jim henson

This beautiful painting by Karen Margulis is called Siamese Cat on the Porch and is done in pastels. I love the peacefully sleeping cat and the interplay of various violet shades throughout. I especially like the splash of turquoise on the collar.

You can go to her website to see more of her work.

Gustave Courbet's A Family of Deer in a Landscape with a Waterfall illustrates what water often means in art and poetry--life. Water is essential to life. Without it, we would cease to exist.

From the top to the bottom of this piece, life just bursts out. We see a bit of sky with white clouds, which are immediately taken over by the tops of green trees. Our eyes travel down and we begin to see the top of the miraculous waterfall which spills down to the deer family enjoying the bounty it brings. In the foreground, the water sparkles in the sunlight.

This is a kind of Eden, a life-giving oasis, of the kind that exist in the dessert. When it they are real and not a mirage, they are a precious gift of God.

This is Ricardo Santos-Alfonso's painting My Dream-Vision That Day in 9/11.  It is an abstract piece using oils, mainly in reds and blacks, to express the horror of the world on the day the Twin Towers in New York were taken down by 2 hijacked airplanes.

The painting can be viewed and purchased here.

As a bit of an art blogger, I thought it my duty to point out a very thought-provoking article by Simcha Fisher called What is So Bad About Thomas Kinkade?

Kinkade, who calls himself the "painter of light", is a very popular artist in the United States. I have a copy of one of his paintings in my living room.

His work is very idealized; all the flowers are blooming, objects are inexplicably glowing, water is sparkling, and tiny cottages ablaze with light await our habitation. His world is perfect.

His w o r l d is perfect.

That is exactly what is wrong with Thomas Kinkade according to Fisher. The world, as God created it, is not beautiful enough.  It needs impossible idealization.  It needs to be "made-up" like an unnaturally skinny model with weirdly puffed up lips.

Another disturbing thing is the lack of light source in his paintings. A commenter on Fisher's blog said that he or she thought of Christian iconography when seeing Kinkade's work. Fisher points out, however, that they are quite different.

In Christian iconography, there is often a fierce interplay of light and darkness, showing that God is the true source of Light. In Kinkade's work, the world seems to be light itself with no source of light discernible .

While mesmerizing, this type of painting leaves us disappointed when we realize that life is not like that. Kinkade's paintings are worldly in an inverted sort of way. We are immersed in this impossible world with nothing that points us to the Source of its beauty. Kinkade's paintings are a kind of addictive escape that tell no story of their own.

In Rembrandt's Adoration of the Shepherds, on the other hand, the entire story is told through the light source. Light emanates from the newly born Christ Child while the surrounding area is filled with contrasting darkness.

The story here is immediate and obvious, told with genius and artistic uniqueness.

A story is told when beauty is allowed to be contrasted with everyday "ugliness".  Kinkade does not allow this. In his world, everything must be perfect.  Fisher likened this to a child's beauty pageant.  The inner beauty of a child is not good enough.  She must be painted and curled to impossible perfection until she is unrecognizable.

The world was created as a beautiful blend of the joyous and the sorrowful.  Good art is technically talented but it is more than that.  Good art tells a story, as good literature does, through the juxtaposition of beauty and ugliness, joy and sorrow, light and darkness.

That is the crux of the Christian story and we would do well to remember and celebrate it.  Keeping ourselves amassed in impossible standards of worldly perfection only brings disappointment when we wake up and realize that it is not to be.

This is the source of much of our sorrow today.  We want physical, relational, financial and entertainment perfection, often chasing it to the detriment of the fellow humans we have been put with on this earth.  We want it all now.  We must have perfect fulfillment.

Christianity, like life, is not this escape from reality.  It is reality as it was created and redeemed by God.  The world, from Catholicism's point of view, is very "sacramental"--it is a means by which God gives us His grace and reveals Himself  to us.  To take away the everyday, to take away the darkness, is to do God a disservice.

Good art, music and literature conveys this by showing the world in all its glory--not as an over-idealized, cookie-cutter, tv-generation view of reality that must be impossibly air-brushed-perfect to be appreciated.

In keeping with our Carousel theme for this week, I wanted to feature a painting by Laurie Justus Pace, Escape of the Carousel.

 I don't usually feature abstract paintings, but I thought the technique lent itself well to the intensity of the carousel. The imagination of the rider, the unusual music, continuous, circular movement, not to mention the shouting people and sugary snacks, make for a very surreal experience which is captured in this piece.

Update:  We have been blessed with a comment from the artist!  Laurie Pace has pointed out that she has painted a series of carousel horses which you can see by clicking here.  Scroll down to see her various interpretations of the carousel horse.

Today's work of art is Morning Mist of Nagarkot by Scott Burdick.  This shows beautifully the all-encompassing mist that hangs in the air, only to be burned off when the sun later shines.

The colors are muted by the blueish white mist and makes us feel we can reach out and touch the quiet as the workers pick the harvest.

This tiny and very old work of art is Saint Benedict from an illuminated manuscript.  These figures were drawn inside the initial letters of main pages of hand-copied bibles, Gospels, Psalters and Books of Hours. Sometimes these illustrations were drawn in the margins.

Copying these books was a tedious task, especially since artificial light was limited to candles and oil lamps.  In the early part of the Medieval period, the same monks who copied the text did the illuminating.  By the High Middle Ages, these jobs were separate and by the 15th century, some monasteries were paying artists outside to do this work.

I love how the artist has shown such emotion in this one little painting.  The saint holds his head in his hands in exasperation, perhaps, with the monks he is destined to lead, or perhaps, it is fatigue from the early morning Office he must get up to pray.

Even saints have difficult days!

This is Degas' Ballet Class.  I loved the informal nature of this piece, with the mom in the front reading a newspaper and the dad in the background watching his daughter try out her ballet moves.  The whole thing is infused with yellow light pouring from the window and picked up by the sash on the dark-haired dancer.

This painting is Ombres Portées by Emile Friant (1891) is a perfect accompaniment to yesterday's A Man and a Woman by Francis Lai.  Translated as Shadows, the darkness of the clothing and the shadows is juxtaposed with the white wall they are in front of.  The man looks at the woman pleadingly while the woman looks away.  A classic pose with a surprisingly modern touch.

I was impressed with this picture in terms of its realism but I wasn't going to use it until I decided to use Lovin' Spoonful's Summer in the City as yesterday's Music Monday.  I thought this picture went perfectly with the idea of Summer in the City with its depiction of the scene we often see when looking for a rest from a long summer drive.  I think maybe the thermometer under the Citgo sign should read a bit higher than a mere 99 though!

Oh yeah, and, notice the cheap gas prices!!

Today's painting is Eagle-Owl by Jeff Ward.  I love the painterly style of this piece.  You can see the brush strokes, like feathers, all over this owl.  It's so fluffy, you just want to reach out and touch him.

The whole picture is done in shades of brown, black and white, the background almost an extension of the owl itself.  The feathers seem to be blowing in the cold wind; the owl is fluffing himself up against the cold.

Today's painting is Girl with Two Caged Doves by John Frederick Lewis.

I love the bright colors in her apron, shirt (which you see at her waste and collar) and scarf.  The warm sun pervades the entire picture and fills it with bright happiness.  The subtle orange-red of her lips matches the red throughout the picture.

The eye is drawn to the navy blue pillow on the bed and the way the sun shines on it from the window.

The sunlight throws a pattern from the window onto the pastel pattern in her skirt.

The beautifully carved wooden door makes a compelling backdrop for the visually rich picture.

The dove in her hand seems to trust her.  In searching the picture for the second dove, I noticed the small table at her feet with the ceramic vase and round, blood-orange colored fruit.

The second dove is not completely in the frame, its wings spread as if, unlike his cage-mate, he wants to be free.

For today's Art and Beauty Tuesday we will explore something from Street Art Utopia.

I love the concept of beautifying one's environment and stepping out of the preconceived notions of what art and beauty are.

Apparently, this Lego art is happening all over the world.  Go to this website and click on a city to discover examples of their Lego street art!

This 19th century oil on canvas is called Wedding Cards.  Having just come from my own son's wedding over the weekend, I was touched by the contemplative expression on the bride's face, wondering, perhaps, what married life will be like, or perhaps, contemplating leaving the only home she has ever known.

She seems to gaze into the future and abide in the past all at once.

Her face is beautifully rendered and individual, making us feel as though we know her personally.  We in the 21st century are not put off by her 19th century dress.  Its darkness makes it fade a bit into the background and  doesn't overwhelm her personality.

The artist uses touches of blue with tiny bits of green and purple to break up the dark color of the sleeves, and even uses some blue on her hands.

All in all, I think this is a very forward-looking work of art, mixing a painterly style with some modern sketchiness in an overall realistic rendering of this beautiful young woman.

ETA:  Please see the first comment by Diddleymaz for clarification on this painting.  The card is a Victorian calling card sent through the mail to invite the receiver to call on the sender.  The wedding, apparently, is that of the receiver of the card.

This sheds new light on the painting and makes much more sense than my original musings.  As Diddleymaz suggests, perhaps she is wistfully thinking of the groom as being out of her reach forever.

Thanks so much, Diddleymaz for the clarification!

I really like this painting by John Singer Sargent.  Spirito Santo, Saattera is a painting that says so much with so few brush strokes.  It is not photorealistic, but a beautiful water color that doesn't even use a large variety of colors--mainly various warm neutrals with a little blue and purple.

Nevertheless, Sargent really makes us see the water, as much as if he had taken months to paint it in oils.  Painting water with the quick technique necessary with water colors is a wonderful way to portray the transient nature of water and of life itself.

This charming painting is Morkenkaffen (which I think means morning coffee) by Harald Slott Moller.  It shows a beautiful woman pouring herself coffee near a sunny curtained window.

The pure white of her dress is continued in the white of the curtains, which frame both the window and the silver coffee urn.  The light and height are mimicked in the cream-colored clock that stands next to the chair that sits by the window.

The rest of the room is a typically dark interior of a pre-electric home.  The light from the window tells us that this woman is getting her energy, not only from the coffee, but from the outside world and from nature.

The clock reminds us that what seems antique to us actually existed inside time and was this young woman's daily life.

A Time for Honoring was painted by Sgt. Pete Damon, a wounded Iraq War Veteran, to honor Memorial Day, a day in which we set aside to honor our war dead.  You can get more information on this painting, including purchasing details by going to Sgt. Damon's website.

Each year, many community organizations place flags on the graves of deceased veterans.  I have memories of doing this with my son's scout troops as well as my husband's Army Band unit.

Take time today to pray for all our beloved dead, especially those who died in war.

Isn't this picture gorgeous?!  It is called Lilacs and Lace by Ann Morton.  Its photographic realism is breathtaking.  Morton includes many different textures, each one difficult to reproduce in oil paint on linen.

The beautiful white and purple lilacs catch our eye first, almost leading us to believe that the "lace" referred to in the title are the white lilacs themselves.  Then our eye is drawn to the the shiny little ceramic figure, whose delicacy and purple coloring perfectly compliment the lilacs.

As we marvel at its perfectly bright shininess, we realize that the lilacs are contained in a silver pitcher, perfectly rendered by Morton, reflecting the entire painting.

At last we find the lace, covering the table.  Morton paints the details of the lace, its color and wrinkles in amazing detail, drawing the whole picture together in what must be the most amazing and interesting still-life ever done.

The Good Shepherd by Larry Dyke is a classic yet unusual rendition of the ancient title of Christ.  We see Jesus far off, with light shining from His face, in a style reminiscent of Rembrandt. Jesus leads His sheep through a beautiful pastoral valley, surrounded by a rocky mountain on one side, and a vegetation-filled hill on the other.

Christ always sees the way clear for us and will lead us through to the Light that is afar off.