All that is found is not lost

I’ve recently been introduced to the notion of “found art” by artists such as JafaGirlArt and Lisa Bachman. And no, I don’t mean art made from found materials such as described in Mary Lou Stribling’s book, Art from Found Materials: Discarded and Natural (a brilliant used book sale find), nor the assemblage works of the early 20th century modernists.

I’m referring to that romantic, generous, and inspirational activity whereby an artist creates art and leaves it in public places, to be found by the unaware, unsuspecting, and perhaps undeserving, to inspire, heal, and empower.

Found Art created by JafaGirlArt

The concept is defined at Found Art! A Global Art Project Using Art to Heal the World:

Found Art! “strives to make the world a better place right now by empowering people across to globe to share on a soul level. We believe in the power of art to communicate and heal. We believe all people are creative and that the expression of that creativity opens the heart of both the creator and the receiver. Open hearts communicate at a deeper level, are naturally more compassionate, and are more aware and concerned about our global family.“

Wink by artist Jan Lynn Sokota is an example of found art created for Art in Odd Places 2007. According to Sokota: “In a simple gesture, the bat of an eye, an unspoken signal or shared secret is instantly expressed, like a trace of gleaming light. Viewers may take a wink coin with them, one per person.“

Wink by Jan Lynn Sokota

Go to artist Rosa Murillo’s Found Art Tuesdays website to learn about about “leaving art inconspicuously in public places for others to find. It’s a way to make art and share it. Please join me! The world needs good art!” Also check out Murillo’s Found Art Tuesday JOY video.

The same generous vision motivates “random acts of kindness” or “RAKs.” The Random Acts of Kindness™ Foundation inspires people to practice kindness and to “pass it on” to others. Through the dissemination of ideas and the development of materials and programs, they have incorporated kindness into thousands of schools and communities:

“As people tap into their own generous human spirit and share kindness with one another, they discover for themselves the power of kindness to effect positive change. When kindness is expressed, healthy relationships are created, community connections are nourished, and people are inspired to pass kindness on.”

Apparently acts of kindness can result in significant health benefits, both physical and metal. Read here how acts of kindness can be good for you.

Related links:

Found Art! project out to heal the world from USA Today

Found Art Tuesday from the blog Rediscovering Art

~TAB

The blue ribbon is passed on to you

Just wanted to pass along this post from Vinounku, a WordPress blog:  Who you are makes a difference.  A powerfully moving message and a reminder that individuals can make a difference.  I can think of several people I know who deserve a blue ribbon.  Can’t you?   

Who I am and what I do can Make a Difference.  “Make A Difference is a 501 (c)3 non-profit organization that empowers people to become engaged, take action and create  positive change in their communities.”

Finally a reminder that goods things can and do happen.  And never forget it’s better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.   

~MadSilence

Nazi-Looted Cross Saved From Garbage

Medieval processional cross

Nazi-Looted Cross Saved From Garbage Returns to Heirs (Update1)  by Catherine Hickley (as reported by Bloomberg.com on May 6, 2008): 

“A medieval processional cross that was looted from Poland by the Nazis and discovered decades later in an Austrian garbage bin has been returned to the heirs of the countess who owned it before the war. The Limoges enamel cross was part of the Dzialynska collection at Goluchow Castle in Poland, according to a statement from the Commission for Looted Art in Europe, a London-based organization which helps families recover property stolen by the Nazis. The 13th-century cross features enameled plaques with images of the crucifixion and the apostles.”

This story calls to mind a 2006 visit to Krakow’s Czartoryski Museum.  The museum is world renowned for its Leonardo da Vinci Portrait of Cecilia Gallerani entitled, Lady with an Ermine.  The painting is in a room all to itself, apart from an empty frame hanging on the opposite wall.  The empty frame once held a self-portrait by Raphael that was looted by the Nazis, carried off to Germany, and never seen again.

Lady with an Ermine  by Leonardo da Vinci  

During WWII hundreds of artifacts were looted from the Czartoryski Museum, never to return.  Hanging the da Vinci by the empty frame invokes sober reflection upon human greed and the destruction wreaked by war.

Related post:  The tragic beauty of war

Related link:  Ancient Nazi-looted religious cross returned  from Reuters

~MadSilence

Art to die for

Pippa Bacca in Istanbul a few days before she was killed.  Image by Sirio Magnabosco. Source: The New York Times. 

Two performance artists, Pippa Bacca and Silvia Moro, conceived the idea for the “Brides on Tour” project for peace about a year ago.  Wearing white wedding dresses, they would hitchhike from Italy to the Balkans to the Middle East to send a message of peace and “marriage between different peoples and nations.”  Hitchhiking in a wedding dress, Pippa Bacca was murdered in Turkey.

According to The New York Times, the message delivered by “Brides on Tour” has been muted by tragedy:  

“After just three weeks on the road, one of the two Italian artists, Pippa Bacca, 33, was killed by a driver who offered her a ride.  Her naked body was found on April 11 in some bushes near a Turkish village after a suspect led investigators to the site.  Although an official cause of death has not been given, local Turkish authorities said Ms. Bacca had been raped and strangled.  The killing has stirred broad public anger and grief in Turkey and Italy.  Still, what Ms. Bacca would have wanted, her family and friends said, was her message of peace to live on.  “She thought that in the world there were more positive than negative people, and that it was right to be trusting,” said Rosalia Pasqualino, a sister of Ms. Bacca, whose real name was Giuseppina Pasqualino di Marineo.  “Trust is a very human factor, and she believed that to understand people, you had to get to know them.  The performance piece, a trip through nearly a dozen countries in the Balkans and the Middle East, many of them ravaged by war recently, was meant to underscore that “by overcoming differences and lowering the level of conflict,” individuals and cultures could come together, Ms. Moro said in a telephone interview.  “Meeting people was the key.”  Ms. Bacca’s trip was cut short near the village of Gebze, about 40 miles southeast of Istanbul.  An unemployed man, Murat Karatas, 38, has confessed to killing her shortly after picking her up on March 31, the authorities have said.” 

Accepting rides with strangers was crucial to the art performance’s success, Ms. Moro said.  The artists’ statement at their Web site, bridesontour.fotoup.net, says, “Hitchhiking is choosing to have faith in other human beings, and man, like a small god, rewards those who have faith in him.”

Pippa Bacca (left) and Silvia Moro hitchhiking through the Balkans as Brides on Tour (bridesontour.fotoup.net).

Art performs many functions for humankind.  Art challenges us, inspires us, enriches us, gratifies us aesthetically, and encourages us to think.  The story of Pippa Bacca’s murder causes me to think of the writer Henry James.  James once proposed three questions you could productively put to an artist’s work:

What was the artist trying to achieve?  Did the artist succeed?  and finally, Was it worth doing? 

The purpose of “Brides on Tour” has been defined by Bacca and Moro; the viewing public understands the intent of the artists.  The success of their performance piece is yet to be determined.  To succeed, Bacca and Moro’s message of peace must be communicated through the print-based and electronic media to as wide an audience as possible.  Ironically, this purpose may be enhanced by the untimely death of one of the artists.

The difficult question is:  Was it worth doing?   My gut-reaction as the father of two children:  No art work is worth the life of its creator.  I admire the idealism and courage exhibited by both Bacca and Moro.  Performance artists hope to change the world.  But the risks inherent in this performance piece far outweigh any potential benefits to society.  My prayers go to Pippa Bacca, Bacca’s family, and Silvia Moro. 

~TAB 

The power of the photo image

Photography is a powerful artistic medium.  I’ve been waiting for just the right moment to publish on the authority of the photograph.  A recent post by Argot provides the perfect segue into the subject.  ~TAB

CAUTION: Each of these links leads to a powerful emotional experience illustrating the authority of the photographic image. 

Life Before Death
Check out this “sombre series of portraits taken of people before and after they died.  A challenging and poignant study.  The work by German photographer Walter Schels and his partner Beate Lakotta, who recorded interviews with the subjects in their final days, reveals much about dying—and living.”  From the guardian.co.uk via  Argot.

Positive Exposure: The Spirit of Difference
Positive Exposure is a nonprofit organization that takes and displays photos of people with genetic differences in order to celebrate “the beauty and richness of human diversity.  The organization is a unique partnership between visual arts, genetics, mental health and human rights.”  This brochure describes the program and displays beautiful photos of individuals who were born with genetic diseases such as Sturge-Weber Syndrome, Lowe Syndrome, and albinism.  Via the Librarians’ Internet Index. 

Heart Gallery of America® Inc.
Professional Portraits of Children Waiting for Adoption
“The mission of Heart Gallery of America ® Inc. is to facilitate and utilize the power of photography to capture the individuality and dignity of children living in foster care, in order to advocate for their permanency, raise public awareness about their needs, and obtain support to help meet those needs.” This brochure displays photos of New York State’s waiting children.

Close Cover Before Striking

These adorable matchbooks with tiny printed match heads are from Japan via ReubenMiller.  Seeing them reminded me of my family’s habit of collecting matchbooks.  We had examples from all over the United States and Europe.  A highly incendiary collection!

“A matchbook is a small cardboard container (matchcover) that holds a quantity of matches inside and has a coarse striking surface on the exterior.  A flap on the front is lifted to access the matches, which are attached to the interior base in a comb-like pattern and must be torn away before use.”

Phillumeny is “the hobby of collecting different match-related items: matchboxes, matchbox labels, matchbooks, matchcovers, matchsafes, etc.”

Virtual Museum Match World.  The Japan Match Manufacturers Association and Japan Match Lateral Corporation operate this Match Museum.  The biggest feature of this museum is superior match labels, which are specially selected from Rankei Library’s gigantic match label collection of twenty or thirty thousands pieces owned by the Japan Match Manufacturers Association.  Visit the museum to learn about the history and science of matches.

Contemporary Japanese matchbook from Virtual Museum Match World.

The Virtual Matchbox Labels Museum is “dedicated to the images on the matchbox labels - the small artworks that most of us do not pay much attention to.  But they reflect our history, our likes and dislikes and sometimes they are real artworks in themselves.”

 

 Best Match.  Made in Japan.  From The Virtual Matchbox Labels Museum.

Surprisingly, matches are a relatively new invention, dating back to 1827 when English druggist John Walker marketed a sulfur tipped splint called a “Congreves.”  The first matches were explosive in nature and unpredictably dangerous to handle.  Matchcovers didn’t receive much recognition as a collectible until the 1930s.  During the late 1940s and early 1950s, there were over 1 million matchcover collectors in United States and Canada.

When a match is rubbed against a rough surface, friction supplies the match head with sufficient heat energy to enable the chemicals to react, and because the rate of heat production by the reaction is greater than the rate of heat loss to the environment, they burn with a flame. 

       

Judo.  Holds and sweeps.  Madi in Japan.  From The Virtual Matchbox Labels Museum.

Related links:

Matchbook Museum  from Lileks.com
Matchcover Collecting  from Hobbymaster
American Matchcover Collecting Club

~MadSilence

Arte y Pico Award

MadSilence has been awarded the Arte y Pico Award by JafaBrit.  Thanks for the nomination, Corrine.  The Arte y Pico Award recognizes a blogger for:

Creativity, Design, Interesting Material, and Contributions to the blogging community.

MadSilence is ranked among an impressive array of fellow award recipients.  Creative types, including artists and crafters.  The other five recipients include: Casey Klahn,  jean yates,  laketrees,  margot potter and pollocksthebollocks.  Each is worthy of a visit.  I especially enjoyed the art of Casey Klahn.  But don’t worry, Corinne: the art of the  JafaGirls  is still a MadSilence favorite.

Congratulations to all!

Feel the need for further inspiration?  Then visit  The Daffodil Principle.  A delightful story.   

~MadSilence

Bloggers Unite For Human Rights

   

A notable and worthy activity.  I think less in terms of rights and entitlements, and more in terms of responsibility and accountability.  Bloggers have access to a communication medium with tremendous potential - use it well.    ~TAB

“Bloggers Unite For Human Rights challenges bloggers everywhere to help elevate human rights by drawing attention to the challenges and successes of human rights issues on May 15. What those topics may include — the wrongful imprisonment of journalists covering assemblies, governments that ignore the plight of citizens, and censorship of the Internet. What is important is that on one day, thousands of bloggers unite and share their unified support of human rights everywhere.

While the words might change from country to country and are sometimes taken for granted, human rights represent one of the universally agreed upon ideas — that all people are born with basic rights and freedoms that include life, liberty, and justice. This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations.”

The art of the barcode

It’s called “synchronicity,” that coincidence of events that seem related, but are not obviously caused one by the other.  In this case, we have a Japanorama post on the subject of artistic barcodes, an Argot post on Pop art - barcode animation, and a link to Bar Code Art.  Cool stuff.

“In Japan, artistic barcodes grace everything from soup to nuts. The theme typically matches the actual product inside [the package] but just as often it doesn’t. No matter, the theme is secondary to the thoughts of the artists who, though limited by the need to retain the barcode’s original purpose, still have enough leeway to surprise and delight.”

Via Japanorama.   

And then there’s this cool film of Pop Art - Bar Code Animation.  Although I would recommend the “Flight of the Bumblebee”  as musical accompaniment for the flight of UPCs.  Via Argot. 

Check out Scott Blake’s barcode flip books for a similar experience.   Blake “…started making art with barcodes right before Y2K, inspired by the year 2000 computer bug, and threatening digital apocalypse.” 

Bruce Lee by Scott Blake

Blake’s Bruce Lee is made up of tiny UPC images.  Check out BarCodeArt.com for more interesting UPC art. 

Related links:
Bar Code Revolution
Barcodes in Artwork.“Here are literally dozens and dozens of barcode graffiti and barcode artwork photographs.”
Japanese Creative Barcodes from Dark Roasted Blend

~MadSilence

Charley Harper - An Illustrated Life

Do you recognize the artistic genius of Charley Harper?  Although I didn’t recognize the artist’s name, I instantly knew his work from a February 2008 story reported on CBS Sunday Morning News.  As a child I loved Harper’s illustrations in the “The Giant Golden Book of Biology.”

 

The self-described commercial artist left a modernist legacy memorialized in a book written by Harper and fashion designer Todd Oldham.  The moving story of their friendship is described here.  “Charley Harper - An Illustrated Life” is available from the publisher or your local library.  A frisson of excitement ran through the librarians at my library when the book was delivered - it’s 17.3 x 12.2 inches, has 420 pages, and costs $200!

        

Red and Fed by Charley Harper

From Wikipedia:

“Charley Harper (August 4, 1922 - June 10, 2007) was a Cincinnati-based American Modernist artist.  He was best known for his highly stylized wildlife prints, posters and book illustrations.  During his career, Charley Harper illustrated numerous books, notably The Golden Book of Biology, magazines such as Ford Times, as well as many prints, posters, and other works.  As his subjects are namely natural, with birds prominently featured, Charley often created works for many nature-based organizations, among them the National Park Service; Cincinnati Zoo; Cincinnati Nature Center; Hamilton County (Ohio) Park District; and Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in Pennsylvania. He also designed interpretive displays for Everglades National Park.
In a style he called ‘minimal realism’, Charley Harper captured the essence of his subjects with the fewest possible visual elements. When asked to describe his unique visual style, Charley responded:

When I look at a wildlife or nature subject, I don’t see the feathers in the wings, I just count the wings. I see exciting shapes, color combinations, patterns, textures, fascinating behavior and endless possibilities for making interesting pictures. I regard the picture as an ecosystem in which all the elements are interrelated, interdependent, perfectly balanced, without trimming or unutilized parts; and herein lies the lure of painting; in a world of chaos, the picture is one small rectangle in which the artist can create an ordered universe.“

 Harper’s words are worth repeating here:

“In a world of chaos, the picture is one small rectangle in which the artist can create an ordered universe.” 

Question: Why isn’t Harper’s work more widely recognized in the annals of contemporary art?  Did his status as a successful commercial graphic artist deny him the recognition his art deserved?  Harper’s “minimal realism” stripped objects to their elemental forms.  His simplified, almost geometric, view of the world reduced animals to simple curves, dots, fragments of circles, and clusters of lines, while capturing the subjects’ essential natures.  By stripping away the details of a creature’s attributes, he reveals something new about the subject, and challenges the viewer to expand his awareness.  Isn’t that the very essence of modern art?   

~TAB