Art is my religion...

Paul Soldner: April 24, 1921 to January 3, 2011

2011-01-22T00:48:00.003-05:00

Paul Soldner: April 24, 1921 to January 3, 2011

Paul Soldner has made numerous invaluable contributions to the field of ceramics, including developing what has been come to be known as "American Raku", and a technique known as "low-temperature salt firing". New issues and ideas have always been incorporated into Soldner's work. His development of the low-temperature salt firing method for his raku pieces and his "pedestal pieces" - thrown and altered sculptural clay forms - push the limits of clay, revealing unique textures and forms. Soldner is also the author of numerous articles and a book ("Kilns and Their Construction"), and the founder of the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Village, Colorado. From 1991-1992 Soldner served as the Artist-in-Residence at the Claremont Graduate School in Ca., and was the Professor of Ceramics at Scripps College and Claremont Graduate School from 1969-1991. AMOCA founder David Armstrong was Paul Soldner’s last student and inspiration as he founded the only museum on the West Coast dedicated to ceramic art. Artist Paul Soldner has left a great legacy in the world of ceramics.

2010-02-09T18:24:00.002-05:00

one of my fondest memories was going to the YMCA (my mother would sometimes send me by taxi and I often got a driver that was missing an ear) and my favorite activity was finger painting...oooohhhh I love the feeling of wet paint on my finger (still do)...Back then, I loved painting. I wish to recapture that feeling...I think that I will have to start over again and let the child within guide me!!!!!

COBRA art movement

2010-02-09T18:02:00.004-05:00

COBRA was formed by Karel Appel, Constant, Corneille, Christian Dotremont, Asger Jorn, and Joseph Noiret on the 8th November 1948 in the Café Notre-Dame, Paris[1], with the signing of a manifesto, 'La Cause Était Entendue’ (The Case was Heard), drawn up by Dotremont. Formed with a unifying doctrine of complete freedom of colour and form, as well as antipathy towards surrealism, the artists also shared an interest in Marxism as well as modernism.

Their working method was based on spontaneity and experiment, and they drew their inspiration in particular from children’s drawings, from primitive art forms and from the work of Paul Klee and Joan Miró.[1]

Coming together as an amalgamation of the Dutch group Reflex, the Danish group Høst and the Belgian Revolutionary Surrealist Group, the group only lasted a few years but managed to achieve a number of objectives in that time; the periodical Cobra, a series of collaborations between various members called Peintures-Mot and two large-scale exhibitions. The first of these was held at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, November (1949), the other at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Liège (1951).

In November 1949 the group officially changed its name to 'Internationale des Artistes Expérimentaux' with membership having spread across Europe and the USA, although this name has never stuck. The movement was officially disbanded in 1951, but many of its members remained close, with Dotremont in particular continuing collaborations with many of the leading members of the group[2].

The primary focus of the group consisted of semi-abstract paintings with brilliant color, violent brushwork, and distorted human figures inspired by primitive and folk art and similar to American action painting. Cobra was a milestone in the development of Tachisme and European abstract expressionism.

[edit] Participants
Prominent participants in COBRA included:

Karel Appel (1921-2006)
Corneille (born 1922)
Pierre Alechinsky (born 1927)
Else Alfelt (1910-1974)
Jean-Michel Atlan (1913-1960)
Ejler Bille (1910-2004)
Pol Bury (1922-2005)
Jacques Calonne (born 1930)
Hugo Claus (1929-2008)
Lotti van der Gaag (1923-1999)
William Gear (1915-1997)
Stephen Gilbert (1910-2007)
Svavar Guðnason (1909-1988)
Henry Heerup (1907-1993)
Edouard Jaguer (1924-2006)
Aart Kemink (1914-2006)
Lucebert (1924-1994)
Ernest Mancoba (1904-2002)
Jørgen Nash (1920-2004)
Jan Nieuwenhuys (1922-1986)
Erik Ortvad (1917-2008)
Pieter Ouborg (1893-1956)
Carl-Henning Pedersen (1913-2007)
Raoul Ubac (1910-1985)
Serge Vandercam (1924-2005)

[edit] Related artists
Artists who had contact with COBRA, and were influenced by them:

Jerome Bech
Vali Myers
John Olsen (artist)
Shinkichi Tajiri
Alasdair Taylor
Robert Jacobsen
Enrico Baj
[edit] Legacy

Louise Bourgeois

2009-03-03T18:54:00.002-05:00

Louise Bourgeois was born in Paris in 1911. She studied art at various schools there, including the Ecole du Louvre, Académie des Beaux-Arts, Académie Julian, and Atelier Fernand Léger. In 1938, she emigrated to the United States and continued her studies at the Art Students League in New York. Though her beginnings were as an engraver and painter, by the 1940s she had turned her attention to sculptural work, for which she is now recognized as a twentieth-century leader. Greatly influenced by the influx of European Surrealist artists who immigrated to the United States after World War II, Bourgeois’s early sculpture was composed of groupings of abstract and organic shapes, often carved from wood. By the 1960s she began to execute her work in rubber, bronze, and stone, and the pieces themselves became larger, more referential to what has become the dominant theme of her work—her childhood. She has famously stated “My childhood has never lost its magic, it has never lost its mystery, and it has never lost its drama.” Deeply symbolic, her work uses her relationship with her parents and the role sexuality played in her early family life as a vocabulary in which to understand and remake that history. The anthropomorphic shapes her pieces take—the female and male bodies are continually referenced and remade—are charged with sexuality and innocence and the interplay between the two. Bourgeois’s work is in the collections of most major museums around the world. She lives in New York.

Pour mes amis français, voici une biographie détaillée :

Biographie de Louise Bourgeois sur Artzari.fr

You can also take the handmade pledge :)

2008-12-05T17:44:00.005-05:00

I think that it's very important to support our artists and artisans

in these uncertain times... You should consider supporting your local craft shows or making your

own gifts...

You can visit my Etsy page

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5615556

FUSION

2008-02-24T01:22:00.004-05:00

Catherine Labonté

Fusion
Pleins feux!
ARTICLE - 14 février 2008
Nathalie Guimond

Fusion, c'est une vingtaine d'artistes verriers, fondateurs et diplômés d'Espace VERRE, exposant des oeuvres flamboyantes et inattendues... Surprise à l'Espace Création Loto-Québec! L'Espace Création Loto-Québec est ce même endroit, niché en plein coeur du centre-ville, qui a accueilli en 2007 l'admirable exposition sur l'oeuvre de Frédéric Back. Montée en collaboration avec le centre de formation et atelier Espace VERRE qui fête cette année ses 25 ans, l'exposition Fusion est une véritable éruption volcanique de couleurs et de visions, qui réunit des pièces en verre ainsi que des oeuvres, également marquées par le thème du feu, qui sont issues de la collection Loto-Québec.
LA MATIERE
Le verre est fabriqué à partir de sable, de soude et de chaux, qu'on chauffe à une température élevée pour rendre le mélange liquide. On manipule ensuite ce dernier quand il est chaud, pour lui donner la forme voulue, qu'il conserve en refroidissant. La recette n'a pas bien changé au fil des siècles, mais la chimie a raffiné les techniques: l'ajout de potasse et de plomb améliore la qualité du verre, le cobalt, le souffre et d'autres minéraux lui donnent des couleurs. Par exemple, aujourd'hui, le verre utilisé dans plusieurs ateliers est pré-fusionné sous forme de pastilles transparentes pour en diminuer la toxicité et augmenter la production.
L'EXPOSITION
Ici, on est très loin des objets usuels et autres assiettes à dîner... Les objets sont créés par pur plaisir d'engendrer des structures et non pour remplir les fonctions ménagères qu'on assigne la plupart du temps au verre. Entre verre soufflé, pâte de verre, verre thermoformé, coulé dans le sable et j'en passe, les sculptures témoignent de la grande flexibilité du médium et de ses techniques. Entre fluidité, opacité, légèreté, lourdeur, fluidité et toutes les autres qualités que peut prendre le verre se crée un espace particulier où l'âpreté et la délicatesse de cette matière se conjuguent amoureusement.
S'y côtoient, par exemple, les robes de verre de Tanya Lyons, le coussin piquant de Vanessa Yanow, les Contes muets sur écran télé de Michèle Lapointe, les personnages de BD en pot de Catherine Labonté, la bouche d'égout montréalaise de Ronald Labelle et les magnifiques (gravement fragiles) sculptures de Maude Bussières.
EN COULISSE
Intégrées à l'exposition, des photos et une vidéo tournée dans les locaux d'Espace VERRE nous font voir l'autre versant des choses, soit les étapes de la fabrication du verre. On y observe des étudiants et artistes pratiquer différentes techniques, et ces exemples nous donnent un aperçu de la vigueur physique qu'exige le travail aux fours et en atelier.
Une exposition originale, qui démontre à quel point le verre d'art québécois a acquis ses lettres de noblesse.
Jusqu'au 23 mars
À L'Espace Création Loto-Québec
Heures d'ouverture
Mercredi au vendredi : de 11 h à 18 hSamedi et dimanche : de 12 h à 17 h500, rue Sherbrooke Ouest à MontréalTéléphone :514 499-7111, poste 2829514 499-5087Métro McGill

New Art Poem

2008-02-24T01:19:00.001-05:00

another day in the quest
of finding true inspiration & creativity
i rest my weary head in my hands
falling deep into artistic revery
of painting in the most unusual way
using blood, earth & sepia pigments
mixed with water, sap & yoke mediums
applied in almost lucid airy brushstrokes
with elm tree branches & leaves
on canvases made of feathers & bones
showing outworldly imageries delved
from the subconscious despair & fear
of facing another day without any sign
from the muse of artistic inspiration

Travelling Sketch Book Voyageur

2007-10-10T14:49:00.000-04:00

C'est un projet d'envoyer 10 carnets de croquis en circulation libre dans la ville de Montréal etc. À la fin, Je garde l'espoir de recevoir de l'information sur leurs modifications pour enfin de les recevoir pour possiblement les exposer sur internet et publiquement (des adresses courriel et postale seront à la première et dernière page).

This is a project that I am elaborating of sending 10 sketch books around Montreal and elsewhere...I will place these sketchbooks in places that they can be picked-up by strangers (with email and website info so that they can send notes on their whereabouts). While hoping that they one day return back, allowing them to be shown in public and on the Net...(Information, about email and posting addresses will be inscribed on the first & last pages of each sketchbooks).

http://travellingsketchbook.spaces.live.com

Loosing my inspiration

2007-07-09T17:38:00.000-04:00

I am at a point of lack of inspiration in my art work...
I feel drained of all creative energy...
I am too stuck to the Internet...
I made ceramic jewellery that need assembling...
I have plans to make polymer and textile jewellery...

I found this list of reasons that artists stop painting...Many of the reasons are just hilarious...
http://painting.about.com/

Don't you hate things that force you to stop painting?!
What things or events stop you from painting or interfere with your painting? And which do you hate the most? This list came out of a discussion on the Painting Forum. There are a lot that I relate to really well, and I'm sure you will to!

1. The phone or doorbell rings (again and again, and won't be ignored.)
2. I have fix lunch or dinner (or there'll be a family mutiny).
3. Mother nature calls (and I've kept putting it off).
4. It's almost noon and I'm still in my nightclothes (and not the set I've already ruined by getting paint on them).
5. The house is a mess and company is coming.
6. Someone lets in the company we're expecting (and my hands are covered in paint).
7.My husband wants to go to bed (our bedroom is my studio).
8. I have to go to work (to earn money to pay the bills and buy art supplies).
9. I get whiffs of burning food from the kitchen.
10. My ankles are too covered with bug bites from plein-air painting.
11. I had a doctor or other appointments.
12. I have to go and pick up my kids.
13. I've chores that need to be today still.
14. A friend phones with a 'problem' (and never tell her you're busy watching paint dry!).
15. I make a mess that needs cleaning up, whether it's on the ground or my shirt, or something in need of a plaster.
16. I get a headache.
17. When my feet have gone numb but I never noticed.
18. My lips are crusting over and my tongue is swollen from extreme thirst.
19. My body has been in one position for such a long time that, like the tin man from Wizard of Oz, I am seized up solid.
20. I have to pry my fingers apart and away from my brush as arthritis and lack of blood flow sets it into a claw like appendage.
21. The dog has been scratching a groove into the door trying to tell me that he needs out NOW!
22. My cat is plastered flat -- all four legs stretched out north, south, east, west -- against my studio window in hope that I am so impressed by this great trick that I let him in to get to his food dish.
23. My family or friends have called out the search squad because I have not been answering the phone messages or the door and no one has seen me in days and days.
24. I'm painting a summer scene and it starts to snow.
25. I have to leave a painting class early to catch a train home.
26. I rationalize that the extra rinse my laundry is getting from the downpour is actually a good thing.
27. I've run out of a particular colour that's crucial to this particular painting.
28. The light bulb has blown again and I can't see what I'm doing. (Must get an electrician to sort out the problem! Maybe I can sketch him doing it... I'll be paying him enough.)
29. I have to get a haircut because my hair's grown over my eyes.
30. I hate to stop painting ... PERIOD!

Emile GALLÉ

2007-04-25T01:42:00.001-04:00

Émile Gallé
(1846-1904)

Was a French glass maker, ceramist and designer
Born in Nancy, France, in 1846, Emile Gallé is considered one of the most outstanding glass artists of his time, as he greatly contributed to the development of the art of glassmaking and to the Art Nouveau Style. He traveled in Paris, London and Weimar after his training, which included art, botany, and chemistry, and began producing fine pottery, furniture and jewelry. In 1873 he set up his own glass studio and a year later he took over his father's glass and ceramics factory in Nancy. At the 1878 International Exhibition in Paris he was inspired by the glass works of some of his contemporaries. At the Paris International Exhibition in 1889, he presented his own new types of glass, including carved cameo and pate de verre work, new shapes of vases and extraordinary new colors. In 1901, he founded "L'Ecole de Nancy".Throughout the 1890's in his "Cristallerie d'Emile Gallé", he created abundant new glassworks and therefore employed a team of craftsmen-designers, who worked on his designs and applied his signature after his approval. In those years, he also exhibited his Art Nouveau works with great success, thus winning international awards, recognition through commissions and increased popular demand. After his death in 1904, his widow continued to run the glassworks until the outbreak of war in 1914, all the glass sold being marked with a star after his signature. The Gallé glassware, mainly made by acid etching on two and three layer cameo glass with landscape and floral designs, continued to be made until 1935, when the firm closed down.The works of Emile Gallé had a major influence on the Art Nouveau movement. Clear and enameled or stratified, applied, engraved, acid etched or wheel-carved, his glass was very elaborate. Nature inspired his designs, which were mostly floral, some with foliage, or landscape decorations and some with a strong Japanese feeling. He developed a technique for the production of cut and incised flashed glass and enameled designs, enhanced by bright colors and transparency of the material.Gallé made vases and lamps in two distinct qualities of glass: his "masterpieces", that took hours of precise work to make and his less expensive, though of high quality art glass, that would later be called "industrial Gallé".Major works (from 1989 to 1904):Glass vases and lamps, with cameo or wheel-carved Gallé signature, etched to depict landscape scenes, flowers, butterflies or birds amongst foliage, in double or triple overlaid and etched glass; internally decorated, overlaid, wheel-carved glass; cameo glass; flashed, engraved, chased and enameled glass.

Visiting the Montreal Owen-Illinois glass plant

2007-04-20T23:33:00.000-04:00

The Owen-Illinois Glass

Yesterday, I went to the Montreal Owen-Illinois glass company with Espace VERRE's 2nd year students, glass/instructor Donald Robertson, his wife Susan Edgerley (also a glass artist/instructor on a sabbatical) and our General Director Christian Poulin...All I can say is Wowzy...It was very impressive with their Five story high glass furnace that holds 4 feet high of molten glass. We took turns looking in the pits of Hell with a welding mask. We started the visit by going to the mold warehouse with countless metal molds... Their main productions are beer bottles...So we saw so many empty beer bottles among other kinds stacked up into giant walls...It made me think about the many houses made of recycled bottles...

http://www.maisonsdebouteilles.com/about.cfm

What made me laugh the most was the comment that our guide said about burns that he had received in his multitude of jobs that he held for the company so I said Okay girls (our glass students are mainly women) show him yours and they all rolled up their sleeves and he said okay okay... You see when you play with fire, you'll most likely burn yourself and when you play with glass, well cutting yourself is inevitable...

To see glass artist Karine Demers blow glass in French at Espace VERRE

http://youtube.com/watch?v=c-ln2a4dVSA

Glass is made of silicate, soda ash limestone, Alumina-Silicate, Salt Cake and Minor Ingredients to create color... Well this plant mixes the ingredients with recycled crushed glass called cullet. Their facility has the possibility of recycling up to 80% of glass for the production work and they only reach 20%. Now that's wrong...we must recycle more!!!

This is the Owen-Illinois statement on their website:

Environmental Commitment
O-I is committed to sustainable packaging solutions that are safe, recyclable, non-toxic and add value to both people and the environment. Our approach will enable us to sustain our business in all economic regions of the world, for present and future generations, while protecting the consumer and the environment.
We realize that caring for the environment is the responsibility of everyone working within the organization and we will actively encourage all individuals to be environmentally responsible.
We take measurable actions to reduce our impact on the environment, while supplying quality products that are pure, safe, healthy and infinitely recyclable to our customers. O-I has implemented a program of continuous improvement appropriate to the nature, scale and location of its activities, products and services.
Glass’ Sustainability
Glass is beneficial, safe and healthy for individuals and communities throughout its life cycle. It is made from materials that are safe in all probable end-of-life scenarios and it has been a trusted package for more than 3,000 years of human experience. And it is the only packaging material to be generally recognized as safe (GRAS) by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration.
Further, glass is the only true “cradle-to-cradle” or endlessly recyclable product. Once glass is sorted, it remains the most easily processed and most readily recycled container. Even when recycled again and again, the quality, purity and clarity of glass does not deteriorate.
Used bottles can be reused to make new bottles forever. For example, a bottle can go from a curbside recycling box, through the recycling stream and re-made into a new bottle and on a store shelf in as little as 30 days
Recycling
In communities around the globe, O-I provides outreach and support in setting up recycling programs. These programs result in decreased consumption of raw materials, reduced emissions and improved energy conservation.
O-I plays a vital role in U.S. recycling as an active supporter of the Keep America Beautiful Foundation and the National Recycling Coalition. As early as 1973, O-I received Business Week's National Award for Business Citizenship and was cited for having some of the cleanest glass factories in the nation and leading the industry in glass recycling. Today O-I is the largest user of recycled glass containers in the United States, with nearly a million tons recycled annually.

Newest poem

2007-01-23T18:44:00.000-05:00

Youth
the absurdity of our minds have gone wild
while colorful neon lights flash quickly
as we passengers of the godly metal
are drenched in the summer's sweat
these wild & throbbing times
are heard through howls in the night
with loud music blaring on the radio
capturing this very moment
on the celluloid of our naive minds
& in a split second realization
we are seized by the united thought
& understanding that tonight
we are immortal

Copyright ©2007 Suzanne Delorme

recent exhibition of my student work

2007-01-01T02:59:00.000-05:00

6 oct. 2006
Cabinet des estampes

CABINET DES ESTAMPES Sélection de 18 albums collectifs réalisés aux ateliers d’estampe de l’École des arts visuels et médiatiques de l’UQAM de 1989 à 2006
Galerie de l’Atelier Circulaire,
5445 rue de Gaspé, espace 503
Du 6 au 28 octobre 2006
Vernissage le 6 octobre à 17 h.
Heures d’ouverture : mercredi - samedi de 12h à 17h
Cette exposition regroupe des productions inédites réalisées dans les ateliers d’estampe de l’École des arts visuels et médiatiques de l’Université du Québec à Montréal de 1989 à 2006. Près de 250 étudiants ont participé à la planification ainsi qu’à la réalisation de ces estampes originales qui composent des albums thématiques, des livres d’art et des livres-objet.

L’esprit même qui a prévalu à la réalisation de ces projets a toujours été celui de déroger aux balises de la tradition séculaire de l’estampe traditionnelle afin d’aviver la créativité qui nourrit l’art et la vie. Il s’agit d’un Cabinet des estampes quelque peu délinquant qui témoigne encore et toujours de la vivacité des arts impressions. Aide à la mise en forme de l’exposition : Fanny Curtat, étudiante à l’ÉAVMCommissaire de l’exposition : Jean-Pierre Gilbert, professeur à l’ÉAVM

Participants: Pierre Bellefeuille, Andrée-Caroline Boucher, Pascal Doyon, Laurence Faidutti, Lise Fortier, Christine Lacroix, Claude Langevin, Dominique-Chloé Lefèbvre, Gaétane Lemieux, Sandra Vaillancourt, Isabelle Côté, Anne Couture, Jeanne Deschesnes, Joey Doire, Sonia Fontana, Gaétan Gagnon, Jean-Pierre Gilbert, Jean Leclerc, Brigitte Nantel, Joël Patrick Phibel, Georges Ringuette, Claudette Tardif, Patricia Healy, Louise Larin, Rachel Audet, Catherine Ayotte, Micheline Desrochers, Chu-Xe Diep, Dominique Dion, Nicole Dupuis, Marco Gonzalez, Elaine Gosselin, France Lord, Geneviève Mercure, Andrée Millette, Margot Pépin, Benoît Senécal, Sandra Vaillancourt, Mario Bergeron, Madeleine Biard, Yves Boucher, Martine Cazale, Michel Houle, Guylaine Larouche, Camille Leblanc, Philippe Méthé, Bertrand Rainville-Pitt, Diane Raymond, Louise Senay, Fannie Saint-Germain, Anne St-Louis, Cristina Torrent-Oriol, Christian Barré, Nathalie Boisvert, Marjorie Caron, Mariane Charland, Pierre Gagnon, Rollande Goudreault, Claude L’Archevêque, Marie-Danielle Leblanc, Maria Nadeau, Isabelle Plourde, René Provencher, Richard Rajotte, Mireille Tourigny, Guy Lamothe , Marc Beauchamp, Patrick Bourque, Sylvie Corneau- Bourgeois, Stéphane Corriveau, Frédéric Desjardins, Sébastien Gingras, Édith Jackson, Élisabeth Leclerc, André Milot, Nathalie Provost, Yves Renaud, Chantal Bernier, Lorraine Bernier, Yan Chubby, Gabriel Drolet, Katia Maria Gomes Da Silva, Louise Isabelle, Michelle Lauzé, Paul Lebel, Mélanie Lord, Geneviève Oligny, Maryse Phaneuf, Marc Piché, Robert Tanguay, Christiane Thibault, Christine Thibodeau, Claudine Trudel, Nadia Bertrand, Nadine Cartier, Josée Chartré, Stéphanie Chalut, Solange Courval, Suzanne Delorme, Geneviève Dubois, Daniel Langevin, Chantal Lévesque, Mélanie McNicoll, Llano Rossy, Marie-Ève Robidoux, Marielle Roy, Justin Sanscartier, Amélie Thomas, Diane Tremblay, Jean-Noël Bilodeau, Judith Bourgouin, Rachel Boudreault, Patrice Cantin, Véronique Chartrand, Nicole Francoeur, Marie-Ève Gauthier, Marie-Claude Hade, Marie-Pier Roy, Yvan Royal, Alexandre Saint-Jalm, Marie-Joël Turgeon, Nadia Veilleux, Isabelle Auger, Élise Bergeron, Martine Bruneau, Élise Cropsal, Charles Desgroseilliers, Marianne Dubuc, Catherine Lachapelle, Jean-François Lantagne, Ariane Pelletier, Pascale Rousseau, Roxanne Arsenault, Annie Boileau, Nathalie Clouâtre, Marc Gariépy, Valérie Gauthier, Simon-Pierre Gérard, Michel Labelle, Shin ah Lee, Katheryne Pichette, Carline Ponsart, Kathleen Rousseau, Phonesavanh Thongsouksanoumane, Marie-Ève Bertrand, Étienne Carrier, Carolina Espinosa, Andréa Fortin, Jannick Guillou, Brigitte Heloua, Marc-André Roy, Roxana Zegan, Ginette Aubin, Simon Bilodeau, Julie Carignan, Élise Charette, Robin Charron, Heidi Deschesnes-Doré, Martine Desjardins, Céline Dion, Karine Landerman, Mathieu Lavoie, Josée Lecompte, Annie Muller, Marie-Ève Payette, Marie-Ève Séguin, Valérie Vincent, Yoann Voyer, Linda Beaulieu, Amélie Bernard, Simon Bilodeau, Marylyn Boudreault, Évelyn Charette, Jessica Dauphinais, Geneviève Flageol, Émilie Forget, Mariane Kathy Labonté, Marie-France Laplante, Édith Lebeau, Catherine Massouras, Jean Morissette, Valérie Parizeault, Mathieu Penarroya, Pauline Rhéaume, Karen Riley, Isabelle Roy, Lucie Vervaet, Domonique Audet, Émilie Bouchard, Marie-Maude Brunet, Cynthia Desrochers, Marjolaine Groulx, Francis Jodoin, Olivia Keable, Élise Lassonde, Sylvie Moisan, Célia Provencher-Galarneau, Karine Vaillancourt, Dominique Boileau, Mélanie Bureau, Ariane Castonguay-Arsenault, Marianne Chevalier, Mathilde Destelle, Martin Dubé, Annabelle Giard, Fabienne Hardy, Stéphanie Homier, Katerine Lafrenière, Géraldine Pierrot, Marjolaine Samson, Isabelle Vanier, Josée Véronneau, Catherine Ballard, Véronique Béland, Louis Bouvier, Livienne Hélène César Grenier, Mathilde Corbeil, Catherine Gauthier, Sonia Lapierre, Véronique Larose, Véronique Lévesque-Pelletier, Geneviève Milette, Karine Payette, Marie-Pier Viens, Vincent Beauchemin, Crystelle Bédard, Arianne Bordeleau-Bergeron, Emmanuelle Bressan, Fanny Curtat, Marie-Michelle Deschamps, Maxime Fortin, Youssef Gharbaoui, Clémence Grieco, Sophie Juneau, Emmanuel Lagrange Paquet, Sonia Lapierre, Karmen Mantha, Jean-François Ouellet, Cynthia Thibault

Jean-Pierre Gilbert

new ceramic work and Solstissage

2006-12-02T22:02:00.000-05:00

"Anselm Kiefer Quotes"

2006-11-03T09:48:00.000-05:00

Inspirational Art Quotes by the German expressionist painter and sculptor Anselm Kieferborn Anselm Kiefer - Germany - 8th of March, 1945 / Lives - GermanyPopular Anselm Kiefer works include large scale expressive paintings using a minimal palette and sculpture using materials like lead.

+ I'm interested in reconstructing symbols. It's about connecting with an older knowledge and trying to discover continuities in why we search for heaven.

+ The reason for this project comes from my childhood, that is clear to me. I did not have any toys. So, I played in the bricks of ruined buildings around me and with which I built houses.

+ The book, the idea of a book or the image of a book, is a symbol of learning, of transmitting knowledge.. I make my own books to find my way through the old stories.

+ I believe art has to take responsibility but it should not give up being art.

Soldiers of peace

2006-10-02T15:58:00.000-04:00

On October 1st, I participated in a workshop with 39 people where we created a soldier for peace with clay... Please read, visit her website and find out how you can participate in one of her future sessions...Suzanne

Created for peace
And notCreated against war,
A flame for peace
That, symbolically,
We all carry within us
Let this become a reality
So that the world that is to be,
May manifest itself

http://www.soldiersofpeace.ca/

INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
ART PROJECT DEDICATED TO PEACE
By Claude Desjardins

Meet Claude Desjardins

Environmentally Guided Sculptress

Claude is a seeker of truth through the material world. She creates in order to give meaning to her life. She has explored many different approaches in her quest to understand how the environment affects the human being. She creates as a way of trying to discover how nature can help her reconnect with ancient wisdom and teachings. Her work is an ongoing process. Using natural resources within her environment, she comes in contact, experiments with, and learns about the sacred essence of life. From the invisible to the visible, the work of a being is never completed. The being evolves with the creator’s level of consciousness.

One of the most important aspects of her creative process is the participation of the community. She needs to have the vision of others in order to understand the meaning of her work; the meaning of her life. She has a story that illustrates why it is so important. She says that when we are sitting around a bonfire, everybody is in a circle looking at the fire. Everybody has a unique vision of the fire. Each time someone puts a piece of wood in the fire, it changes not only the person's view, but also a neighbor's perspective. So, to Claude the responsibility of any human being is to name what is personally seen in the fire and to nourish it. And when we express our uniqueness, we help the collective to grow.

MAM FINE CRAFTS COLLOQUIUM 2006

2006-09-26T10:37:00.000-04:00

Many Espace VERRE students and graduates are members of this organisation, please visit their Website :

http://www.mam-montreal.com/splash.html

MAM FINE CRAFTS COLLOQUIUM 2006
The MAM Fine Crafts Colloquium 2006 will be held at the Cegep du Vieux Montreal (255 Ontario Street East) from September 25 - October 8 2006. The Colloquium will include an exhibition, conferences, and professional workshops:

EXHIBITION : THE MAM SHOW at the Agora Gallery at the Cegep du Vieux Montreal OPENING - Monday September 25 @ 7:00pm255 Ontario Street East Montréal (Quebec) H2X 1X6 until Sunday October 8 2006

CONFERENCE : Is Fine Crafts Practice Possible Today? Louise Lemieux Berube, Director: Centre des textiles contemporains de Montréal ...Wednesday September 27 from 4pm to 6pm (in French) Cegep du Vieux Montréal, 255 Ontario Street East, room # 4.01-4.27

WORKSHOP : Representing Oneself at Galleries. Elizabeth Marier, glass artist / instructor at Espace Verre Wednesday September 27 from 6pm to 8pm (in French) Cegep du Vieux Montréal, 255 Ontario Street East, room # 4.01-4.27

WORKSHOP : Researching Financing. Christiane Jobin, Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Quebec Martin Thivierge, Societe de Developpement des Entreprises Culturelles Stephane Carrier, for the Agence Quebec Wallonie Bruxelles pour la Jeunesse, theOffice Franco-Quebecois pour la Jeunesse and the Office Quebec-Ameriques pour la Jeunesse.Thursday September 28 from 6pm to 8pm (in French) Cegep du Vieux Montreal, 255 Ontario Street East, room # 4.01-4.27

PBS

2006-09-21T00:06:00.000-04:00

PBS
I have watched PBS programming for years... I stopped for a few years because, I didn't have cable...I occasionally could catch fuzzy programs with my cheesy antenna...For years they have brought us wonderful instructive and engaging programs: Sesame Street, Mystery, Nova, Julia Childs and my new found culinary interest Ming Tsai (ooh la la, he can cook in my dreams)...In my teens, I saw a documentary on Jackson Pollock that inspired me to make my own drip paintings on paper which I framed and gave to my family for Xmas. In my early twenties, I saw a documentary on John Cage, the musician that made me see everyday sounds as music and silence as a positive addition to all living things... They are a beautiful rainbow spectrum among some of the garbage that is currently on TV...Heck, even the Dalai Lama is addicted to the BBC news seen every night on PBS.See what's playing in your town...www.pbs.org
Ming Tsai’s Website: www.ming.com

Check out my Pally's Musical Blog

2006-09-20T11:46:00.000-04:00

Linda Fraser is one of my best friends...In her late teenage years, she moved to Hamilton Ontario. Over the years, she has encouraged the rich music scene there. It has become an important part of her life...

Linda's blog:

http://www.myspace.com/playmetheblues

Last Night at the Cafe de l'artiste...Verdun

2006-09-17T11:16:00.000-04:00

Last night, I discovered two wonderful young musical artists Melissa Laveaux and Marie-Josee Houle both reside in Ottawa. Melissa's voice is rich and soulfully textured perfectly in-sync with her acoustic guitar giving her voice a perfect rhythm. Marie-Josee transported us to a far away cafe/cabaret somewhere in Paris with her beautiful voice and her exquisite accordion playing........The gypsies and Edith Piaf where not far away...

Their distinctive styles finally merged wonderfully in the very last song of their third set.

Please visit their Website to find out more about these emerging musical artists:

http://www.melissalaveaux.com
http://www.uglysocks.com/

2006-09-16T12:47:00.000-04:00

Banksy is a world renowned, London-based graffiti artist whose artwork is often political and/or humorous in nature. He has attempted to hide his identity; however, according to The Guardian he is one Robert Banks born in 1974 in Bristol, England. His artwork has appeared throughout London and various cities around the world. His street art which combines graffiti with a distinctive stencilling technique has garnered him underground notoriety and widespread coverage in the mainstream media.

More info: http://www.banksy.co.uk/

September 13th 2006

2006-09-14T22:08:00.000-04:00

Yesterday Wednesday September 13th, an armed 25 year old man opened fire at Dawson College (Montreal's largest pre-University College), a young student Anastasia DeSousa was killed and 19 people were injured (some are in a very critical state)...

Today people are trying to find answers for his senseless actions...Perhaps blaming his gothic lifestyle...I think that the problem was deeper inside his own mind...Time may tell...

I am a proud graduate of Dawson College's New School program, class of 92...It was a highlight of my academic years with very fond memories... After hearing of this deadly rampage, all I could do was to imagine all the places that this took place and hope that there would be no one seriously hurt... But unfortunately, that was just a wish...

The Alexis-Nihon shopping mall just next door is very familiar to me, as I go there regularly...It is my favorite shopping destination.

My heart goes to all the victims families and even to the killer's own family, for they also have to come to grip with their son's actions and death...

A Message from Dawson College's Director General: http://www.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/
Get some news : www.cbc.ca

Les oeufs

2006-09-02T18:01:00.000-04:00

Transformation of my eggs before today's omelette was made...

Eclipse of the moon and other recent paintings

2006-09-02T15:39:00.000-04:00

Discotheque Girl 2006
Muse doll
unfinished painting...

Eclipse 2001

I used the stitch option on my digital camera to get this whole painting...

A place that celebrates Roald Dahl

2006-08-31T21:45:00.000-04:00

http://www.roalddahlmuseum.org/

Our biographical displays on Roald Dahl and the interactive fun of the Story Centre will be on display permanently, so you’ll be able to enjoy them time and time again. But we also have some space for temporary exhibitions:
'Roald Dahl's Songs and Verse'17 June 2006 - 26 November 2006
This wondercrump new exhibition features a dazzling display of original artwork from an international line-up of illustrators from the 2005 Roald Dahl book, 'Songs and Verse'. Visitors can read (and hear) some of their favourite Roald Dahl poems and find out about some that they may not have seen before!
We are running 'Songs and Verse' craft activities and crodsquinkling competitions for the chance to win a bag of Museum goodies. Find out more when you visit the Museum.
We are very grateful to all the artists who have generously loaned their artwork, and to Random House Children's Books for their sponsorship, making the exhibition possible.

Stephanie Metivier Glassblower

2006-08-23T23:58:00.000-04:00

Stephanie is a member of the Fusion Program at Espace VERRE

Brian Jungen exhibition

2006-08-12T15:31:00.000-04:00

Yesterday,my friend James and I went to see this exhibition. We really enjoyed it!

Prototype for New Understanding #8, 1999 Nike athletic footwear, human hair

Cetology, 2002 Plastic chairs

Brian Jungen

is at the Contemporary Museum of Montreal

from May 27 to September 4, 2006

185, Sainte-Catherine Ouest (corner Jeanne-Mance)

Montréal, Québec H2X 3X5

Telephone : (514) 847-6226Fax : (514) 847-6291
E-mail: info@macm.org

This exhibition, the first survey of the work of the young Vancouver artist Brian Jungen, presents pieces produced in the last decade. Jungen’s art draws inspiration from both his analytic and sometimes humorous observation of contemporary consumer culture and his ancestral ties with the Dane-zaa Nation of northern British Columbia. Here, the famous Nike running shoes take on the form of ceremonial West Coast Native masks, while plastic lawn chairs are transformed into enormous whale skeletons. These works call into question the various economic, sociological and cultural values of the Western world, at the same time as they initiate a dialogue between Aboriginal and global cultures.The exhibition, organized by Vancouver Art Gallery, was realized by Daina Augaitis, assistant chief and main curator of the institution, with the support of the Audain Foundation and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. The presentation to the Musée d'art contemporain is under the coordination of the curator Réal Lussier.

Want to know more about Brian Jungen:

http://www.macm.org/en/index.html
www.nativeonline.com/brian.htm
http://www.vanartgallery.bc.ca/exhibitions_brianjungen.cfm

Café de l'artiste Verdun

2006-08-10T22:53:00.000-04:00

(All photos are by Jade Delorme)

5200 Verdun

Verdun, QC H4H 1K1

Tel: 514.362.8436

Fax: 514.362.0045

Email: sienna63@hotmail.com

Come and visit sometime...

Meet Tara Slade-Hall the owner...

You can find Fine Crafts...

Discover some incredible artists...

Eat great food, drink

coffee, tea or fruit smoothies

in a great atmosphere

where you can take classes, meet interesting people and watch great shows on the Weekends...

Some of the shows scheduled for August 2006:

(Although admission is free, a donation of at least 5$ is suggested)

Next Show:

Atacamenos Aug 11 2006 Peruvian music

Upcoming shows:

Moise Mathey, Fabrice Koffey: Music type : World - Poetry (music)
Yves Lanneville, Anick Bérubé: Aug 18 2006, soirée franchante
Robert Levasseur: Aug 19 2006, songs and poetry
Mike Burns: [Stage]Aug 25 2006, reading
Marndmelissa: Aug 26 2006

Ceramic Sculptures in progress

2006-08-05T18:05:00.000-04:00

Weaving project in progress (2006)

Devilish girl yet to be painted (2006)

Old woman (2006)

Bust from 1992

The last ceramic sculpture that I had done

My Verdun neighbourhood

2006-08-04T13:55:00.000-04:00

Karine(R) from the Cafe de l'artiste

with her sister Stephanie on Verdun Avenue

Another restaurant across the street

they make a great submarine sandwiche and

Cesar salad...

Rotisserie style chicken

Fresh QC corn special

A small market a few blocks away

on Verdun Avenue

A poster for a slush drink at the Couchetard corner store

The building where I live on Moffat Street

Three Art Shots

2006-08-01T13:22:00.001-04:00

Vanishing Hand

Neon Strip Club Sign

Domestic Shiva

A few photos taken going to work

2006-07-30T02:44:00.000-04:00

This shot is from the corner (Wellington and Bridge streets) bus stop where I have been getting off every morning, for almost five years, to go to work...I have always wondered about how this one was achieved without detection and wether they were Japanese...

This is the entrance to my work

on Mill Street about 5 minutes from the other corner

Espace VERRE means Glass Space

This is my desk in the gallery...

Graduation Exhibition 2006

Come and celebrate the mystery and reality of the "Feminine Mystique"

2006-07-24T23:50:00.000-04:00

Painting by Sorange Castillo

Feminine Mystique

featuring: Sorange Castillo,

Shelley Shanks, Aimi Dunn,
Ann Hernandez and more...

Friday, July 28, 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm

Earth Gallery

365 W. 19th Street

Houston, TX

Telephone: (713) 880-2121

email: manfred@ev1.net

www.earthgalleryonline.com

Georgia O'keefe at the Shelburne Museum

2006-07-14T01:06:00.000-04:00

Hibicus and Plumeria (1932)

Simple Beauty: Paintings by Georgia O'Keeffe exhibits some 25 works by one of the most admired American artists of the 20th century. Included are sublime landscapes of the American Southwest, breathtaking close-up views of flowers, abstract paintings, still-lifes, and city and farm scenes that are not widely known. Several works have rarely been on public view, and many date from the 1920s when the public was just beginning to recognize her importance as an artist. Read more...

http://www.shelburnemuseum.org/whats_on/new_exhibits_detail.php?id=11

Shelburne Museum

U.S Route 7, P.O Box 10

Shelburne, VT 05482

Phone: 802.985.3346

Fax: 802.985.2331

EMILY CARR EXHIBITION

2006-07-12T23:34:00.000-04:00

Emily Carr: New Perspectives

2 June to 4 September 2006

Ottawa, Canada - 6 March 2006. This summer, the National Gallery of Canada pays a unique homage to Emily Carr, modern painter, writer, environmentalist, feminist icon of Canadian art, defiant Victorian, solitary eccentric, and documenter of Northwest Coast monumental art. On display in Ottawa from 2 June to 4 September, Emily Carr: New Perspectives, presented by Sun Life Financial, looks at this much-loved artist through the historical lens of 20th century exhibitions that presented her work, and in the social and political contexts that defined her world. The exhibition is coorganized with the Vancouver Art Gallery.
Best known for her paintings of First Nations villages and landscapes of the northwest Pacific coast, Emily Carr (1871-1945) is the subject of numerous biographies, scholarly articles, documentary films, plays, a musical, an opera, and poetry. "Born the same year British-Columbia joined Confederation, she has contributed in her very own way in the making of our country's identity," says Pierre Théberge, Director of the National Gallery of Canada. (read more http://www.national.gallery.ca/emily/en/media/) .

NATIONAL GALLERY OF CANADA

380 Sussex Drive, Ottawa

613.990.1985 or 1.800.319.ARTS

www.national.gallery.ca

Important women artists part 1

2006-07-09T01:16:00.000-04:00

Diane Arbus

Double Self-Portrait With Infant Daughter, Doon, 1945

Early life
Arbus was born in New York City into a wealthy Jewish family, in which she was overshadowed by her older brother, the poet, Howard Nemerov. Arbus fell in love with future-actor Allan Arbus at age 14, and married him soon after turning 18, despite her parents' objections. When Allan started training as a photographer for the US Army, he taught Diane his lessons. She also learned about photography through photographer, Lisette Model. The Arbuses ran a successful fashion photography studio for 20 years, before separating in 1959. The Arbuses had two daughters, photographer Amy Arbus and writer and art director Doon Arbus.
[edit]

Photography career
After separating from her husband, Arbus studied with Alexey Brodovitch and Richard Avedon. Beginning in 1960, Arbus worked extensively as a photojournalist, her photos appearing in Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, Harper's Bazaar and Sunday Times magazines, among others.
Arbus' early work was created using 35mm cameras, but by the 1960s Arbus adopted the Rolleiflex medium format twin-lens reflex. This format provided a square aspect ratio, higher image resolution, and a waist-level viewfinder that allow Arbus to connect with her subjects in ways that a standard eye-level viewfinder did not. Arbus also experimented with the use of flashes in daylight, allowing her to highlight and separate her subjects from the background.
In 1963, Arbus received a Guggenheim fellow grant, allowing her to focus on her art. Arbus received a second Guggenheim grant in 1966. The Museum of Modern Art, in 1967, staged Arbus' first museum show as the New Documents show which included the work of Garry Winogrand and Lee Friedlander. Arbus also taught photography at the Parsons School of Design in New York and Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts.
In July 1971, Arbus ended her own life in Greenwich Village, at the age of 48 by ingesting a large quantity of barbiturates and then cutting open her wrists. Rumors held that she photographed her suicide, but no photos were discovered by the police.
Aperture magazine was crucial in reviving Arbus' artistic reputation. MoMA curator John Szarkowski prepared to stage a retrospective in 1972, but the accompanying Diane Arbus catalogue proposal was turned down by all major publishing houses. Aperture's Michael E. Hoffman accepted the challenge, producing one of the most influential photography books. The Aperture monograph has since been reprinted 12 times, selling more than 100,000 copies. The MoMA retrospective traveled throughout North America attracting more than 7 million viewers. Also in 1972, Arbus became the first American photographer to be represented at the Venice Biennale. Arbus' photograph, Identical Twins is sixth on the list of the list of most expensive photographs havings sold in 2004 for $478,400.
Arbus is remembered today for her photographs depicting outsiders, such as tranvestites, dwarves, giants, prostitutes, and ordinary citizens in poses and settings conveying a disturbing uncanniness. Some critics claim that Arbus' voyeuristic approach demeaned her subjects. In 2005 Germaine Greer made this claim on BBC Culture Show, based around a major London retrospective of Arbus's works. Admirers of Arbus's work (such as Todd Solondz) were also interviewed by the BBC and passionately defended her work.

Isabel Bishop

Laughing Head, 1938

Isabel Bishop (March 3, 1902 – March 19, 1988) was an American painter and graphic artist, who produced numerous works of mainly working women in an urban realist style. She was widely exhibited in her lifetime, and was recognised with a number of awards including one for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts, presented to her by President Jimmy Carter in 1979.
Bishop was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and brought up in Detroit, Michigan, before moving to New York City at the age of 16 to study illustration at the New York School of Applied Design for Women. After two years there, she shifted from illustration to painting, and attended the Art Students League for four years until 1924. During the early twenties she studied and painted in Woodstock. Much of her early work exhibits a range of study and styles. Although she never took off from landscape painting many of the early paintings exhibit landscape like examinations of lighting, trees, still-lifes, and street scenes often in a forced 1:3 landscape ratio. Early pieces are often on pressboard. Few early works survived her noted self-destruction of her own pieces from the early period left in her studio in the 1970s. She became a life member of Art Students League and taught there from 1936 to 1937.
Many of Bishop's mid to later works depict the inhabitants of the New York's Union Square area, where she maintained a studio between 1934 and 1984. Her subjects are nearly always women and, particularly in earlier works, some come from a blue-collar background, yet she was also known to produce beautiful panoramic studies of the country and social scenes such as golf tournaments. The portraits are portrayed often as an individual head – the emphasis securely on the subject's expression – or as a single nude. As well as these, many of Bishop's compositions contain two females engaged in various interactions. Her signature changed many times over her career from using various pseudynoms to initials signing some early pieces I.B, or I. Bishop in both block and scrpit

Important women artists part 2

2006-07-08T23:35:00.000-04:00

Camille Claudel

She was born in Fère-en-Tardenois, Aisne, in northern France, the second child of a family of farmers and gentry. Her father, Louis Prosper, dealt in mortgages and bank transactions. Her mother, the former Louise Athanaïse Cécile Cerveaux, came from a Champagne family of Catholic farmers and priests. The family moved to Villeneuve-sur-Fère while Camille was still a baby. Her younger brother Paul Claudel was born there in 1866. Subsequently they moved to Bar-le-Duc (1870), Nogent-sur-Seine (1876), and Wassy-sur-Blaise (1879), although they continued to spend summers in Villeneuve-sur-Fère, and the stark landscape of that region made a deep impression on the children. Camille moved with her mother, brother and younger sister to the Montparnasse area of Paris in 1881, her father having to remain behind, working to support them.
[edit]

Creative period
Fascinated with stone and soil as a child, as a young woman she studied at the Académie Colarossi with sculptor Alfred Boucher. (At the time, the École des Beaux-Arts barred women from enrolling to study.) In 1882, Claudel rented a workshop with other young women, mostly English, including Jessie Lipscomb. In 1883, she met Auguste Rodin who taught sculpture to Claudel and her friends.
Around 1884, she started working in Rodin's workshop. Claudel became his source of inspiration, his model, his confidante and lover. She never lived with Rodin, who was reluctant to end his 20-year relationship with Rose Beuret. Claudel never had children with Rodin, although she was pregnant. She lost the child in an accident[1], which sent her into deeper depression. Knowledge of the affair agitated her family, especially her mother who never completely agreed with Claudel's involvement in the arts. As a consequence, she left the family house. In 1892, perhaps after an unwanted abortion, Claudel ended the intimate aspect of her relationship with Rodin, although they saw one another regularly until 1898.
Beginning in 1903, she exhibited her works at the Salon des Artistes français or at the Salon d'Automne. It would be a mistake to assume that Claudel's reputation has survived simply because of her notorious association with Rodin. She was in fact a brilliant sculptor in her own right, as good as the best of her peers. Her early work is similar to Rodin's in spirit, but shows an imagination and lyricism quite her own, particularly in the famous Bronze Waltz (1893). The Age of Maturity (1900) is a powerful allegory of her break with Rodin, with one figure The Implorer that was produced as an edition of its own. Her onyx and bronze small-scale Wave (1897) was a conscious break in style with her Rodin period, with a decorative quality quite different from the "heroic" feeling of her earlier work. In the early years of the 20th Century, Claudel had patrons, dealers, and commercial success - she had no need to bask in the reflected light of Rodin. However, this success was not to last.
From 1905 on, Claudel acted mentally deranged. She destroyed many of her statues, disappeared for long periods of time and acted paranoid. She accused Rodin of stealing her ideas and of leading a conspiracy to kill her. After the wedding of her brother (who supported her until then) in 1906 and his return to China after a stay in France, she lived secluded in her workshop.
[edit]

Confinement
Her father, who approved of her career choice, tried to help her and financially supported her. He died on March 2, 1913 and no one informed Claudel of his death. On March 10, 1913 at the initiative of her mother, she was admitted to the psychiatric hospital of Ville-Évrard in Neuilly-sur-Marne. The form read that she had been "voluntarily" committed, although her admission was signed by a doctor and her mother.
In 1914, to be safe from advancing German troops, the patients at Ville-Évrard were at first relocated to Enghien. On 7 September 1914 Camille was transferred with a number of other women, to the Montdevergues Asylum, at Montfavet, six kilometres from Avignon. Her certificate of admittance to Montdevergues was signed on 22 September 1914; it reported that she suffered "from a systematic persecution delirium mostly based upon false interpretations and imagination".
For a while, the press accused her family of committing a sculptor of genius. Her mother forbade her to receive mail from anyone other than her brother. The hospital staff regularly proposed to her family that Claudel be released, but her mother adamantly refused each time. On June 1, 1920, physician Dr. Brunet, sent a letter advising her mother to try to reintegrate her daughter into the family environment. Nothing came of this.
Paul Claudel, her brother, visited her every few years, though he referred to her in the past tense. In 1929 Jessie Lipscomb visited her.
Camille Claudel died on October 19, 1943, after having lived 30 years in the asylum at Montfavet (known then as the Asile de Montdevergues, now the modern psychiatric hospital Centre Hospitalier de Montfavet), and without a visit from her mother or sister. (Her mother died on June 20, 1929.) Some biographies list her death as 1920. Her body was interred in the cemetery of Monfavet.

Important Women Artists part 3

2006-07-08T21:46:00.000-04:00

Sofonisba Anguissola, Self-Portrait, 1554.

Sofonisba Anguissola was born in Cremona. She was the oldest of seven children, six of whom were daughters. Her father, Amilcare Anguissola, was a nobleman. Sofonisba's mother died shortly after her children were born. Amilcare, who bore a name from antiquity (i.e. the name of the Carthaginian Hamilcar, as did his son Asdrubale, named after Hasdrubal) named her after the tragic Carthaginian figure Sophonisba.
All of the daughters (Sofonisba, Elena, Lucia, Europa, Anna Maria and Minerva) possessed artistic talent. Asdrubale did not study painting, but studied music and Latin like his sisters did. Along with second oldest sister, Elena, Sofonisba formally studied art with Bernardino Campi, a local portrait painter. When Campi moved to another city, Sofonisba continued her studies with the painter Bernardino Gatti. Sofonisba's apprenticeship with local painters set a precedent for future women to be accepted as students of art.
Later in life, her sister Elena became a nun, and two sisters ended their art careers after marriage, whilst the last sister died at an early age.
In 1557, her father Amilcare wrote a letter to Michelangelo describing the talents of his daughter. By way of response, the prominent artist sent him a drawing for his daughter to copy, as was the custom of the time. Sofonisba drew "Child bitten by a crab" and sent it back to Michelangelo for criticism; her talent was immediately recognized by Michelangelo.
In 1559, in her late 20's, her talents recognized, she was invited to Spain to serve as a court painter and lady-in-waiting to the Queen, Elizabeth of Valois, whom she painted in 1565. Sofonisba remained for 10 years. She married twice. Her first marriage in 1570 was to Fabrizio de Moncada, a Sicilian. The wedding ceremony was celebrated with great pomp, and she received a dowry from the monarchs Philip II of Spain and Elizabeth. Sofonisba spent the next four years in Italy, but when her husband Fabrizio died, Sofonisba decided to return to the Spanish court. However, on her return voyage, she fell in love with the ship's captain, Orazio Lomellino, and they married on arrival to the port of Genoa.
Sofonisba became a wealthy patron of the arts after she became blind. She had three children and spent the rest of her life in Genoa and Palermo.
In 1624, one year before her death (she claimed to be 96 at the time), Sofonisba was visited by a young Anthony Van Dyck, who drew a portrait of her in his sketchbook and noted that, though Sofonisba was blind, was still quite mentally alert. Excerpts of the advice she gave him about painting also survive from this visit.
She died in Palermo in 1625.

Artemisia Gentileschi Self-portrait

Artemisia Gentileschi (1593 - 1652/1653), daughter of well-known Roman artist, Orazio Gentileschi (1563 - 1639), was one of the first women artists to achieve recognition in the male-dominated world of post-Renaissance art. In an era when female artists were limited to portrait painting and imitative poses, she was the first woman to paint major historical and religious scenarios.
Born in Rome in 1593, she received her early training from her father, but after art academies rejected her, she continued study under a friend of her father, Agostino Tassi.
In 1612, her father brought suit against Tassi for raping Artemisia. There followed a highly publicised seven-month trial. This event makes up the central theme of a controversial French film, Artemisia (1998), directed by Agnes Merlet.
The trauma of the rape and trial impacted on Artemisia's painting. Her graphic depictions were cathartic and symbolic attempts to deal with the physical and psychic pain.
The heroines of her art, especially Judith, are powerful women exacting revenge on such male evildoers as the Assyrian general Holofernes. Her style was heavily influenced by dramatic realism and marked chiaroscuro (contrasting light and dark) of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1573 - 1610).

After her death, she drifted into obscurity, her works often attributed to her father or other artists. Art historian and expert on Artemisia, Mary D. Garrard notes that Artemisia "has suffered a scholarly neglect that is unthinkable for an artist of her calibre." Renewed and overdue interest in Artemisia in recent years has recognized her as a talented seventeenth-century painter and one of the world's greatest female artists.

Find out about other women artists: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Women_in_art

Michael-Ann Belin's Solo Exhibition

2006-07-05T23:50:00.000-04:00

"Coming out of the Metaphysical Closet"

Michael-Ann Belin

blows the hinges off the doors with her newest works.

Come meet this extraordinary artist and transcend earthly bonds. .

Opening: Saturday, July 15, 2006 7 until 10pm
Where :

M2 Gallery

325 W. 19th St.

Houston, TX 77008
Phone : 713.861.6070
Email : m2-houston@sbcglobal.net

Art poems that I have written

2006-06-28T23:34:00.000-04:00

TB HARLEM by Alice Neel

Images
images of an alice neel painting tb harlem

a youthful victim of it's ravaging

come to me while i listen to the tb sheets song by van morrison

the flash is unmistakably vividin my brain's eye

i can feel the young man's suffering

with a collapsed bandaged lung

concaved rib cage deformed

by medical intrusive intervention

i can only imagine the pain

that he is feeling and think of him

as eternally clinging to a life scarred and wasted

and I can almost smell the decaying

of his once youthful flesh

caught in the act by paintbrush verity

on a striking canvas repose

which no spectator can ever deny

is the work of a true genius

and a masterpiece of life

Painting Dance
painting dance

and refrains untapped

i see the colors

of the strokes and the movement

inside the darkness of my mind

i apply the coup de grace

that marred the purity of the rawness on my canvas

with a first trace of paint

all in the name of symbolism

behind the shield of artistry

for a fleeting momen

ti grasp the true meaning

behind the unknown forces that give me guidance

through each step

but alas in a flash

it is gone

and i have

forgotten

Museum Sleep

inside the ornate frame

such beauty rests in a museum sleep

frozen in silence waiting

for cracks to formin the plaster wall

to breathe again

to regain life

in ancient fibers of morrow's lore

and furthermore the pallid beauty

wearing those woven golden reddish braids

longs for the creator's touch

the lover's embrace

the passionate kiss

Suzanne Delorme

Marcel Duchamp 1887-1968

2006-06-27T00:30:00.000-04:00

Art Historians Recognize Duchamp as the Greatest Influence in 20th century art

Check it out : http://www.marcelduchamp.net

3 Women artists inspirational quotes

2006-06-21T18:35:00.000-04:00

I cannot solve the problem of life by losing myself in the problem of art. (Tina Modotti)

At no point do I wish to be in conflict with any man or masculine thought. It doesn't enter my consciousness. Art is anonymous. It's not competitive with men. It's a complementary contribution. (Barbara Hepworth)

Like Chekhov, I am a collector of souls... if I hadn't been an artist, I could have been a psychiatrist. (Alice Neel)

Art is my religion

2006-06-18T13:01:00.000-04:00

Art is in my veins and animates, nourishes and calms my soul...I live in a home that is in fact a studio... Among unfinished paintings projects spread accross this small abode. I have come to realize that art has replaced religion for me...