SHADOW SHOT SUNDAY- GRACE'S RESTORATIONS

GRACE EPISCOPAL CHURCH  undergoing restorations as shown in previous post

Above, the gothic drinking fountain on the corner of the property, 10th and Broadway, needs fixing!  Wouldn't that be an unusual treat for passers by....




 





FOR MORE SHADOW SHOT SUNDAY do visit HEYHARRIET!                   


     

SKY WATCH FRIDAY - OMENS, GOOD OR EVIL?

Waiting patiently to 'buy stuff' for Saturday's big event!    Ironically, next door, on the corner of 10th and Broadway, is the beautiful Grace Episcopal Church!   It's good for the economy and a laugh - hope god has a sense of humour!

                                          

She is in a rocker that rocks!  Go to more  HALLOWEEN THINGS hosted by Elizabeth of About New York

                                                                                            

IN DISGUISE, A WITCH SNEAKS IN EARLY THIS MORNING BEFORE THE SUN RISES.....

Note:  sunrises above building at 7.30 am.     Last week sunrises to the left of the building on the

horizon at 7.10 am.   Today, the flag is not flying.  The witch, as cloud, sailed in saying, "Buy Stuff", until a puff of wind blew her away! 

Go to THE SKY WATCH CENTER for more skies!

TRADING ARTWORK FOR ARTWORK, and no money down!

FAT CATS, linoleum print

Trading artwork for artwork is a gratifying way to do 'business' (in lieu of selling art for cash) these days for those interested in collecting art in other mediums by other artists.  Not a new idea.  Privately, many an artist has exchanged work with fellow artists in this way since time immemorial.

I recently acquired Irene Gilman's wonderful pot, below, because I had been drawn to her work for sometime.  Upon showing her some of my work, she chose the above version of FAT CATS.  This title was an allusion to certain bad people operating in Washington DC at the time.

Trading is best done between people who can meet and exchange items in person.  It can be art for anything that takes your fancy.   It is a good thing to do!

MONOCHROME MONDAY - ART STUDENTS LEAGUE of NEW YORK, Part 2 A new catalogue by Artist-Printmaker-Author Stephen Fredericks: THE NEW YORK ETCHING CLUB MINUTES: 1877 - 1893

THE LECTURE -  On cataloguing the works and organizational activities of a pivotal group of 

artist-etchers living and working in late 19th century New York.

Stephen Fredericks lectures in the Grand Gallery of the Art Students League of New York this week

 This may not sound like a title likely to grab your interest per se, but it was the discovery of handwritten pages of the minutes of the New York Etching Club dated 1877 that prompted New York artist-printmaker Stephen Fredericks to embark upon a committed ten year journey of research 

   

In 1998 Stephen had founded a group named the New York Society of Etchers, only to find that there had existed such a society in 1914.  He had found an unrecorded exhibition catalogue while looking at mircro film spools at the New York Public Library.   Bingo!  His curiosity and commitment to discovering more unrecorded early beginnings of the American Etching universe had begun.

Perhaps you've got to be a printmaker, a collector or an historian to love it.  As a printmaker, I love it!

As well as the idea that there is still a lot to be discovered out there, particularly in one's own field of interest.

That being said, as well as publishing a handsome volume, Stephen has included an online version providing an open educational resource.   Much of the history of early American art and artists is still unrecorded and by using today's technology, as he pointed out, can save researchers time, money and travel in the impatient pursuit of new discovery.  Online, go to http://rup.rice.edu/nyetching.html  to look at many wonderful reproductions of etchings rarely seen today, and for details of the catalogue.  Below are just two of ten prints that were shown in the slide show.

Top picture:  Nimmo Moran, wife of Thomas Moran, famous painter.  Throughout she is seen as an

artist in her own right - and what a lovely print!  City Farm, 1881;  Mielatz's print, A Rainy Night, Madison Square, 1890,  graces the cover of Stephen's catalogue.  Both prints are in the Williams Print Collection.

Enlarge the slide show shots for detail.

Glancing at one of the pages of the minutes for 1887, I noticed that the Boston Museum of Fine Art's Print Department organized an exhibition of the Work of the Women Etchers of America which ran from November through December, 1887.  I would like to find out who they were!

Go to the MONOCHROME WEEKLY THEME for more of Aileni's concept for a challenging image

SHADOW SHOT SUNDAY - ART STUDENTS LEAGUE of NEW YORK, Part 1

  Waiting for a lecture to begin by Stephen A. Fredericks.  He is a New York artist printmaker and founder of both the New York Society of Etchers and the New York Etcher's Press.

When the lights were dimmed for the lecture, the window below appeared as above!

A visit to the Grand Gallery of the venerable Art Students League of New York - a story for printmakers,  collectors and historians.  Part 2:  Tomorrow - Monochrome Monday.

Do visit HEY HARRIET at SHADOW SHOT SUNDAY for more great shadows!

SKYWATCH FRIDAY - NY SUNRISE IN TEN MINUTES!

    Interior 

 7 am  - 7.10 am   -   One of New York's spectacular sunrises earlier in the week.



Join SKYWATCH FRIDAY shooters for more of what can be seen from different vantage points around the world.

MOTION THURSDAY - BEYOND THE STREET

Looking to fulfill the challenge of Motion Thursday at the park today, unexpectedly, I found, not the usual toddlers clamouring to be pushed, but this young teen getting in a quiet smoke as he swings low, then high, to an interested audience of one toddler and of, of course, the girls.  C'est la vie!

The MOTION THURSDAY CHALLENGE can be anything, so long as it is more than just a ho-hum fountain!  Click and participate!

MY RUBY TUESDAY HOPE - WINDOW SILL GARDENING

THE CYCLAMEN PLANT

Enlarge to see buds

                                         A plant that promises, once again, to look as good as when I first bought it!

                                         Thus, my RUBY TUESDAY HOPE!  

                    


For more Ruby Tuesday visit WORK OF THE POET

                                          Propagating Oxalis - roots will appear in about 10 days 

MONOCHROME MONDAY - MIRROR IMAGES

WINDOW INSTALLATION EN MASSE  - the street has been blocked for months because of this project in the Union Square area of NY




Check in at THE MONOCHROME WEEKLY THEME for more and do join in!

SHADOW SHOT SUNDAY - PAPYRUS

                                                     Enlarge

                                                     Found this plant at the Union Square Green Market recently

Aquatic plant, CYPERUS PAPYRUS, said to be of the Nile Valley, provided material on which to write, prepared from thin strips of the pith of the plant laid together, soaked, pressed, dried, used by ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans.   As the craft of papermaking took over following the laborious preparation of materials made from plants and the bark of trees, paper itself eventually became differently made (said to have been invented in the 2nd century A.D) coming to the western world by a roundabout route from China.   For contemporary artist creative papermakers, a good read and how-to book on the subject is PAPER PLEASURES by Faith Shannon (Grove Weidenfield, 1987)

The height of the plant can reach 10 ft.

It is already 3 ft. high.  Yikes!

Visit HeyHarriet - look and participate!  Its Fun!

SKY WATCH FRIDAY - THE CITY STILL SLEEPS

The moon soon disappears behind tall building as the sun rises

Oops!  It is too early for this....

The rising sun highlights the street,  and garbage for collection

 WAKE UP LATER, TO COOLER WEATHER AND RAIN

Click here.....FOR MORE SKY WATCH FRIDAY

YOU ARE INVITED!

VERMEER'S NOT SO NAUGHTY MILKMAID - MOTION THURSDAY

JUST POURING MILK AND MAKING BREAD PUDDING

Vermeer's Masterpiece, The Milkmaid, oil on canvas ca. 1658  45.5x41cm.  on loan from the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

Amorous depictions of milkmaids and kitchenmaids in 16th century Dutch painting were variously poetic, or just plain erotic.  Invariably, the message of a maid's amorous availability was shown in a situation, a gesture, a symbol, or wink.

Walter Liedtke, Curator of European Paintings at the Metropolitan Museum takes the view that Vermeer's Milkmaid is a woman who imagines she is the woman of the house;  that Vermeer preferred to understate the then traditional sexy role of the milkmaid.  To do this, the painter elaborately draws  attention to what else she is doing besides pouring - she is usefully making bread pudding (or bread porridge) from the abundance of crusty looking loaves on the table.  The tankard, to the left of the bowl, probably holds beer, which was often used to make bread pudding rise.  The usual allusions to amorous intentions are sidelined.  Although she is frankly attractive as she pours milk into the bowl, any sexy nuance is deflected by the wholesomeness of the maid cooking, wearing an ample apron and a buttoned-up blouse.

 Walter Liedtke's excellent scholarly publication accompanying this small exhibit beautifully supports his far from the mainstream interpretation of the painting, thereby rewriting art history on the subject of Vermeer's naughty milkmaid.

 GO TO  MOTION THURSDAY to participate in this challenging meme.

RUBY TUESDAY - OXALIS

The plant is Oxalis.  It thrives and thrives in sun and likes water.

Its reddish trefoil leaf opens in the day time and closes at night.

Periodically, tiny lavender flowers appear.  It is a winner.

It is easily propagated by placing cut stems in water when roots will eventually appear.

It is noted that Oxalis appears in Michelangelo's Doni Tondo painting of the Holy Family with St. John the Baptist.  The plant is to be seen at the bottom right center of the painting.

  An Italian Masterwork, oil on panel, dated 1504-1505c.

Can be viewed at the Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, Italy.

Back in June 2009, blogger Jacqui commented that it was a trefoil plant, perhaps signaling the Trinity. Blogger SouthLakesMom confirmed this theory, indicating that symbology in Renaissance artwork was for the benefit of a preliterate society, a way to communicate the truths of the day!  Thank you both for your responses to the question about why Michelangelo put the plant in the painting.

Go to OLGA'S GALLERY to enlarge the painting




GO TO RUBY TUESDAY FOR MORE  posts

MONOCHROME MONDAY - SANDWICHED FIRE ESCAPE

Do Enlarge!  The old sandwiched between the new, located on the east side of Union Square, NY

Click here for Aileni's Monochrome Weekly Theme

BREASTING THE WAVES - National Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Size:  22"x 26"
Paper:  recycled 99% acid free pulped Dutch Etching paper combining discarded printed images
Date:  1982

Anticipating Breast Cancer Month, back in 1982.  When my MD discovered a lump, both my doctor and my surgeon outlined a new choice of treatment then available to women.  It would be a 50% chance of surviving whether I chose the older way of mastectomy, or a new way - lumpectomy (not so new in Europe).  I chose to have a lumpectomy followed by 7 weeks of radiation therapy.  Not without first, of course, doing a great deal of research on the matter.  The treatments in those days were horrible.  That was 27 years ago.  This year a tiny nodule was found via a routine digital mamography - it was promptly taken care of on an outpatient hospital basis.  There have been huge improvements between then in 1982, and now, both in treatment and respect for the patient.    This annual Breast Cancer recognition month is important, not only for raising funds but also for reminding those who haven't begun to make it a part of  their annual check-up.  You are reminded!    I was astonished to learn that, in the UK, mamography was encouraged ONLY every 2 years by the Health Service.  Much can happen in two years.  Early detection bolsters HOPE, as well as time to find the best protocols for treatment.

SHADOW SHOT SUNDAY- CALDER'S "Mobiles"

(For those interested in following the phishing saga: go to COMPUTERWORLD, check out top stories index, 1) Phishing arrests.... and, 2) Gmail, Yahoo join Hotmail....) 

ALEXANDER CALDER  (b.1898-1976) was the first to create kinetic moving art in 1931.  In the 1960s we knew them as "mobiles" so named by Dadaist artist Marcel Duchamp.  It was an appealing invention adding a touch of the Modern ambiance to home furnishers who enjoyed the new Scandinavian  furniture styles they were acquiring by designers like Knoll.

GO TO HEYHARRIET'S Shadow Shot Sunday blog to both participate in, and look at

many shadows of passing interest - for great shadows do not stay on the scene

for very long, do they!

PS  Go to BryAntics for a complementary rime by my friend living in NSW in Australia, Brenda Bryant.  (That is about 5 posts ago - they are 10 hours ahead of us!)

SKY WATCH FRIDAY - AND SCAM NEWS ALERT

This was Wednesday, the 7th.  Interesting skies and weather for New York this week!

A VERY GUSTY DAY - fast moving clouds, a bright sun above them sending down slanting rays in all different directions as the clouds scudded across the sky.  A chopper circled endlessly looking at some  event below.

IT WAS A HOLD-ON-TO-YOUR-HAT DAY!

More scam news

Below, a newspaper clip just received from my nephew who lives in Kent, England!  Published two days ago!

Last night the moon was hard to catch as thick clouds swept across the sky,  hiding her faster than I could reset the camera!

Enlarge for details


METRO 

Simultaneously, I learned from my local police station in New York City (Precinct 6)

that the news media is reporting that email providers AOL,

YAHOO and HOTMAIL are advising user subscribers

to change their passwords.  Many accounts have been scammed, as mine was last week. I have not yet seen,  or read any such report, but I am passing this information on if you think you have been made vulnerable.  For instance, if you were asked to update your account recently by someone pretending to be your provider (you wouldn't know), then that is a suspicious event.  It happened to me. I was tricked!

THIS WAS THE DAY BEFORE,  (Tuesday, the 6th)  WHEN THE AIR WAS STILL,  AND THE LARGE PUFFY CLOUDS JUST HUNG OVERHEAD

For more SKY WATCH FRIDAY go to http://skyley.blogspot.com/ 

RUBY TUESDAY - THE RED SHOPPING BAG

THE DOLL THING

Where are they going, with their 'babes' in arms....

Is it possible that the highly sexualized Barbie doll has had her day? (replaced by these homely American dolls MADE IN CHINA!)

 A visit to the AMERICAN GIRL PLACE in New York is what these two 11 years old girls have been saving up for - for weeks!   Everything that doll needs is here:  a hair salon (the dolls have more than their fair share of hair), and a matching outfit for the little mom.  It just depends on how deep her pocket is!

(I shop therefore I am - says Barbara Kruger!)









Go to RUBY TUESDAY http://workofthepoet.blogspot.com/   for more on this meme.

THE FORSAKEN MERMAN by Matthew Arnold

Print Size:  Approx. 30"x24"

Paper: Rice paper

Date:  1965

Edition:   5

I once made a print called Sea Beasts. This seems to be a good time to bring it out again!

It is a long and heartrending poem about a mother, who happens to be a 'Margaret', who loses her heart to a Merman. The drawing, its rhythmic character stemming from the fact that I was drawing to the music of Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg's 'In the Hall of the Mountain King'.   It was a piece composed for Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt which premiered in Oslow on February 24, 1876. (See footnote below re the Peer Gynt play)  The drawing became the multicolour woodcut seen above.

The lines that were borrowed from the end of the 5th stanza of Arnold's poem are as follows:

"Where the sea beasts ranged all round, Feed in the ooze of their pasture ground; Where the sea snakes coil and twine, Dry their mail and bask in the brine; Where great whales come sailing by, Sail and sail, with unshut eye, Round the world for ever and aye? When did music come this way? Children dear, was it yesterday?"

footnote:
A fantasy play written in verse Peer Gynt tells of the adventures of the eponymous Peer.  The sequence illustrated by the music of 'In The Hall of the Mountain King' (Wikipedia) is when Peer sneaks into the King's castle. The piece then describes Peer's attempts to escape from the King and his trolls.

NB:  Thus, every aspect of the process of creating this piece, including a precis of the research above, contributed to the final Norwegian ambience of this print.   The rhythm of the music still rings in my ears.

MONOCHROME MONDAY - GRACE EPISCOPAL CHURCH STEEPLE

Enlarge for detail

GRACE EPISCOPAL CHURCH STEEPLE, recently restored, and spot lighted.

Seen from an 11th floor window last night, overlooking 10th street and Broadway, New York.

Daryl has made the aesthetic point that it is a 'touch too dark' for her taste. I had NOT noted when she saw it that it was shot after dark, last night. It was interesting to receive an aesthetic opinion, just as it was interesting for Aileni to point out 'the little slices of life in the periphery'. Pictures may be worth a thousand words but a personal caption, or another eye, may well add another unseen dimension to the image.

See more of this monochrome MEME exhibit on the MONOCHROME WEEKLY THEME BLOG