by Bob Martin | Aug 19, 2010 | Art, Culture, Events, Museums
The “Arts and Business Council of Phoenix” puts on, in my opinion, the best and most efficient awards ceremony.
Schuff Steel’s commitment to The Children’s Museum of Phoenix
The Oscars should take notice. It starts when it is supposed to and ends right on time. Attendees are fed, informed, entertained and energized. The number of art organizations that are being served by the council keeps getting bigger. And this year I even won a raffle prizes.
Congratulations:
- Schuff Steel Southwest
- Bobb Cooper, Valley Youth Theatre
- Mesa Arts Center
- DMB, Inc. of Scottsdale
- Mike Nolan
- Harold Dorenbecher, Ballet Arizona
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by Sandy | Aug 16, 2010 | Art, Blogroll, Creativity, Exhibits, Museums
The Clark has an exhibition exploring the connection between the work of Picasso and Degas called:
“Picasso Looks at Degas”. 
“Pablo Picasso is said to have remarked that “good artists copy; great artists steal.” Throughout his long and prolific career, Picasso often made works of art in response to his predecessors, “quoting” famous compositions by Rembrandt, Delacroix, Manet, and others in his own paintings. In his youth, contemporaries also noted the influence of Edgar Degas in Picasso’s paintings of cabarets and cafés, portraits, women bathing, and ballet dancers—subjects that had come to define the older French artist’s work.”
Picasso Looks at Degas – until September 12, 2010
The Clark – The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute
225 South Street, Williamstown, MA
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by Bob Martin | Aug 13, 2010 | Art
With the media supported spin of “We Want Our Country Back”, which is another way of saying we want to be backwards, I think about people like Ida Lupino, Toni Morrison, Alice Neel, Sylvia Moy and many other women artists who have enriched our lives.
Ida Lupino in her way brought reality to the screen as a director and producer, touching on issues that women encountered but did not openly discuss. As the only women director at a major movie studio at the time, I imagine there must have been a lot of resistance to many of the movies that Lupino wanted to make and she got them made. The MoMA has a Film Exhibition beginning August 26–September 20, 2010 “Ida Lupino: Mother Directs”
The Women’s Revolution will make us safer in the long run.
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by Bob Martin | Aug 9, 2010 | Film
The movie is about the ultimate dream. An ad agencies last wish. It’s Apples’ Success. 
What makes this movie so successful is that what it proposes is what we all deep down want to be able to do (that is 3 levels down). For the theater operators tuning in–Making the sound as loud as you can does not make the movie better, just loud. Beside Inception gives you a lot to think about and for me that is all I need to be entertained.
Also Ellen Page is always so smart.
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by Bob Martin | Aug 6, 2010 | Art, Artist, Exhibits, Museums
A result of the economy being on the downside, some museums are not pushing the big, get on line, block busters shows
What is great about this is we get to see great work by lesser known artist more often. Everybody wins. I would think that the curators of these “smaller” shows would have a blast, getting to present works that are not part of the yearly diet. I love Picasso and someone else must have been creating some art.
Ruth Bowman by Will Barnet
Places to Visit
- Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University presents “Mami Wata: Arts for Water Spirits in Africa and Its Diasporas,” August 4, 2010 through January 2, 2011. This exhibition explores 500 years of visual cultures and histories of the water deity widely known as Mami Wata (“Mother Water”) through the diverse array of traditional and contemporary arts surrounding her — sculpture, paintings, masks, altars, and more from west and central Africa, the Caribbean, Brazil, and the United States. Admission is free.
- Facing the Figure: Selected Works from the Collection, 1962–2007 The New York Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Gioconda and Joseph King Gallery, Lila Acheson Wallace Wing, Modern Art, Modern Art
May 28, 2010–September 6, 2010
- The Prismatic Eye: Collages by Anne Ryan, 1948–54 The New York Metropolitan Museum of Art North mezzanine gallery, Lila Acheson Wallace Wing, Modern Art
June 4, 2010–September 6, 2010
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by Sandy | Aug 5, 2010 | Arts, Entertainment and Music, Books, Cable, Creativity, Events, Writers
Los Angeles will host its popular Black Book Expo again this year on Saturday 8/21 at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel. This one day event will offer “authors, storytellers, spoken word and poetry performances, musicians, exhibitors, children’s book authors, emerging writers, publishers, booksellers, panel discussions, editors, book reviewers…”
The Los Angeles Black Book Expo (LABBX) * August 21st * 11:00- 5:00
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by Bob Martin | Aug 1, 2010 | Art, Movies
Pixar was born a little over 30 years ago and their way of creating animated characters has
almost supplanted the then revolutionary animation done by the old Walt Disney company
Ratatouille
(Pixar is now an important of the new Walt Disney Corp). Even the rodent has been replaced. In celebration of the nearly 25 years of making animated movies the Oakland Museum is exhibiting over 500 works of art done by the artist of Pixar.
My favorite of the films is Ratatouille. From Micky to Remy it’s the mouse that gets you.
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by Bob Martin | Aug 1, 2010 | Film
“I am Love” was playing at a movie house not far from home (10 min) this past Thursday and incredibly was no-longer playing on Friday. Frantic, I repeated my Google search, expanding the mileage from home up to 100 miles hoping that it was playing somewhere in the county. Luckily we did not have to travel that far and if we did it would have been was well worth it. The whole movie is as lush as the trailer
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by Bob Martin | Jul 30, 2010 | Arts, Entertainment and Music, TV
Ellen DeGeneres
I know I may have been out of touch (actually I am certain that I am) with the rest of the world. I’ve never watched American Idol or had any interest in the shows winners, mainly because I thought the show was about the judges (like the Judge Judy) and who could be the most mean spirited. The talent, or lack of talent, is really “straight man” for the judge’s routines. I know the show served a purpose for it’s viewers, some one to cheer for or to hate. A mix of pro wrestling, Glee, Judge Judy and Gladiators with the audience giving thumbs up or down. People seem to get a rush from watching programs like this even if they not real.
Reality TV is not Real Life
I was surprised when Ellen DeGeneres decided to be a judge on the show. I am now relieved that she is leaving ‘American Idol’. ( I am certain that she is happy that I’m relieved) I don’t think she could fake meanness.
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by Bob Martin | Jul 30, 2010 | Art, Movies
One of the drawbacks in living in Arizona besides the obvious, is that the movie audience skews
old, white and conservative(they make the most noise) so movies like “I am Love” and “The Radiant Child” take a little more time before being shown here.
“I am Love” is playing in one theater in the area and I hope to see it soon. “The Radiant Child” just might not get a viewing here at all which would be a shame.
Tilda Swinton
I try not read or listen to reviews (with the one exception of Cybel) so that I can experience the “surprise” of the movie. I want to see something for the first time through my eyes first. Selfish!
The photo of Basquiat at the top of the page is by Lee Jaffe and is beautiful.
