What the World Really Needs

"Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive." - Howard Thurman

I like the sentiment expressed here. We can often make the mistake of looking outside ourselves for answers to questions that can be only answered within. An example would be students who major in a subject not because it interested them, but because they read an article that said people in that field can make money. Life is long and if you are not into what you are doing for a living, it can be very long.

Find what you're passionate about and you've found life's sweet spot.

You Are Not Alone

I can't recall when I first had the strange thought that the room I'm in is filled with sound waves but I couldn't hear them. Wherever you went, if you had a radio you could pick up a station.

When we were kids, my dad had purchased a multi-band radio that could pick up short wave signals from all over the world. Even though he mostly listened to WOR on the AM dial I remember tuning in to strange languages and trying to guess where they were coming from. "Is that Russian? Is that Finnish?" I imagined a submarine captain in the Baltic Sea.

All these sounds were surrounding us, but each originated somewhere and it was interesting to contemplate.

But nowadays, think of the bombardment. Satellite radio is spraying signals continuously, and satellite television. Your GPS device signals are ever instructing, and the old fashioned network TV towers keep singing. We're surrounded by a cloud of noises we can't hear at all.

Science has shown us that the atmosphere is also filled with light waves. We don't see light waves, of course, but only see the objects that they reflect off of. Our light bulbs emanate photons likewise invisible to perception or comprehension.

Many religions add still another layer to the list of things unseen and invisible, yet surrounding us. Many believe we are surrounded by angels, spiritual beings not perceived by the senses... and ultimately, God.

What if we could see all this unseen "stuff"? It might be interesting for a moment, but somehow I have to think if we could see all those sound waves and light waves, it would be a little challenging. I can envision my room here stuffed with a giant mass of shredded cottonball-like material, and myself absorbed in it. Maybe I wouldn't even be able to see this computer monitor because all that stuff was in the way.

I think I like it just as it is, the room an empty space with an easy chair where I can curl up and read a good book.

Ten Minutes With Melody Lea Lamb

One of my recent interests lately has been trying to learn how to sell my art online. So when I see someone doing it with a measure of success, I sometimes make contact, see how it’s going etc. A couple times I came across the acronym ACEO, so when a discovered one of Melody Lea Lamb’s sites I took a chance to see if she’d share with us a little bit about what she’s doing as an artist in cyberspace.

When I was a kid I used to love to draw bunny rabbits, turtles and all kinds of fun critters. So I find a special connection to the subject matter Melody has made a career out of.

Our paths first crossed on Twitter. I think you’ll enjoy what she has to share here.

Ennyman: Tell us about the ACEO market. It reminds me of the baseball trading card craze, except for artists.
Melody Lea Lamb: ACEOs (Art Cards, Editions, and Originals) are an art form the same size a s a baseball trading card: 3.5" by 2.5".

From my website and written by "Nino",
"Inspired by the familiar baseball card format with sports collectibles, in 2004, a new art form was born on eBay. A group of innovative artists created a variation of the traditional baseball card format called the Art Cards Editions and Original, or ACEOs for short. Now six years later, ACEOs are flourishing. (on any given day at least 100,000 ACEO originals are sold somewhere on the internet) More and more people are collecting ACEOs; art supply stores are beginning to stock specialized materials that help artists create them. Perhaps most significantly, art critics are beginning to take notice of these small yet exquisite works of art. The main difference between ACEOs and the more traditional "art cards" (which also have dimensions similar to baseball cards and have been around for a while) is that artists primarily create ACEOs with the intention of selling them, (while ATCs are strictly for trading)

The size of an ACEO should be 2.5” x 3.5”. The group decided to adopt this uniform standard size, which was widely recognized by collectors. Any sizes larger or smaller would NOT qualify as ACEOs, and would be listed under other categories.

There are no other rules. Artists have complete freedom in making creative decisions, such as the subject of the ACEO, or the materials used in its creation."

E: How long have you been making art and when did you first realize you wanted to do this as a career?
MLL: Ive been making art since I was about seven years old. I began seriously considering myself an artist and selling my work at thirteen, so I have known most of my life that I would find a way to earn a living as an artist.

E: What percentage of your work do you sell online?
MLL: Right now I sell 100% of my art online through more than a dozen different selling venues!

E: How did you start and what have you learned so others have an easier time of it?
MLL: Really my online selling began with eBay. I have become quite disappointed with eBay over the last four years but owe the auction site thanks for allowing me to break into to online art sales. It all began with ACEOs

E: Isn’t it true that successful artists have to also be good business people? What makes you successful in both realms?
MLL: I am very organized and have to have all my "i's dotted and t's crossed" I think that quality has allowed me to be a good business person. I also discovered that I have a great desire to learn everything there is to know about online marketing and sales. One of the joys (especially for artists) about online sales is that even a rather shy person can self promote comfortably from behind a screen!

E: What’s your favorite part of being an artist?
MLL: My favorite part about being an artist is the actual process of creating art. Sometimes I am delighted and slightly surprised when I complete a really successful painting. It’s like I get totally lost in the process, fully intent and concentrating deeply on my subject, then when I come up for air and step away from the piece, its a thrill to see it come to life!

E: I see that you recommend Etsy as a place to buy and sell art. Does it cost money to be there and what’s the benefit to makers of arts and crafts?
MLL: Etsy is one of the best online sites for selling arts and crafts. The cost is a one-time listing fee of less than a quarter. I find Etsy to be very reasonably priced compared to eBay. There are many other online selling venues for art that are free or minimal cost. Etsy has pretty good traffic though.

E: Pricing is a big challenge for emerging artists. How did you decide what your personal price points were going to be?
MLL: That's a tough question. On my ACEOs, I began to sell them (six years ago) for less than $20.00 each. Then when I started really selling well, the auctions often went up over $200.00, once as high as $320.00. So, now I feel the little paintings should not sell for any less than $125.00 (sold from my blog, Etsy, or ArtFire )I also consider size (although I may spend much more time on a small piece).

To see more work by Melody Lea Lamb:

Website
Gifts Shop
Etsy
eBay
Zazzle
ArtFire
Bonanzle

Main Blog
Ornaments Blog
Magnets Blog
Gifting From The Art

Thank you, Melody. Your work has a warm sparkle that is very special. Thanks for sharing here.

de Chirico

While looking at a very cool art blog,I noticed there some paintings by Giorgio de Chirico, a highly influential artist in the early modern period. I myself was attracted to his early work as were many of the budding surrealists of his own time period, men whom he influenced who went on to make names for themselves. For some reason, even though he lived close to a century, the art world seemed interested only in the strange worlds he painted in his youth.

Here is the opening of an essay about de Chirico which I just stumbled upon after looking at some of his paintings.

"The case of Giorgio de Chirico is one of the most curious in art history. An Italian, born in 1888 and raised partly in Greece - where his father, an engineer, planned and built railroads - he led a productive life, almost Picassoan in length; he died in 1978. He had studied in Munich, and in his early twenties, under the spell of the Symbolist painter Arnold Böcklin, he began to produce a series of strange, oneiric cityscapes. When they were seen in Paris after 1911, they were ecstatically hailed by painters and poets from Picasso to Paul Éluard; before long de Chirico became one of the heroes of Surrealism.

Later, this essay shows how his work was often misunderstood.

"De Chirico is often said to have used Renaissance space in his pictures, but as Rubin points out, this is a myth. De Chirican perspective was not meant to set the viewer in a secure, measurable space. It was a means of distorting the view and disquieting the eye. Instead of one vanishing point in his architectonic masterpiece, The Melancholy of Departure, 1914 there are six, none "correct." This cloning of viewpoints acts in a way analogous to Cubism. It jams the sense of illusionary depth and delivers the surface to the rule of the flat shape, which was the quintessential modernist strategy. In color, in tonal structure and in its contradictory lighting, Rubin argues, de Chirico's style up to 1918 "was as alien to its supposed classical, fifteenth-century models as it was dependent on the Parisian painting of its own moment."

What amazes me to this day is how many of the artists and writers whom we encounter in museums and libraries seemed like they were some previous moment in time, but in reality overlapped our lives and had we made an effort we might have met them, even befriended them. Bob Dylan did that. When he first went to New York from Minnesota, made it an aim of his to meet the legendary Woody Guthrie, who was then dying in a nursing home. Perhaps he wanted Woody's songs, or perhaps he wanted to carry on the torch for him to a new generation.

Artists, musicians, writers... they shine for a while, and many times end up forgotten. Today's tribute is to an artist whose work spoke to me for a time, Georgio de Chirico.

Here is a page with links to many of his paintings. Bookmark the page so you can return to it soon.

NOTE: The picture Metaphysical Interior with Biscuits has been used without permission and will be replaced if requested.

Calling All Jug Bands

It's that time of year again. Saturday, Derby Day, we mentioned how May is a month with many highlights, beginning this year with the Run for the Roses. Cinco de Mayo will fall on Wednesday this week, a good time to break out your jalapenos y salsa. Other events traditionally associated with May include Mother's Day (next Sunday, guys), Dylan Days in Hibbing, college graduations and any number of summer art exhibitions.

The month culminates with two distinctive traditions of which I am fond, both falling on the same Memorial Day weekend: the Indianapolis 500 (at Indy) and the Battle of the Jug Bands here in Duluth. Since info about the Indy 500 is accessible nearly anywhere, I will just point out a few notes about the Battle.

14th Annual Battle of the Jug Bands
Sunday-May 30th 1:00-8:00p.m.
Amazing Grace Cafe-Duluth, MN

The annual event and celebration is produced by Icehouse Studio, Coho Handcream for Men and De Elliot Bros. The Annual Battle of the Jug-bands features Jug Band Music from a variety of regional bands and is an all day affair that really satisfies. Historically six to ten bands show up, celebrating seven hours of JUG BAND MUSIC, vying for the Coveted Yid-wegian Krumkake Iron. The music always over flows out on the sidewalk for all to enjoy. Some show up doing a complete One Man Band. Others come alone and invite a few local musicians to join in and put a band together on the spot. Unique homemade instruments are shown and played. Fresh frozen Steelhead Trout caught by Elliot himself, who goes by the moniker Blind Willie, is a runner up prize for 2nd place in the Jugband competition. (He doesn't call his business Icehouse Studios for nothing.)

The night before, De Elliot Bros. and friends will be performing from 7:00-10:00p.m. at the same location.

Now if you're an Indy 500 fan, and you have a hard time deciding whether to stay home and watch the race or come down to hear home spun music, I recommend you do like me. Come on down to the Amazing Grace, then sneak across the street to Grandma's Sports Garden every now and then for a brew and a view on one of their big screen TVs. If Danica has the lead, and you can't break away till the Indy is over, well, the music goes late so you can get the best of both worlds.

According to Blind Willie's promotion, if you submit your mailing address and email to be on the Battle of the Jugbands mailing list, you'll receive a Poster. Contact elliotbrothers@msn.com

Put a song in your heart and check it out.

Dali Steps Out

"It is good taste, and good taste alone, that possesses the power to sterilize and is always the first handicap to any creative functioning." ~Dali

Salvador Dali, 1904-1989, was the 20th century's most famous surrealist, if not the most iconic artist of his generation. A masterful painter, he projected himself as profoundly eccentric, an exhibitionist and madman. When you hear stories of his behavior, it's not quite clear whether he's insane or just role playing. As he stated it, "The only difference between me and a madman is that I am not mad."

"Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing," Dali said on another occasion. I concur. When we imitate it is often in order to understand. Every beginning magician learns others' magic tricks in order to himself become a magician. Eventually, they must create their own tricks, however, in order to make a name for themselves. It is also a way of grappling with, and acknowledging, our influences.

Dali made no secret about his influences, including Picasso and Joan Miro whom he met as a young artist while striving to develop his own personal style. The Dutch master Vermeer appears on a recurring basis throughout Dali's work, and the quizzically comical coiled mustache that Dali wore is a direct takeoff from Velasquez, another Classical master. In short, Dali himself was a work of art.

It has been well documented that Dali was fond of being outrageous in order to draw attention to himself. While in my garage yesterday I found many example of Dali taking great pains to put himself in the public eye as you can see from the photos here.

Top right: Dali has wormed himself onto the cover of the Art News Annual.

Top left: Dali has resurrected himself and filched a place on the cover of Reason magazine 17 years after his death.

Right, second from top: Life magazine cover with Dali walking on water in the presence of Sophia Loren.

Middle left: Dali appears in an old Life magazine story about a West Virginia mining disaster. This appearance was shockingly offensive as the famous painter seemed to take no interest in the sorrows of those who lost loved ones and was utterly pre-occupied with being in front of the cameras.

Right: Dali attempts to upstage the great modern artist Matisse in this vintage Life magazine feature.

Lower left: Dali steps out, on the cover of Ralph Fabri's Painting Outdoors.

Has there ever been a man more audacious?

Mayday, Mayday

"As we come into the fourth turn, Cabbage is ahead, Bubble Gum still sticking to the rail. Baby Diaper is starting to look pooped. Apartment House is rockin', but here comes Spandex in the stretch..." ~modified version of horse race routine by W.S. Weaver

When I was a kid I must have spent hours making variations of this horse race routine, not knowing it originated somewhere in pop culture. Winston Sheffield "Doodles" Weaver, brother to NBC exec Pat Weaver and uncle to the high profile Weaver we know from our own era, Sigourney, had popularized it through radio or television before my time.

The routine came to mind as I noted that today will be the 136th running of the Kentucky Derby. It's been a wet week down there in the Bluegrass State, which means the race will favors mudders... that is, horses who are accustomed to running well on a gooey surface.

I've always loved naming things, whether it be paintings, stories or whatever. So I find the names of Kentucky Derby hopefuls always fascinating. The field today runs like this:

1 Lookin at Lucky
2 Ice Box
3 Noble's Promise
4 Super Saver
5 Line of David
6 Stately Victory
7 American Lion
8 Dean's Kitten
9 Make Music for Me
10 Paddy O'Prado
11 Devil May Care
12 Conveyance
13 Jackson Bend
14 Mission Impazible
15 Discreetly Mine
16 Awesome Act
17 Dublin
18 Backtalk
19 Homeboykris
20 Sidney's Candy

Today's favorites, if you're throwing down some cha-ching, are Lookin' at Lucky and Sidney's Candy. Going strictly by the names, I like Lookin' at Lucky because that was the name of our dog when I was growing up, a Springer Spaniel/Beagle mix who had just the right amount of energy for four growing boys. Line of David has appeal for me as well... a name that conveys much more than just a horse race.

Last year's winner, Mine That Bird won against 50-1 odds, so anything can happen. But for the most exceptional horses, the fame is but a momentary blip and Mine That Bird is now all but forgotten by most of us. Not every horse can be a Secretariat. Nevertheless, getting a crown brings the owners of a horse like that a small fortune and no small measure of prestige.


And so it goes... It's the Running of the Roses. "And they're out of the gate... looks like Cabbage is ahead."