Lady in Red

Photo by Angela, photoshop effects by me.

Emerald has been prized

E is for Emerald
Here's my diamond shaped 5" x 5" Creative Underground
Funky Fold-Up Alphabetica swap page:
E is for Emerald.
(The daisy paper is just a pretty background for this blogspot entry.)
How'd I make the page?
Well, I used a vintage photo taken in Chicago - just about my favorite
American city - tinted green in Photoshop for the background.
Printed out & hand-colored (with colored pencils) the woman - she's
from a swell vintage postcard in my collection. Printed out my little
commentary on a piece of vintage ledger paper - thanks, Jaylene!
Attached those two elements to the background, added a bit of emerald
colored metallic rub-on to the edge of the torn ledger paper, and rubbed
on some Basic Grey swirlies, butterflies, flores & little birds.
Almost colorful, a bit mysterious & just my style.

A short report

The first art I remember attaching to a named artist when I was a kid was a wildly green and yellow piece called The Rabbi and it was painted that way by Marc Chagall.
A copy of it hung in our rented house for an entire year. My mother checked it out of the library over and over again; I'll never forget it as long as I live. So I knew who the guy was, but would I have called him a favorite?
No, I would probably have named someone like Rackham, the illustrator of the fairy tales of a consummate reader’s childhood or Marguerite de Angeli, another remarkable illustrator.
It was as an older teen that I truly fell for the brilliance - the utter explosion of color - with which Marc Chagall, born Moyshe Segal in a Russian village in 1887, the oldest son (of nine children) of grocers, was able to fill canvas after canvas.
He was to live in his native Russia for a relatively short number of years, not consecutive. Eventually he traveled to & lived in France & the US. He also traveled virtually everywhere to complete a myriad of commissions from sacred spaces to theaters throughout the world.
Considered primarily a Cubist & Surrealist, though showing bits of influence of his friends & mentors who included Leon Bakst & Paul Gauguin, he retained throughout his awesomely long career a style & application so uniquely his own that his work could NEVER be mistaken for the work of anyone else.
He was one of the most versatile & prolific artists of the twentieth century, producing book illustration, ceramics, costumes, etchings, lithographs, mosaic, murals, sculpture, stained glass, tapestries & theater sets in addition to his incredible volume of paintings.
Today we can find his works reproduced in pop culture items ranging from rubber stamps to seder plates to t-shirts. Nearly everyone can afford to own at least a reproduction of an incredible piece of art by an incredible artist!
Not a player, though mad for womankind, Chagall was a loving husband to his wife Bella & after her death it was many years before he was to marry again. Valentina, known as Vava truly was his Valentine. He was crazy about kids, an excellent teacher & more than happy in the role of father.
As Marc Chagall is most appreciated visually, I consider myself lucky to have seen spme originals at The Art Institute in Chicago and several museums in New York City.
A distant second, but certainly better than nothing at all are these selected books showcasing his life and work (the starred two are personal faves):

Arabian Nights Marc Chagall, illus. 1999
pub. by Pegasus Library

***** Chagall*****
by Albert Skira 1972
Crown Publishers

Chagall
by Sydney Alexander 1978
pub. by Putnam

***** Chagall from A to Z*****
by Marie Sellier 1996
pub. by Peter Bedrick Books

I Maestri del Colore: Chagall
text by Renate Negri 1967

The Jerusalem Windows

Marc Chagall 1887-1885 Painting as Poetry
by Walther & Metzger 1996
pub. by Taschen

may i feel said he? by e.e. cummings, Marc Chagall, illus.


Twentieth Century Masters: Chagall
by Mario Bucci 1971
Crown Publishers


Related:
Burning Lights
by Bella Chagall with 36 drawings by Marc Chagall
orig. published 1946

****************************************************
There's a film available on both VHS & DVD titled Chagall.
You may also want to look for My Life, his autobiography.
*****************************************************
"Two years ago, André Malraux asked me to paint a ceiling for the Paris Opéra. I was troubled, touched and deeply moved. . . I doubted day and night. I thought about the whole structure of the Opéra. I profoundly admired the genius of Garnier's building and Carpeaux's inspired sculpture. I wished to reflect, as though in a mirror high above, in a bouquet of dreams, the creation of actors, of composers, to recall the colourful movement of the audience below. To sing like a bird, without theory or method, to render homage to the great composers of opera and ballet. . . I laboured with all my heart, and I offer this work as a gift, in gratitude to France and her school of Paris, for without them there would be no colour, there would be no freedom."
Marc Chagall, 1964

"But they're cousins, identical cousins. . ."

Cousins Lynn Shaddock, me, David Shaddock and Laurie Shaddock in front of Magy and Grandad's house on Iroquois Street in Freeport, Illinois. This snapshot was taken in 1958.
See? Even then I dressed with little thought as to the prevailing fashion. Blue was obviously the color of choice, but don't I look pretty in pink?

And David's Keds are swell.

Real Life in a Land Far, Far Away

Another altered catalog scrapbook page I made
with one of Silver's photos from Rwanda.

1/2 ANGEL 1/2 TROUBLE

This is one of my assigned technique cards for Bernie Berlin's new book,
Artist Trading Cards Workshop: Create. Collect. Swap.
published by North Light, due out in December of this year.
The little girl is one of my dad's younger sisters, my Auntie Jean.
You can see we share a love of jewelry by that bracelet on her wrist!

No Fetish, but a Collection

Do Shoes Make the Girl?
These are some of mine, 6 pairs for summer fun.
Chinese Laundry - silver glitter (modeled by me)
Docs - dark red and sturdy looking
EA - black with black daffodils
Madeline - black with jet beaded criss-cross
Sbicca - black with circular rhinestone flower
Tevas - the OTHER red pair

There's also a sweet pair of pale pink retro platforms,
which went to Cancun with Corina, so weren't available
for their photo op. Come back, little Shoebas!

Pink & orange crocs hid from my lens on the closet floor, along
with a pair of black, Asian influenced platforms, some
non-descript light brown platform sandals, Skechers combat boots
which are really just a little too big, a pair of plain black clogs,
and maybe, just maybe, my missing ruby stud.

Reminds Me of Romper Room

do's and don'ts. . . a tag by denise

i do like to watch a movie every night.
i don't like to pause the dvd player to answer the phone.

i do like to read a book which amazes and delights.
i don't like stories written to a "popular audience" formula.

i do like my job.
i don't like having to work.

i do always wear a color on my lips.
i don't always carry a purse.

i do wear a scent at all times.
i don't always like the ones worn by others.

i do like shoes which make me taller.
i don't like pointy-toed shoes.

i do love a malted.
i don't love a malted.

i do listen to almost any music.
i don't like country music though.

i do like to travel.
i don't like to fly.

i do like to sew.
i don't like using a pattern.

i do have an epson stylus c88 printer.
i don't like it very much.

i do love the beach.
i don't like to swim.

i do believe in love most of all.
i don't always have the faith that i seek.

i do love our border collie.
i don't like that she’s getting old.

i do like to talk.
i don't like to gossip.

i do have knowledge about alot of things.
i don't have a college degree.

i do have a wonderful network of fabulous friends.
i don't spend nearly enough time with them.


and now, i tag Tiffini, Erika, Céline

Cinco de Mayo

Hope the sun is shining for you, down Mexico way. . .

photo of Corina taken by Angela Cartwright

Take 5

Tagged by Tiffini:

Five minutes to yourself:
curl up in the big red chair & read
Five bucks to spend right now: how would you spend it?
on fresh flowers
Five items in your house you could part with, right now, that you hadn't thought of already?
any of my art. our mattress. the microwave (but Colin wouldn't like THAT). all our old record albums (but Colin wouldn't like THAT EITHER!). the shredder.
Five items you absolutely, positively could never part with in your house?
Colin. Janie (the cat). the books. the movies. other people's art.
Five words you love? "Here's a present for you". . .NO, I'm just KIDDING!!!!
crazy. darling. jazz. love. truly

Tagging:
Angela C.
Deb C.
Deb T.
Denise L.
Jennifer B.

What's In

tagged by Céline

In my fridge:
a cool 1950s pitcher full of Cosmopolitans (my recipe is different, but this one's good too!)
cheese
yogurt
half an onion & half an avocado
Emerald Valley salsa
and not much more...

In my closet:
Urban Outfitters t-shirts with limited edition "artist prints"
a couple of pretty prairie skirts I got when shopping with Céline
new shoes for summer
cardigans ('cuz we might have a drop in temperature any minute - really)
lots of "girly" things
lots of black

In my purse:
pink floral oilcloth wallet
cell phone
Urban Decay Lip Gunk in Gash
jammin' Faber-Castell PITT artist pens I got at my mum's
pins to give away
library card/Barnes & Noble card/Body Shop card
a copy of Memoirs of a Geisha I got at the airport

In COLIN'S car:
a rhyming dictionary
a music dictionary
a dictionary
50 cents (for an hour's worth of downtown parking)
Colin

I tag (totally no pressure though!):
Deb Chimich
Deb Trotter
Denise L.
Erika T.