What I Have Been Doing This Summer

I just finished creating two new wall hangings and I want to share them with you.  The client wanted one to be very "girly" for her daughter thus the pink, purple, fairies, flowers, dragonflies etc. and for her son she indicated that he liked musical instruments.  I will soon be returning to my collages and hopefully finish a painting that I began at the beginning of the summer.  Below are the results of the commissioned pieces.

"Metamorphoses" by Ovid

Here are the results of my interpretations of different stories from"Metamorphoses" as pictured below.

This is the tale of Atalanta who could outrun even the fastest men in a footrace.

This is the story of Peleus and Thetis grappling with an enormous seabird its body as powerful as a seal.

This is the tale of Acteon and Diana.  Diana, angry that Acteon saw her naked made antlers of a stag sprout from his dripping head.

Finally, this is the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice who turned to look at her  whereupon she fell away and dissolved.

A Visit to The Cathedral of Saint John The Divine

 I have lived in the New York City area all my life and I had never visited the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine.  www.stjohndivine.org  What finally inspired me to go there was a review in the paper about an exhibit by the artist Jane Alexander.  

"Surveys (from the Cape of Good Hope) is the first major North American survey of tableaux, sculptures, and photomontages by important South African artist Jane Alexander. Her artwork speaks of lasting disfigurations in her native South Africa, yet raises issues about human nature that resonate with viewers internationally. This site-specific exhibition at the Cathedral allows audiences to experience the familiarity and mutability of Alexander's universe."

The work consists of sculptures primarily constructed of fiberglass and then painted.  They have an other worldly quality and are both fascinating and disturbing at the same time connecting animal and human forms.  Placing them in a religious setting gives them enormous power.

The Metamorphoses by Ovid

For my summer semester in collage the theme is "The Metamorphoses" by Ovid.  These are stories featuring the figures of classical mythology.  "At its extremes, passion is represented by transformation, or metamorphosis, through love, death, or radical physical change.  Metamorphosis, for Ovid, is a skeleton key to the workings of life itself and the workings of art as well."

The featured collage is interpreted by me from the following passage:
"Meanwhile, Ceres, fearful for her daughter, searched for her in every land, on every sea but in vain.  Dawn coming up from ocean at the break of day with hair still damp saw Ceres looking everywhere, and Hesperus, the evening star, saw her at dusk, looking still.  She lit torches made of pine from Mt. Etna and carried them in each hand through the frosty night, never resting, and still searching for her daughter, searching from the rising of the sun to its going down."

A Wall Hanging For Scarlet

The latest addition to my family arrived about two months ago and her name is Scarlet.  In keeping with my decision to make artful wall hangings for the new arrivals I decided to go ahead a create one for her.  Her mom wanted something "girly" so instead of baby animals I found plastic fairies to help decorate the piece along with flowers, colorful stones and butterflies.  I found a wonderful website where I could custom order unpainted letters to size and the the result is featured below.  I do commissions so if anyone is interested I would be happy to give out further information by writing to me at my e-mail address...sfidlon@gmail.com

"Here We Gogh"

Not long ago I came into the possession of a Van Gogh print and for a number of months it had been waiting for me to do something with it.  In fact, I was inspired by a recent story that featured that particular painting. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/30/arts/30iht-vangogh30.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

The experts believe that the original colors were different from the ones we are accustomed to seeing. 

The original print as shown below.                         And here is my version.

 

"The Civil War and American Art" at the Met

Recently I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and viewed a very interesting exhibit involving the Civil War.  Here is a brief description from the website:

"This major loan exhibition considers how American artists responded to the Civil War and its aftermath. Landscapes and genre scenes—more than traditional history paintings—captured the war's impact on the American psyche. The works of art on display trace the trajectory of the conflict and express the intense emotions that it provoked: unease as war became inevitable, optimism that a single battle might end the struggle, growing realization that fighting would be prolonged, enthusiasm and worries alike surrounding emancipation, and concerns about how to reunify the nation after a period of grievous division. The exhibition proposes significant new readings of many familiar masterworks—some sixty paintings and eighteen photographs created between 1852 and 1877—including outstanding landscapes by Frederic E. Church and Sanford R. Gifford, paintings of life on the battlefront and the home front by Winslow Homer and Eastman Johnson, and photographs by Timothy H. O'Sullivan and George N. Barnard. The exhibition at the Metropolitan coincides with the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863)."

What I found to be particularly interesting is that although there were some artists at the battlefield including Winslow Homer,  they did not depict the horrors of war.  In fact, many of the paintings were more about landscapes and everyday life during that time frame.  However, it is definitely worth a visit.