My love affair with old houses...Casa Azul

This is a photo of Frida Kahlo's house in Mexico City, Casa Azul.  

It is at Casa Azul where artist Frida Kahlo took her first breath and her last breath.  The house is now a museum but even in her day it was filled with folk art of the native Mexican cultures.  The house was built by Frida's father in 1904.  Frida was born in 1907 in Casa Azul and died in there in 1954.  Frida had a life of pain and suffering which is reflected in her paintings.  I love her self-portraits.  I love the creative tropical and ethnic qualities along with the intense expression she put into these paintings.
Her on and off again husband, Diego Rivera was very involved in bringing the native culture back to Mexico.  Frida was deeply interested in pre-Spanish Latin American cultures as well.  She dressed in native dresses and jewelry.  Her hair was done in styles that enhanced this look.  In the end she created a beautiful image or brand as a female artist that remains unique even today.   
It's shame for me, personally.  Once long ago I visited Mexico City but at that time I had never heard of Frida Kahlo.  I wish I could have seen Casa Azul.  

Nothing Like a Snow Day!

Yay!  A foot of snow kept me indoors on Friday. Finally I was able to finish this painting that I thought I would finish a week or more ago.

This painting was so much fun.  I vow that it won't be the last surrealistic painting I do this year.

A Van Gogh House

Photo above is the house where Van Gogh lodged in when he was an evangelist in Belgium.  Since the house is falling down, there is a plan to restore it and open it to visitors by 2015.

At the time Van Gogh lived here he was 25 and had no money.  His level of poverty is easily seen in his early paintings such his early painting, "The Potato Eaters". 

New Painting

Oil on Canvas, Abstract Landscape.  The colors are hard to photograph, subtle and lots of layering. 

24" by 26"

Art and Type 1 Diabetes

On March 21, 2011 my six year old granddaughter Katherine was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes.

Type 1 Diabetes is NOT is a disease caused by lifestyle, overweight or any other controllable factor.  Type 1 is an autoimmune disease that destroys the islet cells in the pancreas.  The patient is normal in every other area of their life, except their pancreas no longer works! 

Suddenly, a perfectly healthy child becomes insulin dependent for life.  It's constant monitoring and frequent shots.  What it MOST becomes is fear.  We worry constantly because insulin dependent means insulin dependent for life.  It's that simple. 

The bad news is that Katherine has diabetes.  The good news is she is alive.  Before insulin was discovered, every child with Type 1 died.

 
This is an art blog.  However, now art and diabetes overlap because some adults who have have diabetes are now involved in independent film projects.

This film made me cry.  It is the reality for mom and daughter. "24 hours with Sam and Ana":  http://vimeo.com/32470207 

This film is about our dream, a possible cure.  It is called "Patient 13":  http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/544334747/patient-13

Yet Another Snow Scene!

I don't know why I keep doing these.  It's more of the same but I LOVE it.  I have some more challenging paintings in the works but sometimes a "girl just has to have fun"!

New Abstract: Purple Bra

Oil on Masonite

Mid Century New York Artists, Women artists of the time and Abstract Expressionism

Joan Mitchell was an artist who created art and a life that went out of bounds.  In the art world of the past, women artists were rare.   Women were not expected to live like men, behave like men or paint like men.  Joan was an exception.   She achieved success eventually in the rough and tumble world of Abstract Expressionism.   

Joan was an artist who lived and painted in New York City 1950's and in Paris from the 70's-late 1980's.  Along with Pollack, DeKooning, Kline and many others she helped create this totally abstract style of art work that eventually was called Abstract Expressionism .  Oddly enough, two other examples of successful women artists in this art movement are the wives of Jackson Pollack, Lee Krasner, and William DeKooning, Elaine DeKooning.  Joan Mitchell and Helen Frankenthaler were both from wealthy families who continued support.  They were protected from some of the harsher realities other woman artists such as Alice Neel had to endure.

At that time, New York City was alive with action and crawling with vibrant young people who after surviving a horrendous world war, came into a new decade with great vitality and enthusiasm.  These young men and a handful of women who were gutsy enough to get into the action and turned the art world upside down with their WiLd CrAzY ArT. 

Prior to WWII the art capitol of the world was Paris.  When Pollack, Kline, DeKooning and others slapped paint onto huge canvases and spread creative glory, the world of art sat up and took notice.  The art capitol of the world soon became New York City.  Fresh on a war victory, America was booming with money and confidence. 

These NEW paintings were alive with expressions of the grimy, noisy, forever moving city they loved.  The city was too big to capture in a realistic image.  The life they led in decrepit unheated walk-ups with naked-light-bulb, "illegal for habitation" apartments changed the way the world saw painting from a controlled image directed process to a flat splash of color on background of canvas.  In the process of defining what art meant to them, they survived on coffee and cigarettes while visiting all night cafeterias to meet with other artists.  They felt they needed the "kick in the butt" that only a group of their peers could provide.   They threw paint in drips, strokes and lines across canvas, stretched 10 feet and more across their studios creating the CrAzY art of legends.

These artists were all hard drinking, tough guys, even if they were women!  They lived hard and fast.  America had arrived in the world of art!     

Shape and Color Cubist Style

14" by 18" oil on canvas

Cubist Shape and Color in Landscape Painting

Working on understanding Cubist Shape and Color.  

Time just keeps on ....

Time: a peculiar concept.  They tell us it doesn't exist.  New scientific studies suggests that we are two dimensional holograms. 
Whatever that means, I still feel the necessity to continue painting.  Working slow but have finished a new painting. Still working on cubist city.  This is a direction I will work on this year.  I'm fascinated by cubism: shape, color and pulling it together in a night/twilight scene. 

Oil on canvas, somewhere in the range of 24" by 30"