Janet Fish

Art Appreciation

Contemporary American artist Janet Fish is known for her realistic still life paintings. Many of her paintings include elements of transparency, reflected light, and overlapping patterns.

Born on May 18, 1938, Fish grew up in Bermuda surrounded by many artistic influences. Her grandfather was the Impressionist painter Clark Voorhees.

As a teenager, she was an assistant of sculptor Byllee Lang. She attended Smith College concentrating on sculpture and printmaking, and studied at the Art Students League in New York. After graduating from Smith College, she did a residency at The Skowhegan School of Art. 

Fish then enrolled at the Yale University of Art and Architecture where she changed her focus from sculpture to painting. In 1963, she became the first woman to ear a Master of Fine Arts from Yale's School of Art and Architecture.

Her first solo show was at Farleigh Dickinson University in Rutherford, New Jersey. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. And her works are included in some of the nation's important museum collections, such as Art Institute of Chicago, Dallas Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and National Gallery of Arts in D.C., to name a few.

Black Bowl Red Scarf

Raspberries and Goldfish, 1981

Sasha with a Bowl of Candy, 1988

Sources:

Wikipedia

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/482633

https://www.mmoca.org/learn/for-teachers/teaching-pages/janet-fish

Juan Rulfo

Photography Appreciation

Born on May 16, 1917, Juan Rulfo was a Mexican photographer and author of two very important literary works: Pedro Páramo (1955) and El Llano en llamas (1953). The primary subject of his works focused on the Mexican people and landscape. 

After his parents died, Rulfo was raised by his grandmother in Guadalajara, Mexico, and he grew up during the Mexican Revolution and Cristero war. 

After graduating primary school, he attended secondary in a seminary. He moved to Mexico City where he entered the National Military Academy. 

He attended Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, where he began writing. He later advanced his career and traveled throughout Mexico as an immigration agent. This is probably where he had the opportunity to photograph what would then become a visual setting for his literary works.

Sources: Wikipedia, https://bristolatino.co.uk/art-focus-juan-rulfo-photography/

Madonna and Beeple Collaborate NFT for Charities

Madonna Appreciation

Since I was a kid I was fascinated with Madonna. Like the kid in the music video Open Your Heart, I was in love with Madonna. Express Yourself and Vogue hit right in time for puberty. Justify My Love had me questioning my sexuality. 

So, I'm not a bit surprised of Madonna's new project. In fact, I feel it's a bit late. But regardless, her collaboration with Beeple to created NFTs for a good cause is innovative. Plus, it's kinda sexy.

She explained, "We set out to create something that is absolutely and utterly connected to the idea of creation and motherhood... I'm doing what women have been doing since the beginning of time, which is giving birth. But on a more existential level, I'm giving birth to art and creativity, and we would be lost without both."

The NFTs titled Mother of Nature, Mother of Evolution, and Mother of Technology, went on auction on SuperRare, a crypto art marketplace. Proceeds go to National Bail Out, V-Day, and Voices of Children.

Mother of Evolution

Mother of Nature

Mother of Technology

Sources: YouTube, https://www.today.com/news/news/madonna-explains-nude-nft-superrare-m-giving-birth-art-rcna28685

Aimee Sweet

Modeling Appreciation

I remember receiving my Penthouse magazine on August 1998 and setting my eyes on the Pet of the Month, Aimee Sweet. I fell in love. 

Born on May 14, 1978 in Providence, Rhode Island, Aimee Sweet began acting and singing at the age of six. A few years after graduating from high school, she moved to southern California. 

Story goes, she accompanied a friend to a modeling audition at photographer Suze Randall's studio. Randall's eyes were set on the 5'8" fresh All-American look and chose Aimee instead.

After being Pet of the Month, she appeared in several porn and music videos.

Photo by Del Ihle Photography for FX 2006

Sources:

Wikipedia, Del Ihle Photography, Listal

Fashion is DEFINITELY Art: WE ARE MADE IN ITALY The Fab Five | Fall 2022 Milan

Fashion designers:    Nyny Ryke, Zineb Hazim, Curious Grid, Romy Calzado, Judith Saint Jermain                                  

Source: Fashion Channel

Travel + Leisure: Your Best Shot: Sarah Bolak

On the last page of its magazine, Travel + Leisure features photographs submitted by their readers. In the February 2020 issue, a photograph taken with an iPhone 8 of a flock of flamingos caught my attention.

The photo is by Sarah Bolak, and as she explains, she caught the sprint just in time, "My fiancé and I  were walking along the beach at the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar in the Bahamas when, from out of nowhere, a flock of flamingos sprinted by." 

She adds that the resort staff walk the birds around the resort but lucky to have the iPhone handy.  

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Konstantinos Parthenis

Art Appreciation

Born in Alexandria on May 10, 1878, Konstantinos Parthenis was well-known for his abstract religious themed paintings. 

Parthenis studied a short time under Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna when he was young. Around that time, he joined an artistic group called the Humanitas, which became the nucleus of the early alternative movement or life reform. 

In 1899, Parthenis held his first solo exhibition was in Böhm Künstlerhaus. After his studies, he returned to Greece and became an iconic religious painter. 

Apotheosis of Athanasios Diakos 

(Hero of the War of Independence of Greece), 1821

The Virgin and Child

The Bather

Sources: 

Wikipedia

http://www.eikastikon.gr/zografiki/parthenis_en.html

https://www.askart.com/artist/Konstantinos_Parthenis/11059960/Konstantinos_Parthenis.aspx