What Made You Fall in Love?

There was a post on NPR's blog by prominent reporter Robert Krulwich on March 7th but should be thought of often: Boy Meets Painting. Painting Grabs Boy. Boy Mystified.

What was the first thing to ever grabbed you? When? Have you ever been able to explain it? In this blog Krulwich describes his 8 year old little self being completely and utterly grabbed by a piece of artwork, a Cezanne. He asks the question, "How did Cezanne do this to me? I was 8!". One of my favorite blurbs is when Krulwich is describing the painting and remembering the first time he saw it at the Museum of Modern Art. "Paint became tree; tree became paint."

Detail of: Paul Cezanne, French, 1839-1906

Pine and Rocks (Fontainebleau?), c. 1897

Oil on canvas

Take a minute, it will really only take you probably two to read this quick blog post. Then think back to what is was that you saw that made you fall in love with art. Why are you making or writing about art? What GRABBED you?

This is mine.

Francesco Mosca, called Moschino, Italian, 1525-1578
Atalanta and Meleager with the Calydonian Boar, ca. 1564-1565
Carrara marble

I don't know why, but I have ALWAYS adored this piece. It drew me in instantly. Perhaps it was the size (the picture doesn't do it justice but it's huge; can you see the tiny text label off to the left?). Perhaps it was the emense detail carved into STONE. Who knows but every time I am home I have to stop by and see my old friends living at the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art. And just like Krulwich, they said, 'Me too... and we have been talking ever since.'

HELP HELP HELP!

NEXT WEEK starting BRIGHT and early MONDAY morning, the next artist, Crystal Wagner, in the Wilson Gallery will start her site specific installation piece, Vestibule.

I am calling on anyone and everyone who would be interested in helping with a major installation to contact me (jeanette_tesmer@georgetowncollege.edu) ASAP. We need all hands on deck for this!

REASON WHY YOU SHOULD HELP:
meet the artist
have a great time
see what art on steriods is all about
dance
put assisting with a MAJOR installation on your resume
you love art
want to know how these things work
want to be one of the cool kids
_________________________ (come up with your own)

Whatever your reason this is going to be a crazy week of ART in the Wilson building. Even if you can't commit time stop by and check things out!

Artist Statement:
Vestibule is a conduit. A space somewhere between the plastic and artificial environment of our everyday experiences with man-made materials, consumerism, and technology and the exotic landscapes that occupy the surface of our earth. It explores ideas related to human beings and the increasingly severe divide between themselves and the natural world by growing, as if it were a life form, through the gallery. The exoticization of nature and all things, non-human, make forms that were once familiar, more foreign.  While this dissonance continues to escalate, making more and more of our natural world seem alien to us, there is a strange familiarity and attraction to the forms that people categorize as exotic and even in our attempt to keep the outside, out, plastic plants occupy small corners of peoples homes. I am interested in how these ideas relate to our everyday materials, the accessibility and excess in mass production, and how it affects peoples experience with the world that they live in.

Above are images from Crystal's installation Arboretum. You can see how detailed in intricate this massive structure is. For more images please check out her website.

#museumselfie day

So, apparently, yesterday was #museumselfie day and I'm actually kind of sad we missed out. This day was organized by Mar Dixon, a museum social media guru and Culture Themes to raise awareness of all the AMAZING collections both large and small all over the world. Check out some of these images and let us know if we should participate next year... or MAKE OUR OWN!

Jay-Z got into his best Warhol

And my own...

Checkout more of galleries here.

Inspiring Blogger

Suzanne Gray, formerly of the Kentucky Arts Council and a huge fan of art, has started a blog titled "Roaming Arts." 

Opportunity: Funds for College

Each year The National Society of Arts and Letters provides scholarships for students, aged 16 to 22, displaying exceptional talent and promise of future success. The Naomi Winston Scholarship in Art also awards a total of $10,000 to be used for private study, special training, personal advancement

In Defense of Art: Feel like writing a letter to The Times?

Wendy MacNaughton

I rarely repost content from other sites but, due to the imposing deadline for replies, have decided to do so (from Real Clear Arts.)

"This is your chance, and it may be your best chance, to make the case for art museums. Right now, online, The New York Times has invited a dialogue with readers that will run in Sunday’s Review section. You must respond by tomorrow (Thursday) to be considered for publication.

ART MAJORS PARTY - MAY 1st in the afternoon from 4-6 pm

Thanks to Lynsey for designing the poster:)

Opportunity: Lecture on Math and Art

"Algorithms Meet Art, Puzzles, and Magic," on Wednesday, April 24, at 5 p.m. in the Worsham Auditorium of the UK Student Center with Erik Demaine, MIT. A reception at 6:30 p.m. at the Art Museum in the Singletary Center will feature an exhibition of works by Erik and Martin Demaine.

Abstract of talk: When I was six years old, my father Martin Demaine and I designed and made puzzles as the Erik and Dad Puzzle Company, which we distributed to toy stores across Canada. So began our journey into the interactions between algorithms and the arts (here, puzzle design). More and more, we find that our mathematical research and artistic projects converge, with the artistic side inspiring the mathematical side and vice versa. Mathematics itself is an art form, and through other media such as sculpture, puzzles, and magic, the beauty of mathematics can be brought to a wider audience. These artistic endeavors also provide us with deeper insights into the underlying mathematics, by providing physical realizations of objects under consideration, by pointing to interesting special cases and directions to explore, and by suggesting new problems to solve (such as the metapuzzle of how to solve a puzzle). This talk will give several examples in each category, from how our first font design led to building transforming robots, to how studying curved creases in origami led to sculptures at MoMA.

The audience will be expected to participate in some live magic demonstrations. Visit http://erikdemaine.org/ to learn more about Erik Demaine. 

NASA or MOMA?

Here are some pictures. Were they taken in space, or painted here on Earth?

Click here to play the game at The Atlantic.

via

OR

via

Opportunities: Kentucky Historical Society Internships & Artist needed!

Next Friday 3/15/2014  is the deadline for KHS summer intern positions.  They have several opportunities.  Please pass this information on to the students.  Here is the link for a listing of the positions.  Several are paid internships. 

http://history.ky.gov/sub.php?pageid=114&sectionid=3

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added, 3/11/13: 

Carol McAdams Moore is seeking student artists who are interested in creating work for a children's book project. See below. Send the following info to: carolmcadamsmoore@gmail.com

-a brief testimony of faith (How does the artist see his or her work in relation to faith in Jesus?)
-a sample black line drawing based on (The prospective artist should think of child-friendly art for  6-7 year old readers based on John 21:1-11; Matthew 4:18-20.)
-a suggested fee


Carol McAdams Moore
carolmcadamsmoore@gmail.com
http://carolmcadamsmoore.blogspot.com/
https://twitter.com/CMcAdamsMoore 

Opportunities: Art & Psychology