Month: April 2015

Jody Simpson

 

Jody Simpson:  Cutlass, Broadswords, Leafblades and Sabres

Most people know Jody Samson as the creator of the “Conan™” swords – he sculpted and assembled the blade and hilt for the “Master’s (Father’s) Sword™.” He created the blade for and assembled the “Atlantean™” sword. Both have become icons in the Conan™ legend, inspiration to swordsmiths everywhere, and symbols to many of the epitome of swords and sword making.

“The Best there is…” -Terry English (armorer for ‘Excalibur’ and’ The Messenger’)

“A Jody Samson sword commands instant respect. It is all made to order, totally custom, all hand made to precision. You’ve heard the old saying ‘The sword seemed to come alive in his hand’?” -John Steven Soet, Inside Karate, July 1998

“Jody is a sculptor, an artist, a man who expresses himself in steel in much the same way as a painter does on his canvas and as a musician does with his instrument.” -C. Flambourari, K.G.H.M., La Passionades Couteux

The Narrow Staircase

 

Photographer Unknown, (The Narrow Staircase)

“The Third Precept, to refrain from sexual misconduct, reminds us not to act out of sexual desire in such a way as to cause harm to another… The spirit of this precept asks us to look at the motivation behind our actions. To pay attention in this way allows us, as laypeople, to discover how sexuality can be connected to the heart and how it can be an expression of love, caring, and genuine intimacy. We have almost all been fools at some time in our sexual lives, and we have also used sex to try to touch what is beautiful, to touch another person deeply. Conscious sexuality is an essential part of living a mindful life (86).”

-Jack Kornfield, For a Future to Be Possible: Buddhist Ethics for Everyday Life

Diego Rivera

Diego Rivera, “Automotive Assembly Line”, Detail of One of Twenty-Seven Fresco Panels, North Wall, Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan

When the Mexican artist Diego Rivera arrived in Detroit in 1932 to paint the walls at the Detroit Institute of Arts, the city was a leading industrial center of the world. It was also the city that was hit the hardest by the Great Depression. Industrial production and the workforce were a third of what they had been before the 1929 Crash.

The space Rivera was given to paint was aligned on an east/west/north/south axis. Rivera utilized this architectural orientation in a symbolic way. The manufacture of the 1932 Ford V-8 at the Ford Motor Company’s River Rouge plant is captured in the two major panels on the north and south walls.

On the north wall, Rivera captured all the processes related to the assembly of the motor. The blast furnace glows orange and red at extreme temperatures to make molten steel that is poured into molds to make ingots that are then milled into sheets. All the major processes related to the manufacture of the motor of the car from mold-making in the upper left to the final assembly of the motor on the assembly line in the foreground are accurately rendered with engineering precision.

Diego Rivera wove the processes together through the use of the serpentine conveyors and assembly lines. The composition is grounded by two rows of white milling machines that stand as sentinels in the center of the wall and march into the background to the blast furnace.

Richard Taddei

The Artwork of Richard Taddei

Born in New York City in 1946, Richard Taddei is an American painter known for his male figurative works which are abstracted and seen through opposing picture planes and geometrical spaces. Raised in New Hyde Park in Long Island, he attended the Art School of the University of Toledo, Ohio in 1964. Taddei transferred to New York’s Pratt Institute of Art in 1967 to study architecture and art; later in the year he traveled to Europe to explore its art museums. 

In 1968, Taddei began mentoring under the Kentucky-born artist Edward Melcarth, known for his Renaissance-influenced illustrations and paintings. Through Melcarth, he was introduced to the techniques employed in the art of Trompe l’Oeil and Venice’s seventeenth-century paintings. Taddei met photographer and designer John Loring in the same year; they would live together and form a design collaboration for creations at Tiffany & Company. 

After a move to a SoHo loft in the early half of the 1970s, Richard Taddei began several personal associations which influenced his work and life. In 1972, he traveled to Italy where he lived and worked alongside Edward Melcarth; later in the same year, Taddei met Peggy Guggenheim, the entrepreneur Malcolm Forbes who began collecting his work, and the nature-inspired oil painter David Hill. In 1975, Taddei lived in Paris for a year with David Hill and Canadian painter Joseph Plaskett, both of whom influenced his figurative work.

After a 1976 move to the TriBeCa area of New York City, Taddei had his first painting exhibitions with the art dealer Jualian Pretto and later presented work in a group show curated by Keith Haring in the East Village. In the 1980s, Taddei established a career in the decorative arts in which, among other works, he created designs for china, scarves, backdrops and table settings for Tiffany & Company. Taddei also created murals for events at New York City’s Tavern on the Green, the Metropolitan Museum’s Party of the Year, and the Annual Gala at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum. 

Richard Taddei’s paintings had appeared in many galleries, both in group and solo exhibitions. These include many group exhibitions in Provincetown, Massachusetts, including two solo exhibitions. Taddei’s work has also been shown in galleries in New York City, including the contemporary Hal Bromm Gallery. His most recent solo exhibition of new work was the January-February 2022 “Looking at Men” held at the Fine Art Gallery of the Wallkill River School located in New York’s Hudson Valley. 

Richard Taddei’s paintings have been championed by the Leslie/Lohman Gay Art Foundation and has been represented by the MDH Fine Arts Gallery. Images of Taddei’s work and contact information can be found at the artist’s site located at: https://www.richardtaddei.com 

Bottom Insert Image: Richard Taddei, “Italian Sailors”, 1986, Oil on Canvas, 76.2 x 111.8 cm, Private Collection

Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei, “Circle of Animals/ Zodiac Heads”, Somerset House, London, England, 12 Bronze Casts, Each Ten Feet Tall.

Despite acclaim in his home country – receipt of the Chinese Contemporary Art Award for Lifetime Contribution in 2008; his close work with architects Herzog & de Meuron in designing the “Bird’s Nest” National Olympic Stadium for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games; his reputation as one of China’s top artists; and his father’s status as one of China’s most renowned poets – contemporary Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has frequently found himself at odds with the Chinese government.

Such is the case in 2011 as his “Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads” went on view in the courtyard of London’s Somerset House. What was originally scheduled as a press call to interview Ai Weiwei and an opportunity to photograph the artist with his “Circle of Animals” was altered to a sans artist event due to his disappearance in early April of 2011. Ai Weiwei’s whereabouts were unknown. Although no explanation was given for his disappearance, it was widely believed Ai Weiwei was detained by Chinese authorities in response to the online publication of a photograph featuring Ai Weiwei naked except for a toy horse covering his genitals along with a caption in Mandarin that could be interpreted as “Fuck your mother, the party central committee.”

In 21 June 2012, Ai Weiwei’s bail was lifted. Although he is allowed to leave Beijing, the police informed him that he is still prohibited from traveling to other countries because he is “suspected of other crimes,” including pornography, bigamy and illicit exchange of foreign currency. As of 2014, he remains under heavy surveillance and restrictions of movement, but continues to criticize through his work.

F. Scott Fitzgerald: “He Smiled Understandingly”

Photographer Unknown, (Relaxed in Himself)

“He smiled understandingly-much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced–or seemed to face–the whole eternal world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey.”

― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gasby