Imagine my shock and disappointment at not being placed on the list of artists to receive the National Medal of Arts from President Bush. I was also excluded from the list of those to receive the National Humanities Medal. I open my heart to the readership of this web log and confess that I’m crushed. Please believe me when I…
On November 5th, 2006, the A Shenere Velt Gallery of West Los Angeles will present its latest exhibition – Utopia: Dreams of Paradise & Possibility. Reading from the gallery’s press release regarding the exhibit: “Our call for submissions went out this year asking artists to think about the theme of Utopia. ‘In a world climate of pessimism and fear, dreams…
On this day, March 30, 1890, Vincent van Gogh was born in Zundert, Netherlands. He once wrote: “What am I in the eyes of most people… a nonentity, an eccentric, or an unpleasant person, somebody who has no position in society and will never have; in short, the lowest of the low. All right, then… even if that were absolutely…
A music CD with a painting by Hieronymus Bosch on its cover has been banned by Polish “education inspectors,” because in their words – “There are pornographic scenes in the Bosch picture that can damage people.” The Polish education ministry had intended to give away copies of the CD to high-school students who excelled in their studies – but reactionaries…
I’ve long understood the connection between visual art and music. To me the musician and artist are kindred spirits, and music has always fanned the flames of my own creativity. Naturally I’ve always been an avid music fan, and since my childhood I’ve enthusiastically collected music recordings. In fact when I was 7 years old in 1961, the very first…
Jack Vettriano. You’ve seen prints of his paintings everywhere, and they outsell reproductions of artworks by Van Gogh, Monet and Picasso. I first saw reproductions of Vettriano’s paintings when I visited a popular store here in Los Angeles that sells home decor items, and my immediate response was a disapproving one. The artworks are saccharine and “romantic” renditions of handsome…
