the function of plot to give space a structure that is comparable to the beginning, middle and end of the time in theater.
Back to the green lawn in front of the tower, the lying plastic disks, and the leaping, twirling young men. Suppose that, after our meeting concludes, we return past the same green and see the students still playing. Our meeting ended early, and we have time to watch again. The throes are longer now: one student leaps the hedge to catch a long throw; his friend dashes down the steps to retrieve another. In the pause for retrieval, the third player recognizes one of us, and, as a challenge, throws her an extra disk that had been kept in reserve on top of his backpack. Wordlessly, one of us moves into the green and we commence to play, a separate game, fully clothed and far less skillful. But on the same ground. The student players shift slightly to make room for us.
The student game never had boundaries, although perhaps the green looked as if it gave the players a spatial boundary. But no. They violated nothing when they leaped over the hedge and we violated nothing when we stepped through a gap in the hedge and began our own game.
But imagine the outcry if the nest football game between Texas and Oklahoma went the same way. In this stadium, there is a line drawn on the grass, and it marks the space for the game. If a player crosses the line, he must pay a price for that. The game will stop if he does not stay sitting in the front row at this game, grow bored with the poor quality of play, we might decide to start our own game of catch on the same field during the game. But to do so would be to risk being disarmed by the crowd. We would be straying into sacred space. Certainly, this space is sacred to this crowd of football fans. (I almost said “worshipers, but football mania is not worship. It merely resembles worship.) And for an audience member who intrudes on that space the price is much higher than for a player to stray outside it.
“Sacred” is a word we have almost l
0 Comments on The Role of the Stage as of 1/1/1900
As you know, Mono Print Making in Please Touch Museum's Program Room gave our visitors the chance to play with their art. Looking back on the beautiful masterpieces by our young visitors that were featured here on the blog last week, we see a great variety of artwork using the same tools; it's the process, not the product that matters. At Please Touch Museum, we value creativity and experimentation, and the Mono Print Making activity perfectly illustrates that each child has a unique connection and experience with art.
Thank you again to all of our talented and playful young artists for their wonderfully imaginative contributions!
Jonah, Age 3, represents a varied palette of color along with a variety of abstract shapes.
Lily, Age 3, creates art that dances across the page with contrasting yellow and blue.
Louis, Age 2, mixes and layers colors.
Maryam, Age 3, layers thin tracks of color in this exciting work of art.
Michael uses pattern and line in this mono chromatic print.
Zahirah, Age 6, lays down the pink then reprints with a darker blu
0 Comments on Final Round of Mono Prints for Philagrafika! as of 3/1/2010 3:08:00 PM
I woke to outstanding news this morning. OUR CHILDREN CAN SOAR has won an Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work for Children!
Congrats to Michelle Cook and all of the artists who contributed to this wonderful project!
You can see a list of all of the award winners here:
1 Comments on Our Children Can Soar is an NAACP Image Award winner!, last added: 2/27/2010
Not since Bobby "Boris" Pickett's Monster Mash has a novelty song been this... sweet. It seems artist (and noted archaeologist) Owen Schumacher—who for the purpose of this article is writing in the third person—has recouped what would have been a lost weekend by elatedly recording his loving ode to all things GTL—namely, the epically catchy single, Never Fall in Love at the Jersey Shore! [Preview and purchase your copy today at iTunes, CD Baby or Amazon.]
Even long-time Jersey Shore fanatics Greg Gutfeld and the cast of Red Eye're psyched to the point of transvestism! So it's not just Owen on Hollywood and Vine!
What're you waiting for—a better Jersey Shore-themed novelty single?!
Oh, really? Oh—nevermind, then. You'll just be waiting a long time.
This past week I taught my Cartooning class for After School Enrichment at the local elementary school. I love teaching this class, especially after last year's comment exclaimed by a third grader, "I never knew cartooning could be so much fun". Yes, that's why we do it! Thing is, I could stand up in front of these eager minds and tell them how to draw cartoons. (Heaven knows, I've bought a million cartooning books over the past 25 years that tell just that.) But, where can they go from there? A problem many artists have faced over the years: the dreaded blank piece of paper.
So, I share with the group a great quote by Joseph Barbera, of Hanna-Barbera fame: "Making cartoons means very hard work at every step of the way, but creating a successful cartoon character is the hardest work." Then, I read from the last page of David Horvath's book, HOW TO DRAW UGLYDOLL, where David offers this advice: "Want a really awesome tip? Try this one: instead of telling everyone what you plan on drawing, just draw and show us what you've come up with! And repeat!" (I talked with David before my first class for some sage advice and he offered the same tip. I've known David since he was 10 years old and his mom, one of my dearest friends, used to spend entire weekends driving around LA looking for Star Wars action figures. I'm a big fan!)
So, the big secret to learn how to draw cartoons is to draw, draw, and draw some more. But, what do you draw? Thinking, thinking, thinking...
In my cartooning class, we spend about 20 minutes having a blast brainstorming every monster, fairy, animal, and human -- and then we list every outrageous adjective, adverb, action, and characteristic known to man (or elementary student). Their minds are amazing! Then, voila, we have about 500+ ideas to draw! As the kids start filling up their sketchbooks and large sheets of paper with the most creative and imaginative creatures, I share with the group about ten other secrets about cartooning. And, I can't list them here because, well, they're secrets!
Interesting NF Cartooning Books for Kids* At our local library, I try to make a pass by the cartoon books. Most t
1 Comments on Interesting Nonfiction Cartooning Books for Kids, last added: 2/27/2010
On Monday, I told you about the wonderful Children and Teens Print Exhibition Please Touch Museum is part of for the 2010 Philagrafika Festival. The project is part of Prints Link Philadelphia, which is a coalition of community arts organizations, art centers, museums, teaching artists, and pre-k through higher education art educators who are interested in promoting printmaking for children and teens in the Philadelphia region. We here at Please Touch Museum are thrilled to be a part of a project that truly appreciates the educational value and celebrates the unique creativity of children's art.
Take a peek at today's featured mono prints made by some of Please Touch Museum's very talented young visitors and artists! And be sure to check back here on Friday for the final batch of mono prints.
Ashley uses a rainbow of colors to create an interesting pattern.
Brent, Age 5, creates patches of color using foam brushes.
Caitlin, Age 7, uses a varied set of tools to create angular patterns.
Charlotte, Age 2, enjoys mono printing as a sensory experience.
David, Age 8, depicts a smiling face in his mono print.
0 Comments on More Children's Mono Prints! as of 1/1/1900
He may be known as the Man of Steel, but after yesterday's record-setting sale of Action Comics #1 for $1 million, Superman has officially gone platinum. The transaction smashed the previous comic book sale record, which was set in 2009 when another, less pristine copy of Action Comics #1 sold for $317,200.
To many comic book fans, Action Comics #1 is not merely the publication that introduced Superman to the world, it is a cultural icon. "[It] changed the course of pop culture forever," asserts the press release posted on ComicConnect.com, the site that brokered the record-setting deal. This boast might find a sympathetic audience in Tom De Haven, author of Our Hero: Superman on Earth and eminent authority on the hero.
In his book, De Haven looks at Superman as an American Icon, a figure that represents both the struggles and triumphs of life in America. As a hero that arose from the desolate landscape of the Great Depression, Superman promised the power to redeem a nation in need. In that light, the sale of Action Comics #1 adds yet another unbelievable feat to the Man of Steel's list of achievements, proving that sticking up for the little guy is a trait that Americans continue, quite literally, to value.
In the month of January 2010 in the Program Room we created Mono Prints. Mono Prints introduce our visitors to printmaking and encourage experimentation in art. Artwork from our visitors has been selected to be exhibited at the Free Library of Philadelphia Central Location (1901 Vine Street, Philadelphia, PA) from February 15th-March 12th. Throughout this week we will be featuring our young artists and their work on Pinky’s Blog. We thank our little ones again for their willingness to play with their art!
Abigail Livingston, Age 2, leaves a personalized impression in print.
Aden uses scrubby brushes to create circular formed patterns.
Aissata Kone, Age 5, chose to layer prints using a bright pink contrasted with a deep blue.
Alex Borghese, Age 3, aptly titled his work Sea + Sky as we can see movement in his print.
Alexandra, Age 4, reveals a multi-layered print technique with use of spontaneous lines.
In writing a biography, persistence aided by nosiness is a requirement. As collaborators, one of the qualities Sandra Jordan and I share is curiosity about the lives of others. When we discuss ideas for subjects for our biographies, we always ask ourselves, “What is their story?” More often than not, the artist’s childhood experiences are reflected in the art she/he makes as an adult. The sculptor Richard Serra at age four witnessed the launching of a tanker, and the angle of the ship’s prow formed a lasting impression, one that is evident in his looming metal sculptures today. The stories artists told us inspired us to move from books about learning to look at twentieth century art to books that dealt with the life and art of individual artists, such as Chuck Close, Louise Bourgeois, Andy Warhol, Christo and Jeanne-Claude and others. Sandra talked about some of the ways we research, ferreting out new material, last month. Despite all the catalogues we read, interviews, visits to artists’ homes, studios, and museums that exhibit their works, there is so much more we need to discover. What motivated them? What made them unique? We had to examine their successes and failures, as well as their sometimes difficult personalities. Some of these talented people led messy lives. There is no correlation between being a good painter or writer or dancer and being a good person. As biographers, we must decide whether to make judgments or stick to the facts. We try to tell the truth up to a point as nonjudgmentally as we can because our focus is on the art. We tell details of the artists’ lives if they informed the work or shaped their personalities. For example, Jackson Pollock’s best work was done when he was sober; yet alcoholism led to a decline in his work and his eventual death. In Action Jackson, which was geared for younger readers, we focused on the creative process, describing how Pollock made one painting from start to finish. The book was nonfiction but not a biography. Therefore there was no reason to talk about his personal problems in the text, although we there is a reference in a short bio in the back matter. We don’t shy away from controversial material in full length biographies. In Andy Warhol: Prince of POP, geared for young adults, his homosexuality and involvement in the 60’s drug culture impacted his life, as well as his art. But his innovative work and influence in artmaking, films, books, and advertising were our focus. The anecdotal material of his full life was amusing, poignant, and always fascinating. Another consideration is how much do children at age eight or above know? In our next book Ballet for Martha: Making Appalachian Spring (Fall, 2010), we made a number of school visits to share the text and ask questions to find out what dance, art, or music terms young readers know. We could then return to the study, revising and refining, based on what we learned. It was also fun to see what students responded to in showing the illustrations and reading the story of this celebrated collaboration between Martha Graham, Isamu Noguchi and Aaron Copland. The details that delight children, delight us as adults. But in writing non-fiction, especially a biography, the goal is to get beyond the details, to dig beneath the surface, thus obtaining a fuller view of the person’s life. We gain so much more by setting ourselves aside and inhabiting someone else’s skin for awhile. We expand our view of ourselves. We feel better in the company of Martha Graham, Andy Warhol, and Christo and Jeanne-Claude, because they struggled with same human problems we all do; yet in spite of difficult times, they worked hard, cared about their art, and managed to say something fresh and meaningful about our culture. They never gave up!
I had not give the subject of prehistoric cave paintings much thought until a friend enthusiastically recommended Gregory Curtis’s The Cave Painters: Probing the Mysteries of the World’s First Artists, which I read. This is not a scholarly work. Instead, it tells a series of fascinating stories about the personalities involved in this field of archaeology. Curtis explores such questions as: “Why did the Stone Age artists paint those captivating scenes?” and “Why were most of the subjects of the paintings animals, and not people?”
Dating. Curtis discusses the cave paintings that have been discovered within the last 100 years on both sides of the Pyrenees, mostly in France but also in Spain. He says that the Stone Age peoples there began painting about 45,000 years ago and stopped during the last Ice Age. The first archaeologists to study these caves did not have the ability to date the paintings. They assumed that the most beautiful and refined of these ones were the most recent, while the most rough-looking ones were the earliest. Modern dating techniques have determined that this theory is not true, and that sophisticated paintings can be found in a variety of time periods. Pablo Picasso, after being shown the paintings in one famous cave, Lascaux, said, “We have learned nothing in 12,000 years.”
Interpretations. About 110 years ago, a French priest named Henri Breuil became obsessed with exploring caves to find prehistoric paintings. Being a talented artist, he meticulously reproduced both the details of the paintings he saw and whole compositions. Today, archaeologists can photograph such paintings, but in 1900 cameras were not able to do the job in these low-light, confined spaces. Breuil was involved with a number of books about cave paintings. In the books, he could not resist speculating why the artists made these paintings. His conclusion was that the art was part of hunting magic: these early humans painted to celebrate the hunting of the animals they portrayed. Other archaeologists disagreed, saying that the animals most frequently portrayed were not the ones most commonly hunted. In some caves, the most frequently hunted animals in the area, the reindeer, were not painted at all! And how do we know what animals these people hunted? We know this by looking at the bones on the floor of the caves.
Max Raphael, a German Marxist who ended up living in New York City after World War II, believed that cave paintings showed the history and beliefs of a great people. Each type of animal, he claimed, represented a different clan. One
0 Comments on Interpreting Cave Paintings as of 1/1/1900
It was a fun-filled family-friendly President's Day Weekend here at Please Touch Museum!
Please Touch Museum is a first museum experience for many of our visitors. The children may have seen their first theater show, watched their first live music performance, celebrated an author’s birthday for the first time or experienced a diverse set of art materials for the first time during this past weekend.
On Saturday and Sunday, Louie Miranda and Friends jazzed it up in the Please Touch Playhouse Theater with the help of 8 year old percussionist, Antoine. Kids not only had a chance to listen and dance to music, but could also join Louie’s Band, fueling future creativity. Louie always encourages parent participation in his shows making the shows family oriented, and memorable.
In addition, many visitors could be seen dancing along to the Northeastern University Concert Band with over 40 college musicians in Hamilton Hall. College students took the time before their performance to connect with visitors and show them how each instrument worked.
On President's Day, we celebrated author Norman Bridwell's Birthday, creator of the Clifford books. The Clifford series features a young girl named Emily Elizabeth and Clifford the Big Red Dog. Kids were ecstatic to meet their favorite big red dog in person at the museum. Character appearances gave children the chance to see the Clifford books come to life.
Young visitors also had the chance to connect literacy with art in the Program Room with Kid’s Best Friend: Drawing with Silky Sticks activity. We encouraged kids to tell us about their best friends, and illustrate them with our fun silky sticks. A silky stick is a versatile material that can be turned up like a glue stick; it is great because it can be used as a crayon when drawing on paper, an oil pastel when rubbed with your fingers, or a watercolor when painted on with some water. It all depends on how our visitors chose to mix the colors. By describi
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One of the most beautiful self published books I have seen has arrived in our store. I Hear Two Birdsis a counting book and a work of art written and illustrated by Brisbane local Kathy Panton.
Kathy has a Bachelor of Visual Art, and has recently given up her job as a special education teacher to be a fulltime artist. She told us … ‘I really believe in following your passion and that is why I am an artist.’
‘I can’t say I have any specific influences, but I have long studied the work of other artists that illustrate children’s books. A lot of people say my work is like Eric Carles, and that is a great compliment, as I think he was a real innovator in children’s book illustration.’
Kathy actually paints first and then cuts up her work which she uses in a collage technique to make her exquisit pictures. We are so lucky to have these photos of Kathy’s studio to share…
You can see here where she keeps her cut up paintings for use in her pictures…
I believe that Kathy has really captured the essence of what all the great, classic children’s books have.I Hear Two Birds works on so many different levels, it has beautiful flowing, rhythmic text, counting, recognition of colour, shape and everyday objects including animals and nature. It truly is a stunning book and we are very proud to have it.
Kathy also sells her beautiful prints, that are perfect art for a child’s room, from her Etsy store here.
3 Comments on I Hear Two Birds, last added: 2/17/2010
El día 5 de febrero FredyLlerenaRoque artista pictórico peruano, inauguró su segunda muestra individual en la ciudad de Azogues (Ecuador). La muestra titula "Este sueño también es tuyo II" que es la continuación de los trabajos que expuso el año pasado en su primera exposición en una galería de Cuenca. Fredy comparte las fotos de la noche de la inauguración así como fotografías de varios de sus trabajos presentados en esta ocasión en la Casona de cultura de Caña de la ciudad de Azogues.
" ESTE SUEÑO TAMBIÉN ES TUYO II "
(Presentación)
Y realmente es un sueño hermoso de ustedes, de nosotros y de todos al palpar que un hermano Peruano este aquí , aquí presente, confundido con ecuatorianos, es que Ecuador y Perú son países tan similares , iguales o quizá gemelos, tan parecidos en sus costumbres, religión y creencias, sus comidas típicas, gustos, dichos y asta cachos, tan idénticos que nos sorprende porque los gobiernos y políticos corruptos del pasado, haciendo sus componendas y tratados obscuros nos llenaron de odio en la sangre. Ese tiempo ha cambiado y más aún ,los que compartimos de cerca con hermanos peruanos en países alejados de los nuestros ,sufriendo la inclemencia del racismo, nos dimos cuenta que ustedes y nosotros somos uno solo, un solo sentimiento y un solo corazón, y hoy aquí en este templo de la cultura... un solo Arte . Este arte que nos enseña una muestra de tanta riqueza del dibujo, colores acogedores y mágicos de este joven valor de la plástica latinoamericana. FREDY ROLAND LLERENA ROQUE en sus 27 años nos plasma un surrealismo o más bien un realismo mágico ya que con sus acrílicos y óleos nos convence de que sus estudios en la Escuela de Artes Plásticas de la Universidad Nacional de San Agustín de Arequipa, fue su bastión de una formulación y Maestría ejemplar.
Aquí No pinta sucesos reales, sino imaginaciones o variaciones sobre la realidad, se trata de una operación de validez p
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Here is my latest from my etching class. It’s almost there. I just need to burnish a little more in the clouds, work out the eyes a bit, and print on good paper. I will hopefully finish this print next week and have original prints available for sale in my Etsy shop.
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Lovely idea and simple style.
The bubblegum cow look vaguely Van Gogh-ish!
I like them both & think the greeting card idea would be fab!
Thanks Dayle!
Thanks Julia! Van Gogh-ish? Cool! I did have to stand by The Starry Night painting a lot when I worked at MOMA. Maybe it rubbed off on me. I’ve been thinking about doing some greeting cards and opening an Etsy shop …