Birds in Art

Catalog
Birds in Art
2014

Jim and I recently spent a fabulous afternoon at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum near Tucson. One highlight of the day, aside from the gorgeous young Puma, the beautiful Ocelot, and the luxurious little Sidewinder (all behind glass), included the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum’s traveling collection, Birds in Art, 2014.

I just finished reading a bitter blog by an art writer saying essentially that our country is in a terrible state in so many ways, and that artists have joined the rest of the world in doing nothing to recognize or improve the situation. It’s so interesting to have had this particular blog show up today when I am just ready to highlight the work of the Dutch artist, Adriana van Zoest, who painted, The Day-Old Chick, 2013, to expose and protest the mass murder of forty million day-old male chicks every year in the Netherlands because they are not egg producing.

The Day-Old Chick, 2013
Oil on Panel
Adriana van Zoest

Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam and Lightning Bolts

hands of God and Adam
Detail: Creation of Adam
Michelangelo, 1512

I’ve been reading Life as I Know It by Melanie Ross. A woman is struck by lightning and wakes up both as herself, and as another woman who was also struck by lightning at the same moment at a different location.

I love an innovative plot, and the jacket description for this one caught me. Turns out it’s a romance, but I found something interesting on page 175: “I noted with interest that not only were lightning bolts well known for their destructive power, it was also thought that some of the essential building blocks of living matter were originally formed by the electrical energy of lightning.”

Immediately I remembered Michelangelo’s version of the beginning of human life on earth, as he portrayed it in famous mural on the ceiling of The Sistine Chapel.

Creation of Adam
Michelangelo
1512

I absolutely love it when one thing reminds me of (and confirms) the work of another.

Featured Artist: Michael Billie

I want to highlight the mixed media work of the Navajo artist, Michael Billie, before I leave The Durango Arts Center 39th Annual Juried Exhibition.

Mr. Billie’s encaustic and mixed media piece, Evolving in the Fifth Gender, fascinating on several levels. The work and its title together illustrate the way creative titling enhances the fascination and meaning of a visual work. Honestly, I’ve never heard of more than two genders. Quick research online produces information, not about genetics I’ve never heard of, but rather the way certain cultures define and view gender more broadly and more tolerantly.

I love studying art for a lot of the same reasons I love reading, for a broader view and a more creative understanding of the world. I love the nonverbal transfer of understanding that can occur with visual art. I love the punch of flavor a creative title can add to that moment.

In the case of, Evolving into the 5th Gender, the title caused me to stop and look more closely at the work. Because of the title, I noticed the identical use of raw material in all five figures, shaped into slightly different forms.

I love images. I tried, unsuccessfully, to find a legal image to place here as an example of Mr. Billie’s work.

Take a look at Michael Billie’s website: http://www.michaelbillie.com/

Free Images: Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington

Claude Monet (French, 1840 – 1926 ), Woman with a Parasol – Madame Monet and Her Son, 1875, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

Thank you to The National Gallery of Art. It turns out, The National Gallery of Art (Does this mean the American citizens’ art museum?) has made a large number of images free for public use!

Théodore Rousseau (French, 1812 – 1867 ), Panoramic View of the Ile-de-France, c. 1830, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Fund

I’m including artist’s whose work I enjoy, the Degas particularly because I grew up with Degas ballerinas hanging on my bedroom wall. My mother had Picasso in the living room.

Edgar Degas (French, 1834 – 1917 ), The Dance Lesson, c. 1879, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

I started to weep when I saw the Degas ballerina, preserved in her taffeta tutu,  at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek Museum in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Little dancer, fourteen years old, front

Painters and sculptors who have accompanied me through life take on deeper and greater consequence over time.