Something Really Ethereal:

In 1949, Picasso drew these pictures in the air with a flashlight. A Life magazine photographer documented the whole thing. I did something quite similar as a child, with those sparklers they only handed out on the Fourth of July, but nobody recorded any pictures of it.

More Historical Renderings:

Portraiture by Vic Harville of the Stephens Media Group.

Artist Dwane Powell's depiction of a U.S. conservative political figurehead in action.

Haitian History Lesson

"Battle on Santo Domingo" (detail), by Polish military painter January Suchodolski, is a remarkable image depicting the successful Haitian slave revolt against the French. Until Pat Robertson quipped that the mayhem of this week's 7.0 earthquake in Haiti was because of that revolt, I never bothered to research the topic. (Robertson, BTW, blamed Hurricane Katrina on God's anger over abortion.) The Haitian uprising Suchodolski painted established the first republic in modern times to be led by people of African descent. It kicked Napoleon's ass to the curb and helped give Jefferson the nerve to make the Louisiana Purchase.
     This painting was made to record history - a reason for art-making that peaked in the 19th century and gave way to Modernism.

Reference to Haiti

"Haiti may be something out of the past or the future... but this country has very little to do with the present." This was the observation of British sculptor John Buckley on a recent visit to the Caribbean. "Haiti is a surreal country. Everything is larger than life. Where else can you find a military dictator who doesn't send his citizens off to war to be killed, he shoots them down himself on the home front? Where else do people in a voodoo trance kiss a pig to death? Where do families see the devil strolling down the street? Where is Aids running riot?" How could Buckley know his observations were pre-apocalyptic?

Swoon Enough

One last image by Swoon for now. 

Until we check in with her again, check out this link:

www.historyofgraffitiart.com

I came across this while researching the last few days' posts. A nice guy named Frank Essink in the Netherlands provides this e-book download "Vandals and Crusaders" free of charge, and includes a "Graffiti History Course." Not sure what that is yet but I am looking forward to his next e-mail!

Swoon Me

These are great examples of Swoon's papercut technique. She makes rough drawings and then slices the images out of stacked sheets of paper, creating a sort of limited print run. The papercuts become almost translucent when absorbed into the surface on which they are plastered. They are like living organisms, the artist has said.

I like the way this image is altered by its context (above).

But what about this context (below)?

It's actually a gallery space - Deitch Projects' Art Basel Miami.

For me, the work doesn't have nearly the same power, not only because its raucousness is contrived, but because only the elite will ever see it:

Who wants to see street art in a gallery? WHO knows it's there?

Monswoon

Swoon makes big drawings of people - portraits of friends and figures she encounters on the streets in New York City. She draws these images on big planks of Linoleum or wood, and painstakingly carves out the negative spaces with carving tools and her trusty Dremel. Then she takes a giant litho roller and inks up their surfaces, and lays down big sheets of paper and walks on them to transfer the images. Sometimes the paper she uses is from Chinese newspapers, which texturizes the drawings and ladens on even more meaning.

When she has printed multiples of each image, she cuts them out and attaches them with wheat paste on exteriors around the city, mostly on the Lower East Side. Over time, the drawings begin to blend into the backgrounds and alter or take on meaning. Pidgeon poop, truck exhaust, tagging, or scars of any order become a part of these images.