Sophie Scholl

Songs

 

 

Keeping Bright

 A little drawing I made of my cat named "Kitty"  There are a lot of world crisis issues getting me down lately and Kitty seems to pick up on my reaction very accurately, even if that's unfortunate since I don't want to her to feel depressed just because I'm not feeling well!  I have tried to capture her worried expression which has lately been more frequent (in this quick little drawing) and seems to mirror my own recent heightened melancholic sensitivity.  I wanted to show something colorful despite feeling like bleakness is the only interpretation worth expressing lately.   To me the colors reflect the light of the room that she was sitting in as well as the brightness of her little soul that seems to anthropomorphically be so hopeful underneath her concern.

I know that we will be okay especially through the process of drawing, painting, and making music since it helps me feel better and in turn helps Kitty too, since she seems to be sensing my perceptions.  She seems to perk up in her mood when anything creative is going on in our house!  Even though I understand that I'm not an expert drawer or painter and, as much as I appreciate other people's photo-realism and perfect representation, guess maybe just a sort of abstract expression is about as far as I can produce in drawings and paintings, at least for now I hope,  hah.

Anyway, getting back to my current devastation in the wake of world crisis that seems to be overwhelming us all lately...  Although I feel that it's important to stay knowledgeable about current events that affects us all over the world and to stay involved in helping whenever possible to make the earth a better and safer place for everyone and every thing to live in and to exist in wellness, the explosive media seems to be a terrifying distraction.  I hope to spend a bit less time looking at the news and great more time creating art.

Impression, Sunrise

In 1872, Claude Monet created a painting, as the most famous part of a 6 canvas series, that would later be known as revolutionary artwork for the Impressionist Art movement.  That painting is called Impression, soleil levant, also known as Impression, Sunrise.  Besides being the most artistically important of the series of pieces, that show the same scene but at different times of day and views, this painting is also probably Monet's most famous work of all his paintings.

With the word "Impression" in it's title, it became the description of what Impressionist painters were trying to achieve with their art.  The name Impressionism was born from this title and Impressionist Art thus had a foundation for it's movement.  As the subject for this artwork, Monet painted an industrial port in the French northern coast called Le Havre. 

Monet, Impression, soleil levant, 1872

Le Havre was a center of commerce for the country and Monet  may have chosen this port scene as his subject in order to promote a patriotic ode to the renewal of France that was just recovering from defeat in the Franco-Prussian war, of the early 1870's.      

At first most art critics did not think this piece was worthy of note but an important review by Louis Leroy, for the Exposition of 1874, changed that view.  Leroy introduced the term impression, taken from the title of the work, to describe the style of Monet's work and this introduction changed the importance of the painting for history.  The term was not only meant to describe the style of the movement but was also a kind of satirical deprecation of the art form as well.  Despite the disparagement,  Impression, Sunrise initiated and named this movement of art and has become the encapsulation of it's style as well.

Catalogue for the Impressionist Exhibition in 1874

References:   

The J. Paul Getty Museum

Wikipedia 

Longwood University, "Analysis of Claude Monet's Impression, Sunrise", by Jamie Yurasits

Art Show - Animals Are The Only Other People We Know Of

I had an art show of 22 paintings called "Animals Are The Only Other People We Know Of" at a little cafe space called Spritzers, in Alameda, California.  We had a reception as well.  Here are some sketches that were the inspiration for the characters in the show.  The characters are based on the murals and graffiti I used to do in the Southwest.  I would draw and paint these characters everyday.

Usually I would draw cats but sometimes other creatures like bunnies and even self imagined creatures that don't exist in the natural world.  I had jobs at a couple of local theaters, as a scene painter and painting advertisement signs for plays, and sometimes my characters worked their way into those scenes as well.  

I have very few photos of my murals/graffiti, but I guess that's part of what it means to me to paint in that style- temporal paintings that I like to think of as similar to Buddhist sand art.  

Note:  I have never painted on private walls unless I asked for and received permission, and when painting trains always worked around the numbers and codes, as preferred by train conductors.  Leave the codes alone and only paint on boxcars.  Another thing, I think it's really awful when people paint on trees & nature.  I think it's cool to be respectful with graffiti, as with all in life, you have a lesser chance of getting buffed when you're respectful and polite in creating public art.

Example of some of the characters I used to paint regularly, left side of wall.

Close up view of some of my animal characters, some inspiration for this art show.

I continue to love the simplicity of portraying emotion and personality through uncomplicated two-dimensional cartoon style characters.  Also, through the repetition of drawing my characters over the years I have established a narrative signature for myself.  Even so, I never thought that I would transfer my graffiti characters onto canvas but it was really fun and I am very happy with how the exhibition turned out.

Owl Tree, acrylic on canvas

 

Deary, acrylic on canvas

 

Birdy and Shocked Rabbit, acrylic on canvas

Mr. Fox, acrylic on canvas

Sadie, acrylic on canvas

Mr. Happy, acrylic on canvas

Cat Friend I, acrylic on canvas

Another aspect of the show was to playfully highlight the importance of animals in our human lives. 

In this show, I have anthropomorphized several animals and hope to subtly promote non-cruelty to our fellow creatures, who sometimes act very human-like and express feelings and emotions as we do.

Bunny, acrylic on canvas

Through the observation that animals can oftentimes exhibit human-like traits I have concluded that they are the only other people we know of and deserve our respect and compassion.

The exhibition booklet for this art show, cover page.

 

 

Edouard Manet, The Kearsarge at Boulogne (1864) and The Battle of the Kearsarge and the Alabama (1865)

Manet depicts a battle scene from the American Civil War, The Kearsarge at Boulogne, an image of Union cruiser USS Kearsarge, the winner in the Battle of Cherbourg.  He did not witness this battle but visited the scene a month later. This oil on canvas was probably based on a watercolor he made of it and was first exhibited in Paris in 1865 as La mer, la navire federal Kerseage en race de Boulogne-sure mer.  In France the ship was known as Kerseage while in the U.S. it was Kearsarge.

Manet, The Kearsarge at Boulogne, 1864

detail of The Kearsarge at Boulogne, altered image reveals color variations and textures

In 1865, Manet also painted The Battle of the Kearsarge and the Alabama.  In 1872, the French novelist Jules-Amédée Barbey d'Aurevilly said of this painting, "the sea (...) is more frightening than the battle".

Manet, The Battle of the Kearsarge and the Alabama, 1865 

 Together these paintings commemorate the 1864 battle there when the USS Kearsarge sank the Confederate ship CSS Alabama off the coast of France.  It was a headlining and widely covered event.  

Since he was not there for the battle, Manet used press descriptions of the scene to reference his work.  These battle scene depictions were the first paintings that Manet ever made of a contemporary event.

Painting dimensions:
The Kearsarge at Boulogne, 32 1/8 x 39 3/8 in
The Battle of the Kearsarge and the Alabama, 53 in x 50 in

Monet's Garden

I stumbled upon a print of a Monet painting, "The artist's garden at Giverny" that I really loved right away.  After researching it I found that there were countless copies of this painting that didn't look quite right.  I finally found one that I think is the original, it's from an art book scan and is listed in Wikimedia Commons. 

This painting exemplifies Monet's "broken color" technique, and the color palette is not as bold and bright as is usually seen in its many copies.

Monet, Le jardin de l'artiste a Giverny (1900)

"The point is to know how to use the colors, the choice of which is, when all is said and done, a matter of habit."  -Claude Monet