Author: juliemlmitchell_lchs7g

Dog Days of Art

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I can’t help it, I have a lot of animal art in my house. A few examples: the hedgehog with flowers on her back in the bathroom, my llama drinking wine in the kitchen, another llama wearing shades upstairs, and a bright funky ostrich in my daughter’s room. And I want more.
There is a big blank wall by our staircase for which I’ve been searching for a painting and the other day I found one that was the right size AND that I loved. It was three beautiful horses. I have three daughters! It was meant to be! But at some point I realize I have to reign it in (A little horse humor for you this hump day! And speaking of hump day- wouldn’t a camel painting be so fun in my foyer?!) so I passed on the horse painting. I’m still mourning it, obviously.

We are also watching my sister’s dog while she is out of town. If you follow me on Instagram, you may recognize him:

You will probably see this again. I post it every chance I get.

Isn’t it fantastic? Naturally, it got me thinking about maybe the most famous piece of animal art in the world:

Coolidge sold his much of his Poker Dog art to cigar companies, because poker and cigars go paw in paw.

Cassius Marcellus Coolidge (he signed his art “Kash Koolidge” which already indicates he wasn’t an uptight guy) was born in upstate New York in 1844. In A Friend in Need, some art experts liken the bulldog’s passing of the ace in his outstretched paw to Michaelangelo’s The Creation, in which God and Adam are reaching toward one another. Personally, I think that’s a bit of a stretch, if you will.

In addition to creating dogs in human situations, he is also credited for creating those big poster-type things we see at tourist attractions. The ones with the holes where you stick your face and you can be an astronaut or firefighter even a traditional Thai dancer!

Thanks to Coolidge, I have wonderful memories like these commemorating all my vacations!

Most of Coolidge’s dog paintings were done on commission for the advertising firm, Brown and Bigelow for calendars. Recently, his painting Poker Game sold for $658,000. Now, that’s some cold hard Kash!

Delta Gamma, That’s What I Amma

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I love clubs. It all started with The Babysitters Club books when I was little (too little to form my own babysitting club, to my dismay), continued with my siblings (we still occasionally call a Kidz Club meeting to talk about my parents’ anniversary, who’s in charge of bringing sparklers to 4thof July, etc.), and an obsession with the Masons (please don’t be surprised when I join the Eastern Stars). Even now I delight in being a member of the most exclusive Book Club in mid-Michigan (exclusive to anybody who wants to come, that is). So, obviously I couldn’t NOT join a sorority in college. I was called to clubbing. At the discotheque and otherwise.

Delta Gamma is an amazing sorority, full of amazing women. No doubt there are a slew of talented artists that call themselves Delta Gammas, but I recently stumbled on the name Helen Fowler O’Gorman (1904-1984). She was a DG at the University of Washington, though she hailed from Wisconsin. Her sculptures were featured in the Los Angeles Art Museum, The Art Institute of Chicago, and the New York World’s Fair.

O’Gorman is not a household art name, so it was difficult to find her art online. I found a couple drawings, though if you find others please send them my way!

Um, did I mention she was also a botanist?

Her husband, Juan, gets far more accolades for his art, but he’s a blog post in and of himself. Look forward to hearing more about him another time. Teaser: he was pretty eccentric. Unusual for an artist, right?! I’ll do some more digging, but so far there are no reports of him being in a fraternity. I guess he left the clubbing to his wife.

Artists That (Sham)Rock!

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St. Patrick’s Day is upon us, wee Readers! Give your lucky charms a jangle, take a swig of your Guinness, pull your red hair into a ponytail and read on about some amazing Irish artists!

1.  Francis Bacon. He’s not number one because his last name is Bacon, though that doesn’t hurt, does it? His paintings sell like hotcakes (or potato leek soup) at 100 million dollars a pop. That would buy a lot of Waterford crystal.

I’m just going to say it. It’s not my favorite.

2.  Harry Kernoff. Kernoff (he was actually born in London, but St. Patrick was from England too, so I’m not going to be picky about that detail) was not recognized for his art until late in his life. I think he did a great job capturing the zest of Irish culture and spirit, without furthering the stereotype of Irish as sloppy drunks. I love this painting so much.

A bird never flew on one wing. Is that a great title, or what?

3.  Walter Osborne died waaaay too early. At 43, he was hitting his artistic peak and I think the world was robbed of more beautiful paintings like Feeding the Chickens.

I hope this little girl was an Irish step dancer on the side.


Here is another painting by Osborne, because if you think I’m putting up a St. Patrick’s Day post without any redheads, you don’t know me at all.

See if you can find any four leaf clovers in this painting!

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Ash Wednesday Art

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Happy Ash Wednesday! No, that’s not quite right… let’s lose the exclamation point. Happy Ash Wednesday. Better!

Believe it or not, there isn’t much art surrounding Ash Wednesday. There is tons and tons of gorgeous art featuring Holy Week, but I couldn’t find much available commemorating this day. Not much that’s good anyway. Sad, because I love Ash Wednesday. (And not just because of all the wordplay fun we can have with the word “ash.”) I love moving into a time of intentional reflection and (hopefully!) betterment. But this isn’t a philosophical blog, is it? So, let me get down to a piece of art I did find.

Ash Wednesday is by an artist I had never heard of before: Carl Spitzweg. His Wikipedia bio had me loving him in a hurry. First off, he was from Bavaria, so lederhosen. Second, like so many artists, he began painting while recovering from an illness and I truly admire people who take up a new skill while they’re sick. Because I prefer laying in bed, whining, with a bell at my bedside. Finally, he brought a sense of humor to his art, and that was pretty rare in the mid 1800s. Not to mention, Spitzweg? That’s a fantastic name.

His Ash Wednesday painting is not one of his humorous pieces, though it does feature a clown, but not a scary one (Coulrophobes, fear not!); a repentant clown. He sits in the light, reflective in his party attire. His posture looks shamed to me, but not hopeless.

Not bad for a guy who taught himself to paint from his sickbed, huh?

If you are so inclined, you might look up The Bookworm or Gnome Watching Railway. I love an artist who can paint thoughtful, important art, then turn around and paint something fun and whimsical.

And that is how I fell for Carl Spitzweg’s art quick as a flAsh Wednesday.

Vermeulen Hits the Road(show)!

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The other day I was watching Antique Roadshow (please don’t be jealous of my fast-paced life) and a gentleman brought a painting to be appraised. And this is why I love Antique Roadshow. It was a painting passed down from his Grandma, who didn’t know anything about it (and neither did he). It turned out to be a painting by Dutch artist Andries Vermeulen!! I was so excited even though I had never heard of Vermeulen before. (I am easily excited, I admit.)

Vermeulen lived from 1762-1814 and primarily painted landscapes, but I feel a kinship to him because he almost always included ice skaters in his paintings and I have a penchant for ice skaters. I wish I would have screen shot the TV, but I think the painting was this (or similar to this):

This might be my favorite of the images Google pulled up for me:

Isn’t it wholesome and lovely? It gives me all kinds of happy feels and memories of pond skating with the neighborhood kids when I was little. Antique Roadshow appraised the painting at 10-15K, which is still out of my price range, but I’m holding out hope I will stumble on one at a rummage sale!

Perfect Days and Purple Paint

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At the end of 2018, instead of making New Years Resolutions, Jim and I talked to the girls about what makes a perfect day for each of us. My perfect day includes being with my family, hanging with my friends, being active, being productive, writing, and spending time outside.

I just had the perfect long weekend.

It kicked off Friday when I went to lunch and the Eli Broad Art Museum with my dear friend. If everything else went wrong that day, it still would have been an awesome day because burritos and art? Come one. There’s no beating that.

My favorite part of the Eli Broad is the rotating exhibit in the basement. A MSU art student gets to pick a piece of work from the mysterious “Vault” collection and write a blurb about why they picked it. If you follow me on Instagram, you may remember a Salvador Dali painting I posted a while back- that was from The Vault (which I imagine is much like Gringotts, and they get to ride a roller coaster with a goblin to find the art). On this visit, the student picked a piece by Henri Matisse to be featured.


I don’t like it. I mean. My favorite thing about Matisse is his use of fun, bold colors, but take that away and it’s just… squiggly lines. In contrast, here is a Matisse that I love: Woman in a Purple Coat.
This is more “Henri!” Fun and funky Fauve.
The model for this painting was a close friend of Henri’s named Lydia. I don’t think Matisse was particularly religious, but it’s interesting that he painted her in purple as the Lydia from the New Testament was, “a dealer in purple cloth…” Isn’t this so much more fun than the drawing? I’m sure my unsophisticated art eye just doesn’t see the genius in it, but I never claimed to be an art connoisseur!

I hope you have a perfect day today, whether that means burritos or fine art or underwater basket-weaving! Enjoy!

More Than 15 Minutes of Fame

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Is it just me, or is everyone else still obsessing about the Andy Warhol Superbowl commercial? I just can’t get over it, because confusing! It was not my favorite commercial by a long shot, but certainly the most effective, as it’s the only one I’m still thinking about let alone blogging about!

In the ad, Andy eats his Whopper from Burger King (who paid for the spot during the Superbowl), but there was much discussion at my house about whether the commercial was for Burger King or Heinz (which also gets featured, and good on them because they did not pay a penny). My kids were confused (“Who is that guy?” “What happened to the color?” “This is boring.”) As were Jim and I (“Is that Andy Warhol?” “Is this brilliant or a total waste of money?” “That reminds me, I think we’re out of ketchup.”)

I don’t think it will have the staying power of PuppyMonkeyBaby from a couple Superbowls ago, but it did get me thinking about Andy Warhol and his affinity for making art out of processed foods.

Warhol reportedly had soup every day for lunch.

This gives new meaning to the term “pop art!”
Though my favorite Warhol paintings are the ones he did of himself. Self-portraits are fascinating anyway, but take a wildly unique personality like Warhol, marry it to some funky hair, and give it a colorful pop art twist and you’ve got masterpiece after masterpiece. Here are a couple of my favorites.

This was Warhol’s first self-portrait. It sold for 38.4 million dollars. That would buy a lot of sunglasses.

I’m not saying they’re geniuses, but this is the kind of thing my kids do on my phone.


Both of these self-portraits were done in the 1960s. Warhol died in 1987 from complications after gallbladder surgery. Gallbladder surgery! He was only 58 years old., which means today he would be 91, and we would no doubt have hundreds (maybe thousands!) more Warhols to enjoy. Plus, he’d be able to elaborate on that Superbowl ad for us.

Bansky Pulls A Pranksky

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Don’t you just love a good mystery? Not the scary kind, but the harmless, all-in-good fun kind? The art world is full of mysteries, mostly surrounding stolen art, but the one getting all the attention these days is Bansky’s self-destructing painting. We haven’t seen Bansky himself, but we’ve all seen his work that he’s covertly made famous on streets all over the world. His most famous painting was recently up for auction at Sotheby’s and sold for a cool 1.4 mil.

In the same way thousands of other artists sold their work before him.

Except not. Because nobody knows exactly who the buyer is. And because when the bidding closed, the painting began slipping down through the frame, shredding itself. Popular opinion? Genius move by a genius artist. Art critics are saying the painting increased in value on the spot to at least 2 million, maybe up to 4. Of course, there is the other school of thought that thinks a shredded piece of art is worthless and the buyer won’t be able to unload if he (was it Bansky, himself?!?!) or she (more likely) would ever want to sell. What do you think? Would you buy it? Fragmented art is quite popular right now! You’ve seen art like the horses below (which I love, incidentally, and wish I had something similar in my own house); couldn’t the same sort of thing be done with the Bansky?

Trot on over to my living room!

Here is a link to the video when the painting first shred. The painting was amazing before. Now, I just love it to pieces.


Painting Up A Storm. A Snowstorm, That Is

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Like the rest of the Midwesterners this week, my family could only be found hunkered down and cozied up in our home, bottoms on the living room floor, playing Uno (Harry Potter edition). We broke only for sustenance and when my smart watch reminded me to stand (bossy!) It was a glorious, glorious week and I don’t know what’s going to happen when I have to put real clothes on again and take my hair out of its ponytail.

I’m exaggerating (a little), but it really was the best week. Smug social media posts from Southerners are completely lost on me because I love Michigan winters! More precisely, I love snow days! Warm-weather friends: you don’t have the absolute delight that is wearing your jammies backward, putting ice cubes in the toilet, setting white crayons by all the windows, and sleeping with an upside-down spoon under your pillow all to be rewarded with the announcement that there is no school!! Nothing thrills me more.

So what does all this have to do with art? Snow days make the best painting days! In fact, art historians figure there must have been a series of huge snowstorms during the age of Impressionism because SO many fantastic winter scenes were created when some of our favorite artists were presumably snowed in.

For instance:

“The Magpie” Monet’s haystacks don’t have anything on this winter wonderland!
Renoir reportedly called winter “Mother Nature’s leprosy.” But it still inspired him!

Gaugin probably painted this after putting a white Crayola by his window.

See what I mean? Beautiful paintings, thanks to “bad” weather. I’m willing to bet Monet was no stranger to backwards pajamas either!

MLK Mural

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It is a super short week for us this week! And thank goodness for that because we had hockey games all across the state this past weekend and my kids are exhausted (or rather, my kids’ mom is exhausted). We spent our MLK Day yesterday recouping and gearing up for the whopping three days of school happening today, tomorrow, and Thursday. We may have been at home, relaxing, but across the country there were events celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. The art community notwithstanding!

I scoured the internet for my favorite portrait of the civil rights leader and this mural in Philadelphia is easily my favorite.

Add this to your list of “Things to See in Philly”

The pillars in the back are the Lincoln Memorial, so we can assume this captures a moment during King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. He’s talking with his hands as he often did (we have that in common) and he is obviously speaking loudly, firmly, and with no shortage of passion.

The artist of this mural is unknown, which makes it all the more appealing to me. I love that somebody created it with no need for accolades, but just to put something important and lovely into the world. I think King would have liked it too.