Month: June 2015

Paolo Domenico Finoglia

Paolo Domenico Finoglia, “Apollo and Marsyas”, c.1630s

Paolo Domenico Finoglia , born in Orta di Atella near Naples, was an Italian painter of the early Baroque period, active mainly in South Italy, including Naples and towns in Apulia. He derived his style from Battista Caracciolo who was a prominent follower of Carravaggio.

The comic playwright Melanippides of Melos, living between 480 t0 430 BC, tells the story in his lost comedy “Marsyas” of how, after inventing the aulos, a wind instrument, the goddess Athena looked in the mirror while she was playing it. She saw how blowing into it puffed up her cheeks and made her look silly, so she threw the aulos away and cursed it so that whoever picked it up would meet an awful death.

The aulos was picked up by the satyr Marsyas, who challenged Apollo to a musical contest. They both agreed beforehand that whoever won would be allowed to do whatever he wanted to the loser. Marsyas played the aulos and Apollo played the lyre. Apollo turned his lyre upside-down and played it. He asked Marsyas to do the same with his instrument. Since he could not, Apollo was deemed to victor. Apollo hung Marsyas from a pine tree and flayed him alive to punish him for his hubris in daring to challenge one of the gods.

15 50 “At Night I Dress Up as a Child”

15 50 “Τις Νύχτες Ντύνομαι Παιδί (At Night I Dress Up as a Child)” – Official Video Clip 2011 – HQ

This Greek band is called 15- 50.

Mηνάς Τσίγκος – Φωνητικά
Ρουσσέτος Δημητρόγλου – Κιθάρες
Γιάννης Κουμέτης – Μπάσο
Τάσος Σταύρακας – Πλήκτρα
Ιωσήφ Μοσχόπουλος – Φωνητικά και Κιθάρα
Γιάννης Ράνης – Τύμπανα

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

Concrete Blonde, “Mexican Moon”

Concrete Blonde, “Mexican Moon”, 1993

Mexican Moon is the fifth full-length album produced in 1993 from alternative rock band Concrete Blonde. The music on Mexican Moon takes the gothic rock of their previous albums and adds more of a hard rock edge to it. Johnette Napolitano provided the vocals, bass guitar, samples, and the album artwork, and she was accompanied by drummer Paul Thompson and guitarist James Mankey.“Mexican Moon” finds lead singer Johnette Napolitano singing about a failed romance and fleeing into México.

The video in this clip is Antonio Banderas in the movie “Desperado”.

i had not heard this album in over 10 years until i took it on a road trip. I decided it was one of my all time favorite songs.

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

Dark Angel

Photographer Unknown, (Dark Angel)

“Amor, ch’al cor gentile ratto s’apprende
prese costui de la bella persona
che mi fu tolta; e ‘l modo ancor m’offende.

Amor, che a nullo amato amar perdona,
Mi prese del costui piacer sì forte,
Che, come vedi, ancor non m’abbandona…”

“Love, which quickly arrests the gentle heart,
Seized him with my beautiful form
That was taken from me, in a manner which still grieves me.

Love, which pardons no beloved from loving,
took me so strongly with delight in him
That, as you see, it still abandons me not…”

― Dante Alighieri, Inferno: A New Verse Translation

Geoffrey Gorman

Geoffrey Gorman, Sculptor, Santa Fe, New Mexico

“A broken bent tree branch, bleached from sun and rain, makes me think of weathered bones: fingers, legs, backbone, and hip bone. Old stained strips of cloth act like bandages and clothing, hiding and holding it all together. Sculpted wax covers the frame and joints of wood. Found and lost objects assembled into curious and evocative shapes is what excites me.

When I am making objects, I think of model airplanes made of balsa wood, then covered in thin transparent paper. Or I see decoys and shapes made to attract wild animals. I visited a museum in Alaska that had drawers filled with toys that had been put together, used and collected from previous cultures. I also think of a forest of tall, dark trees covered in moss and moisture, a silent, meditative place.” -Geoffrey Gorman

Julius Kronberg

Julius Kronberg, “David och Saul”, 1885, Oil on Canvas, 298 x 220 cm, National Museum of Fine Arts, Stockholm, Sweden

Julius Kronberg received education at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts in Stockholm in the 1860s. A travel scholarship brought him to Paris via Düsseldorf and Copenhagen. He is associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting.

Kronberg stayed in München where he continued studying before settling in Rome in 1877. He was a professor at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts between 1895-1898.

Dark Angel with Sword

Artist Unknown, (Dark Angel with Sword)

In Hinduism, the gandharvas are male nature spirits, husbands of the Apsaras. Some are part animal, usually a bird or horse. They are both warrior and master musicians. They guarded the Soma and made beautiful music for the gods in their palaces. Gandharvas are frequently depicted as a singer in the court of Gods.

Gandharvas are mentioned extensively in the epic Mahabharata as associated with the devas (as dancers and singers) and with the yakshas, as formidable warriors. They are mentioned as spread across various territories.

 Igor Kravtsov

 

Igor Kravtsov, Seven Oil Paintings on Canvas

The works of Igor Kravtsov radiate his attitude not only to his art but to life as well. The characters in his paintings look at you pointedly, they are very much self-aware and as if slightly withdrawn. They are haunted by memories of the past. They keep coming back in their memories to tremendous trials and tribulations of their fathers and mothers. They think of young men who perished during wars.

Igor Kravtsov had felt great closeness to them: it was his essence, his background, his foundation. Hence, the autobiographic tension of his art, the spirited metaphors, the precise forms that do not allow for any approximation. His canvases radiate his understanding of art as a serious, responsible undertaking that only people with vast experience could manage.

Susan Madsen

Susan Madsen, Title Unknown

Susan Madsen is a Vancouver-based figurative artist. She has studied in Canada, Denmark, and the USA. She received her MFA in painting from the University of Washington in Seattle and has had a presence in the galleries there for many years. Her work is in collections in Europe, the USA, and Canada.

Susan Madsen has sat on both the CARFAC BC (Canadian Artists’ Representation/
Le Front des artistes canadiens) and CARFAC National Boards. She has taught oil painting and colour/pigment history and remains a passionate student of art history and its symbols. For numerous years, she worked as a set designer for Vancouver theatre and dance companies and she sat on the Jessie Richardson nominating committee. She is a long-time student of astrology and its history, and is an avid traveller.