At the Museum of Modern Art

"Century of the Child-Growing By Design, 1900-2000" is the name of one of the exhibits I visited today at the Museum of Modern Art.  The emphasis is on the preoccupation of childhood during the 20th. century.   Along with the myriad toys and games featured, there was also school architecture, clothing playgrounds etc.  The objects ranged from colorful, harmless toys to more serious ones with overtones of politics such as war toys.

I find old style toys particularly interesting and try to incorporate them into some of my assemblages as shown above.

Another Museum Visit

Recently I visited the Neue Museum www.neuegalerie.org located on Fifth Avenue and 86th. Street.  The reason for my visit was to view the work of Gustav Klimt whose 150th. anniversary is being celebrated.  The museum had paintings on view from their own collection along with some from other sources as well as drawings and personal photographs.  His work is very well known, very decorative and he is known for his paintings of women.  However there were several landscapes included that I had not seen before which I liked very much.  You can view them on the website.

I have always been interested in painting people as opposed to landscapes or still lifes. Above are two examples of my efforts.

The Confluence of Art and Nature

This past week I have been staying with my sister and brother-in-law at their home in Ithaca New York an area filled with natural beauty.  Art can be found not only on the walls of a gallery or a museum but in the world around us.  I am always in awe of the beauty of nature and how natural wonders can be interpreted into artworks.  Below are some examples.

A Japanese Garden at the Johnson Museum at Cornell

A Gorge at Treman State Park

"Almost Famous Paintings" - an altered book

Recently one of the projects I worked on was altering a book which is an art form that can be very creative.  I chose a book of famous paintings that I have owned for many years.  With paint, collage and other materials I picked pictures that appealed to me and then changed or altered them rendering them into new images often resulting in humorous takes on the original works of art.

Vuillard at the Jewish Museum

Today I went to the Jewish Museum jewishmuseum.org where a wonderful exhibit featuring the French artist Edouard Vuilllard who painted during the 19th - 20th centuries.  He was part of a group of artists known as Nabis....known for their somewhat abstract style, flat painting and pattern.  I was not very familiar with his work and enjoyed the visit tremendously.  He was a painter of people in their everyday surroundings.  As he said, he painted people, not portraits.  One can learn much more about an individual surrounded by their own possessions doing everyday things than someone sitting stiffly facing the artist.  I hope you take a look at the site.

A visit to Monet's Garden at the NY Botanical Garden

Today I paid a visit to the NY Botanical Garden in the Bronx to view a new exhibit which is a recreation of Monet's Garden in Giverny.  It was a beautiful display featuring many different flowers,  a  palette of deep, beautiful colors and an inspiration to anyone who appreciates nature.  I now understand why Monet became a painter of flowers and spent many happy years in Giverny creating this masterpiece of a garden.

Iron

One of the recent weekly themes in my class was "iron".  Most of my fellow students chose to create a collage incorporating the appliance "iron".  I did not.  I checked the thesaurus and among the synonyms were words like strong, hard etc.  With that in mind I decided to use metal screws and nails and decorated a box that I first painted silver.  I then thought of using an action hero and placed him in the box as my little twist on a more serious piece.  I call it "Strong Box."