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The Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum

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Last Friday the girls and I had some time to kill (I know you hear me, moms. Don’t you feel like you’re constantly killing time between things? It’s the story of my life.) in East Lansing, so we went to the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum. It was as busy as I’ve ever seen it, and the girls zipped through the scavenger hunt I whipped up for them beforehand. Scavenger hunts make everything more fun, don’t they?

The museum is a piece of art itself. Zaha Hadid designed it- you may remember seeing her work in the 2012 London Olympics if you spotted the aquatic center. Er, centre, I suppose. Our East Lansing museum is angular on both the outside and inside and I love it. The Broad Museum was only her second project in the United States, and one of her last ever, as she passed away in 2016.

I’d like to say a word about Eli Broad too, since he funded the project. Broad is an MSU grad (Go Green! Go White!) and one of the richest men in the world. He has frequented all kinds of Forbes lists and to say he’s a prominent businessman is an understatement. What I love most about him is that he’s a businessman who so adamantly supports the arts. This museum isn’t his only artistic beneficiary. The Broad is a contemporary art museum in LA, where Mr. Broad lives and supports the arts in more ways than I have time to list! He is also an avid art collector and owns pieces from Picasso, Van Gogh, Warhol, Matisse, and Jasper Johns! Quite a “broad” collection!

A beautiful day in East Lansing!

Panorama Mania

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The other day I was intrigued by a podcast that mentioned John Banvard. Banvard was an American artist, who rode up and down the Mississippi River drawing and drawing and drawing, until his picture was nearly as long as the river itself. (Or half a mile, actually.) As you might do with a painting that enormous, Banvard put it in motion. He rigged up a mechanism and put his moving panorama to music, so people could enjoy a view of the Mississippi River they were always hearing so much about.

Banvard even got to take his painting to England to visit the queen! While he was overseas, he painted more panoramas and became more famous. Back in the States, he opened a museum of oddities and was rolling in the dough for a while, but ultimately couldn’t compete with PT Barnum, who had dishonesty on his side. That doesn’t mean The Greatest Showman isn’t a fantastic movie though.

Sadly, Banvard’s famous Mississippi River panorama was cut up and nobody knows where any of the pieces are today. We are in a bit of luck, though! The actual Mississippi River is still around and available for public viewing! I bet your phone will even take a panoramic shot for you!

John Banvard, ca. 1855.

Dine On This

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When I was little, my friend’s parents always bought her a present for Sweetest Day. Before she started getting toys randomly in the middle of October, I had never heard of Sweetest Day, and frankly I’ve barely heard of it since. Do people really celebrate it? Let me tell you this: if you want to start, Sweetest Day is this Saturday!! I know! My planner didn’t note it either. Jim and I will be celebrating by being in completely separate cities with only one of us having cell service. I can also assure you my kids will not be getting toys.

I am willing to celebrate by posting some art by Jim Dine (aka “King of Hearts”), however! Jim Dine is a Warhol-ish artist, who has painted tons of fun hearts, and these flowers, which I love because they’re bright and fun and of the variety that I couldn’t kill.

“Very Lite in Japan” I <3 these bold colors!

“The Confetti Heart” If you really want to express your love, throw confetti in your sweetie’s hair!
I can’t write about Jim Dine without also mentioning his affinity for Pinocchio, which was never my favorite fairytale (It’s a little creepy, right?!), but I appreciate that Dine has created several Pinocchio pieces as a nod to art and the idea that you can take something (a log, for instance!) and create something real and meaningful and loveable from it. 
Have a lovely Sweetest Day! If you buy your kids a gift, don’t let my girls catch wind of it!

A Lesson From Jonathan Santlofer

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This morning I listened to a Moth episode that combined two of my favorite things: art and writing. I won’t give it away in case you want to listen, but Jonathan Santlofer tells a great story of a disaster that changed how he did art and led him to a crazy successful writing career. Santlofer wasn’t a trained writer, but when painting was a struggle he 1.) Went to Rome 2.) Began copying Renaissance artists’ work 3.) Started writing. This just seems like a good lesson when life knocks you down. Go away, don’t give up on your passion, keep creating, even if it’s just for your own sake. He also took up smoking again, but that’s less inspirational.

I like his take on Piet Mondrian’s Broadway Boogie Woogie. 

Victory Boogie Woogie

God Bless ArtPrize

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ArtPrize 2018 is officially over! I’m sad to see it go, but I’m already excited for it’s return… in 2020. After ten consecutive years, the city decided to make ArtPrize an every other year event. It saddens me, but I suppose it will give artists more time to create amazing works. Plus, there will be something new to look forward to; on the “off” years, Grand Rapids will host a city-wide project. Next year it will be called Project 1 by ArtPrize. It is my understanding that one artist or group of artists will be commissioned for it. I’ll miss the full experience next year, but just like I cope with the off-Olympic years, I will cope with this too!

In one of my very first posts, I mentioned that religious art is my favorite, so it is no surprise that when I reflected on my favorite pieces from ArtPrize many were Christ-centered. (The sculpture might be my favorite. I love art that is amazing and convicting.) 

This painting won a public vote award. Painted by Mher Khachatryan.
“She Touched Him” by Thomas Thiery

“Whatsoever You Do”  A sculpture in bronze by Timothy Schmalz

I’m sure 2020 will be here before we know it. In the meantime, we’ll just enjoy our art in a less concentrated fashion! 

An Artist with Real Apeel

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We are in the middle of a kitchen remodel. It was a long time coming and we called “Wolf” (like the appliances!) a few times, but we finally pulled the trigger and demo day was Monday and my house is in complete disarray. Our refrigerator and microwave are operating in the garage, but you can only do so much cooking in a microwave, so we are eating lots of cereal (dry! Because the fridge is many steps away!) and peanut butter and fruit. Bananas, specifically.  Many bananas. Our potassium levels have never been higher, I’m certain!

Imagine my delight when I came across artist, Phil Hansen! I’ve scratched my girls names into bananas before for fun, but this guy puts my chicken scratch to shame! Check this out:

And God created bananas, and they were good.

So much detail, it’s bananas!
His technique is to poke little dots in the banana, rather than actually draw on it, which is how he does a lot of his art. This is made especially astonishing by the fact that he has nerve damage in his hand that causes it to shake. Obviously, not a great condition for an artist to have, but he not only perseveres, but seeks out additional challenges for his art! For instance, here is his Mona Lisa made out of… hamburger grease. Gross, but also impressive, right?
Mona Greasa is more like it!

Girl with a Pearl Earring

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Happy Fall! Fall is my favorite season here, but it’s a four-way tie so that’s not saying much.

Over the weekend I finished Girl With a Pearl Earring that I really enjoyed. Historical fiction can be a little tricky because I don’t always know what to believe and what not to believe, but it was a good story, nonetheless. It follows a girl who becomes a maid in the household of the painter Vermeer. I won’t say more about that in case you want to read the book, but naturally it piqued my interest about Johannes Vermeer, who specialized in painting people doing regular things around the house (the room, actually. Almost all his paintings are set in the same room that was in his home in Delft, outside Amsterdam) For instance, here is a lady pouring milk:

If Vermeer were alive today I’m sad to say he may have been a University of Michigan fan, for their colors alone. He loved his blues and yellows, and apparently always bought very high end paint. For a time that was fine, because he and his brood were doing quite well, but Vermeer was a notoriously slow painter and though he was fairly popular, he only painted about 50 pieces in his life (only 34 are around today. Sad!), which wasn’t enough to support his wife and 11 children forever. He died in debt, like so many painters did back then.
The Girl with the Pearl Earring is considered Vermeer’s greatest masterpiece. It is beautiful (and a little scandalous, amiright? Those parted lips? I don’t think she’s thinking about the high cost of paint.) My favorite though, is The Girl with the Wine Glass. Also scandalous with the wine and red dress and flirty hand-kiss. Aren’t you dying to know what’s really going on?! Is she trying to make that other guy jealous? Is she flirting with the painter?  Is this her first sip of wine ever? I don’t know, but I want to! Maybe Tracy Chevalier will give me a story for this painting next.

Coffee and American Gothic: Two of My Favorites

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September marks an important anniversary for me. I don’t want to be cheesy and sentimental about it, but sometimes emotions come like a freight train and there’s no stopping them. One year ago I began a new journey. 
I began to drink coffee.
Throughout college, grad school, and three infants I was able to live on one can of Diet Coke a day, but last September the school year started and I folded like a ton of bricks (something I might have said in my nonsensical pre-coffee days!) I can see clearly now! I can see how people are productive citizens of the world! I can accomplish full sentences and remember to put more than a banana in my kids’ lunches! I am celebrating my one year anniversary of being functional!!
Nowadays, if I don’t have coffee in the morning, I look a little American Gothic. A little sad. Definitely motionless.
They’re somber because they have yet to drink their morning coffee.
It remains unknown whether Grant’s sister and dentist (the models for American Gothic) were coffee drinkers, but the general public have lots of other opinions about this painting! The house in the background (with the Gothic-style window) is in Eldon, Iowa and is open for touring (and photo-ops! Just bring your own apron and pitchfork, please). At first Iowans were insulted that Wood depicted them as frumpy and humorless, but later many came to view the painting as a symbol of resilience and the hard-working American spirit. 
What do you think? I especially love the gentleman. They look somber to me, but he is certainly not without personality and definitely not without kindness. The two strike me as people who would be happy to invite their neighbors over for some food and cornhole after their hard work is done. Or better, have friends over for coffee!

Rembrandt: Take 2

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One of the disciples is throwing up over the side. That would be me.

With Halloween right around the corner, (we might think it’s not, but seriously. It is.) aren’t we all in a spooky, clandestine frame of mind? Here is an unsolved mystery for you: The Rembrandt from yesterday’s blog? The Storm on the Sea of Galilee? Stolen!! Not that that’s new for Rembrandt paintings – it turns out they’re kind of pinched all the time. Just ask his portrait of Jacob de Gheyn III which is actually in the Guinness Book of World Records for being stolen so often.

It does sort of surprise me the FBI hasn’t cracked this thing open yet (although it doesn’t sound like it will be long). The robbery took place in 1990 when a couple guys dressed as police officers entered the museum, tied up the security guards and helped themselves to a bunch of art, including the 5’ tall Sea of Galilee. A heister I’m not, so I just don’t get what these guys are doing with the art? Just appreciating it? No art collector is going to touch that stuff, right?
Rembrandt painted a tiny self-portrait of himself within The Storm on the Sea of Galilee (on the bottom- see the man holding his hat and looking right at you? That’s him!) That fact alone should shame the thieves into returning the painting- he’s looking right at them! Not to mention you know- Jesus! In any event, I think the “takeaway” here is that everyone wants a Rembrandt and museums would do well to Remembrandt that!

Renoir and Rembrandt

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The other day I told my husband I wanted to learn more about art.

“Uh-huh,” he replied, “You say that a lot.”

Did you also hear the challenge in his tone?! I can’t wait to wow him with all the new art stuff I’m about to learn! As I mentioned in my welcome post, if you are a serious artist or collector or gallery owner or art connoisseur of any kind, I’m sure you will find my blog deplorable. However, if you simply love art or are curious about art, I invite you to stick around!

Like Maria from the Sound of Music said, “Let’s start at the beginning, a very good place to start.” As I mentioned in the previous post, I truly didn’t know the difference between a Renoir and a Rembrandt, so getting to the bottom of that mystery seems a logical first step. It turns out I should be embarrassed of not knowing the difference between the two, because the R in their names is pretty much all they have in common.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir: A French Impressionist (1841-1919). Upon Googling, I recognized much of his work, but none more than Dance in the Country (and not just because it was on that episode of Gilmore Girls when Stars Hollow hosted The Festival of Living Art).
Lorelai posed as the lady in the red hat!
 Rembrandt: A Dutch painter (1606-1669). Apparently Rembrandt was mostly known for his portraits, but actually, in the handful of pieces I looked at online, this one (his only seascape) was my favorite:
The Storm on the Sea of Galilee

Which do you prefer? I love the color in the Renoir, but I have to pick Storm on the Sea of Galilee. Religious art is my favorite, and I love lots of intricacies in paintings. I think we can safely assume the Devil is not in the details in this one! More on it tomorrow!