I Was Wrong

Cy Twombly was NOT pleased that a woman loved his painting so much that she kissed it. In fact, he was "devastated." The fact that art vandalism is a crime is undisputed by this author. However, to call her vandalism "Rape" is a bit much. We live in an age where raping a woman is not even called RAPE anymore. The term has been neutered to be called "sexual assault" -- whatever that means. One cannot RAPE an artwork. Well, I guess one could, but that would be rather odd and something I would not like to imagine. It's a sad thing that there may be permanent damage done to this painting. Perhaps try alternative words like "tragedy," or "destroyed," or "ruined," or "demolished," if one still has a penchant for the dramatic, but I think it's time some people got over themselves and leave the word "Rape" for the real thing.

Where Art and Science Meet: "Flight Patterns" by Aaron Koblin

I saw this on ABC World News tonight. A designer named Aaron Koblin has created a visual spectacle of the flight patterns in the United States. Here is his page exhibiting the work using Quicktime. His work is both fascinating and beautiful; and frankly, a stroke of genius.


Aaron Koblin's website.

Photos are from Koblin's website.

Cy Twombly Would Probably Love Her for It

News Article

Cy Twombly, Leda and The Swan; 1962 Oil, pencil and crayon
on canvas 6' 3" x 6' 6 3/4" (190.5 x 200 cm)

View Cy Twombly's brief biography at ArtNet's Research Library.

Chilly Portraits

Matt Hoyle exhibits his photographic portraits at the Point of View Art Gallery in an exhibition called Icebergs.

Annie Leibovitz and The Queen

Recently, the Queen of England was presented as blowing a gasket when photographer Annie Leibovitz asked her to dress down for her photo shoot. Of course, the BBC has apologized for misrepresenting the non-event. Here's one reporter's take on the incident prior to the BBC apology:

A traditional portrait of the Queen by Annie Leibovitz.


The BBC Apology

A collection of her portraits at Temple University.

More Than Meets the Eye

The new Transformers movie smashed all box office records this past week grossing $29.1 million on the 4th of July (article on Yahoo). Of course, I wasn't a boy in the 1980s (rather, a girl), but I saw the film on an early preview showing and I thought it was spectacular. I'll probably review it here after I see it a couple more times.


Transformers movie's official website.

The Cat in Art

A recently published book on the subject has been written about in Art News.

Book on Amazon.com.

I've long been a fan of Theophile Alexandre Steinlen's cats. However, the work of Louis Wain has long intrigued me because his work shows his descent into schizophrenia.

Before: A naturalistic cat before the onset of schizophrenia.

After: Untitled - c.1933, watercolor & bodycolor, 9 x 7.5 in.

Sources of Images:
http://www.outsiderart.co.uk/wain.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Wain_Cat_%28realistic%29.jpg

$13.1 Million

Le Coq by Joan Miró (1940)

Damien Hirst Talks About "A Thousand Years"

New Family Member

A couple of months ago, a feral cat had kittens on our property. After separating them at weaning time and socializing them for a couple of weeks, I ran into the reality of the animal welfare system in Northwest Arkansas. The shelters are overflowing because people still have a rural mentality in a rapidly developing suburban/urban area. Animals are abandoned, not spayed or neutered, and treated in the cruelest of ways. And, unfortunately, there isn't a lot of support, funds, policies, and laws to help them all so a great deal of them are euthanized.

So, we took on the task of trying to adopt out the four kittens ourselves. The shelters were so crowded that they were beginning to euthanize kittens and puppies and begged foster "parents" to take in some of the kittens and puppies. I spoke to one such foster parent who had 40 kittens alone in her garage and was trying to adopt those out. That is the sad nature of the glut of unwanted animals in this area, and with attitudes like this, it is no surprise.

I took action. I drove them to my hometown, St. Louis, where there is NOT a glut of unwanted animals, but kittens like these are in demand. I took them to a veterinary clinic I know of and they adopted them out in less than a week. I decided after much deliberation that I would take one myself and introduced a new family member to my house of two elderly cats. My husband, his son, and I all had the same favorite kitten and were initially calling our new kitten "Adventure Boy" because he liked challenging himself. I've have a cat named Solomon and my husband's name is Jeremiah, so in keeping with a Biblical name, we're now calling this new member of our family Samson. It seems a fitting name for Adventure Boy, since Samson slayed a lion and ate honey from the carcass, cavorted with prostitutes, married twice outside his tribe, broke ropes that bound him, slayed 3000 men with the jawbone of a donkey, carried heavy city gates on his back, and eventually pushed an entire temple down with his bare hands (Judges 13 - 16).

Doesn't he seem like he could push a temple down?
Well, maybe not right now....