Space Doggity Poster from Zazzle.com

Space Doggity Poster from Zazzle.com

Michael Peterson: Unique Wood Sculptures

Michael Peterson is well-known on a national scale. His first works were symmetrical and born of the lathe; his newer works are of an organic nature, but were created via a chainsaw. Forty wood sculptures  representative of 20 years of his artistic endeavor will be shown at the Mobile Museum of Art from 07/23/10 until 10/03/10.

Peterson's creativity is fueled by his beautiful surroundings in the Pacific Northwest. His work has been exhibited in many places including The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, The Detroit Institute of Arts, and the del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles.

Collections of his sculptures are housed at numerous museums including the Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA.

Mary Cassatt: American Woman Artist

Mary Cassatt is most famous for her paintings of children with their mother. She also painted upscale society. Her compositions are daring and exhibit specific details. She studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from 1860 to 1865.

Next, she traveled to Holland, Spain, Italy, and France concentrating on and coping the work of the Old Masters; in 1874 she put her roots down in Paris. She and Edgar Degas developed a friendship and he asked her to show her work with the Impressionists. From 1979 to 1886, she participated in four exhibits with the "painters of light." Her early paintings were executed with the light and shadow style and the ethereal effect of the Impressionists.

In 1891, she produced wonderful dry-point prints that were motivated by her fondness for Japanese art. With this collection, she plowed her own road in the art world, stepping away from the Impressionist and distinguishing her own style. Her work features clear lines and soft colors.

In the middle of her career, she began to draw and paint in a classical manner, completing forms, and using three-dimensional technique. Her work was popular and sold well. When Cassatt was elderly, important figures, visited her at her countryside home, Château de Beaufresne, situated on the outskirts of Paris.

Mary Cassatt Paintings

Marian Acker MacPherson: Etched Times Goneby

The etchings of Marian Acker MacPherson present an historical testament to the architecture in Mobile, AL prior to the 1920's. Through her art, she captured the historical buildings of her era for future generations.

MacPherson studied art at the Vesper-George Art School in Boston and she studied under W. H. W. Bicknell at Cape Cod. Bicknell is renowned for his etchings. Etching had regained popularity with artists during the 1880's.

MacPherson published copies of her work in Prints of the Past of Old Mobile (1932) and Etchings of Old Mobile (1938), and Glimpses of Old Mobile .The latter is a guidebook that includes copies of her drawings in ink. There were at least six editions of the book (1946-1983). As time passed, she started painting in watercolors.

An exhibition of her work can be viewed from 07/30/10 until 09/26/10 at the Mobile Museum of art.

Tim Burton: New Species

Producer, Tim Burton, has been honored by a doctoral student at the University of New Brunswick. Bridgette Clarkston is a student researcher. She found a species of seaweed that was unknown, when she was collecting samples. She ran DNA samples and discovered that this particular seaweed was nameless.

She dubbed this seaweed Euthora timburtoni because Burton's movies fueled her imagination. According to CBC News, Clarkston said that the flower of this seaweed reminds her of Nightmare Before Christmas.

Nine Mile Canyon Rock Art Spared

Utah.com states that Nine Mile Canyon is an "outdoor art museum." Indeed, it is 40 miles of canyon displaying petroglyph's and pictographs numbering at 10,000. The most well known depiction is the Hunter Panel. The majority of the art work was done by the Fremont Indians.

It is covered for protection by the Antiquities Act, which says that no one may "appropriate, excavate, injure, or destroy any historic or prehistoric ruins or dwellings or other structures."

But archaeologist Pam Miller states that oil and gas development in this remote area will destroy these archaic petroglyphs and pictographs. The industrial trucks throw up dust that destroys the paintings and carvings and chemicals are sprayed on the roads to suppress dust but it harms the artwork.

The Bill Barrett Corporation made an application to the Bureau of Land Management requesting leases to drill 800 wells. The traffic in this "remote" area would go up by 416 %, if the leases are granted. This corporation has done exploratory work since 2004 and made their request in 2008.

But because of the efforts of conservations, an agreement was signed between the Bill Barrett Corporation, the Bureau of Land Management, the local government, and more than one preservation group.

The agreement states that the Bill Barrett Corporation has to supply monies for fieldwork concerning cultural resources and the Bureau of Land Management is required to perform studies regarding the possible damage that industrial dust could cause.

It is an outrage that companies want to destroy public lands for profit and that the laws were ever lose enough that such requests could be made.

After the agreement was reached, Ken Salazar, the interior secretary trumpeted harsher guidelines concerning drilling on government lands.

Native American Wolf Rock INDIAN Art Print POSTER GUIDE - 16x20
Roadside Guide To Indian Ruins & Rock Art Of The Southwest
Indian Rock Art of the Southwest (School of American Research Southwest Indian Arts Series)

25 Years of Pixar Animation: Exhibit at OMCA

The Oakland Museum of California will present 25 years of Pixar animation from 07/31/2010 until 01/09/11. This show will exhibit more than 500 works: sculptures, drawings, and paintings. This is a real treat for fans of Pixer's animation. Fans of Toy Story, Up, WALL-E, and Ratatouille are going to enjoy this returning exhibit, which has been on the road for five years. It started at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Showings of short films, talks, and lectures are included in this homecoming. Plus, storyboards used for some of the short films and colorscripts will be featured.