Art Np2

The Detroit Riots of 1967 My mother said that our house could possibly be blown up and we had to be ready to leave at a moment's notice. When any of us children questioned her about what was going on she would change the subject. She just dressed us up in our best clothes and cooked a Sunday dinner of chicken, greens, and macaroni and cheese. I was to start school later that year at Glazer Elementary. My older sister was ten. I also had a two year old sister, and a one year old brother. We had just moved with our mother from an apartment in the Clairmont and Fourteenth area onto the top of a two family flat on Kendall between Rosa Parks and the John Lodge Expressway. Our new flat was about a mile from the riot area on Twelth and Clairmont. Ironically, I have very fond memories of the riot neighborhood. I remember being sent out with my older sister when I was three and she was eight to buy bologna and bread for our dinner. We wandered hand in hand over railroad tracks and crowded s...

Mr. West is cordially inviting the public to view his newest body of photographs, “God’s Covenant Community,” a sacred documentary that explores the spiritual and sacred connections of Midwest Baptist Church members and their Christian Faith. Mr. West is a founding member of that church, and actively serves as a Deacon there. Midwest Baptist Church is a small to mid-sized church with a membership role that averages around 90-100 members. In “God’s Covenant Community”, Mr. West has focused on special moments that show the deepest kinds of Christian bonds that believers share in both formal and informal church settings. As Mr. West states, “my photographs attempt to visually show why the relationships and ties that exist between believers in a small church community are so strong. Put simply, God’s Love and Grace are the lifeblood and glue that holds this church [Midwest Baptist Church] together.” While many of the images in “God’s Covenant Community” feature various age gro...

Unprecedented, intimate and revealing, this film weaves interviews with a large selection of work by one of the great artists of our century. Lucian Freud 'Portraits' is an analysis of the artist as seen through the eyes of those who have been best placed to study him - his sitters. Over a period of two years, film-maker Jake Auerbach and Freud's biographer William Feaver filmed many of Freud's subjects, ranging from the late Duke of Devonshire and the now Dowager Duchess of Devonshire to fellow painters David Hockney and Celia Paul; from friends such as Brigadier Andrew Parker Bowles to ex-lovers, daughters and grand-daughters. -  artcaltal, YouTube

I love to have something soft playing in the background when I am reading.  Today I have been listening to Cassandra Wilson.  Cassandra Wilson was born in Jackson, Mississippi on December 4, 1955.  She has what I call a unique, rich, husky, deep, voice that belts out some kind of heavy, warm country blues sound..  I remember reading somewhere years ago that when she first started singing in public, she was advised that her voice too strong and heavy, that she needed to lighten up.  I am so thankful she did not because there is something about that voice that cuts through those grays of heart and mind of mine to locate some elusive light spot.  

• WHAT IS DR. SKETCHY'S ANTI-ART SCHOOL? Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art school is the world's premier alt.drawing movement. Artists draw glamorous underground performers in an atmosphere of boozy conviviality. Found in 2005 in a dive bar in Brooklyn, Dr. Sketchy's has now spread to over 100 cities around the world. • WHO STARTED DR. SKETCHY'S? Dr. Sketchy's was founded in 2005 by artists Molly Crabapple and A.V. Phibes. It's been run solely by Molly Crabapple (and her cadre of awesome helpers) since early '06. You can see more of Molly's art at www.mollycrabapple.com • WHERE DID YOU COME UP WITH THE DR. SKETCHY'S ANTI-ART SCHOOL NAME? WHAT ARE ART MONKEYS? Dr. Sketchy's is a corrupt Viennese doctor of our invention. Anti-Art School we chose because we were bad art students. "Art Monkey" was nicked from a late night we spent building steel weasels with New York's legendary Madagascar institute. • WHO GOES TO DR. SKETCHY'S? Lots of pe...

I read and enjoyed learning some history from This Child Will Be Great: Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa's First Woman President.   The book is Liberian's President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's autobiography of her life before and after her election in 2006. I had no idea that former slaves from the United States had settled and influenced the politics of Liberia.  I was thankful that she did not devote a lot of the book to what she saw in the aftermath of the horrors in Rwanda.  Sometimes I think it would be easier to languished in myth and ignorance. Sirleaf is descended from native Liberians and her grandfather was a German immigrant. She was educated at an excellent school in Liberia but married right after high school at the age of seventeen, immediately had four children, and unfortunately found herself in an abusive relationship with a jealous husband. Frustrated and wanting something more for herself and her children she was able to get a scholarship to go to...

Digital Image by Miltos Manetas A popular, interesting and entertaining interactive web site and app that lets you, through mouse or finger movements, create spontaneous digital images in the style of Jackson Pollock.  What makes one more interesting than another? Look at an original Pollock. How do they compare? Link jacksonpollock.org by Miltos Manetas