Woody Allen - Marshall Mcluhan telling the Columbia teacher he knows nothing of his work

If life was only like this...

Kolor Fall Studio - Paintings in third dimension world

Find more photos like this on Hella Heaven Last Wednesday after the English class Basho, the teacher, invited us to go to Kolor Studio. It was a great experience and I took the first five pictures. Today I went there again and met Kolor Fall who is the artist that created and is working at the place for more than a year. He uploads his paintings to Second Life and makes them interactive so you click at the "painting" and something happens: you can sit and you - your avatar - can start dancing on the cube or start moving like a flying carpet, rotates many things can happen. For those who knows or work at Second Life it is nothing new because it is part of the many techniques artists have to create interactive experiences. Kolor Studio is divided in areas and I still did not visit them all. The earing I - my avatar is - am wearing at the two last photos are by Kolor Fall. These are some of the photos I took. Hope you like them. You are curious to know who is Kolor Fall in real life? Next post.

BNE street art and stickers

BNE is a Brazilian street artist that has his logo "BNE" spread in many cities around the world. It's the same way propaganda works. How many times do you see the Coke Logo a day?

Why not promote yourself or a cause?

The "You are Beautiful" project also uses stickers but I don't receive any news from the group.

It is a good project and I hope they keep going.

A lie repeated a thousand times...

Let's spread and repeat the truth!

This is by another artist. oops! I put the same photo twice. I don't know why! :) Do you believe that ABC did not know who BNE is? The mayor? Some people think that this is garbage and makes the city dirty. Visual pollution is everywhere but they look nice because symbols refer to goods people want to buy and are all recognizable. We all have an acquaintance that spend US$ 3.000,00 or much higher in a bag with two or three letters and they are really paying for these letters. I think this is crazy. If the letters do not refer to any of the known brands it can be the must amazing with great craftsmanship but this people will not buy because there is no status attached to, let's say, ABCD. This is strange for me and the most superfluous display of... I don't even know how to end this sentence.

Oceans By Pearl Jam - Please stand by the shore...

I like "Ten", the first Pearl Jam's album launched ten years ago, very much. As today is Saturday I would like to share this music with you. Please, stand by the shore... Have a great weekend!
Hold on to the thread
The currents will shift
Guide me towards you
Know something's left
And we're all allowed to dream
Of the next time we touch..........

You don't have to stray
The oceans away
Waves roll in my thoughts
Hold tight the ring...
The sea will rise...
Please stand by the shore... I will be... I will be...
There once more.........

Camille Claudel

Right: Abandon, 1905, by Camille Claudel Left: The flute player (The Little Fairy), 1904 I am thinking about many sculptures that depicts amazing torsos and focusing on the back. This is the voodoo way I am planning to help me get rid of my back pain. I hope it works. I must be away from the computer as much as possible.... Camille Claudel... creative, amazing woman... Paul Claudel's sister and Rodin's lover... sad end.... got paranoid and thought Rodin was going to steal her ideas.... ended in a mental institution.... Sad story to such an amazing artist and woman.... Telegraphic post... rest now...

Hella Heaven at The Art Inquirer blog

I am happy! "Hi Ana, I don't know if you're brasilian, american or have another nationality :-) I would like to inform you that for the quality, relevancy and regularly updated content of your blog Hellaheaven, it is now part of the links available at The Art Inquirer, which can be found on the right column of my blog. Wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year of 2011 José" I just received this e-mail and it made me very happy because I like very much what José is doing at his blog. He is always a step ahead and is already wishing us a Prosperous 2011. :-) Thank you José! Your blog is at my list since I started. I have to update it because there are plenty of good blogs I like. I am Brazilian!

Renoir - "Place Pigalle" - Pierre Francastel's analysis of the painting

The book "Peinture et société" -"Painting and Society"- , publish in 1951, is one of the most known of the great French art historian and sociologist Pierre Francastel and is still studied by many scholars and art-lovers. Although his work is sociological and historical comparative he makes us see many aspects of the work of some of the paintings he did choose as a database for his theory. He wrote about this Renoir painting and I did a translation of some aspects he stresses:

"Here only the first plan is defined whereas all the others are present." "The renascent vision associates in an arbitrary way details that can only be seen with precision one at a time." "This picture puts simultaneously at the same level impressionism and the fifteen century in the immense domain of illusion."

I will try to translate more of his insights and the way he approaches the creation and destruction of the what he understands as "renaissance space" that according to him cubism changed. Unfortunately there is no English translation of any of Francastel's work but the Austrian Ernest Gombrich is very appreciated in English language because he worked in England. Gombrich's "Story of Art" is the at the top of the list of books for those who want to know art. There are many ways to appreciate art. Studying is just one in a million.

Humans Right Day - Jurisprudence is the answer

Today is Humans right day and I keep wondering for how long patience will keep on accepting the unacceptable.
It seems to me that the fight for humans right should be something much more active and not only the mere remembrance of the Universal Declaration of Humans Rights and some petitions. The UN headquarters in New York City, US, should try promoting jurisprudence and make some of the rights to be more known like "The Right to Refuse to Kill".
The agenda should approach not only a number of countries that are, well, far away from the western civilization.
Anyway...
This is a photography of Gustav Klimt's Jurisprudence presented in 1903 for the murals of the University of Vienna ceiling but it was not accepted as well as the two others Philosophy, received a golden medal in Paris but was attacked in Klimt's homeland, and Medicine.

Jurisprudence was the third presented not accepted and was destroyed by the Nazis in 1945 when the SS burned to the ground the castle the piece was hidden.

It shows a condemned man surrounded by the furies: Law, Justice and Truth. That is what humans right is all about at least for me.

Place Clichy by six Impressionist painters

I was searching for the Renoir below but came across with this blog that has many painters that worked the same theme. I could not help coying it. I will write another post about the Renoir version later. Enjoy this Parisian square. If you go to the blog you will have many other painters that worked at the same theme. This is amazing!

La place Clichy par Norbert Goeneutte 1875	le boulevard de Clichy sous la neige par Paul Signac 1886

Elagantes Place Clichy par Norbert Goeneutte 1875 La place Clichy par Pierre Auguste Renoir 1880

Vue prise de la Place Clichy par Edouard Manet 1878	L'avenue de Clichy par Louis Anquetin 1887

Marilyn Monroe Reading Ulysses by James Joyce

These photographs were taken in 1954 and I think they were great shots by Eve Arnold who maybe was the one who had the idea of putting Ulysses at Marilyn's Hands.

What do you think? She is reading the end of Ulysses where Molly Bloom's dialog is: "Marilyn Monroe's ambition took her to Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio, where Mr. Strasberg's daughter, Susan, would witness some of Monroe's most serious work, including a difficult scene from James Joyce's Ulysses. "She surpassed everyone else who'd done it," Susan Strasberg writes."

In Joyce and Popular Culture, R.B. Kershner quotes a letter dated July, 20, 1993 from Arnold about the day she took the shot:

True meaning of Ctrl+C keys

You have to focus at the bag the C key is holding.

Comparing reproductions; watch how different these two Chardin' "Soap Bubble" are

If you never compared in paper this is an opportunity to see how reproductions can show different ideas of a piece. It does not seem to be the same picture. I first publish this Chardin work here. He did two other paintings with the same theme.

Coke and Botticelli's Venus at the pavement draw with chalk

The coke is another of Julian Beever's work. I have already published two of his works here. The right artist I still do not know the name and found her at The Writing is on the Wall a blog about chalk art and they have some tips for those who want to start this art.
This is Sandro Botticelli's Birth of Venus' detail.
You can see the picture she is using as a model at the photo.
It's amazing!

Jean Baptiste Simeon Chardin's legacy for the impressionists

Top-right:Boy Playing with cards, 1740, by Jean B. Chardin Top-left: Girl with Racket and Shuttlecock, 1740, Jean B. Chardin Left: Soap Bubles, 1734, by Jean B. S. Chardin Although he was the painter of aristocratic world in the late of the 17 century Jean Baptiste Simeon Chardin, a French painter, also depicted quotidian life and one of his themes were young people playing. At this post there is Manet's "soap bubble children and he received the inspiration from the left painting. This is what Wikipedia says about his legacy:

Chardin's influence on the art of the modern era was wide-ranging, and has been well-documented.^[11] Edouard Manet's half-length Boy Blowing Bubbles and the still lifes of Paul Cézanne are equally indebted to their predecessor.^[12] He was one of Henri Matisse's most admired painters; as an art student Matisse made copies of four Chardin paintings in the Louvre.^[13] Chaim Soutine's still lifes looked to Chardin for inspiration, as did the paintings of Georges Braque, and later, Giorgio Morandi.^[12] In 1999 Lucian Freud painted and etched several copies after The Young Schoolmistress (National Gallery, London).[1]

Matisse's favorite painter? I am not sure. Anyway... he studied Chardin and this is already quite an homage! I like this universe of children playing and it's amazing that Chardin's son has died at a early age probably because of suicide. Sad, too sad. Unfortunately these reproductions do not show half of Chardin's skills.

World-map made with countries' flags

A good way to memorize flags. Have a great Sunday!

Sofonisha Anguissola - The most known of women painters during Renascence

Right: Lucia, Minerva and Europa Anguissola Playing Chess, 1555, by Sofonisha Anguissola Left: Self-Portrait, 1556, by Sofonisba Anguissola Lucia, Minerva and Sofonisha were Italian sisters whose home was surrounded by encouragement for art. Lucia was also a painter but it was her sister Sofonisha was the first woman recognized by her peers. The left self-portrait that depicts her painting looking for the public and also the work she is doing is very sophisticated if we remember that Velázquez showed the painter staring at the public and the back of the work he is doing in his oeuvre "Las Meninas" in 1656. The three sisters are playing chess at the right painting and Lucia is the one staring at the public. Lucia also did a portrait of her sister and I will show her work in another post.

August Renoir's calmness and children

I saw an exhibition of Renoir in Paris and after seeing each of the paintings I looked around and focused on some pictures as a whole. I realized that his white is made of many colors and also that everything inspire calm joy and the atmosphere surrounding me seemed pretty good. I chose this two pictures for this Friday to inspire you with this calmness and remember the importance of childhood for our adult lives. Hope you had a nice childhood and if not you can cope with the memories. Right: Sewing, 1900 Left: Jean Renoir drawing, 1901

Gabriel-the-dog and Stanley-the-cat cherishing each other

I want to thank Sandee at Comedy Plus to publish this amazing video where Gabriel-the-dog and Stanley-the-cat are playing with each other. This is very cool. Watch 20 seconds and you will have an idea.

Ophellia by John Millais at the Tate Gallery - Learning online

I believe that Museums are becoming less afraid of sharing their masterpieces online and that it is counterproductive not to share since many of their works are already at the web. Education is relying more and more on online content and the use of new technologies to teach is just around the corner. Newspapers are already a reality and I believe you have heard about the Google and Murdoch affair - if not Google it, how ironic! Anyway, I just visited the Tate Gallery and found some interesting contents of some of their masterpieces and ways to share knowledge. Ophelia by John Everett Millais is one of the most famous of the Pre-Raphaelite at the gallery and you can learn online who is Ophelia and much more. There are other masterpieces in focus and even an online course that allows access to other sources. I would love to be teleported to London but I am afraid it will not happen in this lifetime. So I have to keep on comparing numerous reproductions on paper, online and remember the notes I took of the works I saw. Take a look at Ophelia at Tate's site. I copied the beginning:

How and where did Millais paint Ophelia and how do we know? What condition is it in and what can we see under the frame? Where has Ophelia travelled? What do all the flowers symbolise? Read Millais's diary extracts and letters to friends, learn about the suffering of his model and be inspired to paint your own version of Ophelia. Test your knowledge by having a go at our quiz and tell us what you think about Millais's Ophelia. Throughout this site there are small images which you can click on to view larger versions. ____________________________________________________________ I know you are lazy so I copied the Subject and Meaning tab so that you know who is Ophelia: Subject & Meaning Subject | Symbolism | Detail and Realism | Links with photography Female Suicides | Other Ophelias Subject Ophelia by Millais is the most popular postcard sold by the Tate and yet the subject is not a happy one. Ophelia is a character in Hamlet, by William Shakespeare. She is driven mad when her father, Polonius, is murdered by her lover, Hamlet. She dies while still very young in grief and madness. The events shown in Millais's Ophelia are not actually seen on stage. Instead they are referred to in a conversation between Queen Gertrude and Ophelia's brother Laertes. Gertrude describes how Ophelia fell into the river whilst picking flowers and slowly drowned, singing all the while. detail of Ophelia © Tate, London 2003 Hamlet, Act 1V, Scene V11 Laertes Drowned! O, where? Queen Gertrude There is a willow grows askant the brook, That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream. Therewith fantastic garlands did she make Of crowflowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples That liberal shepherds give a grosser name, But our cold maids do dead-men's-fingers call them. There on the pendent boughs her crownet weeds Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke, When down her weedy trophies and herself Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide, And mermaid-like awhile they bore her up; Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes, As one incapable of her own distress, Or like a creature native and indued Unto that element. But long it could not be Till that her garments, heavy with their drink, Pulled the poor wretch from her melodious lay To muddy death. Laertes Alas, then she is drowned? Queen Gertrude Drowned, drowned * Hamlet reading A conversation between Queen Gertrude and Ophelia's brother Laertes, reporting the death of Ophelia, introduction by Bill Paterson Read by Julia Ford Audio guide extract, courtesy of Acoustiguide. * Note: [You will need Real Audio Player - version 7 or later, to listen to this audio extract] __________________________________________________________ Shame on you. Just a click? You knew I would not let you go away without Shakespeare. No. I still did not hear the conversation read by Julia Ford. I will do it now.

William Blake - "The Lamb" - Have a great December!

The poem The Tyger, post below, is more famous than The Lamb. I did choose The Lamb, from "Songs of Innocence", as a way to bless us all in this December.
Have a peaceful last month of the year.
  THE LAMB by William Blake



Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?
Gave thee life, and bid thee feed
By the stream and o'er the mead;

Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing, woolly, bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice?
       
Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?
Little Lamb, I'll tell thee,
Little Lamb, I'll tell thee:

He is called by thy name,
For he calls himself a Lamb.
He is meek, and he is mild;
He became a little child.

I a child, and thou a lamb.
We are called by his name.
Little Lamb, God bless thee!
Little Lamb, God bless thee!