Women Impressionists

This weekend I went to see the Women Impressionists Exhibit at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. It incorporates the work of four very different female Impressionist painters. I was struck by how distinct they were from one another, and by the absolutely impeccable drawing skills that were evident underneath and inside of every painting.

When we got up close to the first painting my daughter asked her usual question: "Mom, is that the ACTUAL thing?" To which I replied, "Yes, that's the real painting. Her hands actually put those brush strokes on there." To which she replied, "Woa." Or something like that.

Every time we go to an exhibit I am struck by how, in this day and age, it is so common to see media and copies of things and digital stuff that it's easy to "see" something in some media form without ever getting the chance to appreciate it as an object, as the work of someone's hands.

There is a wonderful book called "What Painting Is" by James Elkins. It is all about the physical act of making a painting - what happens to the canvas, how the paints are mixed, how paintings are taken apart and put in different frames and moved around. It makes you wish you could see the backs of all those paintings hanging in the museum. What stories are hidden there!

Graphic Novel Page - the Map

Self-Drawing Map, originally uploaded by betsystreeter.

In this page, the main character is shown to the Map Room by the Librarian, only to find that the maps appear to be blank... that is, until the Librarian shows her that the maps draw themselves.

I'm drawing each page as a mini-story, and not in order - so the whole book will take shape a piece at a time. It's fun this way because each page has to hang together on its own and I have to really think about how I explain the action a piece at a time.

Stencils are Cool.

I've always loved stencil art. Particularly graffiti. It comes out so graphic and stark and cool. So I'd like to show some here.

Having said that, general searches on Flickr under "street art" and "stencil art" yield some, um, questionable results. Since a lot of street art is political, or violent, or adult. So, I handpicked some examples to look at. I dig these.

R2D2 Stencil

Wall Art

The Clash

Multi-Layer Stencil

Cool Tricky Stencil

These make you think of positive and negative space in a whole new way. Enjoy!

Graphic Novels: The Arrival by Shaun Tan

I am thrilled to see more and more graphic novels taking new directions visually. I have to admit I've never been that into the classic "comic book" style, probably because my own drawing style is much more textured than those are and so I don't relate that well. But there are lots of neat graphic novels out there. This one, "The Arrival," has no words at all. It's a great surrealistic story of the immigrant experience. Shaun Tan creates a world that is impossible to interpret - you can't read the signs, everything looks weird and unfamiliar - and in doing so really drives home what it's like to be an immigrant in a new land. This is a popular theme in this medium - "American Born Chinese" covers some of the same ground. I'll elaborate on that one soon.

Flickr is Your Friend!

Continuing on the idea of Discovering Answers, I know I just said that things with screens are passive. Which they are.

That said, the Internet is a wonderful source of inspiration. You can find out a lot about what kinds of art you really like, then you can take an artist and look him or her up on Wikipedia or Google and learn even more.

(Note to Parents: Some art sites have, er, "interesting" content on them. Depends on your own sensibilities. But I'd recommend keeping an eye on what kids are searching or what links they are following. Or, search with them. The searches I recommend below came up with content that looked okay.)

And, a wonderful place to see tons of inspiring stuff is Flickr. There is much more on Flickr than just photos. Many, many artists put their stuff on there. (I do, too!)

Try typing these things into the search box at the top of the home page (the one that says "Search Everyone's Photos"):

"drawing"

"oil painting"

"etch a sketch"

"sharpie"

"illustration"

I also recommend this group pool on Flickr - called Moleskinerie. Moleskines are little notebooks that many creative people carry around with them everywhere. There is a lot of really cool stuff drawn in these books. I have piles of these things. Mine are nowhere near as attractive as some of the things you will see here.

So much great stuff to look at!

Marc Chagall

When my daughter was about 1 1/2 years old, we took her to a Marc Chagall exhibit in San Francisco. She just ate it up. Her dad carried her from painting to painting, and she kept saying, "nother one." "nother one." We still read the catalog from that exhibit as if it were a story book.

I think Chagall's art is especially well-suited to young viewers, because it has such a storytelling quality to it. The figures are recognizable and magical at the same time. In fact, Chagall created etchings of stories like Aesop's fables. While some of his subject matter can be pretty dark, everything he made has this magical realism to it.

Kids are kind of natural magical realists, since they travel back and forth so much between their imaginations and their surroundings.

So, if you get a chance, show a child some Chagall. You can read about him on Wikipedia, or you can see a lot of his paintings here too. And this is also a nice gallery of his work as well.

Alien!

I love this. It only shows exactly what it needs to tell the story. And it looks like, at least initially, the Earthling is friendly to the alien visitor. Those empty squares make me really wonder what happens next. What do you think?

Crazy Party Picture!

I don't actually know who drew this. Kids give me drawings all the time, and when we're doing Drop-In Drawing they often take off outside before I can get them to write their names on there.

But isn't it great? Doesn't it make you want to jump around?

There are four totally different figures here, each with its own shape and limbs and personality. There is some commonality to the shapes of eyes and the use of sun-like lines coming out of circles (note the sun-nose), but each character is distinct.

It looks to me like the bean-person in the middle is in charge. Maybe it is because that one is standing on the ground and has such expansive arms and legs. But he looks like, "Okay people, here's what's going on."

Anyway, I guarantee a lot of talking went on while this drawing was being made. And possibly arguments over who is sitting in what chair, and can I have that pencil, and I need an eraser, and is it snack time yet.

I just think it's great.

Supersonic Bad-Guy Blaster!

This is a drawing by my son, who is about to turn 4 (I have to use my own kids until I get permission from more parents to use their kids' work, so bear with me).

As you can see, there is a main character on the right. This is the "Iron Giant." He is blasting with his arm (that's the "Supersonic Bad Guy Blaster") - tons of ink and pen movement have gone into giving that arm all its power. Then there are two figures at the left, one is Sean and the bottom one is his friend. There's also a vanquished orange dude at the bottom. Oh, and he's blasting off at the upper left with flames coming out of his feet.

Two things of interest here:
1. It was very informative to be present at the time of creation of this drawing. Most of the lines around the main figures are emphasis, or blasts, or have sound effects that went with them as the pen was zooming around. It was more of a performance piece than just a piece of artwork. I see this a lot with Kindergarteners too.
2. I can't get over how much drawings at this early age look like Petroglyphs. (Here's a good example - scroll down a bit to see the photo). It makes me wonder if, even though these were made in rock, they may have had stories that were told as they were drawn. Maybe they needed something more durable than dirt, but didn't have paper, so they used the walls.