One of my favorite Cleveland area artists ( and there are many) is Kristen Cliffel. Her ceramic work is so clever and visually stunning that I recognize it on sight. She comes by her talent naturally, her mother Martha Cliffel is also amazing.
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Visiting Museums Online
Akron Art Museum As a result of the COVID-19 virus museums and galleries have shut their doors to the public in order to encourage social distancing, however, they also have very active and interesting websites full of images and information to explore and fill your time.
This is just a partial list of all of the museums and galleries all over the world available for a virtual visit:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City
The Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, Nebraska
The American Museum of Natural History in New York City
The National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.
The National Gallery in London
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Game Time
Exekias, Ajax and Achilles Playing a Board Game , 540-530 BCE, Greece This Greek Black Figure pottery vase portrays Trojan War heroes Ajax and Achilles taking time to play a broad game while on a break from the battle.
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Seeking Refuge
John William Waterhouse, The Decameron , 1916, The Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight The subjects for John William Waterhouse’s paintings The Decameron and The Enchanted Garden are drawn from a book by 14th century Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio who tells the tales of seven young women and three young men secluded outside the city of Florence during the time of the Black Plague.
Both of these artworks are owned by the Lady Lever Art Gallery in Port Sunlight (an early “planned” community outside of Liverpool) a small and delightful museum to visit.
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Manifest Destiny
Thomas Moran, Grand Canyon , 1909, Seattle Art Museum I went last year to see the Grand Canyon in person and it does live up to the hype. There were a lot of people in the park and lines of cars to enter but once you got down to the edge of it and looked out without being able to see where it ends, nature suddenly got very large and civilization sudden got very small. Manifest Destiny
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Brotherly Love
Portrait of My Dead Brother by Salvador Dali , 1963, The Salvador Dali Museum Dali never knew his bother who died of a stomach aliment at three years old, nine months before Salvador was born. Dali’s parents told him he was the reincarnation of his brother and he always felt they were like Castor and Pollux. From the Dali Museum: Dalí wrote a brief, elusive description of this work when it was first exhibited. “The Vulture, according to the Egyptians and Freud, represents my mother’s portrait. The cherries represent the molecules, the dark cherries create the visage of my dead brother, the sun-lighted cherries create the image of Salvador living thus repeating the great myth of the Dioscures Castor and Pollux.”
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Spring Is Here
Primavera by Sandro Botticelli , circa 1470-1480, Uffizi Gallery , Florence, Italy. This is a painting depicting a personification of the beginning of the spring season by an Italian artist named Sandro Botticelli. He lived during the 15th century in the city of Florence. Primavera is Italian for Spring. The painting the re-newel and the reappearance of the leaves on the trees and the flowers by depicting them in human form. As Italy endures the outbreak of the Corona virus we need to appreciate all they have given the world, some of the most beautiful art and music humans have ever created. Seek out people on Social Media and send them good wishes.
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Strange Days
As we face a situation unprecedented in our time, I began to think about what I could do to help. I am a teacher having taught college level art history for almost thirty years (yikes). I understand that a lot of families are having to grapple with teaching students at home and are undoubtedly working with very skilled educators to make this happen. My thought was that I could resuscitate my blog and begin posting art history lessons for levels and while this in no way compares to what many people have done and will continue to do in this crisis, my contribution might be to provide a bit of a distraction on a daily basis. Please stay well and safe and please let me know if there are any particular pieces of art that are of interest to you or your family.
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Out Here All Alone
Yesterday I saw a Twitter post by @m_tisserand that said “we are all edward hopper paintings now” and it struck me as so true. We are isolated and unsure of what lies ahead but somehow not without hope. This painting is owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and is called Office in a Small City from 1953. There is also an extremely disheartening piece in the New York Times today about museums not being able to weather this situation and that many will close their doors for good as a result. If you can, a donation might help. They have to contend with ongoing costs like utilities and insurance, not to mention payroll, even if their doors are closed to the public.
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Your Daily Art Jewelry
Your Daily Art Jewelry is my handmade line of jewelry. I have been metal smithing for about four years and before that I created beaded jewelry.
Your Daily Art 