Community Arts Center in Gloucester, Virginia
Artist in Residence sculptor, Poe Dismuke, with his wife, painter Sam Woolcott, will be rescheduling their time in Gloucester for after the pandemic. While the SAM-POE Gallery in Bisbee, Arizona, stays closed, Poe has been collecting dead flies from the window sill and drawing them. He shared this photo of his work space in the window at the gallery.
The Artist in Residence (AiR) program in sponsored in part by the Cook Foundation. To learn more about the AiR program click here.
Opening on July 22nd, our new exhibit, “Animalia”, will feature the work of 3-dimensional artists Ryan Lytle and Katherine Maloney. This week we’ll introduce you to the work of Ryan Lytle and give you a peek into his studio.
“Whether it is pets, in nature, films and cartoons, mythology, I have always been drawn to animals. As a kid I had an extensive stuffed animal collection. These fascinations of animal archetypes, images and myths have resurfaced as visual vocabulary in my work.”
“My works are primarily created through the process of needle felting. There is a comfort that is embedded in the nostalgic material. Needle felting is done by compressing raw wool with a barbed needle into a form. Every area is stabbed hundreds of times with a single needle until the desired density is formed. This medium allows me to sculpt works within a surreal space that is both disarming and inviting.”
“Although I mostly work with wool and felting, I also experiment with other materials. Typically, I am drawn to fiber-based techniques, but recently I’ve been working with 3D printing as well. I have been learning how 3D printing operates so that I could incorporate the process into my 3D design courses at CNU. Currently, I have converted about half of my studio over to producing face shield visors for hospitals. The university has been very supportive and generous with their equipment and materials.”
“Aside from the printing, my studio has been busy with finishing up work for a show projected for June at the PFAC. It is a lot of rabbits, and I’ve been creating an eight-foot moon rug with a rug tufting machine. It should turn out to be one of my more ambitious projects to date.”
“For the show at Arts on Main I am planning to show some of my more experimental pieces and I am excited to see how they work together alongside Katherine Maloney’s work.”
Summer is upon us! We’ve scoured Pinterest for TEN art/craft projects that can be done at home with a few, easy-to-find supplies and/or simple substitutions. Grab the kids, cover the table with some newspaper and let them go wild! Click the images to be directed to the projects.
On May 31st, the artist known as Christo, passed away at the age of 84, leaving behind him a legacy of work that brought joy and beauty to millions of people across the globe for over fifty years.
Christo was born Christo Vladimirov Javacheff, on June 13, 1935 in Gabrovo, Bulgaria to a Bulgarian Industrialist family. He met his wife and creative partner, Jeanne-Claude (June 13, 1935 – November 18, 2009), in Paris, in March of 1958, they were married in October that year. It would be three years before Christo and Jean-Claude would complete their first collaboration and large-scale work, Stacked Oil Barrels and Dockside Packages, Cologne Harbor, 1961. Rolls of paper, oil barrels, tarpaulin and rope. Duration: two weeks.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude would come to be known for their larger than life, temporary, environmental installations often transforming mundane landscapes into dreamscapes.
In 1972, a bold, orange, 200,200 square foot woven nylon curtain was draped between two mountain slopes in Colorado. The installation,called Valley Curtain, remained for twenty-eight hours before a gale made removal necessary.
In 1983, off the coast of Miami, eleven islands in the Biscayne Bay were surrounded by 6.5 million square feet of luminous, pink woven, polypropylene fabric. The installation, called Surrounded Islands, was attended to, day and night, by 120 monitors in inflatable boats for two weeks while the public viewed the work from air, water and land.
In 1991, brilliant blue and canary yellow fabric umbrellas popped up in a valley in Japan and a valley in California, reflecting on the similarities and differences of two cultures. The installation, called The Umbrellas, consisted of 3,100 umbrellas, each 19’ 8” tall and 28’ 5” in diameter, was on view in each country, simultaneously, for 28 days before being disassembled and recycled.
From June 18 to July 3, 2016 thousands of people walked on the waters of Italy’s Lake Iseo. The Floating Piers, Christo’s most recent installation, consisted of 220,000 interlocking, polyethylene cubes covered in 100,000 square miles of shimmering yellow fabric.
Christo’s current works in progress are The Mastaba, the only permanent installation ever designed by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, and L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped, the latter of which is set to begin installation in Paris in 2021. According to a statement made by his office, “Christo and Jeanne-Claude have always made clear that their artworks in progress be continued after their deaths. Per Christo’s wishes, ‘L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped’ in Paris, France, is still on track for September 18 – October 3, 2021.” However it made no mention of a timeline for The Mastaba.
“Christo lived his life to the fullest,” the statement went on to say, “not only dreaming up what seemed impossible but realizing it. Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s artwork brought people together in shared experiences across the globe, and their work lives on in our hearts and memories.”
Written & photographed by Saraya Cheney, Assistant Director – Programs & Marketing
Before the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve, many of us have already decided on our resolutions for the upcoming year. For 2020, I decided that I wanted to spend more time noticing the small shifts in the natural world, taking things in at a slower pace and try to create something, anything, at least once a week. While scrolling through my Instagram feed, I saw a post from one of my favorite Virginia artists, suggesting that the start of the year was a great time to begin a “perpetual journal”. I’d seen her post about these journals in the past, was mildly intrigued, but never really looked into it any further. After reading her lengthy post, I realized that this style of journaling ticked off all of my “resolution boxes” while leaving a lot of room for my own creativity and need for flexibility. I didn’t know at the time that this journal would become a meditative practice and provide connection to a wider online community during the time of COVID-19.
A perpetual journal, in very basic terms, is a type of journal that goes on until all of the pages are filled.
This style of journal was conceived of by botanical artist, Lara Call Gastinger and involves documenting the natural world, through all seasons and over many years, in whichever medium feels best to you.
STEP ONE
Buy, or make, a blank journal. It should be small enough for you to be able to carry it with you. I personally enjoy square shaped journals and am loyal to a particular brand that makes beautiful 5″ x 5″ hardbound sketchbooks. Whatever size feels comfortable enough for you to carry along will make this practice all the more successful.
STEP TWO
Break the journal down into 52 spreads (from January 1-7 through December 24-31) so that each two-page spread corresponds to one week. For example: January 1-7 would take up two pages, then January 8-14 would take up the next two pages and so on.
*You can start with the calendar year, but there’s no perfect time to start! Here are some other suggestions on when to start your journal: First Day of Summer (June 20th), an anniversary or your birthday
STEP THREE
Draw, paint or write a nature observation. Be sure to include the year! I’ve decided to create my entire journal in pen & ink because that is the medium I work in the most but you can work in whatever medium you’d like, even mixing media. Just make sure that your journal is suitable for the medium you choose.
STEP FOUR
Return each year to add more observations until your journal is full!
There are no hard and fast rules dictating what should be included in your perpetual journal once you’ve set it up. A spread will have observations from multiple years. Weeks, or months, may be “missed” when life gets hectic. You can spend minutes or hours on your entries, it’s entirely up to you. This is for your observation, enjoyment, connection and growth!
If you are on social media, and would like to connect with others who participate in sharing their perpetual journals online, use the hashtag #lgperpetual journal. There is a large community of incredibly friendly artists and observers who enjoy the natural world and connecting with one another virtually!
Ghostly women, potential murder plots, and hidden images… we’ve chosen six of the most mysterious works from art history for you to explore!
Albrecht Dürer was a 16th Century “Jack-of-All-Trades” and master of many. Skilled in painting, various forms of printmaking, and drawing, Dürer created a number of technically challenging works that boggle the minds of contemporary art critics even today. Dürer created his works in a time of much political and religious turmoil, Martin Luther’s 95 Theses sparked a reformation and Suleiman the Magnificent was on Europe’s doorstep. Yet, Dürer’s works exude a beautiful stillness, or otherworldliness, while still speaking to the historical context of the time.
His painting, Young Hare, completed in 1502 is one of his most beloved works. It has been much discussed due to its simplicity, subject and one detail that many even fail to notice, until pointed out…the mysterious details hidden in the hare’s right eye. Are those white brush strokes the artist’s studio windows as so many suggest? And what of the darker figure just to the right of the white strokes?
If you enjoyed Albrecht Dürer’s Young Hare, and are curious about other works, you might enjoy this article.
Painted around 1480, Sandro Botticelli’s La Primavera (Spring) is his second most popular piece, after Birth of Venus, which he would create a few years later. While La Primavera‘s origin story is murky, it was believed to have been commissioned by Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’ Medici, a member of one of Florence, Italy’s wealthiest families, as a wedding gift for his wife.
The work centers around Venus, beneath a blind-folded Cupid. To the far left, Mercury uses his caduceus to disperse gathering clouds while the Three Graces dance to his right. On the Far right, Zephyr uses his breath to transform Chloris into Flora, bringing about the birth of spring. The lush scene conjured by Botticelli’s brush is adorned by *”at least 138 identified”, and accurately portrayed, plant species. Though art historians have been able to identify many of the mythological figures represented in the piece, the true meaning behind the painting remains a mystery.
*According to Le Gallerie Degli Uffizi in Florence, Italy, where the work is on permanent display
If you enjoyed the painting, you might enjoy visiting the Gallery Degli Uffizi website to experience their “Factories of Stories” series based on La Primavera. These fictional pieces allow you to experience the work in a whole new way.
The Arnolfini Portrait, painted by Flemish artist Jan van Eyck in 1434, is another painting rich in symbolism and detail but where the intended meaning is a mystery. At first glance, it appears to be a fairly straightforward depiction of a wealthy husband and his expectant wife. Upon closer inspection, we are left with more questions than answers as we soon find that what we thought to be an expectant wife is a woman holding a heavily-draped dress. Is this painting merely a display of family wealth? A portrait to mark the occasion of entering into a marriage contract? Or something more?
While much of the symbolism in this portrait can be compared to other common symbols used in art at the time, such as the oranges for fertility and the rosary beads for piety, we are left to wonder how they all fit together. However, even if we know the common symbolism of the day, interpretations will remain mysteries without written records. Here’s one art history major, turned comedian’s take on the portrait.
For a crash-course on the Arnolfini Portrait, watch this video. For a lengthier lecture (1+ hour) on the piece, watch this video.
The Ambassadors was painted in 1533, amidst the tumultuous political landscape of Henry VIII’s England. Hans Holbein the Younger’s works earned him a place in the controversial Tudor King’s court around 1535, as he would complete the famous Portrait of Henry VIII in 1536 or 1537.
While The Ambassadors is another painting rich with religious and political symbolism, the most mysterious portion of the painting is the cream-colored “smudge” that sits in the center of the lower portion of the panel. At first glance, it appears to be a mistake but when looked at from an acute angle, this “smudge” becomes a fully-formed human skull. Known as anamorphic art, this technique was not unknown at the time but it was not widely incorporated either. Many art historians have commented on Holbein’s intended meaning, most settling on the idea that it serves as a memento mori, a constant reminder that we all grapple with the fragility of our own humanity.
Find out what the National Gallery in London has to share about The Ambassadors here.
Arguably one of the most famous paintings in the world, Rembrandt’s Dutch Golden Age masterpiece, commonly referred to as “The Night Watch”, was completed in 1642. Rembrandt was well-known when he was alive, regarded as one of Holland’s greatest artists, and was at the height of his career when he was commissioned to paint “The Night Watch”, yet, he died penniless in 1669, and was buried in an unmarked grave. Is it possible that this piece unveiled a murder plot that lead to Rembrandt’s downfall?
Completed during Pablo Picasso’s “Blue Period”, The Old Guitarist is one of his most popular works from that period. While the meaning behind the work itself is not much of a mystery, what physically lays behind the painting was until the Art Institute of Chicago took x-rays and performed technical examinations of the piece. What prompted the examination? The visible outline of a “ghostly woman” found just above the neck of the Guitarist. It wasn’t unusual for artists, especially Picasso, to reuse the canvases of failed paintings but what was it about the woman that made him want to change his subject? Why didn’t he, or couldn’t he, remove her completely? Who was she? Again, we’re left with more questions than answers.
To explore more of Picasso’s Blue Period and The Old Guitarist you can read this article.
If you enjoyed this post you might like to explore more odd details hidden inside of famous paintings in this article by the BBC.
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