Still Life No. 24

Posted by Maverick ~ on December 6, 2017
Posted in: Art, Music, Photography. Tagged: , , , , , .

Still Life No. 24, 1962
Tom Wesselmann

Pop artist Tom Wesselmann's Still Life No. 24 affirms the American dream and the prosperity of the 1960s middle class. The variety, size and quantity of the fresh, canned and packaged convenience foods give evidence of agricultural abundance, factory productivity, and a thriving consumer economy. Television, with its myriad product advertisements, became a central force of cultural change.

Still Life No. 24 is an assemblage composed of two-dimensional imagery and three-dimensional objects. Wesselmann cut images of foodstuffs and kitchen items from subway posters and other large advertisements. The plastic ear of corn is an advertising prop, acquired by the artist from a vendor on Coney Island who sold corn on the cob.

The blue curtain is of the type pictured in magazines such as Ladies' Home Journal, which promoted interior design to the middle class. Through the window, a sailboat glides along, further suggesting the good life of the American dream.

🍏

Sun Angel ~

Posted by Maverick ~ on December 5, 2017
Posted in: Music, Nature, Photography. Tagged: , , , , , .


“It is a popular belief in the Zimbabwe and Zambian regions of Africa that the meerkat is a ‘sun angel’. It is said that the ‘sun angels’ are sent by the gods to protect villages, straying cattle, and lone tribesmen from the ‘moon devil’ or werewolf. The name ‘sun angel’ was likely applied to the meerkat due to their “glowing” appearance in the morning sunlight during their routinely sun-basks.”  *

Portrait of Emily St. Clare as a Bacchante

Posted by Maverick ~ on December 4, 2017
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Portrait of Emily St. Clare as a Bacchante
John Hoppner

In this portrait, Emily St. Clare invites the viewer into the world of a bacchante, or follower of Bacchus, the Roman god of wine. Intoxicated by her beauty, St. Clare was the mistress of Sir John Fleming Leicester, who commissioned this and at least 13 other portraits of her from fashionable British artists.

John Hoppner was known for his restrained, formal portraits. Here, however, in striving to fulfill Leicester’s desires, Hoppner conveyed St. Clare’s youthfulness and exuberance through dynamic brushwork, flowing draperies, and an alluring smile.

🎀

Scrutiny

Posted by Maverick ~ on December 3, 2017
Posted in: Art, Inspiration, Music, Photography. Tagged: , , , , , , , .


Scrutiny 
by Kathryne Husk

Kathryne Husk is an award-winning and nationally exhibited artist, poet, and activist. They were the recent subject of the short documentary “Kathryne: Uncensored”, and their artwork and poetry has been published in various literary journals and art magazines. Kathryne’s activist work has lead to numerous lectures and presentations on disability rights and issues facing the disability community. Their current focus is breaking down the barriers of how disabled bodies are viewed in contemporary art and in society, and bringing awareness to the lack of accessibility within the Kansas City arts scene.

Kat’s Medical Fund

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Dell at Helmingham Park

Posted by Maverick ~ on December 2, 2017
Posted in: Art, Music, Nature, Photography. Tagged: , , , , , , , , .

Dell at Helmingham Park
John Constable

John Constable’s personal vision and immediate encounters with nature shaped his landscape paintings. This approach links him to a central tenant of Romanticism. While earlier British artists aspired to represent an idealized view of an imagined landscape, Constable strove to capture the local scenery of his native Suffolk, England.
Constable's intimate vision, as exemplified by this work, was characteristic of the newly intensified attitude toward nature adopted by the Romantic movement. He first visited this dell in 1800, when he wrote to a friend, "Here I am quite alone among the oaks and solitude of Helmingham Park… there are abundance of fine trees of all sorts." He visited once more in 1814, but this is a late work of memory. Constable enhances the rustic atmosphere by including a foreground cow and, in the distance, a stag and red deer. His technique is loose and free, making his trees appear as though they are sighing and swaying in the wind.

🔸

A Smile ~

Posted by Maverick ~ on December 1, 2017
Posted in: Music, Photography, Poetry. Tagged: , , , , .

“A Smile”
By Umm NoorBilal Petersen


His laughter was a smile.

His steps hallowed the dust.

His saliva sweetened the world of waters.

His gestures reflected heavenly hierarchy.

His voice a mellifluous melody.

His perspiration; beads of lustrous pearls.

His breath a charismatic breeze.

His glance; impassioned arrows piercing souls.

His hair a shimmering aura rippling the skies.

His silence a captivating rhapsody.

His sanctuary a haven of serenity.

His laugh was but a smile.

Radiating till this day.

Mona ~

Posted by Maverick ~ on November 29, 2017
Posted in: Music, Nature, Photography. Tagged: , , , , .


“The mona monkey (Cercopithecus mona) is an Old World monkey that lives in western Africa between Ghana and Cameroon. The mona monkey can also be found on the island of Grenada as it was transported to the island aboard slave ships headed to the New World during the 18th century. This guenon lives in groups of up to thirty-five in forests. It mainly feeds on fruit, but sometimes eats insects and leaves.”

Monkeys are superior to men in this: when a monkey looks into a mirror, he sees a monkey.
– Malcolm de Chazal

High Explosive

Posted by Maverick ~ on November 28, 2017
Posted in: Music, Nature, Photography, Poetry. Tagged: , , , , , .

High Explosive
by A. B. Banjo Paterson

‘Twas the dingo pup to his dam that said,
“It’s time I worked for my daily bread.
Out in the world I intend to go,
And you’d be surprised at the things I know.

“There’s a wild duck’s nest in a sheltered spot,
And I’ll go right down and I’ll eat the lot.”
But when he got to his destined prey
He found that the ducks had flown away.

But an egg was left that would quench his thirst,
So he bit the egg and it straightway burst.
It burst with a bang, and he turned and fled,
For he thought that the egg had shot him dead.

“Oh, mother,” he said, “let us clear right out
Or we’ll lose our lives with the bombs about;
And it’s lucky I am that I’m not blown up –
It’s a very hard life,” said the dingo pup.