Mary Rayme's Blog
Posted by Mary Rayme
Recently I have become obsessed with widgets. What's a widget, you say? It is a small piece of software that is meant to dovetail into the Dashboard feature of the Macintosh OS X. They are easy to download and self-installing so they are pretty much idiot-proof.
Let me begin with the ever-popular cam. There is the Bocken Cam, which shows updates from Gavle, Sweden, where they burn the worlds largest Christmas goat every year. Who knew there was a Christmas goat?
There is the Greenwich Village Cam, which shows New York City from Christopher Street in the Village. There is the Lighthouse Cam, which shows views from the east coast, west coast, and the Great Lakes. The Old Faithful Cam shows you what's going on at the great geyser in Yellowstone National Park.
Missing that city traffic? You can download widgets for Traffic Cams in Cincinnati, Lisbon, Tennessee, Milwaukee, Paris, Ottawa and Seattle. Many places are using widgets to promote themselves. Illustrators, photographers, even colleges are promoting their work through widgets.
There are a lot of games as widgets also, but they seem cumbersome and slow compared to stand-alone games. I don't think serious gamers will go for widget games, but it's great for office goof-off time. C'mon, y'all know what I mean by office goof-off time. ;-)
My own personal favorite widgets: The Daily Doonesbury, Tremor Skimmer (a map with current earthquakes), and of course no dashboard is complete without a cute hula girl. (You can also alter hula girl to be a Jesus hula boy, something 9-year-old boys find very amusing.) Earlier I had some lovely, blinking Christmas lights decorating the border of my screen as a widget. Very tacky. Very fun.
And they must be fairly easy to write because there are new widgets added to the site on Apple everyday and hundreds of possibilities already await your downloading pleasure. There are also widgets available for PC or Mac through Yahoo. Yahoo has step-by-step instructions for how to write your own widget. But first, you need an idea. If you could have any widget what would you create?
Posted by Mary Rayme
How is it that one black man can scream, "I feel good!" and...We all DO feel good, with exclamation points and a kick in the pants? James Brown has made us feel good for decades, and now he's gone.
The best part about James Brown is that we may largely ignore his sordid personal life and focus on his art, which was creating and achieving the highest form of funk the world has ever known. James Brown truly is the Godfather of Soul.
As a tribute to the greatness that was James Brown, he remains the most frequently sampled artist of all time. Artists such as 2 Live Crew, LL Cool J, Run DMC, Slick Rick, Queen Latifah, Ice T., Public Enemy, and De La Soul have all borrowed heavily from the man who was often called the Hardest Working Man in Show Business. Considering that his performances sometimes caused him to lose several pounds of weight, perhaps this is true.
Brown's sampling is only a part of what makes him the Godfather of Hip Hip. Many of his songs feature a spoken message with music in the background, or his songs begin with speaking. Brown's rough upbringing and lifestyle made him an original gangsta in so many ways. He has true street cred and Hip Hop provenance.
His songs were sometimes more revealing of a troubled childhood. From "Papa Don't Take No Mess":
"Papa didn't cuss,He didn't raise a whole lotta fuss
But when we did wrong, Papa beat the hell out of us."
His songs encouraged pride, as in, "Say It Out Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud!" His songs sometimes had a very bigoted, male point of view, such as, "Hot Pants (She Got To Use What She Got, To Get What She Wants)"And just what does the girl in hot pants want, Mr. Brown? Hmmm? Now that James is gone, perhaps it is easier to love him.
A tip of the writing lid to my friend Doug Van Gundy for providing a necessary Brown infusion.
Posted by Mary Rayme
The world exhaled in delight earlier this month when a famous black dress worn by Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's fetched nearly $1 million dollars US at Christie's auction house in London.
The sleeveless size 2 dress has long black gloves, and was designed and donated by Hubert de Givenchy to the founders of City of Joy Aid. All proceeds from the auctioned dress benefit City of Joy Aid in India, an organization that works to help India's poor.
Perhaps the best part about the $807,000 going to City of Joy Aid is that there are no paid employees, and the organization basically runs on royalties from books and speaking engagement fees. The full amount of this lump of loot will go directly to aid the poor.
There are two ironies here. The first, is that the dress was only expected to bring between $98,000-$138,000 and brought nearly 6 times that much. The other irony is that the proceeds of the sale of this iconic dress that represents wealth and opulence will benefit some of the poorest folk on the face of the planet.
In the words of co-founder, Dominique Lapierre, "I am absolutely dumbfounded to believe that a piece of cloth which belonged to such a magical actress will now enable me to buy bricks and cement to put the most destitute children in the world into schools."
It is good karma all the way 'round, and nearly a million dollars well spent.
Posted by Mary Rayme
The Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike is an historic road that connected eastern Virginia to Western Virginia and was built in the 1840s. Claudius Crozet referred to the area between Staunton and Parkersburg as, "a sea of mountains and valleys with little level land" and "rivers flowing in every direction of the compass."
If you look at a map of the Turnpike, you can get a birds eye view of the route which is roughly shaped like a lightning bolt. The most direct line in this rough geography is often not a straight line. It surely must have been a challenge for Crozet to choose the best route for this important road. Much of what he relied on had already been established by Indians who lived in and traversed this area for thousands of years before Europeans arrived.
During an extreme winter in 1855, the mail was left undelivered for days because of a snow storm. When the postal authorities questioned the locally contracted mail deliverers, their colorful response was as follows: "If you knock the gable end out of Hell and back it up against Cheat Mountain and rain fire for forty days and forty nights it won't melt the snow enough to get your damned mail through on time."
The American Civil War brought a lot of activity to the Turnpike. It was fought over and on, by Union and Confederate troops during Civil War, 1861-1865. During a similar time period, the Turnpike has been rumored to have been a part of the Underground Railroad, as well. The state of West Virginia was also formed during the Civil War out of Virginia.
Industries of oil, gas, coal mining, and timber all have risen and contnued to prosper along this Turnpike. The industries of glass and the railroad, have mostly disappeared though excursion trains for touring have risen up in Durbin, Elkins, and Cass.
The Turnpike also tells a story of early travel by automobile in the United States. Henry Ford and Thomas Edison took an historic road trip through West Virginia and the Turnpike back in 1918 and stayed at the Cheat Mountain Club.
The Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike is managed by a small non-profit alliance whose goal is to preserve the heritage of the Turnpike, while also promoting heritage and recreational tourism. Chances are, your area or local region has an historic byway. Get driving and explore your neck of the woods!
Posted by Mary Rayme
Oh no! It's almost Christmas, I hate going to the mall, and I have to some tasteful yet creative Christmas shopping for several witty and urbane relatives who are tired of moonshine and local honey.
So it goes most every year that someone on the listserve for the Washington DC chapter of the American Institute for Graphic Artists sends out a query for cool places where designers shop. After all, graphic designers are known (not only for wearing black) but also for having impeccable, cutting-edge taste. Graphic designers are the arbiters of cool, the yet the iconoclasts of the industry.
Below, in no particular order, is a list of URLs to cool and groovy places to shop for holiday goodies. Just copy and paste the URLs into your browser. Some products and gifts are environmentally friendly, others are just cool and fun. Know any more that I haven't included? Email me, it's not Christmas yet.
Happy Holidays, Happy Hannukah, Happy Kwanzaa and Happy Solstice to all!
http://www.dwr.com/shop/category.cfm?category=61
http://www.blackcatdc.com/rocknshop.html
http://www.realmbyjessewalker.com/
http://www.ilikeseamonsters.com/catalog
http://www.rebound-designs.com
http://www.uncrate.com (men)
http://www.outblush.com (women)
http://www.rebound-designs.com
http://www.thedailyplanner.com
http://www.peekkeep.com/index.php
http://www.mrfrench.com/popink.asp
http://www.stupid.com/index.html
http://www.peeandpoo.com/eng/flasheng.asp
http://www.wishingfish.com/
http://www.momastore.org/museum/moma/StoreCatalogDisplay_-1_10001_10451_6H100
http://www.shopfosters.com/
http://store.racingcode.com/
http://www.conran.com/
http://www.flight001.com/store/index.htm?SID
http://www.mightygoods.com/
http://www.designpublic.com/
http://www.trunkt.com/home.cfm
http://store.wexnercenterstore.com/
http://www.upliftingarts.com/
https://www.shopcomposition.com/secure.aspx
http://www.flaxart.com/f/?AID=5334798&PID=492926
http://youworkforthem.com/
http://www.shopheidi.com/
www.creatureco-op.com
www.flaxart.com
www.shopcomposition.com
www.fly-bird.net
www.fredflare.com
www.wrapables.com
www.knockknock.biz
http://designsponge.blogspot.com/
http://www.pomegranita.com/
http://www.decor8.blogspot.com/
http://notmartha.org
http://www.core77.com/ultimategiftguide/
Posted by Mary Rayme
While watching West Virginia University vs. Rutgers college football on television, I was impressed with the multiple playbacks of each play, from different camera angles. There are at least four angles to cover: front, back, ride side, left side. And it helps that all of the angles are slightly elevated so we can see the various arms and legs akimbo in shiny uniforms, attempting to foil their opponents. It also helps that it is in slow motion.
We as humans don't always see or comprehend things as they happen, and have the luxury of relying on our technology. Even the referees on the field in Morgantown, West Virginia, consult this camera playback from all angles, especially when the call is crucial to the game. That we need this visual reinforcement to make an informed decision, is perhaps the implied intent of the playback in slow motion.
It is also the intention of cubism to show life experienced from all perspectives or points of view, simultaneously. It is a visual leap of faith because we must imagine what cannot exist. When Paul Cezanne accidentally started a movement that was picked up from Africa by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, it created an art movement as influential through art history as any. And even though some humans may shrug their shoulders while viewing the work of a Cubist, they totally understand the cubistic need for the slow motion, multiple playback.
Lord help me, I have to say it. Go Mountaineers! And thank goodness Coach Rich Rodriguez will stay in his native West Virginia.
Posted by Mary Rayme
Friend and photographer, Michael Lijewski of Harford County, Maryland sticks close to home to capture great photographs. Michael has always had an interest in looking at and learning from other photographers, including Matthew Brady who gained much of his photography fame during the American Civil War.
The advent of affordable digital cameras was the impetus for Lijewski becoming an active photographer. Says Lijewski, "Back in '99 I was watching a tech show when they announced the first 1.3 megapixel digicam for under $300.00. One point three million pixels, how much more could anyone possibly need?, I thought. A day later I had my camera, which looked distressingly like an old transistor radio, and was standing next to a grade crossing at three in the morning waiting for a train."
Michael has several photographic interests, but trains were his first regular subject matter. Living on the east coast of the United States gives Lijewski a train-filled world to choose from. He has traveled all over the country in pursuit of train photographs but mainly stayed close to home in his native Maryland. One of the major challenges of train photography can be explaining to suspicious, post-911 law enforcement about why he has an interest in photographing public railyards and trains.
The other theme in the work of Lijewski is that of night photography. These photographs are lovely and deep in their mysterious monotone with selective neon colors that tend to glow against the backdrop of a dark night sky. There is a wonderful connection with this work to all film noir and the paintings of Edward Hopper. Lijewski also tends to be a nocturnal person, which lends itself to work after dark.
The prolific Lijewski also maintains two blog sites. The first, Falmanac features photographs of a historic nature near his home town of Fallston, Maryland. The second blog, QR AI features contemporary and historic photos of New Mexico, where Lijewski once resided.
Check out all of Lijewski's sites and enjoy his photographs and tongue in cheek comments. His work is thoughtful and beautifully composed with an emphasis on dramatic lighting. Better yet, bookmark the sites and check back regularly as he tends to update at least weekly if not sometimes daily.
Posted by Mary Rayme
I am not a huge James Bond fan. Sure, I am familiar with the franchise, the brand of Bond. My dad had all of the Ian Fleming novels and watching the latest Bond flick on TV was mandatory in my household.
So I was very dubious in going to see the latest Bond movie, Casino Royale, directed by Martin Campbell. Daniel Craig is the amazing new incarnation of James Bond who seems to prefer to kill people with his bare hands rather than just shooting them.
The film opens with perhaps one of the greatest and most suspenseful foot race scenes in the history of the cinema. Who needs a car chase? Bond and the man he chases climb, dive, flip, and scramble through a high-rise construction site like a couple of Spidermen. And don't worry, there will be a car chase scene or two later on in the film featuring expensive cars.
While Bond movies are known for the beautiful women they feature, the true physical attraction is Daniel Craig himself. He has intense blue eyes, sandy-blond hair, and a well-chiseled physique that clearly upstages even the alluring Eva Green, his love object. Craig is easy on the eyes whether dressed to the nines in a tux or tied naked to a chair in a torture scene.
The other star of this film is the wonderfully evil Le Chiffre played to perfection by Mads Mikkelsen. This archetype villain steals the show with his weasely, scarred face that comes equipped with a blind eye that cries tears of blood. This guy gets my vote for best villain since the evil Doctor Loveless of the TV show Wild, Wild West fame.
The film also ties in the popular theme of poker in a delightful way, from the cool, animated opening credits to the multi-million dollar poker game that is highlighted in the film.
There is some sort of loose plot that involves shuffling electronic funds to either support or bankrupt terrorists. This may be the main story line but, perhaps this Bond film can be distinguished from other Bond films with it's theme of love, not espionage. The Casino Royale Bond character is a brutal killer with a heart of gold, focused on saving his love not his career. What's not to love?
Posted by Mary Rayme
It is ironic that as humans females have become the more decorative of our species. In many other animal worlds, the male is the more impressive-looking of the pair. I always think of a male peacock spreading his tail and strutting, which is peacock for, "Do you like what you see? It could be yours, little peahen..."
This same thought is echoed in the song "My Conviction" from the musical Hair:
"I would just like to say that it is my conviction that longer hair and other flamboyant affectations of appearance are nothing more than the male's emergence from his drab camouflage into the gaudy plumage that is the birthright of his sex.
There is a prevailing notion that elegant plumage and fine feathers are not proper for the male.
But aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaactually, That is the way things are in most species."
An excellently true song that makes me think that some of our men have adapted to meet this biological need. You gotta think of a peacock when Mick Jagger gets out on stage. He is the struttin'-est Rock Star around and mighty popular with the ladies. Chicks dig rock stars. It is after all biology. Can we help it?
And the act of singing is all about seduction, too. It seems 95% of all songs are about love, unrequited love, a promise of love, a loss of love, familial love, romantic love. In many ways, all songs are love songs and all singers are trying to seduce their listeners. After all, Mick Jagger does want you to love him, but he also wants you to buy his latest recording. Rock on, men.
Posted by Mary Rayme
When I worked at the Baltimore Museum of Art back in the 80's, I sometimes had the opportunity to see pieces of art that were not available to the general public. One day in the Print Room at the museum, the curator Jay Fisher pulled out (delicately) an ancient Durer print that was in obvious trouble, as the paper was worn through in places and yellowed. Fisher indicated that this print would never be on display and would never be seen by the public. It is too delicate to be exposed to even the low-level exhibition lights that are used for transient works on paper such as drawings or photographs. This was an amazingly detailed woodblock print by the master himself, Albrecht Durer, and from the Fifteenth century.
So I have wondered how many other "invisible" works of art exist in museum storage rooms? How many other museums pay for the care and maintenance of works of art that will never been seen? And, if a work of art exists and no one sees it, is it a work of art? What is accomplished in preserving a work of art if it is never seen?
And perhaps a way of offering these works to the world would be to take them out one last time and drum scan them? Even if the process destroys the works forever, they will be preserved digitally forever and ever. These works could be uploaded to the internet where they could be viewed for generations to come. In this new digital age, it is time for the museum to make itself accessible everywhere, not just in their own temple.
Posted by Mary Rayme
Every Friday for several years I have gone into my son's classroom to teach an art project since there is no formal art training in West Virginia elementary schools.
In preparation for these projects I discuss with his teacher which kind of thematic project might best reinforce the curriculum. When my son had a Charlotte's Web unit we made cold spaghetti webs with a positive affirmation in the web ala Charlotte.
I also consult the internet to try to find prepared projects that I can appropriate for my own purposes. One of the great confusions is that many teachers seem to mistake cookie cutter or "turkey hand" types of projects for art. We all know the Turkey Hand project...right? Kids trace their hand and then make it look like a turkey by adding a beard, eyes, feathers, etc. This is not an art project and has nothing to do with the critical thinking necessary to qualify as such. Why? Because each child does not necessarily have a free choice and the projects come out looking very similar, hence the cookie cutter name.
So what are the components that create a valid Art project? First, display your cultural exemplar. For a Van Gogh project we first look at a projected picture of Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night. Discuss the various elements of the picture and lead the kids through the process of looking at a painting. Discuss the color and shape and ask them to give words to describe the mood of the painting. Starry Night is a great painting to start with not only because of its great cultural prominence, but also because it has a lot of mood and feeling.
The materials for drawing include colored chalk and/or pastels on black construction paper. On the board, I roughly sketch out a West Virginia landscape and trees using a Van Gogh-style approach of using lines to define objects and space. The kids need someone to lead them through how to draw each element, but stress that each child can personalize the landscape and make it their own by adding their house or pet.
By introducing the students to Starry Night, you've included art history, the genre of landscape painting, the medium of pastels, and the idea of freehand drawing. And the kids love it.
Posted by Mary Rayme
The first M.I.A. song I heard was called Galang and I had to admit, it was not love at first hear. I thought, what is she saying? What a weird voice she has! But it is quite an infectious voice with lyrics worth listening to if you can decipher her unique language that combines English, slang, and a clever morphing of words to force a rhyme. Her first CD, Arular, was an international success and Rolling Stone listed it as one of the best albums of 2005.
Not bad for a 29-year-old, London-born, daughter of a Tamil Tiger whose real name is Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam. Recently I learned that one of my favorite M.I.A. songs had it's music video banned from MTV because of a brief mention of the PLO. I've been listening to this song for a year now and had never even heard the offending phrase which is, "Like PLO, I never Surrend-o."
So what about the Black-Eyed Peas song, Where is the Love? It has a negative lyric about the CIA & FBI, two other acronym-type organizations that people have strong feelings about. To ban a young artist's music video for a lame-o reference to a so-called terrorist organization is totally hypocritical especially when many consider the FBI and the CIA to be conducting similar terrorist activities of extreme or forced rendition-- euphemisms for kidnapping and torture.
While I love M.I.A.'s unusual vocalizations and lyrics it is perhaps the marriage of her lyrics with the production of Diplo that makes Arular most successful. The album is full of twitchy percussion and humming backbeats that hold it all together. The end product is that of a new, 21st-century kind of music never heard before. Even if you give M.I.A. a listen and don't like it, be aware that this album will continue to influence other artists for years to come. I think M.I.A. also represents a new kind of international fusion because she hails from Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom and there are elements of both east and west in her music.
Posted by Mary Rayme
The documentary film is an attempt to record or document real events. There is a modern myth that the documentary filmmaker is part scientist, whose role is to observe the subject matter, and not attempt to direct or interact with the subject. But this is not so. I think that the very act of choosing to document anything is nonbiased.
Even the classic, Nanook of the North (1922), directed by Robert J. Flaherty, was a masterpiece of manipulation of facts. The woman in the film who appears to be Nanook's wife is not his real wife, and Nanook is encouraged to hunt traditionally with a club rather than with the rifle he usually used. And Nanook's real name was Allakariallak!
There is no such thing as a purely nonfiction or unstaged documentary. Even the act of editing is an act of fiction; it involves cutting and pasting angles that can't exist simultaneously, and the condensing of time into a contorted two hours. If you give two directors the same set of footage, they would create two very different movies from very different viewpoints.
It is the excuse that many use to belittle the documentary work of Michael Moore. His first film, Roger & Me (1989), was a new kind of documentary that had a definite viewpoint that was critical of the subject. Moore is angry, and takes personally the devastation of his hometown of Flint, Michigan by General Motors, who abandoned the US for cheap labor in Mexico.
Moore's style is confrontational and humorous, and is part gonzo-journalism and part kabuki theater. There is a difficult scene in Bowling for Columbine where Moore leaves a photo of a girl killed by a gun for a disoriented Charlton Heston. This scene is meant to confront Heston for being a representative of the NRA, and comes across as cheap to an unsuspecting Heston.
This kind of journalistic ambush is Michael Moore's bread and butter. It is akin to the Mike Wallace 60 Minutes interview where he pulls out damning information that brings his interviewee to a stammering state of denial. When Mike Wallace delivers his sucker punch he is well-dressed and well-lit. When Michael Moore delivers his punch, it is poorly lit and he is dressed like a schlub. I think many people who have issues with Michael Moore's films have more of a hangup with his appearance than his message.
Posted by Mary Rayme
The Burrup Penninsula in northwestern Australia is home to over 1,000,000 pieces of rock art created by ancient humans, some of which date back as far as 30,000 years. Now a large energy company wants to mine gas in this region and is proposing moving some of these ancient works of art.
Woodside Petroleum is investing $5 billion (Australian) in the Burrup Peninsula gas mining project, while BHP Billiton has a $20 billion gas project active in Burrup also at it's offshore islands. A Woodside representative is quoted as saying, "The Burrup is one of the most productive areas in Australia per hectare and hosts mining and energy investments of about $35 billion and is responsible for up to 7,000 direct jobs, and many thousands probably hundreds of thousands of indirect jobs."
Historic preservationists have launched a campaign to get the Burrup Peninsula of Australia, also called the Dampier Rock Art Precinct, placed on the National Heritage listing, which would in turn give more credibility to the notion of protecting as much of the rock art as possible. At a conference in May of 2006, various experts reported on the damage that has already been done to the rock including showing photos of a mound of rocks with petroglyphs that have been broken up and destroyed in the creation of the gas mining operation on the penninsula. It is estimated that over 100,000 such petroglyphs have been destroyed. There is also growing concern that the pollution from the gas mining and processing plants are raining down acid rain that is destroying the rock art at an alarming rate.
So how much value do we place on the rock art of our ancient ancestors? Is it worth pursuing a finite resource to destroy part of the cultural heritage of Aboriginal Australians that is ultimately the heritage of us all? This is a story that is not over. As the courts and higher authorities in Australia decide on how to proceed, I'll keep you posted. And let's hope Australia knows the world is watching them.
Posted by Mary Rayme
I am a middle-aged white woman who enjoys some rap music and hip hop. Is that so strange? I think not. I'm sure there is a silent legion of mothers and sisters across the world who have listened to the rap music of their kids and sibs and said, "Rap deserves its props."
Invented in America and exported across the world, rap music is enjoyed by a large audience of all races and ages. According to wikipedia, rap is actually one of the four elements of hip hop culture. The other elements include DJing, dance (particularly breakdance), and art (particularly grafitti).
Rap began in 1970s Bronx, New York, when mostly African-American and Latino youths began isolating, or sampling percussion beats from popular disco and funk songs of the day. MCs started talking more between songs to create excitement with the audience. This euphoric combo led to the creation of one of the current most popular form of music worldwide, second only to classical music.
Have I piqued your interest? Here is a list of 14 songs worth a listen that could change your opinion about rap music.
• Can I Kick It? by A Tribe Called Quest. This classic rap song samples Lou Reed's bass riff on Take a Walk on the Wild Side. Will you like it? Yes you will.
• 3 is the Magic Number, by De La Soul.
• Cool Like That, by Digable Planets.
• Switch, by Will Smith. A lot of rap fans deride Smith as a lite rapper, but listen to these poetic lyrics delivered with pro precision.
• Ain't Goin' to Goa, by Alabama3. Their best known hit was Woke Up This Morning, the theme to The Sopranos.
• Powers, by Blackalicious. "Met her out of town in a small café. She had the motion of the ocean, how her hips display."
• T.K.O., by Giant Panda. This Japanese-American rap band just bounces with fun.
• Easy Pass, by Har Mar Superstar.
• Galang, by M.I.A.
• Hey Ya, by Outkast
• While the City Sleeps, by MC 900 Foot Jesus
• Let My Baby Ride, by R.L. Burnside
• Hole in the Bucket, by Spearhead
• Man Short, Lady Saw
Got any more rap classics? Drop me a line.
Posted by Mary Rayme
You know, for weeks I've been trying to shake the sad feeling I have about the freaky and untimely death of Steve Irwin. And what does a TV celebrity and animal wrangler have to do with art or society? I think it has to do with passion and discipline, two things that you need to possess if you want to excel in any field, including art.
The TV show The Crocodile Hunter debuted in 1992 and was an overnight success with Steve's enthusiastic delivery and his catchy Aussie slang-word, Crikey. He clearly loved the animals he preserved, worked with and studied. His passion for animals is what drove his life and it is a passion he inherited from his animal-loving parents. The senior Irwins started a reptile park in Queensland Australia, that the Irwin family later turned into the very successful The Australia Zoo.
As the Irwin's reptile farm grew and became more successful, Steve assumed more responsibilities such as performing a live crocodile show where he played, fed, and interacted with the crocs. His shows were the the catalyst that propelled the Irwin's establishment into greatness and pushed Steve into the limelight with a tv show based on his croc prowess.
His TV show, his vivacious and contagious love of his work reached out to millions who responded by making The Crocodile Hunter one of the most popular TV shows. Many of us who were fans of the show would wince when Steve would sidle up to a poisonous snake or dangerous croc and try to make friends with it, or handle it to give the camera (and us) a better glimpse of rare and wild beauty. Many of us assumed that Steve would perhaps be taken out in a moment of hubris and bad animal temperment.
It is sad that Steve's work is what eventually killed him, but it is also comforting to know that he died doing what he loved and that it was a freak accident and no fault of his own that killed him. Steve's single-minded passion, discipline, and love of life are what we will remember. It is also what makes Steve's life more of an experiential work of art. As artists, we should be so driven by our passion for life and our discipline for learning more. May we all be so lucky to be able to share that passion with the world as Steve Irwin did.
Posted by Mary Rayme
I used to live in the neighborhood of Philadelphia where Rocky was filmed. It is a very blue collar, working class neighborhood and was chosen so that the down-trodden Rocky would have a rough neighborhood to transcend. I have to admit that I never saw Rocky or any of it's subsequent movies at the theaters. Rocky is the kind of movie you catch 15 minutes here or there on network TV usually late at night. It never won any Academy Awards and god knows Sylvester Stallone is not Laurence Olivier.
Most Philadelphians make fun of Rocky. Many movies are made in Philadelphia and Rocky seems like one that most people would rather forget. Especially when a mediocre sculpture created as a prop in the movie may find a permanent home at one of the wealthiest and most blue blood museums on the east coast, the formidable and well-staired Philadelphia Museum of Art.
The sculpture has a tawdry past. After the completion of the movie, moviemakers tried to give it to the PMA and it was on view briefly until museumgoers complained about the poor quality of the artwork and the typos that are permanently part of the sculpture. The sculpture was then banished to a sports center in Philly which was deemed a more appropriate venue as the sculpture is probably more about sport than art.
But the power of Rocky refuses to go away. A writer from Philadelphia teamed up with a photographer and spent a year at the steps of the Philadelphia museum interviewing and photographing people who came to the museum, not to see the art, but to run up the stairs ala Rocky in a triumphant victory ascent.
The resulting new book is entitled, Rocky Stories: Tales of Love, Hope, and Happiness at America's Most Famous Steps. The book shows that even thought the movie Rocky is 30 years old the triumphant symbol of his running up the imposing stairs of the Museum to arrive at the top is still inspiring people worldwide. So the next time you're in Philadelphia, forget the Liberty Bell. Go to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, get your running shoes on, put that Rocky go-get-em music in your head and start the climb. The view is fabulous.
Posted by Mary Rayme
Is it possible to create a franchise based on the work of one artist? Thomas Kinkade, alleged Painter of Light, sure thought so. Now many of his former investors have sought the aid of the FBI to help them investigate Kinkade for fraudulently encouraging investors to open stores that had no chance of surviving, but made Kinkade a lot of money.
You may or may not be familiar with the sappy, light-soaked paintings of idyllic cottages that have become Kinkade's hallmark and have been featured on a multitude of products from greeting cards, t-shirts, mugs, and prints. Kinkade is a formula illustrator, not an artist, who found an image that people responded to, knew how to market himself, and had the hubris to think he could do what no other legitimate artist had done before him, franchise his artwork.
Think about it. If you go to your local shopping mall there is no Picasso Store, or Rembrandt Store. But Kinkade was able to convince investors that he had the chops and the name to make them money. By attaching the tagline to his name, Painter of Light, he implies that he can do something no one else can do which is render light. But even this is not so.
The Impressionists were the group of painters led by Manet, Monet, and Pissaro who were interested in capturing the beauty of changing light. They also pointed out artistically that light is what defines mass and objects, not the mass itself. Light is beautiful and they knew it.
Kinkade's offended investors claim that Kinkade plotted to devalue his company, Media Arts Group, Inc., so he could then buy it at a discount. With product sales of $100 million per year, one wonders why Kinkade bothered to get so greedy.
There is no end to Kinkade's arrogance. He also claims to be the most widely collected artist in the world. Too bad he is not an artist--just a capitalist run amok.
Posted by Mary Rayme
Wim Delvoye is a Belgian artist with an international resume and was born in 1965.
Wim Delvoye also has a wicked sense of humor and likes to poke fun at the institution of art and art collecting. One of his current projects involves a pig farm in Beijing where the pigs are tattooed and filmed. Eventually the living pigs or dead pig skins are sold to collectors as works of art.
Perhaps his most famous piece are his cloacas. These are huge machines that take us through the distillery process of the human digestion system on a large and stainless steel scale. You really must look at all of these machines in their various incarnations and locations to get the idea that the cloaca is always being tweaked and altered to perhaps better suit its environs.
The cloaca exists in a room presided over by a smiling Mr. Clean genie and the cloaca logo which is in the style of the Ford logo. The symbolism of the Mr. Clean perhaps implies that this excrement is clean since it is not going through a real organic human body. The Cloaca-Ford logo implies assembly line and branding all in one fell swoop.
The end result of the cloaca is a sausage-like turd that is then packaged by weight for art collectors. You can read an excellent interview with Wim here.In the interview, Delvoye claims to have been most influenced by the movie Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. (Presumably, the original version with Gene Wilder, not the new icky version with Johnny Depp.)
So is it art? Is it satire? Is it in bad taste? Clearly, Delvoye is a serious and engaged artist, but the vehicle of his medium, the cloaca, is tongue-in-cheek fun.
Posted by Mary Rayme
It is interesting to note that Robin Williams and Mel Gibson are of a similar demographic: white, in their 50s, actors, funny guys, artists. I would consider Williams & Gibson artists because of their high achievement; in the field of acting for Mel, in the field of comedy for Robin.
So what are the similarities here and what are the differences? Robin Williams recently announced that he had started drinking again and is placing himself into rehab as a proactive measure. Mel Gibson went on a drunken binge and ended up on a racist tirade that was really ugly and embarrassing and something he will be backpeddling from for the rest of his days. But Mel has not announced he is going to rehab.
And is there a connection between being an artist and an alcoholic or substance abuser? There is a great article by Ilana Stanger at the New York Foundation for the Arts that discusses just this. One of the dangers that she discusses is that the stereotype of the tortured artist can inhibit artists from seeking help or others may be more tolerant of unhealthy behavior because they're just a wacky artist.
There is also a new edition of the classic Born Under Saturn by Rudolf and Margot Wittkower published by New York Review Books Classics. This is a great book with scholarly research into the lives of various artists and includes many anecdotes about suicide, celibacy, crime, miserliness, and more.
Even folks at Yale are discussing the connection between artists and insanity. One of the participants in a recent panel at Yale said that Aristotle was perhaps the first to make the connection between creativity and depression.
So what do you think? Have you observed a correlation between artists ( in this case actors) and madness and/or substance abuse or just plain old mental illness? As we learn more about DNA and the way our brains work I believe we will find a very scientific and chemical connection between the light of creativity and the dark of depression. In the meantime, I think Mel should consider Robin's brave choice to face his demons; perhaps Mel needs to consider admitting he has a problem.
Posted by Mary Rayme
I am always fascinated with art vandalism and in statements from artists commenting on the contemporary art world. Istvan Kantor is a Hungarian-born artist who has been active around the world for over 25 years.
He is perhaps best known for going into art museums world wide and leaving X's on the walls made from his own blood. These acts have gotten him banned from some of the best art museums in the world. Kantor was arrested earlier this month in the Art Gallery of Toronto when he showed up at the current Andy Warhol exhibition, poured blood on the floor, and he and a few friends rolled around in the fluid. Istvan then took off his clothes, held up a vial of blood attached to his penis, and began reading from a manifesto.
So what is the purpose of Kantor's art and is it legitimate or just a weird desperate artsy cry for attention? I think one of the facts that legitimizes Kantor is that he doesn't cause permanent harm to the artworks in question. He was once sued for a couple of million dollars in damages by a museum when he threw blood on a Picasso. He was able to prove in court that the blood washed off the painting and caused little or no damage. He ended up paying $1,000 for this incident. But clearly, Kantor is not favored by art museums.
One act of Kantor's that delegitimizes him as an artist is a particular performance art piece where he slit the throats of cats and then wore them on his head like a hat. It is the opinion of this critic that killing animals in the name of art is just not right.
An act of Kantor's that I find particularly poignant is the throwing of blood onto a Jeff Koons sculpture of Michael Jackson. The statement here seems appropriate given the popular-culture-steeped mediocre creations of Jeff Koons, a well-connected artist whose legitimacy ia also controversial.
Perhaps the ultimate act of legitimacy was when Kantor was honored by the Canadian Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts. To quote the Governor General Adrienne Clarkson, "[Kantor's] work challenges our conventional versions of reality and helps us redefine it. They probe and experiment, reaching beyond the boundaries of comfortable perception for new points of view."
While some might question the legitimacy of the entire body of Kantor's work, I think there is enough content and commentary in his work that legitimizes it beyond sensational and narcissistic. And it should be noted that the United States National Endowment for the Arts no longer awards individual artist grants. Canada is to be commended for being open-minded enough to fund artists who are questioning the status quo.
Posted by Mary Rayme
Yup, World War II was officially over in 1945. But artworks stolen from their Jewish owners by the Nazis are still being returned to their original owners.
And there's a website that can help you find artwork that changed hands in Europe from 1933-1945. The Nazi-Era Provenance Internet Portal has a database of artwork that is produced and managed by the American Association of Museums.
It's kind of a quiet story that will never make the prime-time news, but artwork from all over the world is being re-evaluated and its provenance challenged. There are numerous cases of families being reunited with paintings that had been bought by museums; such as when a Van Gogh was returned to an 85-year old woman named Gerta Silverberg whose family originally owned the painting.
There are also many looted works still in what used to be east Germany and in Russia. The Jewish Claims Conference in Frankfurt seems to offer a European counterpart to the American Association of Museums site.
I like the idea of returning the so-called spoils of war to their rightful owners. The process sounds difficult and laborious. It says that as humans, we try to get it right even if we have done wrong.
Posted by Mary Rayme
I'd be willing to bet that if studies were conducted in prisons with art programs versus prisons without art programs, you'd find higher recidivism in the no-art group of prisoners. I'll bet there's less violence among prisoners involved in creating art.
One of the huge hurdles in bringing art to prisons is lack of support and resouces for such programs. The trend of our current prison system is to eliminate weight rooms, the availability of education, and even cigarettes for prisoners. Our prison system sometimes seem to work to perpetuate its population, not diminish it.
Creating art can be relaxing, stimulating, entertaining, engaging, enriching, challenging, and just downright fun. This could be part of the problem also. Art in our society is seen as a luxury, not a necessity. Some people seem to think that art is purely a recreational experience and that perhaps prisoners deserve no fun for their crimes. My theory is that art is absolutely necessary in the everyday life of humans whether we are aware of it or not.
Thanks to the internet, prison art is more accessible than ever. There are several interesting places online where you can view and purchase prison art as well as crafts. There's also an excellent Prison Art Project in Michigan and another in San Francisco.
And there are no prisoners growing wealthy on the art they create and sell in prison. Much of the art created is tattoo art that is part of the prison barter system of goods and services. As for works bought and sold on the internet, prisoners are only allowed to make modest profits in the sale of their work.
Considering that in the United States alone there are currently more than 2.2 million prisoners, I think we should pay attention to prison culture and expression.
Posted by Mary Rayme
To hear the name of E. Forbes Smiley III of Martha's Vineyard you might immediately assume he is a respectable member of upper crust society. He looks the part, too. Tall, thin, wire-framed glasses and tweedy sportscoats.
But it turns out, Smiley is a serial map thief who has confessed to having stolen over 100 maps worth over $3 million dollars. He was caught by an astute librarian at Yale University who noticed an exacto blade on the floor next to him. Smiley used the blade to carefully slice the maps out of very old and rare books.
Smiley is also a map dealer which gives him entree as a scholar into rare book & map collections all over the world. And apparently Smiley had been using his cache (real or perceived) for years to get into collections to hand pick the maps he would steal.
Smiley is cooperating in the recovery of these maps though some of them are lost forever. It is also rumored that some museums are too embarassed to come forward to report missing maps.
I am surprised that he was able to have such access to any rare collection. In most museums or rare book collections, the rooms are guarded at all times to prevent theft. But these places must have been comfortable with Smiley and were used to his presence. They trusted him in part because of his name, appearance and provenance. I guess it goes to show you, you can't judge a book by it's cover.
Posted by Mary Rayme
If you are student of art history or graphic design, the first lesson usually focuses on the ancient cave paintings of Lascaux and other regions.
If you have never seen these great paintings, you must spend time looking at them to absorb their meanings and potential meanings. These amazing paintings are the first evidence of image-making or mark-making known to exist on the face of the planet and date back about 30,000 years.
They are also the object of great speculation...what do they mean? One of the big theories is that images represent a kind of hunting magic; that the artists were trying to ensure a good hunt by painting the animals that would feed them to allow them survive. The primary images at Lascaux are of horses and aurochs, a kind of extinct cow. And these animals were not hunted by our ancestors who primarily dined on deer. So much for the hunting or sympathetic magic.
A more plausible theory is found in the fact that these paintings were made not at the convenient opening of the cave but deep inside the passages. Some of the paintings are high up on the walls of the cave and evidence shows that they were created with the help of a scaffolding or poles of some sort. The gyrations our ancestors went to to create these works of art that did nothing to contribute to their imminent survival says to me that these paintings are spiritual.
I imagine that 30,000 years ago our ancestors had a religion of survival that centered around the horse and cow. Why? I don't know... But the repetition of these images some of which are planted deeply within the cave speak of magic and worship of some kind.
What is certain about these ancient cave paintings is that is the beginning of the recording of our collective unconscious, the images that moved us to create beyond survival. What does it all mean? What do you think?
Posted by Mary Rayme
I must confess that I subscribe to and enjoy Rolling Stone magazine. Why? It gives an old fart like me a chance to catch up on what the young folks are listening to and I love the attempt at their funky fresh design look. The magazine is HUGE in the music industry and of course, getting on the cover was immortalized in the Shel Silverstein song "Cover of the Rolling Stone" made popular by Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show.
There are other music magazines as well that specialize in educating and promoting various musicians, bands, and styles of music. So why are there no Rolling Stone-type magazines that promote artists?
Perhaps the biggest difference between visual artists and musicians is that most artists (unless you're a photographer or print-maker) can't crank out a few thousand CDs for sale at $15 a piece. But visual artists still have a tangible product for sale and can potentially take that work on tour just like a band.
It is sad and interesting to me that musicians are able to reach the masses but that artists have not reached out so well. There are magazines about artists and for artists but they are either super esoteric or are only about the small percentage of Art Stars who live in big cities and are represented by the best galleries.
Until now. Charles Saatchi of the UK is launching a virtual gallery online that will promote unknown artists in a non-juried setting. That means this site will be available to everyone. I like this approach as it allows for more random art stars and will help to promote the careers of artists based on the quality of their work, not their connections.
Posted by Mary Rayme
Many people I know are fascinated with artists and their work. If questioned, of course they support the arts. But do they buy art? And how much does the average person spend on art per year? I would guess that most people spend more on to-go coffee than they do on art. So if you want to be a true patron of the arts, here's what you can do.
The first bit of advice is simple: buy local. Most cities or towns have local art galleries where you can purchase art from a gallery, or a co-op gallery where you buy in a more direct way from the artist. Buy what you like, what pleases your eye and what you will enjoy looking at for years to come. Do not buy art for its potential investment value in the future. Unless you are buying art from a known artist (in which case you would be spending a minimum of several thousand dollars). Buy from the heart.
Go to see a play, concert, or poetry reading; it sounds simple, but in this way you are supporting the arts in your community.
Buy a CD directly from the artist whenever possible. You can even write a review of such an event for your local newspaper which takes that support even further. A note of thanks to a performer is a good way to show gratitude, and a letter to the editor of your local paper is good also - it gets the word out that good things are happening in the arts in your community.
Donate money or volunteer for an arts organization in your community. It's a great way to meet people who share similar interests and it can be very rewarding. My mother volunteers every year for a public radio station and always has a great time meeting people and getting a free lunch.
So support the arts - get out there and be a true patron of the arts.
Posted by Mary Rayme
What are the reasons for stealing art? What are the motivations? I think most people who initiate an art theft are motivated by envy, greed, power, and accumulating wealth. These are people who enjoy the adrenaline of their labors and harbor a secret art gallery in an undisclosed location, possibly on an island. This secret illegal art collector would have to keep his private museum secret and would be unwise to share with others. As humans, we like to talk. Imagine a Hollywood movie where the Secret Art Thief/Collector would wear a smoking jacket and admire his illegal masterpiece booty while listening to Mozart and sipping brandy. By day he is a mild mannered dictator, gangster, or diplomat.
I also think some basic theft psychology might be that thieves consider themselves exempt from the law and are risk takers. Many thefts take place because of convenience; for example, you leave your keys in your car and it gets stolen. Others steal out of desperation for drugs, money, or both. The art theft is not driven by convenience nor desperate for the monetary value of the art since presumably it can never be resold to a gallery or legitimate instiution.
But I wonder if Art Thieves ever have "theft regret"? They pinched a piece of art and now they have pangs of guilt that they are depriving the world of a great masterpiece or two. Or three. And now they don't have a way to return the hot art without leaving a big old arrow pointing at themselves.
So here is my solution to this potential problem: Calling all Art Thieves! Email me and I will give you my snail mail address. If you (gently) wrap and ship to me a stolen piece of art that you would like returned to it's rightful owner, I will turn it over to the proper USA authorities. Really. Consider me a Hot Art Safe Drop, we can keep identities anonymous.
Posted by Mary Rayme
There is an excellent new book out entitled Censoring Culture that is a series of essays about the arts and censorship edited by Robert Atkins and Svetlana Mintcheva. A couple of the early essays focus on how much artists in the USA have lost in the last couple of decades in terms of government funding. And almost none of this government funding goes directly to individual artists; most goes to non-profit agencies and foundations who then may distribute money to individual artists, but this percentage is about 3%.
So here's my new idea about how to get our culture to sit up and pay attention to the arts... We Need Lobbyists! All big businesses put a substantial amount of money into hiring people who wine, dine and try to influence government officials to give money to their contituents. Powerful lobbies include: tobacco, pharmaceutical, chemical, oil, gun... the list goes on and on.
While some might find lobbyists distasteful in their pervasiveness, I think artists need to follow the big business model to be taken seriously and to get the funding. Artists need to approach art like a business that needs money and partners and this is the model available to our culture - why not use it?
Check out Censoring Culture...As artists we need to rethink how we communicate and how to advocate for ourselves and for the future of our discipline!
Posted by Mary Rayme
It seems like many times Arts & Crafts get lumped together into a catch phrase most often used to describe camp activities for children. But what is the difference between art and a craft?
Here's my theory: A craft is usually a cookie-cutter or close-ended activity. The craft activity is based on a formula or recipe and all participants follow the same directions and end up with roughly the same result every time. For example, creating a god's eye from two sticks and colored yarn is a great craft example. Yes, it involves creating something, but the end product is most always the same and there's not a lot of room for variation.
An art activity is more open-ended. So for example, in a drawing project all participants may start with the same materials of paper and pencils and maybe they are asked to create drawings that represent their family. The results of this project will create many different drawings and therefore many different solutions to the same problem. While the end result may not always be considered art, the possibility of creating an original drawing that transcends it's parameters and materials is always possible, and that, to me, is the definition of art.
Art is a work that transcends it's humble materials to create an original statement or expression in a meaningful and enduring way. Crafts CAN transcend their humble materials as well to become art but it takes an experienced and determined crafter to do this. The elegant and humble quilts of Gee's Bend transcend their craft origins to become modern masterpieces of color and shape. Enjoy looking at these magnificent examples of great art being created out of great necessity.
Posted by Mary Rayme
Let me tell you the real secret of Leonardo da Vinci and The Mona Lisa! Okay, here it is...
Leonardo was an insatiably curious person and one of the greatest artists whoever lived. It's hard for us as 21st-century humans to even imagine the genius of Leonardo, a man obssesed with figuring out how everything worked and who also succeeded in leaving evidence of his explorations both scientific and artistic.
It's interesting to me that historians, scientists, artists and writers are always pondering the greatness of artists and the uniquenness of their visions. For example, there are many theories as to the agreed-upon greatness of the Mona Lisa. Some have supposed that the secret of Mona Lisa's smile is that she is pregnant. Others have speculated, rather wildly, that she is really Leonardo dressed as a woman.
The Mona Lisa was painted between 1503 and 1506, and is generally accepted to be a portrait of the Florentine wife of Francesco del Giocondo. There are a few reasons why this is one of the greatest paintings ever in the history of the world. First and foremost, there is the smile. The beautiful La Gioconda looks directly at us from 500 years ago and... smiles.
Second, in 1911, the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre Museum in Paris. The thief was an Italian named Vincenzo Perugia, who claimed to have stolen the painting out of patriotism. He just didn't think it was right that one of the masterpieces of Italy should reside in France. (The irony here is that it was Leonardo himself who took the painting to France and sold it to King Francis I.) The painting was recovered and returned to the Louvre, but this is just one dramatic incident in the life of the Mona Lisa that has given her more fame and legend.
My supposition is that what makes The Mona Lisa great is that it is a great painting made by an exceptional human being and artist. No conspiracy theories, no transvestite Da Vinci, just the very transcendental painting of one of the greatest artists who ever lived.
Posted by Mary Rayme
Albert Einstein said that "Imagination is more important than knowledge." This quote is lovingly painted on the walls of the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland, an amazing museum of folk and outsider art.
So why would one of the most intelligent people in the history of the world say such a thing?
My theory is that there is a dearth of imagination in the world today. What is imagination? In some cases, it is literally being able to imagine yourself in someone else's shoes and creates feelings of empathy. To be able to empathize, you need to be able to imagine.
The part B to this theory of mine is that perhaps our culture has become somewhat narcissistic because it suffers from a lack of imagination. We live in a society that lives inside its own brain and does not often venture out to try to understand how other people's (or culture's) brains work.
Cultures that don't plan well also suffer from a lack of imagination. To able to manage time and plan for a long term future, we must be able to imagine what we want, how to go about getting it, and a rough time frame of goals. No imagination equals no planning.
In our education system, the idea of imagination is most closely connected with art but even Einstein knew that this was not necessarily so. He used his imagination to further the field of science a discipline ruled by theories, data, and proof. I think that educational systems worldwide need to look at how imagining, imagination, and visualization can aid in all disclines and in all areas of life. What do you think?