Artist of the Month: June: Mary Cassatt

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The first artist that will be highlighted is: MARY CASSATT:mary-cassatt-2

Mary Stevenson Cassatt (May 22, 1844 – June 14, 1926) was an American painter and printmaker.

My favorite description of Mary comes from her Wikipedia page: “She was described by Gustave Geffroy in 1894 as one of “les trois grandes dames” (the three great ladies) of Impressionism alongside Marie Bracquemond and Berthe Morisot.” And the photograph of Mary below embraces that completely:

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To learn more about Mary, check out her Wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Cassatt – be sure to check out the Legacy section where you can see how Mary’s influence continues today.

To check out Mary’s work: https://www.wikiart.org/en/mary-cassatt

I am disappointed that I was only able to locate one biography of Mary – a book that I own… but have not complated yet:cassatt bio.PNG

 

I did locate a historical fiction novel of Mary and her fiendship with Edgar Degas by Robin Olivera: “I Always Loved You” (2014)… I suspect that I do have this book…  somewhere…fictionI also came across a 1999 film… just not sure how easy – or difficult – it will be to hunt it down:film.PNG

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If you enjoy the projects, pictures and posts, please see free to comment – feedback is encouraged and is always welcome.

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  • Any questions, comments? Please email whiteroosterstudio@gmail.com

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Celebrating Women Artists

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Last weekend I picked up a copy of “Originals: American Women Artists” by Eleanor Munro at a local library book sale. I flipped through most of the book and was astonished to realize: I didn’t know as much about American artists – especially WOMEN American artists – as I thought I had… and I have spent the past 5+ years educating myself with as many artists as I could.

There are 41 artists named in the index and of those artists I could only identify 12 of them with any confidence:

Mary Cassatt* Miriam Schapiro*
Georgia O’Keeffe* June Wayne
Hedda Sterne* Mary Frank
Sari Dienes Elise Asher
Lee Krasner* Sheila de Bretteville
Alice Neel Anne Truitt*
Louise Nevelson* Lenore Tawney
Isabel Bishop Sylvia Stone
Louise Bourgeois* Beverly Pepper
Helen Lundeberg Betye Saar
Jeanne Reynal Sheila Hicks
Alma W Thomas Barbara Chase-Riboud
Grace Hartigan* Lee Bontecou
Jane Freilicher Jennifer Bartlett
Fay Lanser Faith Ringgold*
Helen Frankenthaler* Eleanor Antin
Lila Katzen Jackie Winsor
Joan Mitchell* Michelle Stuart
Elaine de Kooning* Connie Zehr
Nell Blaine Betty Klavun
  Patricia Johanson

This got me thinking… ok, obsessing… about this for the past week: is there definitive list of women artists that I can work from to round out my education? And I wasn’t disappointed: between Wikipedia and a couple of online lists, including the 30 Most Influential Women Artists Alive Today, I was able to compile one extensive spreadsheet that has been expanded to include as many women artists, regardless of nationality, that I was able to find.

NOTE: I do have to mention: being a “woman” artist myself, I do have an issue as being identified as such – the goal of any artist is to simply be identified as an Artist – regardless of gender. However, I do have to admit that most people when asked to name an artist will likely name a “male” artist more so then a “woman” artist… and I aim to change that.

So, based on the wealth of artist names I have been able to compile, I thought that it would be a good idea to launch an Artist of the Month on my FaceBook page (www.facebook.com/White-Rooster-Studios) to highlight these amazing women.

Please join me on this journey to learn more about these amazing women: June will be the inaugural month and will highlight Mary Cassatt.

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If you enjoy the projects, pictures and posts, please see free to comment – feedback is encouraged and is always welcome.

Please check out White Rooster Studio:

  • If you enjoy this blog, please enter your email address by going to the Menu, then the Home Page to have White Rooster Studio’s blog sent directly to you once it is published.
  • You can also follow White Rooster Studio by using the direct links from the blog’s headers. For FB, please click on the FB button, and if you click on VIDA COLLECTION or ETSY SHOP you will be directed to those sites immediately.
  • Any questions, comments? Please email whiteroosterstudio@gmail.com

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Copyright @2019 White Rooster Studios. All Rights Reserved.

 

Adventures with Basil

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Many years ago, when I had thought that I may have enough talent to do figurative drawing, I purchased a standard tool for artists: an artist mannequin. It didn’t take long for me to discover that I simply did NOT have what it took to be a good figure drawing artist – most of my faces came out looking like Elmer Fudd… Which, of course, is perfectly fine if that is what you are going for… but I wasn’t.

Which left me with: what to do with the artist mannequin?

By this time, I had named him: Basil. As most of you know, my favorite artist is Wassily (or Vasily – it depends on what source you are looking at) Kandinsky. Wassily/Vasily is Russian for Basil – so you see where this is going, right? Also, one of my absolute favorite British comedies is Fawlty Towers (please, if you have not had a chance to see this show – do so, it is one of the funniest things I have ever seen #JohnCleese)… so Basil just made sense.

Starting in 2012, I had the idea of taking pictures of Basil in ordinary and extraordinary situations (I will be totally honest: some of the best situations that Basil got into during this time period, my partner thought up)… so we have pictures of Basil at the beach, making snow angels after a blizzard, in book stores, hiking, rock climbing, chatting up a mermaid in Rockport, MA, on the Freedom Trail in Boston… you know, normal artist mannequin things you would expect an off-duty artist mannequin to be doing 🙂

And then… I started to forget to take Basil out on our adventures… and he just ended up sitting in my art studio, patiently waiting for the fun to begin again.

Recently, I started to work on increasing my social media presence and try to stick to a more regular blogging schedule… and I looked around for inspiration for a recurring blog theme/post idea… and there he was… Basil, just sitting there patiently, waiting for the adventures to start up again… and I thought: why not?

Why not have Basil join me on artist dates, studio time, art supply shopping trips, visits to the museums – yes, I even got Basil into the Boston Museum of Fine Arts once – pretty much include him in anything art-related.

So, here’s Basil (check out how excited he is during this photo shoot!) – introducing the two art books that I just ordered:20190511_103344-1

I can’t even begin to tell you how exited I am about both of these books, but the “Ninth Street  Women” book, I tell you, I have only had it for a couple of days and I can’t put it down, it’s that good.

I have learned more about New York artists in the 1930’s and 1940’s in the first 80 pages of this book than I  learned in almost a dozen biographies of artists from this period. It is the most well-rounded biography of multiple individuals that I have ever come across. #MaryGabriel YOU ROCK. I can’t wait to see what how this develops.

So, getting back to Basil: our first big test will be in a couple of weeks when we will have an entire art weekend together… and from there, we will resume our regular adventures… together 🙂

#WhiteRoosterStudio #Basil

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If you enjoy the projects, pictures and posts, please see free to comment – feedback is encouraged and is always welcome.

Please check out White Rooster Studio:

  • If you enjoy this blog, please enter your email address by going to the Menu, then the Home Page to have White Rooster Studio’s blog sent directly to you once it is published.
  • You can also follow White Rooster Studio by using the direct links from the blog’s headers. For FB, please click on the FB button, and if you click on VIDA COLLECTION or ETSY SHOP you will be directed to those sites immediately.
  • Any questions, comments? Please email whiteroosterstudio@gmail.com

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Copyright @2019 White Rooster Studios. All Rights Reserved.

From the Studio: What is Old is New Again

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Studio time has been a bit scant these past six weeks, with one illness after another.

Mid-March, I came down with a severe sinus infection… which led to bouts of coughing fits that ultimately caused a pinched nerve in my back which affected the entire left side of my body, resulting in numerous trips to the chiropractor to attempt to correct it… and the past week and a half I have been dealing with walking pneumonia (yet MORE coughing)… so to say that I am looking forward to a healthy and productive stretch is a colossal understatement.

Although not completely 100% yet, I have been able to start spending more time in my studio and have been assessing the status of the Pismo Series and the direction the project was going in… and then I came across a VERY old idea that I had played around with when I was in college when I found an old portfolio of mine earlier this week. I am ashamed to say that I had completely forgotten about this portfolio and when I examined it, I had discovered that most of it’s contents had suffered water damage.

At the time that this work was completed, I had been completely obsessed with Wassily Kandinsky and his idea he had that you could “see” and “paint” music (honestly, that idea still remains one of my strongest influences). I also was heavily into Pink Floyd (still love them!) and was captivated by their ideas and would lose myself for hours in their more instrumental songs: “Shine on You Crazy Diamond”, “Echoes”, etc.

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Wassily Kandinsky at work

I had conceived a project for my senior year in college that would allow me to combine these two loves: Kandinsky and Pink Floyd into my own version of “painting music” and some of the work from this series was contained in the ruined portfolio.

I wish I had the foresight at the time to have consistently NAMED my experiments – or at the very least, had made a notation of the piece of music I had been listening to, because only a couple of them have names scribbled on them. It appears that all of the ones that are posted below were completed in April of 1990:

You can clearly see Kandinsky’s influence in this work and it did get me thinking about how I could be more spontaneous with the direction the Pismo Series could go in and how I could begin to incorporate a more organic, freestyle approach to the overall look of the Series.

As you know from previous blog posts, I have several “failed” attempts of Pismo letters as I developed and worked out the kinks for the Pismo Series… and I am seriously considering experimenting even further by adding this new “old” idea to these “failures”.

You never know: this could be the push this series needs to take it to the next level… or it could be the idea for an entirely new series altogether.

This morning, I spent some time working on the overall design of “Pismo 5 (E)” and although I am liking the direction it is going in, I think I will take a short break from it and see if I can “see” what the patterns could evolve into:20190427_114831

Looks like this one will be added to the studio wall with the rest of the incomplete Pismo Series for a week or so until further inspiration strikes:20190426_152635

#WhiteRoosterStudio #PismoSeries #Kandinsky #PinkFloyd #RivierCollege

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If you enjoy the projects, pictures and posts, please see free to comment – feedback is encouraged and is always welcome.

Please check out White Rooster Studio:

  • If you enjoy this blog, please enter your email address by going to the Menu, then the Home Page to have White Rooster Studio’s blog sent directly to you once it is published.
  • You can also follow White Rooster Studio by using the direct links from the blog’s headers. For FB, please click on the FB button, and if you click on VIDA COLLECTION or ETSY SHOP you will be directed to those sites immediately.
  • Any questions, comments? Please email whiteroosterstudio@gmail.com

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Copyright @2019 White Rooster Studios. All Rights Reserved.

WRS now has Etsy Coupons

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White Rooster Studio is now offering coupons on Etsy!

Please see sample coupons below:

There is also a coupon that will be generated post purchase for 15% off to be applied to your next WRS Etsy order.

ETSY

I also would like to take a minute ask that you follow White Rooster Studio’s blog by following it on WordPress. If you enjoy seeing new work on progress pictures, items that have been added to the VIDA Collection and the Etsy shop, notification of sales (and COUPONS!) and upcoming shows (yes, I will be showing again!), this is a great way to not miss a post or announcement.

CORRECTION: To join the WRS mailing list, please go the MENU, click on HOME and enter your email as demonstrated below:

email blog

Once you register your email address, all new posts will appear in your email inbox as soon as they go live!

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If you enjoy the projects, pictures and posts, please see free to comment – feedback is encouraged and is always welcome.

Please check out White Rooster Studio:

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Copyright @2019 White Rooster Studios. All Rights Reserved.