The Soul of Somanya project helps orphans of working age and young mothers in Ghana make a living by making jewelry and other beaded objects and selling them in the United States. They use their glass bead art form and western techniques taught to them by Melody MacDuffie of Mobile, Al. The organization is ran by volunteers. To find out more about this organization and the people it helps go to:
Soul of Somanya
Posts about the arts and artists ...
Monday, September 21, 2009
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Medieval Women Artists
Many of the Middle Age artists were women. The identity of some of these medieval artists has been lost because women got married or changed their names when they became nuns. The nuns didn't normally sign the illuminated manuscripts they created; they had turned away from worldly praise. Some did sign their work, especially if she was an abbess.
Women of wealth got an education as nuns and were given task like illuminating manuscripts, if they had artistic talent. Their drawing pad was a wax tablet. The design may have been traced on vellum first. It was expensive to produce the illuminations for Bibles and Holy books, so anyone given this work was considered skilled and trustworthy.
Bishop Caesarius founded the first western convent in Arles in 512 A.D. He wanted the women to paint illuminated manuscripts, when they weren't reading the Bible, holding vigils, and praying. His sister,Caesaria, become the head of the nunnery.
Sometimes dealers would resign paintings using the name of a well known male artist, if the style was similar, thereby increasing the paintings value. According to Nancy G. Heller it was assumed by some people that a woman couldn't paint well, thus the painting would be attributed to a male art teacher or relative.
These are some of the women manuscript iluminators: Claricia (12th c.), Herrad of Landsberg (1125-1195), Ende (11th c), Gunda (12th c), Diemud (1057-1130), and Hildgard (12th c), Bourgot (14th c).
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Book about Hildegarde de Bingen
Women, Art, and Society
Women of wealth got an education as nuns and were given task like illuminating manuscripts, if they had artistic talent. Their drawing pad was a wax tablet. The design may have been traced on vellum first. It was expensive to produce the illuminations for Bibles and Holy books, so anyone given this work was considered skilled and trustworthy.
Bishop Caesarius founded the first western convent in Arles in 512 A.D. He wanted the women to paint illuminated manuscripts, when they weren't reading the Bible, holding vigils, and praying. His sister,Caesaria, become the head of the nunnery.
Sometimes dealers would resign paintings using the name of a well known male artist, if the style was similar, thereby increasing the paintings value. According to Nancy G. Heller it was assumed by some people that a woman couldn't paint well, thus the painting would be attributed to a male art teacher or relative.
These are some of the women manuscript iluminators: Claricia (12th c.), Herrad of Landsberg (1125-1195), Ende (11th c), Gunda (12th c), Diemud (1057-1130), and Hildgard (12th c), Bourgot (14th c).
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Book about Hildegarde de Bingen
Women, Art, and Society
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Eco-Artists: Friends of the Earth
An eco-artist is one that is concerned about the earth’s environment and may be dealing with ecological issues through his work. Some of these artists use recycled materials to create their art, others up-cycle materials by using them to create sculptures or other forms of art. This process of eco-art began in the 1960’s as a concept of working beyond the white cube, going out into nature and urban areas to create. It began as an experiment to take art away from traditional art centers to the streets. They took it out to the people in the form of “happenings.”
This movement in art was heavily influenced by Joseph Beuys a German artist that had a philosophy of a universal creative component to all of humanity. He participated in performance art and it was a natural platform for his idea that art could be a panacea for humanity. In the 1960’s in an effort to make his art more accessible to the general public rather than to only the rich he created multiples of his sculptures postcards, which were cheaper than unique pieces of art. He created such works as Lemon Light (1969) and Felt Suit (1970); they were multiples.
In 1962 he suggested the cleanup of the Elbe River located in Hamburg, Germany. In 1955 Herbert Bayer had built a grass mound at the Aspen Art Institute in Aspen. Colorado. These and other actions like them are called eco-ventions. There is a list of such artistic actions at http://www.greenmuseum.org/c/ecovention/sect8.html.
They range in time from 1955 to 2002. It is a varied and interesting list.
The Documenta Kassel began in 1955 and starting in 1972 occurs every five years. It means the one hundred day museum. Until this particular exhibition the concept had been to select works because they were novel or had individualistic characteristic. The new concept picked a theme and the works had to depict the theme. Joseph Beuys planted an oak tree during the 1982 inauguration of this exhibition. Thus began the planting of 7000 oak trees. He planted several in various cities.
There is a list of eco-artists and some of their visual art and writings at http://userpages.umbc.edu/~sbradley/projects/rtr_HTBA/project/eco_artists.html This site tells about an eco-art project on recycled billboards in Los Angeles in 2008: http://eco-logicalart.org/.
This movement in art was heavily influenced by Joseph Beuys a German artist that had a philosophy of a universal creative component to all of humanity. He participated in performance art and it was a natural platform for his idea that art could be a panacea for humanity. In the 1960’s in an effort to make his art more accessible to the general public rather than to only the rich he created multiples of his sculptures postcards, which were cheaper than unique pieces of art. He created such works as Lemon Light (1969) and Felt Suit (1970); they were multiples.
In 1962 he suggested the cleanup of the Elbe River located in Hamburg, Germany. In 1955 Herbert Bayer had built a grass mound at the Aspen Art Institute in Aspen. Colorado. These and other actions like them are called eco-ventions. There is a list of such artistic actions at http://www.greenmuseum.org/c/ecovention/sect8.html.
They range in time from 1955 to 2002. It is a varied and interesting list.
The Documenta Kassel began in 1955 and starting in 1972 occurs every five years. It means the one hundred day museum. Until this particular exhibition the concept had been to select works because they were novel or had individualistic characteristic. The new concept picked a theme and the works had to depict the theme. Joseph Beuys planted an oak tree during the 1982 inauguration of this exhibition. Thus began the planting of 7000 oak trees. He planted several in various cities.
There is a list of eco-artists and some of their visual art and writings at http://userpages.umbc.edu/~sbradley/projects/rtr_HTBA/project/eco_artists.html This site tells about an eco-art project on recycled billboards in Los Angeles in 2008: http://eco-logicalart.org/.
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