Monday, August 30, 2010

Richard Boulet: One Long Brutally Mangled Epiphany - Oh Well

Richard Boulet
Epiphany / Epiphany (cross-stitch detail) / Step 1AAAA / Ex Voto / Residual (cross-stitch detail), / Scream Like a Shot Deer / No Longer Homeless / No Longer Homeless (cross-stitch detail) / Subterranean Microscope / Governance
fabric appliqué and cross-stitch, 2004-2005
My involvement with the cross-stitch gives me a tangible feeling of being in the moment plus my thoughts are able to delve into the past, my previous psychotic life before being diagnosed with schizophrenia, and my mental health recovery. I allow for such rumination as, quite frankly, I need to make sense of this schizophrenia situation and give it peace.

With cross-stitch and quilting I feel I am understanding that work learned in a safe home can follow me into the world and add strength to my character to do more than just survive. I can flourish. Is this the traditional quiet message behind all the sewing and stitching created by countless mothers for their families?
-Richard Boulet
Richard Boulet lives and works in Edmonton, Alberta.
more here and here
images courtesy of the artist (Thanks Richard!)

Saturday, August 28, 2010

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black orpheus

Orfeo Negro, OST 7" EP (Argentinean pressing) Phillips, no date

Friday, August 27, 2010

Netsilik

Simon Keanik, Head with Snow Goggles, (green stone, wood, & bone), 1974
from Art & Expression of the Netsilik, Darlene Coward Wight, The Winnipeg Art Gallery, 2000

Thursday, August 26, 2010

The Mastery Of Life

"You Can Influence Others With Your Thinking!"
THE ROSICRUCIANS (AMORC), San Jose, CA.
cropped from full page ad, Mechanix Illustrated, April, 1961

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

In Praise of Elwood Snock

Michael Hurley:
Armchair Boogie, Raccoon/Warner Brothers, 1971, (LP and homemade cassette) (Cassette lovingly dubbed by Mr. Hurley from a somewhat noisy vinyl copy) LP includes the comic Boone & Jocko in the Barren, Choking Land)
Hi Fi Snock Uptown, Raccoon/Warner Brothers, 1972 (LP and homemade cassette)
Parsnip Snips, Veracity (Germany), 1995, LP (unreleased home-recordings 1965-72)

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Roger Duvoisin (details---part two)

Roger Duvoisin illustration details from Snowy and Woody (1979), Petunia's Christmas (1952), Crocus (1977), Lonely Veronica (1963), and See What I Am (1974)

Monday, August 23, 2010

Joseph Cornell: Brownies and Cherry Coke

A Joseph Cornell Exhibition for Children, arranged by Dore Ashton, Cooper Union School of Art and Architecture, February 10 -March 2, 1972 (images from A Joseph Cornell Album, Dore Ashton, Viking Press, 1974---photo essay by Denise Hare)

"Cornell exhibited 26 boxes and collages---The works were hung at child's-eye level, no more than 3 feet off the ground." Brownies and Cherry Coke were served at the afternoon reception. Cornell gave the children a tour of the show and enthusiastically answered questions. This was the last exhibition Cornell attended before his death.

Since I first read about this exhibition in Cornell's biography a few years ago, I haven't stopped thinking about it (and how I might one day 'appropriate' the idea). I was very happy to finally find these photos in Ashton's book.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

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last page of Whistle for Willie by Ezra Jack Keats, 1964 (Scholastic edition, 1967)