tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78648803156599834782024-03-14T11:41:12.187-05:00Drawing AmericaSuzanne McDermotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14785042270660883635noreply@blogger.comBlogger39125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7864880315659983478.post-67918566111902539702012-01-31T10:49:00.000-06:002020-04-27T12:32:12.190-05:00John Muir's Natural Ability<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZBZnMJ9CL5M/TyhxSpKJJ4I/AAAAAAAAKXY/DkaZqLQtLts/s1600/Savannah+cemetery.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="283" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZBZnMJ9CL5M/TyhxSpKJJ4I/AAAAAAAAKXY/DkaZqLQtLts/s400/Savannah+cemetery.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>John Muir</i><br />
<i>Self-portrait </i><i>sleeping in Bonaventure Cemetery</i><br />
<i>Savannah, GA, 1867</i><br />
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<b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Muir" target="_blank">John Muir</a> walked from Jeffersonville, Indiana to Cedar Key, Florida in 1867.</b> Muir walked all over the place. Throughout his peripatetic life, he would sometimes fall to sleep hungry and without a roof over his head but he <i>always</i> had a journal and a pencil.<br />
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<b>Drawing was simply part of Muir's everyday life</b>. For Muir, drawing was a way of seeing nature, of recording and sharing his experience.<br />
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<b>John Muir's letters and journals are littered with drawings.</b> Drawings include botanical descriptions, maps, landscapes, geophysical observations, the well known self-portrait sketch <i>(above)</i> and recordings of personal adventures and explorations, like his hike into Yosemite's Matterhorn <i>(below.)</i><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KpwEKZOYWoY/TyhyGRxZAHI/AAAAAAAAKXo/TQ_FzlsxN6Q/s1600/Yosemite's+Matterhorn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KpwEKZOYWoY/TyhyGRxZAHI/AAAAAAAAKXo/TQ_FzlsxN6Q/s320/Yosemite's+Matterhorn.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KpwEKZOYWoY/TyhyGRxZAHI/AAAAAAAAKXo/TQ_FzlsxN6Q/s1600/Yosemite's+Matterhorn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KpwEKZOYWoY/TyhyGRxZAHI/AAAAAAAAKXo/TQ_FzlsxN6Q/s1600/Yosemite's+Matterhorn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a><br />
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<b>Whether by rough cartoons or skillful draughtsmanship,</b> Muir conveyed grand expanses and sweet beauty close at hand, a rabbit in the grass <i>(below)</i> with a pencil point.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5e9TDXAN95g/Tyhz95hHO1I/AAAAAAAAKYA/HKMUZLPRSbg/s1600/Margin+Rabbit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="274" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5e9TDXAN95g/Tyhz95hHO1I/AAAAAAAAKYA/HKMUZLPRSbg/s320/Margin+Rabbit.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>An inventor from an early age,</b> Muir also used drawing as a way of designing and describing his devices.</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GPNrZ96Ft-A/Tyhz1UbkLbI/AAAAAAAAKX4/a0vb7vcVdlU/s1600/hickory+clock.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GPNrZ96Ft-A/Tyhz1UbkLbI/AAAAAAAAKX4/a0vb7vcVdlU/s320/hickory+clock.jpg" width="219" /></a></div>
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<i>The Hickory Clock</i></div>
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<i>Design sketch, c. 1863</i></div>
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<b>John Muir called his home office his <i>"Scribbler's Den"</i></b> and let it be known that writing did not come easy for him. <i>But drawing seems to have.</i> Still, I can find no quote or passage in which Muir actually mentions his drawing. That was probably because, to him, drawing was as natural as the weather.<br />
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<b>I doubt that Muir considered himself an artist.</b> If he thought about it at all, he understood that drawing helped him better see and comprehend the beauty and mystery of nature, <i>to become one with what he loved.</i><br />
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<b>The artist's signature?</b></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Z-PqyidIV64/TyhxkOylZSI/AAAAAAAAKXg/I-JCkfVqhkU/s1600/Earth-planet,+Universe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="167" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Z-PqyidIV64/TyhxkOylZSI/AAAAAAAAKXg/I-JCkfVqhkU/s320/Earth-planet,+Universe.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>"When we contemplate the whole globe as one great dewdrop, striped and dotted with continents and islands, flying through space with other stars all singing and shining together as one, the whole universe appears as an infinite storm of beauty."</b></blockquote>
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<b>Follow the links below to learn more about and see John Muir drawings and journals.</b></div>
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Many of Muir's drawings and journals are housed at The University of the Pacific Library Collection, others can be found. Others can be found at <a href="http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/topics/muir/" target="_blank">The Wisconsin Historical Society.</a></div>
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Visit the <a href="http://www.pacific.edu/Academics/Schools-and-Colleges/College-of-the-Pacific/About/Centers-and-Institutes/John-Muir-Center.html" target="_blank">John Muir Center at the University of the Pacific</a>.</div>
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<a href="http://digitalcollections.pacific.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/muirdrawings" target="_blank">Click here to access that collection of drawings.</a></div>
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<a href="http://digitalcollections.pacific.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/muirjournals/id/75" target="_blank">and here for that collection of journals.</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/about/default.aspx" target="_blank">Read about John Muir via The Sierra Club.</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.cr.nps.gov/museum/exhibits/jomu/" target="_blank">Visit the National Park Service John Muir Historic Site Museum Collection.</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.sierraclubfloridanews.org/2011/04/john-muir-and-gulf-of-mexico.html" target="_blank">Read a Sierra Club of Florida article on John Muir's Gulf of Mexico experience.</a></div>
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<i>Most of the images in this post were sourced from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/mn/search/?_encoding=UTF8&x=0&tag=httpsuzannblo-20&linkCode=ur2&y=0&camp=1789&creative=390957&field-keywords=john%20muir&url=search-alias%3Daps#/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias=aps" target="_blank">John Muir's Wild America</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=httpsuzannblo-20&l=ur2&o=1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></i>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/mn/search/?_encoding=UTF8&keywords=John%20Muir&tag=httpsuzannblo-20&field-contributor_id=B000API2FA&linkCode=ur2&qid=1328058471&camp=1789&sr=8-2-ent&creative=390957&rh=i%3Astripbooks%2Ck%3AJohn%20Muir#/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias=stripbooks" target="_blank">Click here for books by and about John Muir.</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=httpsuzannblo-20&l=ur2&o=1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
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<br />Suzanne McDermotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14785042270660883635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7864880315659983478.post-67885928656450086952011-12-07T17:19:00.000-06:002015-02-04T09:42:39.243-06:00Henry Fonda: Drawing for relaxation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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<i>Norman Thayer, Jr., 1980</i><br />
<i>Henry Fonda</i><br />
<i>Watercolor and pencil, 15 3/4 x 24 1/5 inches</i><br />
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<b>A good friend of my youth</b> was hired in the late 1970's as location scout <i>(and, later, location manager) </i>for the film <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Golden_Pond_(1981_film)" target="_blank"><i>On Golden Pond.</i></a> A year or so after the film was completed, I visited his apartment in West Los Angeles and ogled the painting over his mantle. At the time, I was starting my own career as a watercolor painter, making photorealism portraits on commission of LA friends.<br />
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<b><i>"Where did you get that? Who painted that?"</i></b></blockquote>
He said it was a lithograph of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Fonda" target="_blank">Henry Fonda</a>'s watercolor of the three hats he wore in <i>On Golden Pond</i>.<br />
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I have never forgotten the watercolor and I have yet to see another Henry Fonda painting.<br />
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<b>The thing about the Fonda watercolor is that it shows such fine draughtsmanship.</b> <b><i>Fonda's drawing skill was superb. </i></b><br />
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I have searched and searched for information on Henry Fonda drawings and paintings but all I've found is a <i><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1986/04/24/nyregion/new-york-day-by-day-art-by-fonda.html" target="_blank">1988 New York Times</a> </i>article that quotes Fonda's wife, Shirlee, who said,<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">''<b><i>Henry painted most of his life, but he took up serious painting during '<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mister_Roberts_(1955_film)" target="_blank">Mr. Roberts</a>.'</i></b> ''</span></blockquote>
...and a few paragraphs from a <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=cXscbDlSt0cC&pg=PA54&dq=henry+fonda+watercolor&hl=en&ei=0vjfTvTsGIeDtgfs-9CCBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=henry%20fonda%20watercolor&f=false" target="_blank">Bio-Bibliography by Kevin Sweeney</a> <i>(who quotes from an American Film article by Andrew Sarris),</i><br />
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<b><i>"Fonda had always enjoyed drawing, and during the run of Mister Roberts he began seriously working in pastels. The first time he tried drawing was when he brought crayons and pastels home for the then-small Peter. "On a rainy afternoon I picked up his pastels and drew a picture of a glazed picture in our house. Much to my surprise, it turned out looking like a glazed picture."</i></b><br />
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<b><i>Although Fonda drew mainly for relaxation, his work also fetched some high prices. He once sold a series of four prints for $2,000. In the 1970s a drawing of the view from the rear window of his New York town house was purchased by the Frnaklin Mint for $11,000, and soon after actress Jennifer Jones bought an oil called "Ripening" for $23,000 at a charity auction.</i></b><br />
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<b><i>"Insanity! They're not worth it," Fonda said in 1981. "I can't believe anybody would want one enough to pay that kind of money."</i></b><br />
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<b><i>"I can sometimes hardly believe a painting is mine when I've finished...I get a real kick out of friends asking me for a painting."</i></b><br />
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<b><i>He cites W.M. Harnett, Andrew Wyeth and the Dutch realists as major influences. In fact, it was Wyeth who introduced Fonda to his favorite medium, dry brush. It appeals to him because of its similarity to watercolors.</i></b><br />
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<b><i>Fonda doesn't do detailed preliminary sketches before adding colors. "He may do a very light pencil outline, just to establish composition. But once he adds his first wash of color, he erases the pencil marks." His favorite subjects are landscapes, window views, location scenes and especially fruit -- apples in particular. He's never tried to paint people.</i></b><br />
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<b><i>Fonda rarely exhibits his work, and he prefers not to sell his paintings." </i></b></blockquote>
<b>I cannot tell you much more about Henry Fonda's drawing activities except the obvious — <i>that he was able and well practiced.</i> </b>The Andrew Wyeth influence is clear. I <i>can</i> tell you a bit more about his watercolor of the hats.<br />
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<b>Katherine Hepburn gave Fonda a brown Fedora </b>on their first day at the <i>On Golden Pond</i> set.<b> </b><i>The Fedora was Spencer Tracy's "lucky" hat.</i> Fonda made the above painting of the three hats he wore during the film and gave the original to Hepburn as a thank you gift.<br />
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<b>Fonda had 200 lithographs made of the watercolor.</b> <i>He numbered, signed and sent one to every person who worked on the film, thanking each by name.</i><br />
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After Fonda's death, Hepburn gave the original painting to playwright <i>(etc.)</i>, <a href="http://www.ernestthompson.us/" target="_blank">Ernest Thompson</a>.<br />
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<em>____________________________________________</em>Suzanne McDermotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14785042270660883635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7864880315659983478.post-67695532806333345842011-08-30T13:47:00.000-05:002015-02-04T09:44:42.566-06:00Drawn by Nature<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QJ_7_YKN1Zk/Tl0sznKYEgI/AAAAAAAAJDQ/EYxDI90zxug/s1600/Drawn%2Bby%2Bnature-1000.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QJ_7_YKN1Zk/Tl0sznKYEgI/AAAAAAAAJDQ/EYxDI90zxug/s400/Drawn%2Bby%2Bnature-1000.jpg" height="400" width="295" /></a></div>
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<b><a href="http://www.drawandwatercolor.com/p/online-course.html" target="_blank">The first thing I have my students draw is a leaf.</a></b> I have a variety of reasons for this first exercise one of which is that a leaf is a deceptively simple subject. Another reason is that everyone can produce a recognizable representation of a leaf.
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I do not know enough <i>(if anything)</i> about the behavior of a decaying leaf or the effects of other species that feed on tree leaves to even guess at how the lines and colors were drawn in this <b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cercis_canadensis" target="_blank">Eastern Redbud Tree</a></b> leaf. All I can do is wonder and enjoy the beautiful result.
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On my walk this morning, I didn't notice the leaf but rather the drawing and color, thinking how very like the work of my drawing and watercolor friends and students.
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<b><a href="http://www.suzannemcdermott.com/draw-and-watercolor.html" target="_blank">Click here to learn more about my Online Drawing and Watercolor Course.</a></b>
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<br />Suzanne McDermotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14785042270660883635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7864880315659983478.post-6617930133017282782011-08-25T13:40:00.002-05:002015-11-02T16:36:15.031-06:00David McCullough Watercolors<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="329" src="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/TYsjuF-ienI" width="550"></iframe>
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<b>I have looked high and low</b> and, short of contacting McCullough family members, this final part of the HBO documentary on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_McCullough">David McCullough</a> called <a href="http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/david-mccullough-painting-with-words/index.html">Painting with Words</a> is the only public evidence of his watercolors. Unfortunately, since creating this post, the video has been removed.<br />
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<b>A Pittsburgh, PA, native,</b> McCullough attended the <a href="http://www.shadysideacademy.org/page.cfm?p=4622" target="_blank">Shady Side Academy</a> and created all of the artwork for his graduation yearbook. McCullough seriously considered becoming a professional artist and his wife fell in love with him <i>(in part)</i> because of his ability with watercolor. He was called to another form of creative expression but continued his practice of drawing and watercolor till the end of his life.
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<b>Throughout my years of teaching drawing and watercolor, </b>I've met many, many prospective students want to leap immediately into watercolor without any drawing experience. When I used to say "Oh, <i>all right</i>," and allow students to start directly into watercolor, I would invariably run into the problem of having to teach them the fundamentals of drawing anyway.
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<b>That's why I'm including David McCullough's watercolors here.</b> Because you can't make these sorts of paintings without an underpinning of drawing. <i>Period.</i> End of story.<br />
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<b>Here's an excerpt </b>from a 2015 Boston Globe interview with McCullough in which he talks about his paintings:<br />
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<b>"I paint a lot. I started painting when I
was about 7, and at college, I took as many painting and drawing
classes as I could get away with as an English major. I draw something
to put it in my mind; when I went to Truman’s birthplace, I did a
watercolor of the house. I’ve always felt that everybody who wants to
learn to write should take a course in drawing and painting. It teaches
you to see in a different way, since you really look at things and have
to analyze what you’re looking at."</b><br />
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<br />Suzanne McDermotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14785042270660883635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7864880315659983478.post-5302973253161231812010-10-31T21:26:00.000-05:002015-02-04T09:46:40.908-06:00Chapman's American Drawing Book<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TM4ZC1mVtRI/AAAAAAAAHNM/0hLCzOIahCg/s1600/Chapman_Page1jpg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TM4ZC1mVtRI/AAAAAAAAHNM/0hLCzOIahCg/s400/Chapman_Page1jpg.jpg" height="400" width="327" /></a></div>
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<i>Chapman's American Drawing Book</i><br />
<i>John Gadsby Chapman</i><br />
<i>New York: A.S. Barnes and Co. 1870</i><br />
<i> Page One</i><br />
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Once upon a time in America, drawing manuals were all the rage. Like keyboard instructionals and sheet music for pianos in the parlor, drawing books provided in-roads for citizens to practice the basics of visual art for pleasure and entertainment at home. <br />
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Kimmelman" target="_blank">Michael Kimmelman</a> describes this civilizing cultural phenomenon beautifully in his 2006 NYT review of a show at <a href="http://www.grolierclub.org/" target="_blank">The Grolier Club</a> called "Teaching America to Draw." I urge you to read this article — <b><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/19/arts/design/19draw.html" target="_blank">An Exhibition About Drawing Conjures a Time When Amateurs Roamed the Earth</a></b>. Reflect upon Kimmelman's thoughtful and succinct appraisal. He expresses my own views on the subject far better than I could.<br />
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The Chapman American Drawing Book has been floating about the web as a free download for a couple of years. Take advantage of this offering for fun or study (<i>or both</i>). Try it out on your new iPad or Kindle (though it works fine on any computer). <br />
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To download a complete copy, <a href="http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/DLDecArts/DLDecArts-idx?id=DLDecArts.AmDrawBkChap" target="_blank">click on this link at the Digital Library for the Decorative Arts and Material Culture</a> or <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/americandrawing00chapgoog" target="_blank">stream it from Harvard with a variety of download formats</a>.<br />
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It's true what Chapman claims at the outset — <i>"Anyone who can learn to write can learn to draw."</i> <br />
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<a href="http://www.drawingamerica.org/2010/08/eakins-manual.html" target="_blank"><b>Read my related post on Thomas Eakin's Drawing Manual.</b></a><br />
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<br />Suzanne McDermotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14785042270660883635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7864880315659983478.post-31957877944677402222010-09-22T12:05:00.000-05:002015-02-04T09:46:55.828-06:00Drawing America by Bike<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TJovNqtnN0I/AAAAAAAAHL8/m__K2cQSxKg/s1600/drawing+america+by+bike.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TJovNqtnN0I/AAAAAAAAHL8/m__K2cQSxKg/s400/drawing+america+by+bike.jpeg" height="295" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
Eric Clausen is a brave and ambitious soul. He can eat whatever he likes because he's burning it all off as he bicycles across America this year, making drawings of people and places he sees along the way. <br />
<blockquote>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;"><b><i>"This year, I'm riding my bike across America. It will take about 13 - 14 months. I'm drawing the entire adventure. I want to meet Americans, see how they're doing in this recession and draw their picture." <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">—Eric Clausen</span></i></b></span></blockquote>
Eric is <a href="http://drawingamericabybike.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Drawing America By Bike</a> and you can follow his adventures via <a href="http://drawingamericabybike.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">his blog</a> and <a href="http://www.facebook.com/drawingamericabybike" target="_blank">his Facebook page</a>.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_flow&SESSION=_WWyjyfw98KtatX0mL99XLr5niarY71HVs9D0fYyBgPP5Z56sx7DDBSeMBG&dispatch=5885d80a13c0db1f8e263663d3faee8dc18bca4c6f47e633b393e284a5f8a8f8" target="_blank">Send Eric $5 and he'll send you a hand drawn postcard.</a> <a href="https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_flow&SESSION=_WWyjyfw98KtatX0mL99XLr5niarY71HVs9D0fYyBgPP5Z56sx7DDBSeMBG&dispatch=5885d80a13c0db1f8e263663d3faee8dc18bca4c6f47e633b393e284a5f8a8f8" target="_blank">Send him $50 and you'll have a year's subscription of monthly postcards.</a> <br />
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Eric started his adventure cycling out of Brooklyn on September 6th. At this writing, he's pedaled through Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Richmond.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TJovNjbAP5I/AAAAAAAAHMA/j7YfPZtDCj4/s1600/erictracks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TJovNjbAP5I/AAAAAAAAHMA/j7YfPZtDCj4/s400/erictracks.jpg" height="178" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://drawingamericabybike.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Visit Eric's blog</a> to see his planned route. <br />
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Meet Eric along the way of this cool, unique and timely project and feed him some healthy food! Please help fuel Eric's drawing hand and biking stamina by <a href="http://www.facebook.com/drawingamericabybike" target="_blank">cheering him along on this great adventure</a>, <a href="http://www.facebook.com/drawingamericabybike" target="_blank">leaving encouraging comments</a> and <a href="https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_flow&SESSION=_WWyjyfw98KtatX0mL99XLr5niarY71HVs9D0fYyBgPP5Z56sx7DDBSeMBG&dispatch=5885d80a13c0db1f8e263663d3faee8dc18bca4c6f47e633b393e284a5f8a8f8" target="_blank">sending him $5 or $50 bucks</a>. <br />
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Go, Eric, go!<br />
<br />
<a href="http://drawingamericabybike.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Drawing America By Bike Blog</a><br />
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/drawingamericabybike" target="_blank">Drawing America By Bike on Facebook</a><br />
<a href="http://twitter.com/drawingbiking" target="_blank">Drawing America By Bike on Twitter</a><br />
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<br />Suzanne McDermotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14785042270660883635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7864880315659983478.post-30827974267069396972010-09-06T23:06:00.000-05:002015-02-04T09:47:25.154-06:00He Drew Fire<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TIWeaBK6QTI/AAAAAAAAHKA/3YDt0qK1k3s/s1600/ConradSmcartoonatdesk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TIWeaBK6QTI/AAAAAAAAHKA/3YDt0qK1k3s/s400/ConradSmcartoonatdesk.jpg" height="400" width="381" /></a></div>
<blockquote>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #134f5c;"><i>"Nobody tells me what to draw." </i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><i>—Paul Conrad</i></span></span></b></blockquote>
Farewell to the fearless <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-paul-conrad-20100905,0,3650589,full.story"><b>Paul Conrad</b></a>.<br />
<br />
Paul Conrad was the right man at the right time with the right job. Chief editorial cartoonist at the <i>Los Angeles Times</i> from 1964 to 1993, Conrad helped bring that newspaper to national prominence and was awarded three Pulitzer Prizes. Conrad's searing inks of President Nixon won him a place on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon%27s_Enemies_List" target="_blank">Nixon's Second Enemies List</a> in 1973. His favorite irony was that he was later named to the Richard M. Nixon Chair at Wittier College (1977-78).<br />
<blockquote>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #134f5c;"><i>"Conrad's name strikes fear in the evil hearts of men all over the world. Where there is corruption, greed or hypocrisy, everyone says, 'This is a job for Paul Conrad.' </i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><i>— Art Buchwald</i></span></span></b></blockquote>
As a child, Conrad was encouraged in the arts and drawing by his parents. After service in the Army Corps of Engineers during World War II, he began his cartooning career at the University of Iowa's <i>Daily Iowan</i> then spent 14 years as editorial cartoonist at the <i>Denver Post</i>.<br />
<blockquote>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #134f5c;"><i>"I've never seen bad drawing destroy a good idea. On the other hand, I've never seen a good drawing save a bad idea." </i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><i>—Paul Conrad</i></span></span></b></blockquote>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp1fBgjSBehS_tei5aJhMcEmJQhuNuxSSRRLfYo-ZG-glUqc4oMQwPNVGITkqrxZ0z1dvgvEXzYnbNoXE4WTGBr76_H8sn9f3QrgI5ZERL3FTiIwcNqR7VseTPmUJGS3KCrQkbDQmjquU/s1600/ForSale.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp1fBgjSBehS_tei5aJhMcEmJQhuNuxSSRRLfYo-ZG-glUqc4oMQwPNVGITkqrxZ0z1dvgvEXzYnbNoXE4WTGBr76_H8sn9f3QrgI5ZERL3FTiIwcNqR7VseTPmUJGS3KCrQkbDQmjquU/s320/ForSale.jpg" height="256" width="320" /></a></div>
<blockquote>
<b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #134f5c;">"Conrad is ... more than a legend in cartooning and an institution in American journalism, he is a force of nature….You measure Conrad on the Richter scale." <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">—Doug Marlette</span></span></i></b></blockquote>
Watch <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1353528/" target="_blank">Barbara Multer-Wellin's</a> fabulous film <b><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2-Ri74LWhA" target="_blank">Drawing Fire</a></b> in its entirety, complete with opening commercial and commentary by Terrance Howard on PBS Independent Lens.<br />
<br />
Read Yvonne French's article <i><a href="http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9910/conrad.html" target="_blank">"Afflicting the Comfortable"</a></i> on Conrad's 1999 talk at the Library of Congress on the occasion of official acceptance by the Library of a gift of 21 of his original editorial cartoons.<br />
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Conrad passed just after an exhibit of his work, <a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2010/08/i-con-the-brilliant-work-paul-conrad-exhibit-.html" target="_blank"><i>"I, Con: The Brilliant Work of Paul Conrad"</i></a> opened at the College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita, California.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TIWeaLkTdpI/AAAAAAAAHJ4/8dFYQ6M6Pw0/s1600/Conradatdesk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TIWeaLkTdpI/AAAAAAAAHJ4/8dFYQ6M6Pw0/s400/Conradatdesk.jpg" height="400" width="313" /></a></div>
<blockquote>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #134f5c;"><i>"No one ever accused me of being objective." </i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><i>— Paul Conrad</i></span></span></b></blockquote>
Books by Paul Conrad include <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0891410988?ie=UTF8&tag=httpsuzannblo-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0891410988">Pro and Conrad</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=httpsuzannblo-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0891410988" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />with Art Buchwald, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0961909552?ie=UTF8&tag=httpsuzannblo-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0961909552">Conartist: Paul Conrad 30 Years with The Los Angeles Times,</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=httpsuzannblo-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0961909552" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1883318726?ie=UTF8&tag=httpsuzannblo-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1883318726">I, Con: The Autobiography of Paul Conrad, Editorial Cartoonist,</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=httpsuzannblo-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1883318726" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1883792541?ie=UTF8&tag=httpsuzannblo-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1883792541">Drawing the Line: The Collected Works of America's Premier Political Cartoonist.</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=httpsuzannblo-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1883792541" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.conradprojects.com/" target="_blank">Visit Paul Conrad's official website.</a><br />
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/05/us/politics/05conrad.html" target="_blank">Conrad's <i>New York Times</i> obituary.</a><br />
<a href="http://library.syr.edu/digital/guides/c/conrad_p.htm#d0e84" target="_blank">Conrad's cartoons from his Denver Post years are housed at the Syracuse University Library.</a><br />
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<br />Suzanne McDermotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14785042270660883635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7864880315659983478.post-77513992926824882732010-08-24T20:16:00.001-05:002015-02-04T09:47:56.342-06:00Big Man On Campus<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/THQvKDkTTEI/AAAAAAAAHIQ/vZpOrtAbHx4/s1600/pic.php.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/THQvKDkTTEI/AAAAAAAAHIQ/vZpOrtAbHx4/s400/pic.php.jpeg" height="400" width="185" /></a></div>
<br />
It's back to school time for most American teenagers. America's perpetual teenager, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archie_Andrews_(comics)" target="_blank">Archibald Andrews</a>, is going back to Riverdale High for the sixty-ninth time.<br />
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Archie's creator, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Montana" target="_blank">Bob Montana</a> kept an illustrated diary during his high school years from 1936 to 1939 describing life at Haverhill High School in Massachusetts. <br />
<blockquote>
<b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">"The city on the Merrimack inspired the fictional town of Riverdale, home to Archie, Betty, Veronica, Jughead, and others in the comic gang who were patterned, in some cases, on Montana's friends from his student days at Haverhill High from 1936 to 1939." <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">—Mark Reynolds, The Boston Globe</span></span></i></b></blockquote>
Read more about Bob Montana and the Haverhill roots of Archie Comics in <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://mcnsclips.blogspot.com/2002_06_09_mcnsclips_archive.html#77553536" target="_blank">NOW 60 YEARS OLD, ARCHIE HAS ROOTS REACHING TO HAVERHIlL</a>.</span><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/THQu1sUSxUI/AAAAAAAAHII/PoXpc8c21nY/s1600/Bob_Montana_NCS_bio.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/THQu1sUSxUI/AAAAAAAAHII/PoXpc8c21nY/s640/Bob_Montana_NCS_bio.jpg" height="480" width="600" /></a></div>
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Archie Comics are chock full of dumb jokes, predictable behavior by a small ensemble cast, stylized teen sheen on lustrous hair and turned up noses, and dependable, clean entertainment.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/THQu1rovwjI/AAAAAAAAHIM/FLvTP8HcK2g/s1600/images.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/THQu1rovwjI/AAAAAAAAHIM/FLvTP8HcK2g/s200/images.jpeg" height="200" width="200" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://scoop.diamondgalleries.com/public/default.asp?t=1&m=1&c=34&s=265&ai=41402&ssd=7/16/2002&arch=y" target="_blank">Read the 2002 Scoop article on the history of Archie Comics</a> in relation to the overall trend in American comic publications of the last half century.<br />
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The very first cover of an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archie_Comics" target="_blank">Archie comics book</a>. <br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/THQu1cd6_tI/AAAAAAAAHH8/lJDgShcwh4U/s1600/archie_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/THQu1cd6_tI/AAAAAAAAHH8/lJDgShcwh4U/s400/archie_1.jpg" height="400" width="293" /></a></div>
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It's been a big year for Archie Comics. Archie finally decides whom to marry. I think. In alternate futures. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archie_Marries_Veronica/Archie_Marries_Betty">Read this to get a handle on the fantasies.</a> Also, a new character has entered the Riverdale scenario. <a href="http://www.complex.com/blogs/2010/04/26/the-most-pause-worthy-moments-in-archie-comics-history/">Meet Kevin Keller.</a> <br />
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Between the ages of 10 and 12, I had a high stack of Archie Comics in my bedroom. Now that I've written this, I'm in the mood to roll over, kick my feet up and leaf through a few! <br />
<b><a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2006/12/archie200612">Read Jim Windolf's 2006 Vanity Fair article on Archie Andrews at 65 — American Idol.</a></b><br />
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Coming up very soon (but not quite yet) is publication of <a href="http://goldenagecomics.org/wordpress/2009/07/08/new-classic-archie-reprints/" target="_blank">The Classic Archie 1940 Newspaper Comics</a>. <br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/THQu1bSRn6I/AAAAAAAAHIA/owl58utyw_I/s1600/Archie_cover_small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/THQu1bSRn6I/AAAAAAAAHIA/owl58utyw_I/s400/Archie_cover_small.jpg" height="308" width="400" /></a></div>
One copy of<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1600106692?ie=UTF8&tag=httpsuzannblo-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1600106692" target="_blank">Archie: The Classic Newspaper Comics Volume 1 </a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=httpsuzannblo-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1600106692" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />is available at Amazon.<br />
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<a href="http://www.archiecomics.com/" target="_blank">Visit the Official Archie Comics page.</a> <br />
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<a href="http://www.grammarmancomic.com/archie.html" target="_blank">Click here for a simple Archie primer with links that include video of The Archies singing their 1969 hit song "Sugar, Sugar."</a><br />
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____________________________________________<br />
<span style="color: #134f5c; font-size: large;"><b>UPDATE</b></span><br />
<b><i>WHAT?</i></b><br />
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<b><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/08/showbiz/archie-comics-death/index.html?hpt=hp_c3" target="_blank">Archie dies.</a></b><br />
<br />Suzanne McDermotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14785042270660883635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7864880315659983478.post-69054235296708256012010-08-09T20:20:00.002-05:002015-02-04T09:48:44.874-06:00ABC<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TGCX9DhmEdI/AAAAAAAAHD4/f5auH_9FflQ/s1600/f.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TGCX9DhmEdI/AAAAAAAAHD4/f5auH_9FflQ/s400/f.jpg" height="320" width="400" /></a></div>
<i>F<br />
Edward Gorey<br />
from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0151003084?ie=UTF8&tag=httpsuzannblo-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0151003084" target="_blank">The Gashlycrumb Tinies</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=httpsuzannblo-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0151003084" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />or, After the Outing</i><br />
<br />
While a more extensive post on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Gorey" target="_blank">Edward Gorey</a> is prepared <br />
<b><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrq3Vugxqqo" target="_blank">Click here to enjoy a slide show of the complete Gashlycrumb Tinies</a></b> <br />
to a Graveyard Tango.<br />
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The child’s alphabet book is considered one of the oldest literary genres of American literature. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphabet_book" target="_blank">Wikipedia says so.</a> It must be true.<br />
<br />
Edward Gorey created many books on the alphabet - a perfect convergence of his main forms. These include <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/076495508X?ie=UTF8&tag=httpsuzannblo-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=076495508X" target="_blank">The Utter Zoo,</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=httpsuzannblo-20&l=as2&o=1&a=076495508X" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> <br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TGClkoeVpXI/AAAAAAAAHEA/vcVcL8MU4kg/s1600/Zote.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TGClkoeVpXI/AAAAAAAAHEA/vcVcL8MU4kg/s400/Zote.jpg" height="368" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1608190633?ie=UTF8&tag=httpsuzannblo-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1608190633" target="_blank">The Glorious Nosebleed,</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=httpsuzannblo-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1608190633" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TGClFv5JgHI/AAAAAAAAHD8/OhGfku3fxKY/s1600/quickly.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TGClFv5JgHI/AAAAAAAAHD8/OhGfku3fxKY/s400/quickly.jpg" height="336" width="400" /></a></div>
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The Gorey Alphabet and others.Suzanne McDermotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14785042270660883635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7864880315659983478.post-160376178383361682010-08-05T21:08:00.001-05:002015-02-04T09:49:08.561-06:00The Eakins Manual<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TFtVh4kH10I/AAAAAAAAHDo/_KdBbW0NzxQ/s1600/800px-Eakins_Gears-ED.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TFtVh4kH10I/AAAAAAAAHDo/_KdBbW0NzxQ/s400/800px-Eakins_Gears-ED.jpg" height="275" width="400" /></a></div>
<i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Eakins">Thomas Eakins</a><br />
Drawing of Gears<br />
Pen, ink and pencil on paper, 11 7/16 × 16 7/8, c. 1860<br />
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.</i><br />
<blockquote>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;"><b>"Thomas Eakins (1844-1916), said to be "the greatest draughtsman in America" didn't really like to draw. He rarely sketched in pencil and hurried his students into working with brush and paint. He did like teaching, but was fired twice for his insubordinate, unconventional ways. ...</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;"></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;"><b>Before he came to prefer oil painting, Eakins intended to be a drawing teacher. Star drawing student at Central High School in Philadelphia, he applied for (but did not get) a position teaching drawing classes there in 1862, the year after he graduated. Son of a drawing master, he worked for his father for a time, inscribing documents and teaching penmanship. Then, taken by an ambition to become a painter, he traveled to Paris in 1866 to study at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts."</b>—Kathleen A. Foster, The Tools of Art: <i>The Drawing Manual of Thomas Eakins</i></span></blockquote>
The best way to understand the importance of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0300108478?ie=UTF8&tag=httpsuzannblo-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0300108478">A Drawing Manual by Thomas Eakins </a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=httpsuzannblo-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0300108478" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />is to read the editor, Kathleen A. Foster's entire introduction and the accompanying essay by <a href="http://academics.smcvt.edu/awerbel/" target="_blank">Amy Werbel</a>. Published in 2005 by the Philadelphia Museum of Art in association with Yale University Press, this book is exquisitely produced.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TFtViKxBr5I/AAAAAAAAHDs/Nhc3Ol_y_bQ/s1600/EakinsManual.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TFtViKxBr5I/AAAAAAAAHDs/Nhc3Ol_y_bQ/s1600/EakinsManual.jpg" /></a></div>
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I am taking the liberty of excerpting a few paragraphs from the introduction and essay to give you a glimpse of the position and importance of this manual in Eakin's life and in the history of American art. You'll have to find your own copy to fully value this work.<br />
<blockquote>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">"Although Instructional art books have been widely used since Leon Battista Alberti first published De Pictura in 1435, their popularity has waxed and waned over the centuries. One of the periods in which such manuals flourised was in the United States in the nineteenth century, during the era Peter Marzio has dubbed the "art crusade." Influenced by the widespread belief that drawing instruction could raise the cultural and economic prospects of the nation, Americans bought more than 145,000 copies of drawing manuals between 1820 and 1860. Many, such as Rembrandt Peale's ubiquitous Graphics, were intended for public grade school students; others were authored for the legions of Americans who took up drawing as an edifying hobby. Unlike Alberti's text, these treatises emphasized drawing rather than painting, and most of them discussed mathematical systems of linear perspective only as a small part of a more universal introduction to art.</span></b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">By the early 1880s, however, when Thomas Eakins, then director of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, sat down to draft a drawing manual for his students, the enormous wave of interest that had inspired these manuals and defined the period of the 'art crusade' had already crested, and the popularity of perspective drawing had largely given way to interest in more sensual approaches to rendering pictorial space. Those who have studied Eakins will not be surprised that he undertook authorship of a text that ran so dramatically contrary to the trends of his time, but a more searching analysis of the methods and topics included in his drawing manual, as well as its relationship to other simimlar texts, reveals much about the artist's influeences and beliefs. Eakins first formed his conception of the nature and purposes of art during the art crusade; as a result, mathematics and drawing remained the ground line of his artistic practice throughout his life. His text thus owes its very existence to the works produced by earlier "art crusaders," and their spirit infuses both its practical and its philosophical pedagogy." <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">—</span></span></b><a href="http://academics.smcvt.edu/awerbel/" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">Amy B. Werbel</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">, Thomas Eakins: <i>Last of the Art Crusaders</i></span></blockquote>
Personally, I would never use Eakin's manual for my own or any student's instruction. It's quite technical and relies heavily on mathematics. However, it's historic importance is a fact and because of Foster's article and Werbel's essay, I agree with the Philadelphia Museum of Art Publications blurb that states: <i><b>"This book is essential for any student, scholar, curator, or individual interested in American art and art education."</b></i> <br />
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To appreciate the hands-on depth and breadth of her scholarship, <a href="http://www.arlisna.org/artdoc/vol17/iss2/11.pdf">read Thomas Riedel's review of Kathleen Foster's <i>Thomas Eakins Rediscovered</i>.</a> <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=mANY1s_-67EC&pg=PA19&lpg=PA19&dq=gears+drawing+thomas+eakins&source=bl&ots=_EhAsW1r6B&sig=MT85MYySLqNhF7jp2HwAfQWQ8Zs&hl=en&ei=f2tbTN2VA4TmsQPjyuVJ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=gears%20drawing%20thomas%20eakinsgears&f=false" target="_blank">Thomas Eakins Rediscovered</a> on Google Books.<br />
<br />
Read Amy Werbel's article <a href="http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/2aa/2aa484.htm" target="_blank">Process on Paper: Thomas Eakins Drawings from the Charles Bregler Collection of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Art</a>s.<br />
<br />
I took my first formal drawing classes at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and had the great luxury of regularly wandering through that museum and its collections as an adolescent when I could hear only the echoes of my own footsteps. <a href="http://www.philamuseum.org/publications/378-2-30109.html" target="_blank">Buy your copy of A Drawing Manual by Thomas Eakins</a> there.<br />
<br />
<b><a href="http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Thomas_Eakins" target="_blank">Read more about Thomas Eakins, his teaching and legacy.</a></b><br />
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See a selection of <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Drawings_by_Thomas_Eakins" target="_blank">Eakins Drawings at Wiki Commons</a>.<br />
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View the <a href="http://www.aaa.si.edu/collectionsonline/eakithom/overview.htm" target="_blank">collection of Thomas Eakins letters</a>, some of which include drawings, at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.thomaseakins.org/" target="_blank">To survey some paintings online, visit ThomasEakins.org</a><br />
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Finally, one great big book <b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0300091117?ie=UTF8&tag=httpsuzannblo-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0300091117">Thomas Eakins</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=httpsuzannblo-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0300091117" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></></b><br />
<br />
<blockquote>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">"Of course, it is well to go abroad and see the works of the old masters, but Americans... must strike out for themselves, and only by doing this will we create a great and distinctly American art." <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"></span></span></b>—Thomas Eakins</blockquote>
<br />Suzanne McDermotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14785042270660883635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7864880315659983478.post-19010719140910186082010-08-01T19:46:00.000-05:002015-02-04T09:49:34.264-06:00American Sloane<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TFYBgxSxkmI/AAAAAAAAHCw/rNjMddzLDT0/s1600/EverardHinrichs-web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TFYBgxSxkmI/AAAAAAAAHCw/rNjMddzLDT0/s400/EverardHinrichs-web.jpg" height="226" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Sloane" target="_blank">Eric Sloane</a><br />
1905 – 1985</b><br />
<blockquote>
<b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">"As far back as the early 1700s, may American artists began their careers as sign painters and I can see why. The pleasure of creating a piece of work necessary to the buyer is a satisfaction beyond that of the artisan who paints merely to decorate. Some of America's finest and most prized examples of folk art are antique trade signs and inn signs. The signs I painted on midwest restaurant windows, even on hotel rest room doors, probably gave me more artistic satisfaction than anything I might have accomplished in art schools. I still letter freehand as easily as I write script and still have profound reverence for classic lettering."</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">—Eric Sloane</span></span></b></blockquote>
Sign painter, muralist, prolific author, illustrator, teacher, painter, meteorologist, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Sloane" target="_blank">Eric Sloane</a> began life as Everard Jean Hinrichs in 1905. After his mother died, young Everard launched a string of runaway attempts until his father finally gave him the family Packard Roadster and twenty dollars. That car and twenty dollars got him as far as Ohio where he "set out on foot as an itinerant boy painter." Not much later, he'd earned enough to buy another car and broadened his prospects.<br />
<blockquote>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;"><i>"Henry Ford had not yet invented the glove compartment, but I shared the seat of a Model T with a traveling office of paper and pencils, a dictionary, and sketching equipment."</i></span></b></blockquote>
After a stint in Lancaster, Pennsylvania with his own sign business, he changed his name.<br />
<blockquote>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">"When I left Lancaster to wend my way afoot toward the west, I decided to create a new </span></b><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">nom de plume</span></b></i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;"> and chose the name of my teacher [John Sloan] but added an </span></b><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">e</span></b></i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;"> to the name of Sloan. I knocked off the first and last two letters of </span></b><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">American</span></b></i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">, which left </span></b><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">eric</span></b></i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;"> and headed westward as Eric Sloane."</span></b></blockquote>
Traveling through Taos, New Mexico not much later, Sloane discovered his true purpose.<br />
<blockquote>
<b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">"Inspired by the eight-thousand-food view of sky, I had decided to make meteorology and sky painting a life's work and, after all, the best way for me to learn a subject has always been to write a book about it."</span></i></b></blockquote>
In the process of this life's work, Eric Sloane composed one of the great American books on drawing —<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TFYBLhxdMDI/AAAAAAAAHCs/f7zAFu57e14/s1600/skiesandtheartist.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TFYBLhxdMDI/AAAAAAAAHCs/f7zAFu57e14/s1600/skiesandtheartist.jpg" /></a></div>
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Starting with descriptions of cloud formations, Sloane helps the reader see and understand the sky before laying out (fun) drawing instruction.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TC5NaPTbeEI/AAAAAAAAG-k/S49hs1EKfUA/s1600/Sloane_Cloud_Rhythm-web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TC5NaPTbeEI/AAAAAAAAG-k/S49hs1EKfUA/s320/Sloane_Cloud_Rhythm-web.jpg" height="320" width="243" /></a></div>
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It's a personal favorite but only one of a stack of books that Sloane wrote and illustrated on skies and meteorology. These include <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fs%3Fie%3DUTF8%26ref_%3Dsr%5Fpg%5F2%26keywords%3Deric%2520sloane%26qid%3D1280707487%26rh%3Di%253Aaps%252Ck%253Aeric%2520sloane%26page%3D2&tag=httpsuzannblo-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957" target="_blank">Skies and the Weather, Look at the Sky, The Weather Book, For Spacious Skies, Eric Sloane's Book of Storms.</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=httpsuzannblo-20&l=ur2&o=1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> <br />
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Like John Ruskin, Eric Sloane was most interested in helping people see and understand what they were looking at. His books on drawing, skies and weather help us. His larger body of work help us comprehend America as Sloane did.<br />
<blockquote>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">"My research finds that the difference between the early American and the man of today is a matter of </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">awareness</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">. The first pioneers were awake to the dangers and simple differences of the new world's Indians, sudden storms, diseases, wild animals, severe winters, droughts and all the hardships of the great adventure. They were conscious of each moment, magnificently aware of life.</span></b></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">We today are lethargic, for so many things are done for us. And so we are robbed of the joy and satisfaction of awareness. We switch on lights with no idea of the source, turn a faucet with no idea of where the water comes from. Our clothing might come from New Jersey or Taiwan and even the source of our food is of no particular concern. Few of us know why we are existing and the country with its politics has become too big and complicated for individual awareness. My life's work by writing and painting has been to reawaken the original American consciousness, that quality which created the United States and abounded in earlier days." <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">—Eric Sloane</span></span></b></blockquote>
Drawing America was founded to raise consciousness through drawing. Eric Sloane blazed a trail.<br />
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Visit <a href="http://www.ericsloane.com/" target="_blank">ericsloane.com</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fs%3Fie%3DUTF8%26ref_%3Dsr%5Fpg%5F2%26keywords%3Deric%2520sloane%26qid%3D1280707487%26rh%3Di%253Aaps%252Ck%253Aeric%2520sloane%26page%3D2&tag=httpsuzannblo-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957" target="_blank">Learn more about Eric Sloane through his own words.</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=httpsuzannblo-20&l=ur2&o=1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />Suzanne McDermotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14785042270660883635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7864880315659983478.post-87053913849960477432010-07-27T20:28:00.001-05:002015-02-04T09:52:48.530-06:00What's up, Doc?<object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/2JMmyHWO424&hl=en_US&fs=1"></param>
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<i>A Wild Hare<br />
Released June 27th, 1940</i><br />
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Happy 70th Birthday <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bugs_Bunny" target="_blank">Bugs Bunny</a>! <br />
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Icon of the American screen, one of the great cartoon characters of all time (American or otherwise), Bugs was born in Brooklyn in a warren under Ebbets Field. <br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TGWZXHaalBI/AAAAAAAAHEE/SiGo8onKaJo/s1600/aharegrows.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TGWZXHaalBI/AAAAAAAAHEE/SiGo8onKaJo/s400/aharegrows.jpg" height="345" width="400" /></a></div>
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Created by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tex_Avery">Tex Avery</a>, animated by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgil_Walter_Ross" target="_blank">Virgil Ross</a> (both of whom we will attend to in a future post), the 1938 prototype for Bugs Bunny appeared in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porky%27s_Hare_Hunt">Pokey's Hare Hunt</a>.<br />
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Read <a href="http://www.starpulse.com/news/Donna_Terrell/2010/07/27/happy_birthday_bugs_bunny" target="_blank">a little Starpulse blurb on Bug's birthday, </a> and <a href="http://smithsonianlibraries.si.edu/smithsonianlibraries/2010/07/that-wascally-wabbit.html" target="_blank">even more at the Smithsonian Libraries</a>.<br />
<br />Suzanne McDermotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14785042270660883635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7864880315659983478.post-52725352405191464732010-07-23T21:50:00.001-05:002015-02-04T09:53:06.814-06:00Hallelujah Anyway<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TEpIuKwyoPI/AAAAAAAAHCE/uQ3DaSAKmEQ/s1600/KPatchen_SheKnows-web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TEpIuKwyoPI/AAAAAAAAHCE/uQ3DaSAKmEQ/s400/KPatchen_SheKnows-web.jpg" height="400" width="282" /></a></div>
<i>from Selected Poems by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Patchen" target="_blank">Kenneth Patchen</a></i><br />
<blockquote>
<b><i>"I don’t consider myself a painter. I think of myself as someone who has used the medium of painting in an attempt to extend."</i></b></blockquote>
In the late 1950's, after a series of back surgeries dating to a 1937 spinal injury, the poet Kenneth Patchen suffered a botched and unnecessary operation. As a result, Patchen spent the remainder of his life in constant pain, incapacitated for the most part, and destitute.<br />
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Because of this condition, he took to writing his poems in a long hand scrawl, accompanied by ink drawings.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TCk_hNC-XtI/AAAAAAAAG9c/VEoguxLVJgM/s1600/BecauseGoingNowhereTakesALongTime.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TCk_hNC-XtI/AAAAAAAAG9c/VEoguxLVJgM/s400/BecauseGoingNowhereTakesALongTime.jpg" height="400" width="262" /></a></div>
<i> Because Going Nowhere Takes A Long Time<br />
from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fs%3Fie%3DUTF8%26x%3D0%26ref_%3Dnb%5Fsb%5Fnoss%26y%3D0%26field-keywords%3Dbecause%2520it%2520is%2520kenneth%2520patchen%26url%3Dsearch-alias%253Daps&tag=httpsuzannblo-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957">Because I Is</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=httpsuzannblo-20&l=ur2&o=1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></i><br />
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<i><b>Because It Is</b></i> is a collection of poems with drawings. Published in 1960, this <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Directions_Publishing" target="_blank">New Directions</a> book marks the beginning of what would eventually become his "Picture Poems."<br />
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<a href="http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5931" target="_blank">Kenneth Patchen's Picture Poems</a> were revolutionary, whacky, and spiritually transformational. Foreshadowing what's now become more common place in visual arts — writing on paper or canvas with drawn or painted images, Patchen's work was born of necessity. He only had so much energy, time and freedom of movement to express the flood of his mighty soul.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TClAUIDyhWI/AAAAAAAAG9g/8Mac0iHSKTs/s1600/patchen.wings.98-08-10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TClAUIDyhWI/AAAAAAAAG9g/8Mac0iHSKTs/s400/patchen.wings.98-08-10.jpg" height="400" width="240" /></a></div>
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Bedridden for years, <a href="http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/23" target="_blank">Kenneth Patchen</a> blazed trails that others have continued to fumble forward upon. Patchen helped to create the poetry reading performance and was <a href="http://foundsf.org/index.php?title=KENNETH_PATCHEN_and_his_Picture-Poems" target="_blank">the first to read poetry accompanied by jazz musicians</a>. <br />
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His novel, <i>SLEEPERS AWAKE on the precipice</i> profoundly changed my understanding of life and art when I read it at 19.<br />
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If you are not familiar with <a href="http://www.answers.com/topic/kenneth-patchen" target="_blank">Kenneth Patchen</a>, start exploring now. His universe of work is wondrous and brutal and true. If his work doesn't blow your mind, it may expand it if you let it.<br />
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Follow the links embedded in this post. Check Kenneth Patchen books out of your local library or<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fs%3Fie%3DUTF8%26x%3D18%26ref_%3Dnb%5Fsb%5Fnoss%26fsc%3D-1%26y%3D21%26field-keywords%3Dkenneth%2520patchen%26url%3Dsearch-alias%253Dstripbooks&tag=httpsuzannblo-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957">buy them at Amazon</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=httpsuzannblo-20&l=ur2&o=1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />. Special thanks to <a href="http://www.ndpublishing.com/home.html">New Directions</a> for publishing Patchen's work throughout the years.<br />
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Visit an <a href="http://www.concentric.net/~lndb/patchen/patchclr.htm" target="_blank">Online exhibit of selections from Patchen's Picture Poems</a> and read about the <a href="http://legionofhonor.famsf.org/legion/exhibitions/kenneth-patchen-painted-books-and-picture-poems" target="_blank">2009-2010 Legion of Honor Fine Arts Museum exhibit</a> of his painted books and picture poems.<br />
<br />Suzanne McDermotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14785042270660883635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7864880315659983478.post-47628604641700529912010-07-21T11:30:00.001-05:002015-02-04T09:54:19.323-06:00New York States of Mind<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TEccQ0kKB3I/AAAAAAAAHBk/M0UOd-v0oN0/s1600/598.+People+in+Time+Warner+12-19-2009.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TEccQ0kKB3I/AAAAAAAAHBk/M0UOd-v0oN0/s400/598.+People+in+Time+Warner+12-19-2009.jpg" height="400" width="290" /></a></div>
<i>People in Time Warner Building at Columbus Circle<br />
December 19, 2009</i><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.jasonpolan.com/" target="_blank">Jason Polan</a> is drawing <b><a href="http://everypersoninnewyork.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Every Person in New York</a></b> and publishing those drawings on his blog. This grand obsession has been in the works since <a href="http://everypersoninnewyork.blogspot.com/2008_03_01_archive.html" target="_blank">late March, 2008</a>.<br />
<br />
Jason is drawing anyone and everyone and, this being NYC, in the pages you can find the noteworthy likes of Lewis Lapham, Peter Sarsgaard, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Helena Christensen, Malcolm Gladwell, and other folks of fortune and fame.<br />
<br />
Spend some time scrolling through the <b><a href="http://everypersoninnewyork.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Every Person in New York blog</a></b>. It's fun and might inspire some bright drawing ideas of your own!<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.sightunseen.com/2010/06/to-draw-every-person-in-new-york-by-jason-polan/" target="_blank">Read a nice, lengthy article and interview with Jason</a> by Jill Singer for Sight Unseen.<br />
<br />Suzanne McDermotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14785042270660883635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7864880315659983478.post-82617941263382191992010-07-15T14:15:00.000-05:002015-02-04T09:54:35.568-06:00How a pencil is made<object height="385" width="640"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/zZHp1fGdAWE&hl=en_US&fs=1"></param>
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<br />
Enjoy this inside look at how a pencil is made at <a href="http://www.generalpencil.com/" target="_blank">General Pencil Company</a> — <i>Pencil Makers in the USA Since 1889!</i><br />
<br />Suzanne McDermotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14785042270660883635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7864880315659983478.post-78371045170063618112010-07-13T14:13:00.001-05:002015-02-04T09:55:13.922-06:00This American Life<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TDywlJXsnPI/AAAAAAAAHBA/vNm3aF7cE-o/s1600/hpekar_rickparker.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TDywlJXsnPI/AAAAAAAAHBA/vNm3aF7cE-o/s400/hpekar_rickparker.jpg" height="281" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.smithmag.net/pekarproject/2010/01/13/story-15/" target="_blank">"Aging" by Harvey Pekar<br />
Illustrated by Rick Parker<br />
Click to read full story</a><br />
<br />
How many people in the history of mankind have attracted multiple artists over the course of decades to illustrate their ordinary, everyday lives? Um... <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey_Pekar" target="_blank">Harvey Pekar</a>.<br />
<br />
The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Splendor">American Splendor</a> story came to an end yesterday with the passing of Harvey Pekar.<br />
<br />
Putting artists to work on drawings is always a good thing. Even better was Pekar's encouragement to examine regular, everyday experience; to make the minutiae of the most common life extraordinary. That he coupled his writing with drawings in comic book form was his stroke of genius. Regardless of your aesthetic sensibilities, we are all the richer for Pekar's life.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/comic-riffs/2010/07/a_pekar_tribute_collaborators.html" target="_blank">Read a tribute to Pekar by his collaborators</a> published in yesterday's Washington Post,<br />
<br />
<a href="http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/12/harvey-pekar-who-chronicled-ordinary-lives-in-american-splendor-comics-dies/">Pekar's obit in the NYT Arts section</a>, <br />
<br />
<a href="http://shelf-life.ew.com/2010/07/12/harvey-pekar-appreciation-comics-graphic/" target="_blank">Ken Tucker's tribute to Pekar</a> in EW.com and <a href="http://www.tributes.com/show/88900769" target="_blank">another by AP's Jake Coyle</a>.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.smithmag.net/pekarproject/" target="_blank">Visit the Pekar Project</a><br />
<br />
and, if you haven't yet seen it, watch the unusual and brilliant film <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Splendor_(film)" target="_blank">American Splendor</a> with Paul Giammati as Pekar. <br />
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More than any tribute can, the <a href="http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/109/" target="_blank">In These Times article by James Hynes about Pekar's appearances on David Letterman's show</a> astutely describes Pekar's place, if not role, in contemporary American culture.<br />
<br />
Andrew D. Arnold closed a 2001 Time Magazine article by writing that Pekar was<br />
<blockquote>
<b><i>"Often funny, sometimes poignant, but always truthful in a medium that mostly specializes in fiction.<br />"</i></b></blockquote>
<br /><br />
<b></b>Suzanne McDermotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14785042270660883635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7864880315659983478.post-73989554110305073172010-07-12T14:36:00.002-05:002015-02-04T09:54:51.170-06:00Happy Birthday Etch-A-Sketch!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TDtqcu0m0XI/AAAAAAAAHA8/kKU8FPfDQh8/s1600/etch_a_sketch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TDtqcu0m0XI/AAAAAAAAHA8/kKU8FPfDQh8/s400/etch_a_sketch.jpg" height="360" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
Conceived in France, born in Germany and raised in the USA by <a href="http://www.ohioart.com/" target="_blank">Ohio Art</a>, the Etch-A-Sketch turns 50 years old today!<br />
<br />
Definitely my favorite "toy" growing up. I had the most fun drawing elevations and floor plans (maybe because there were very few curved lines). <br />
<br />
Read a great <a href="http://www.scrippsnews.com/content/ever-popular-etch-sketch-celebrating-50th-year" target="_blank">article by Jon Chavez on the Etch A Sketch</a> in Scripps News, visit the <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Etch-A-Sketch/76692258159" target="_blank">Etch A Sketch facebook page</a>, and learn about <a href="http://indianapolis-indiana.funcityfinder.com/2010/05/11/etch-a-sketch%C2%AE-celebrating-50-years-at-the-childrens-museum-of-indianapolis/" target="_blank">the world's largest Etch A Sketch on exhibit</a> at the Children's Museum in Indianaopolis!<br />
<br />
and don't forget to visit <a href="http://www.ohioart.com/etch/" target="_blank"> way cool Etch's land</a> at Ohio Arts.<br />
<br />Suzanne McDermotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14785042270660883635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7864880315659983478.post-47074468655408821312010-07-11T15:07:00.000-05:002015-02-04T09:58:19.440-06:00Guild of Natural Science Illustrators<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TDoZIFxMUrI/AAAAAAAAHAI/KpMveMJCecc/s1600/GNSI_handbook2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TDoZIFxMUrI/AAAAAAAAHAI/KpMveMJCecc/s400/GNSI_handbook2.jpg" height="400" width="313" /></a></div>
<a href="http://www.gnsi.org/join/handbook.html" target="_blank">The Guild Handbook of Scientific Illustration, 2nd Edition</a><br />
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In 1966, Carolyn Bartlett Gast decided to organize the scattered scientific illustrators at the Smithsonian. By 1968, Gast had founded the <a href="http://www.gnsi.org/" target="_blank">Guild of Natural Science Illustrators</a> with twenty-one members. <br />
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Today opens the <a href="http://www.gnsi.science-art.com/2010NC/about/aboutmain.html" target="_blank">32nd Annual GNSI Conference</a> in Raleigh, North Carolina. Much of the work of the guild (and their conference) is devoted to career concerns, communication, and technical and technological issues in scientific illustration. Still, drawing is fundamental and this year, <a href="http://lindafeltner.com/" target="_blank"><b>Linda Feltner</b></a> is leading a workshop on <i><b>Drawing Live Animals</b></i>.<br />
<br />
In conjunction with the conference, <a href="http://news.lib.ncsu.edu/2010/06/04/beauty-and-science-merge-in-illustrators%E2%80%99-exhibit-at-ncsu-libraries/" target="_blank">a show of scientific illustrations</a> is on display at North Carolina State University Libraries’ Special Collection Exhibit Gallery through the first week of August. <br />
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<a href="http://www.gnsi.science-art.com/2010NC/exhibits/slideshow.html" target="_blank">View a slideshow of selections from this exhibit of GNSI members work.</a> <br />
<em>____________________________________________</em>Suzanne McDermotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14785042270660883635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7864880315659983478.post-80984189819172605682010-07-05T12:42:00.000-05:002015-02-04T09:58:02.667-06:00Drawing from Within<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TDH_CFCpHNI/AAAAAAAAG_c/-JRG6uJsWCs/s1600/DrawingfromWithin-web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TDH_CFCpHNI/AAAAAAAAG_c/-JRG6uJsWCs/s400/DrawingfromWithin-web.jpg" height="400" width="310" /></a></div>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1600611028?ie=UTF8&tag=httpsuzannblo-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1600611028">Drawing From Within: Unleashing Your Creative Potential</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=httpsuzannblo-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1600611028" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
Nick Meglin with Diane Meglin, DCSW<br />
<br />
A couple of years ago, one of my drawing students walked into class with a book in her hand and said <i>"This is the <b>best</b> book on drawing! It sounds just like you! You can borrow my copy and read it in a day."</i><br />
<br />
After class, I sat down and did just that. This <b><i>is</i></b> the best book on drawing <i>(although I have a few favorites)</i> and I heard echoes throughout of what I tell students in my own drawing classes.<br />
<blockquote>
<b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #660000;">"No one can teach you to draw. Where art education often fails is in the premise that drawing can be taught. It can't. Then how does one learn to draw? One doesn't! One draws! The education of an artist is the result of his or her experiences of drawing."</span></i></b></blockquote>
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Meglin" target="_blank">Nick Meglin</a> knows what he's talking about. He taught drawing and illustration at the School of Visual Arts in New York City for over ten years and was editor of <i>MAD Magazine</i> for decades.<br />
<br />
What a thrill to find a richly illustrated (by 47 different artists), brilliantly written book on drawing by a kindred soul.<br />
<br />
One of the most difficult challenges of teaching drawing is to get students to bypass the thinking mind. I use a bit of gesturing to describe the process of making a drawing in my opening classes. Nick Meglin sums up the mechanics of drawing succinctly —<br />
<blockquote>
<i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #660000;">"Ultimately, the drawing instrument becomes only the extension of the eye by way of the hand. The eye sees, the hand reacts, the instrument delivers the message to the drawing surface. It should be a brainless process."</span></b></i></blockquote>
Written with Nick's daughter, the compassionate <a href="http://www.inside.duke.edu/article.php?IssueID=56&ParentID=3204">Diane Meglin</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1600611028?ie=UTF8&tag=httpsuzannblo-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1600611028">Drawing From Within</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=httpsuzannblo-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1600611028" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />provides tremendous support for allowing students to accept their unique efforts. Notions of perfection, mastery and techniques are great hurdles for adults who want to draw.<br />
<blockquote>
<b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #660000;">"Drawing without concern about "making a drawing" is what personal, sincere self-expression is all about. And the wonderful paradox is that the work that is sincere, personal, and created for one's own satisfaction is what is most often celebrated by both critics and public alike."</span></i></b></blockquote>
Each of the fourteen chapters is completed by a set of relevant exercises. You can use this book to set yourself on a drawing course for life. The remarkable quality of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1600611028?ie=UTF8&tag=httpsuzannblo-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1600611028">Drawing From Within</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=httpsuzannblo-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1600611028" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> is that — in addition to being a great book on drawing — the Meglins make the connection for the reader of drawing practice being the key that unlocks the barriers to creative expression.<br />
<blockquote>
<b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #660000;">The creative process often provides answers when no questions were asked, arrives at solutions where problems weren't apparent, and ties into neat packages many thoughts and ideas that were previously isolated or unrelated. This process isn't unique to the art of drawing alone. It is true of each form and fashion of art and it's true of all creative endeavors."</span></i></b></blockquote>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1600611028?ie=UTF8&tag=httpsuzannblo-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1600611028">Drawing From Within</a><img alt="" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=httpsuzannblo-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1600611028" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" />is fun to read. It's a page turner! How many books can you say that about?Suzanne McDermotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14785042270660883635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7864880315659983478.post-75697926443684013952010-06-28T10:02:00.203-05:002015-02-04T09:57:39.498-06:00Painter and Poet<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TCk_gyb00hI/AAAAAAAAG9Y/rEr9PgoyRSs/s1600/viewfromarooftopstudio-paris.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TCk_gyb00hI/AAAAAAAAG9Y/rEr9PgoyRSs/s400/viewfromarooftopstudio-paris.jpg" height="400" width="297" /></a></div>
<i>E. E. Cummings<br />
Paris view from a rooftop studio<br />
Ink on paper, 9 x 11-3/8 inches<br />
Collection of Ken Lopez, Bookseller</i><br />
<blockquote>
<i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">"'Peintre et poete,' he had told a French policeman who asked his profession before arresting him; I think that was in 1923. Poet and painter—and nothing else—he remained to the end.</span></b></i><br />
<i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">—Malcolm Cowley, E</span></span></b></i><a href="http://draft.blogger.com/E.E.%20CUMMINGS:%20POET%20AND%20PAINTER" target="_blank"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">. E. Cummings: Poet and Painter</span></i></a></blockquote>
This is the first of two posts on poets. I was going to write a combined post on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._E._Cummings" target="_blank">E. E. Cummings</a> and Kenneth Patchen because both poets spent a considerable amount of time drawing and were close friends but have decided that each deserves a unique entry. Cummings and Patchen spent long hours talking at Cumming's house on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patchin_Place" target="_blank">Patchin Place</a> in the Village where Patchen lived for a time. I'm guessing that some of their talk must have been about drawing and painting but can't find any record of such.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://eecummingsart.com/gallery/?g=s&sg=4" target="_blank"><b>View a collection of E. E. Cummings drawings.</b></a><br />
<blockquote>
<i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">"Cummings viewed himself as much a painter as a poet, as evidenced by the enormous amount of time and energy he devoted to this lesser-known half of his "twin obsession." Not only did Cummings spend a greater portion of his time painting than writing, he also produced thousands of pages of carefully thought-out notes concerning his own aesthetics of painting: color-theory, analysis of the human form, the "intelligence" of painting, reflections on the Masters, etc.</span></b></i></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">Critics have tended to divide Cummings' painterly career roughly into two stylistically differing chronological phases. The first phase, more or less from 1915-1928, covers his widely-acclaimed large-scale abstractions and his immensely popular drawings and caricatures published throughout the 1920s in the leading modernist journal, </span></b></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dial" target="_blank"><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">The Dial</span></b></i></a><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">. The second phase, covering the period from 1928 until his death in 1962, consists primarily of representational works: still lifes, landscapes, nudes, and portraits.</span></b></i><br />
<i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">—</span></span></b></i><a href="http://lopezbooks.com/" target="_blank"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">Ken Lopez, Bookseller</span></i></a></blockquote>
For an interesting little history by Milton A. Cohen on E.E. Cummings drawings for and other contributions to <i>The Dial</i>, read <i><a href="http://www.gvsu.edu/english/cummings/Cohen1.htm">The Dial's "White-Haired Boy": E. E. Cummings as Dial Artist, Poet, and Essayist</a>.</i><br />
<br />
<b>Learn more about the visual side of this poet at </b><a href="http://www.eecummingsart.com/" target="_blank"><b>E. E. Cummings art</b></a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://research.hrc.utexas.edu:8080/hrcxtf/view?docId=ead/00191.xml">Visit the E. E. Cummings art collection at the Harry Ransom Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin</a> <br />
<br />
Read a succinct article by Jim Lane for the Humanities Web, E<a href="http://www.humanitiesweb.org/human.php?s=g&p=a&a=i&ID=999" target="_blank">. E. Cummings, the Artist</a>.<br />
<blockquote>
<b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">"It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are." <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">—E. E. Cummings</span></span></i></b></blockquote>
<br />
Stay tuned for Kenneth Patchen!<br />
<br />Suzanne McDermotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14785042270660883635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7864880315659983478.post-45322612777487728072010-06-13T16:09:00.005-05:002015-02-04T09:57:20.346-06:00Everyman<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TBVFY1gKfII/AAAAAAAAG2w/gcdRNShtLyo/s1600/887+Charlie+Brown.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TBVFY1gKfII/AAAAAAAAG2w/gcdRNShtLyo/s400/887+Charlie+Brown.jpg" height="400" width="220" /></a></div>
<i>Charlie Brown<br />
Charles Schultz</i><br />
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There will be at least one if not several more posts related to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peanuts" target="_blank">Peanuts</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Brown" target="_blank">Charlie Brown</a>, I'm sure. This post shares the brief video above for <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0066213932?ie=UTF8&tag=httpsuzannblo-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0066213932" target="_blank">Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography,</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=httpsuzannblo-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0066213932" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />the David Michaelis book, and the brilliant, poignant, full-length PBS American Masters program (which is only available for viewing on youtube.) Part one is below. As each part ends, click on the next segment at the top of the list.<br />
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I grew up on Peanuts comic strips. Day after day. Year after year. As I was watching the America Masters program, I couldn't help but wonder what the Peanuts strips and characters mean to folks who've come of age since oh, say, the late 1980's. <br />
<br />
If you're part of that crowd, leave a comment to let us know what the world of Peanuts has meant to you. Are these characters archaic? Have you read many? Are their situations current? Meaningful?<br />
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<br />Suzanne McDermotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14785042270660883635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7864880315659983478.post-6385988287577431852010-06-10T19:01:00.002-05:002015-02-04T09:57:09.883-06:00Jackie Drawing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TBDqvXZoKYI/AAAAAAAAG2c/TE5ujpeG4RI/s1600/img-mg---jackie-kennedy-sketches-3_130021392881.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TBDqvXZoKYI/AAAAAAAAG2c/TE5ujpeG4RI/s400/img-mg---jackie-kennedy-sketches-3_130021392881.jpg" height="400" width="372" /></a></div>
<i>John F. Kennedy on the campaign trail<br />
Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, 1961<br />
Ink on board</i><br />
<blockquote>
<i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">"I want to live my life, not record it." </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">—Jacqueline Kennedy</span></i></blockquote>
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Though rarely seen, there must be hundreds of little drawings by Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis lining pages of notebooks and sketchbooks, in collections of friends and family. Drawing was simply a normal activity for her — a fun part of every day life. Growing up, she often spent time alone drawing and writing stories.</div>
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Fearless, Jackie Kennedy made eight drawings of her husband as she waited to be interviewed for the July 4, 1961, issue of Look Magazine. These <a href="http://www.aolnews.com/story/jfk-cartoon-auction/548886" target="_blank">ink cartoons on card stock show John F. Kennedy in various scenarios while campaigning for president</a>. Above, JFK is interviewed by reporters while wrapped in towels, still wet from a shower.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TBDqvU3wRsI/AAAAAAAAG2g/_LF6hzd35J8/s1600/J+Kennedy+in+Ravello,+Italy,+1962,+Benno+Graziani.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TBDqvU3wRsI/AAAAAAAAG2g/_LF6hzd35J8/s400/J+Kennedy+in+Ravello,+Italy,+1962,+Benno+Graziani.jpg" height="262" width="400" /></a></div>
<i>Jacqueline Kennedy drawing in Ravello, Italy, 1962 by Benno Graziani<br />
with sister Princess Lee and Prince Radziwill in background</i><br />
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<i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">"We are not the Brontë sisters, but Jackie and I did ocasionally put pen to paper, particularly when we gave presents to our mother —for Christmas or her birthday or an anniversary—since shefar preferred something we had written or drawn to anything we might buy for her."<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"> —Lee Bouvier</span></span></b></i></blockquote>
In the summer of 1951, Jackie and Lee Bouvier went off for a Grand Tour of Europe. In Venice, Jackie found a dashing artist and "was off every day scribbling with her art teacher." The sisters sent hilarious illustrated letters and poems home to their mother.<br />
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These handwritten letters, complete with illustrations and snapshots, were compiled and published as a book in 1974 — <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0847827879?ie=UTF8&tag=httpsuzannblo-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0847827879" target="_blank"><b>One Special Summer.</b></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=httpsuzannblo-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0847827879" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
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Most of the text is by Lee Bouvier but the drawings and poetry are all Jackie. The book is a period piece and an utter joy. It's a great place to explore the drawing delights of an exceptional woman.<br />
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<b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">“You have to be doing something you enjoy. That is a definition of happiness: “complete use of one’s faculties along lines leading to excellence in a life affording them scope”. It applies to women as well as to men. We can’t all reach it, but we can try to reach it to some degree”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;"> —Jacqueline Kennedy</span></span></i></b></blockquote>
<br />Suzanne McDermotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14785042270660883635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7864880315659983478.post-14271733786795667552010-06-06T11:33:00.005-05:002015-02-04T09:56:54.265-06:00Avanti!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF0DMMmBRgZ-SPavUKUDkMAczZqJGTZy1MzsGPES03wPOerIUfFEQbZbnriK6GKqorvRpghYexv51i6znyjPFnK_Ye9Em8ByNHuVADBuIIp8R4xEHThQ-Va2Ljxp0J805a_a9BSgL4H08/s1600/Avanti_signed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF0DMMmBRgZ-SPavUKUDkMAczZqJGTZy1MzsGPES03wPOerIUfFEQbZbnriK6GKqorvRpghYexv51i6znyjPFnK_Ye9Em8ByNHuVADBuIIp8R4xEHThQ-Va2Ljxp0J805a_a9BSgL4H08/s400/Avanti_signed.jpg" height="223" width="400" /></a></div>
<i>Raymond Loewy <br />
Avanti sketch</i><br />
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<b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">"It all must start with an inspired, spontaneous idea."</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;"> Raymond Loewy</span></span></i></b></blockquote>
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Loewy" target="_blank">Raymond Loewy</a> invented the profession of industrial design. He used his pencil to bring his ideas to life as he redesigned, streamlined and simplified household appliances, <a href="http://www.leisurama.info/" target="_blank">housing</a>, marketing logos and vehicles from automobiles to locomotives to cruise ships.<br />
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<b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">"One stroke of his pencil was like a push on an accelerator. Dedicated to speed, Raymond Loewy was the embodiment of forward motion." </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">—Philippe Trétiack, </span></span></i></b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0789303280?ie=UTF8&tag=httpsuzannblo-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0789303280"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: none;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">Raymond Loewy and Streamlined Design</span></i></span></a><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=httpsuzannblo-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0789303280" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></span></i></blockquote>
After World War II<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;"><b><i>"Loewy began to shape the image of an entire nation with his pencil strokes, taking on more and more memorable commissions. His sketches, models and blueprints were to largely shape our current impression of the United States as a fantastic, vital country. Within a few brief years, he had created the icons of the streamlined fifties — jukeboxes, vending machines, gas pumps, cigarette packets, Greyhound buses, car bodies such as the Studebaker and the fully-welded Lincoln Continental, toasters, tractors, helicopters and the ferry-boats ceremoniously welcomed into the port of New York." <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">—Philippe Trétiack</span></i></b></span></blockquote>
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Loewy used his pencil to help realize his ideas.</div>
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<i><a href="http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trr044.html" target="_blank">Design Drawing for a logo<br />
for the Exxon Corporation<br />
Drawing on tracing paper with marker, 1966</a><br />
Library of Congress</i></div>
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Because of the inordinate range and amount of forms, shapes and logos that Loewy designed and redesigned, I am focusing on one: the Avanti body design for Studebaker. While Loewy is credited with the design of a number of automobiles — <a href="http://www.coachbuilt.com/des/l/loewy/loewy.htm" target="_blank">most notably for Studebaker</a> — he often styled a design and then took credit for the work of a team. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Loewy#Avanti" target="_blank">Read about the teamwork that created the Avanti</a>.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TAurAsjNvcI/AAAAAAAAG1c/DBWqrcY1bqo/s1600/Loewy_Prelim_Avanti.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TAurAsjNvcI/AAAAAAAAG1c/DBWqrcY1bqo/s320/Loewy_Prelim_Avanti.jpg" height="170" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trr027.html" target="_blank">Preliminary study, sketch 1 for Studebaker "Avanti" automobile </a><br />
Library of Congress<br />
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From pencil drawing to finished automobile, experience the Avanti in period presentation. This almost 14 minute film is a period piece, a trip in time shot in Palm Springs, California, early 1960s.<br />
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Introducing Avanti<br />
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<a href="http://www.raymondloewy.com/" target="_blank">Learn more about Raymond Loewy</a> at his official site.<br />
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Looking back at Loewy's work from the far side of the 20th century, it's difficult to miss that Loewy's designs were mostly energy consuming devices fueled by oil and gas (as was his career). Off the subject of drawing but relevant to this post, as I write at the beginnings of the Gulf of Mexico oil catastrophe, I'm reminded of Joseph Cotten's monologue in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magnificent_Ambersons_(film)" target="_blank">Orson Welle's The Magnificent Ambersons</a>.<br />
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<i>Avanti</i> translates from the Italian as "forward", forward at a clip. It's time we put our pencils to work to create design for a new way of life and a new kind of prosperity. <i>Avanti!</i><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Pencil sharpener</span><br />
<i> designed by Raymond Loewy</i><br />
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<br />Suzanne McDermotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14785042270660883635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7864880315659983478.post-71506759494615394252010-06-02T12:13:00.000-05:002015-02-04T09:56:34.701-06:00Woolgathering<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TAZ9EneHfZI/AAAAAAAAG0M/K2jm7HdZxCI/s1600/E.Perry_Blueberies-web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TAZ9EneHfZI/AAAAAAAAG0M/K2jm7HdZxCI/s400/E.Perry_Blueberies-web.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
<i>Blueberries scattered across the table in an early constellation of summer.<br />
Elizabeth Perry<br />
from <a href="http://www.elizabethperry.com/woolgathering/" target="_blank">Woolgathering</a></i><br />
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Drawing is a discipline. Drawing every day can be an obsession, a practice or a job. Elizabeth Perry has made drawing every day a form unto itself.<br />
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<b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">"In December 2004, I decided to learn to draw by sketching something every day in a small journal. I have been posting these daily drawings, sketches, and paintings to my blog woolgathering... since January 2005." <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">—E. Perry</span></span></i></b></blockquote>
Teacher, writer, artist and techie, Elizabeth began blogging in 2002 — long before blogs hit the mainstream. Watch the transformation of her blog into a daily drawing journal in this January 2005 <b><a href="http://www.elizabethperry.com/woolgathering/2005/01/28-days.html" target="_blank">video of the first 28 days.</a> </b><br />
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Not enough to draw and post those drawings to a blog every day? <a href="http://www.elizabethperry.com/woolgathering/archives/001177.html#001177" target="_blank">Elizabeth shares the first bound journal she made</a> in late November 2005 and describes her subsequent holiday project:<br />
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<i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">"Over the holiday, one of my sisters and I each bound a dozen sketchbooks for the year ahead. Working in our mother's beautiful seaside studio, we took a break from the rest of the world, folding and stitching and pasting and talking. Wonderful.</span></b></i></blockquote>
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<i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">That sister - </span></b></i><a href="http://mariaburtis.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Maria</span></b></i><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">- has been keeping a weblog with her drawings, too</span></b></i></a><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;"> - she's a painter with two small children, and her sketchbook gives you a taste of the vitality of her work. We were having such a good time that another artist sister - </span></b></i><a href="http://ilikethisart.blogspot.com/2009/10/rachel-perry-welty.html" target="_blank"><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Rachel</span></b></i></a><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">- joined us and made herself a journal, and then <a href="http://www.sarahhollisperry.com/" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">my mother</span></a> made four of them. My closest sister - Margaret - is a longtime committed diary-keeper, but she hasn't jumped into the world of blogs yet. I feel fortunate to be inspired by such an expressive and creative family."</span></b></i></blockquote>
To commemorate posting 1000 consecutive daily drawings on her blog, Elizabeth made this one-minute video in September 2007 —<br />
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Think you don't have time to draw every day? Woolgathering is created in the midst of an extremely full life packed with family, work, travel and a multitude of other projects. It's a very good example of commitment and of blogging as a tool to help solidify commitment. <br />
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From <a href="http://www.elizabethperry.com/woolgathering/archives/001179.html" target="_blank">Table Salt</a> to <a href="http://www.elizabethperry.com/woolgathering/2008/06/chapter-book.html" target="_blank">growing children</a>, Elizabeth's posts are brief and elegant. Subscribe to <a href="http://www.elizabethperry.com/woolgathering/" target="_blank">Woolgathering</a> for a daily treat. Today marks her 1,982nd subsequent drawing. Elizabeth Perry's discipline is inspiring.<br />
<br />Suzanne McDermotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14785042270660883635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7864880315659983478.post-37258518546049247472010-05-31T12:42:00.003-05:002015-02-04T09:56:22.881-06:00Healing the wounds of war<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TAPhW1270tI/AAAAAAAAGy0/Ld9KIBYeV5Y/s1600/phoca_thumb_l_mccarty8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TAPhW1270tI/AAAAAAAAGy0/Ld9KIBYeV5Y/s400/phoca_thumb_l_mccarty8.jpg" height="400" width="310" /></a></div>
<i>Rick McCarty, 2000<br />
The National Veterans Art Museum, Chicago, IL</i><br />
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<b>Memorial Day, 2010</b><br />
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My cousin Jim Fogarty came over to visit one summer when I was in my early teens. He was just back from Vietnam. As we sat together in the living room, Jim took some lined, loose-leaf paper and started drawing with a blue ballpoint pen. He made a few drawings but the one I remember was of a soldier in helmet and field gear with a rifle slung over his shoulder. I was so impressed! <br />
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Jim struggled terribly after his service and eventually disappeared. One day his youngest brother received a phone call from the Veteran's Administration. Jim's body had been found in a rented room. I thought of his drawings and wondered what might have become if he'd had a chance to concentrate on his drawing skills.<br />
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<b><a href="http://www.arttherapy.org/upload/file/RMveteransPTSD.pdf" target="_blank">The American Art Therapy Association</a></b> now works with Veterans to provide emotional relief from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and related problems stemming from service experience by encouraging creative expression through drawings and other forms of art making.<br />
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In 1980, the Vietnam Veterans Art Group formed in Chicago and put together a touring exhibit of Veteran artwork the following year. That initial effort has grown to become <b><a href="http://www.nvam.org/" target="_blank">The National Veterans Art Museum</a></b>. The drawing by Rick McCarty at the top of this post is from their collection. <br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TAPhXZCWYvI/AAAAAAAAGy4/J18dak-oTKA/s1600/phoca_thumb_l_myers2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_DeM73Cs8qqA/TAPhXZCWYvI/AAAAAAAAGy4/J18dak-oTKA/s400/phoca_thumb_l_myers2.jpg" height="267" width="400" /></a></div>
<i>Grady Myers<br />
The Mascot<br />
Ink on paper, 21.25 x 29.25 inches<br />
National Veterans Art Museum, Chicago, IL</i><br />
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Another artist represented in that collection is Grady Myers. Read an <b><a href="http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news-story.asp?date=030202&ID=s1108724&cat=section.idaho" target="_blank">article from the Spokesman Review</a></b> about his experiences, how he started drawing after returning wounded from Vietnam and developed his career as an illustrator and designer.<br />
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<b><a href="http://thewoundedartistproject.org/" target="_blank">The Wounded Artist Project</a></b> is a developing strategy that grew out of <a href="http://www.candgnews.com/Homepage-Articles/2009/7-29-09/Wounded-soldiers-draw.asp" target="_blank">Ray Bakerjian</a>'s drawing classes at the John Dingle Veterans Hospital in Detroit. Through simple drawing instruction, the project seeks to provide constructive activity and encouragement for recovering Vets with an eye to developing potential careers based on their drawing efforts.<br />
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Although the focus is currently on paper and printmaking, the <b><a href="http://www.combatpaper.org/" target="_blank">Combat Paper Project</a></b> is turning military uniforms to pulp and conducting traveling workshops to train veterans how to make paper from that pulp for artwork. I have a feeling there will be drawings on the Combat Paper, if there aren't already.<br />
<br />Suzanne McDermotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14785042270660883635noreply@blogger.com