Posted on November 22nd, 2009 — in Arts
Cuban art is a diverse ethnical blend of African, European and North American aesthetic design reflecting the diverse demographic of the island. Artists from Cuba took onboard European modernism and the 1920-1930 era saw an expansion in Cuban modernist movements; these movements were identified by a mixing of contemporary artistic styles. Some of the more celebrated 20th century Cuban artists were likely to hail from the earlier 20th century (for instance Amelia Pelez).
Possibly the most legendary piece of art to be produced in Cuba was THAT picture of a certain Che Guevara (photo by Alberto Korda) which was to become one of the most distinctive photos of the last century.
The indigenous Cuban art movement gained momentum following the opening of the art academy (San Alejandro) back in 1818, which was designed to meet the European taste of the middle class population of Cuba. Towards the end of the 1800s, landscapes dominated Cuban art and classicalism prevailed as the main art genre. Nevertheless, the pioneering Cuban contemporary artists of the late 1920s had despised the academic rules of Cuba’s national art academy. In their formative years, numerous artists had lived in Paris, where they learned and took in the fundamentals of modernist primitivism, surrealism, and cubism. Once back in Cuba, they became dedicated to new artistic methods and were keen to merge this new artistic persuasion with a Cuban twist. The vanguardia artists attained world recognition in 2003 with the Modern Cuban Painting show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. These varieties of art styles are now fashionable via canvas art decorated on walls around the world.
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Posted on September 24th, 2009 — in Arts
The public has had a love/hate relationship with graffiti. On the “good press” side, talented creatives such as Banksy have turned graffiti into an aesthetic pleasure, utilising stencils to create technically tricky artworks with political points attached. This sort of graffiti was likely to become fashionable with both the masses and the artworld : pleasing to the eye, and the intellect. This kind of graffiti is even bought as printed canvas art, and hung in suburban households and office reception areas.
Yet, what of the common or garden variety - the tagger, the gangbanger sort - this is just seen as hooliganism, a crime committed by the talentless. But misinterprets graffiti as purely an art form. To many people, it’s not only art, but a means to mark a neighbourhood, or even two fingers up at society : anti-art, anti-social, anti-establishment.
Graffiti has forever been an underground pursuit, although the results are public facing. The targeted audience is often unknown. Is it for a rival crew? A communication to a single person? To the public at large? Possibly it’s merely gratuitous and out of nothing else to do.
Whatever the reasons may be, there seems to be a permanent need to spray on walls. Some city councils have admitted that graffiti isn’t a short-term craze, so they’ve marked off zones where graffiti is allowed - usually uninhabited areas, but occasionally busier areas like boarding surrounding urban buildings under construction.
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Posted on May 14th, 2008 — in Arts
Everyone has that box of pictures either in a close or in a garage. Even worse yet in a magnetic album. Years go by and unless there is a date notation from the picture process, the dates and places fade into the recess of time.
Maybe we have inherited an album of faded photographs of people we either don’t know or have any connection to. And we keep it because we feel not right just geeting rid of it.
A generation or two from now, will people ponder over what to do with your photos and memories?
It is so easy to take your photos and create a legacy for those that you love. In little time and with no artistic bend or experience, you can create a book that you will be proud to place on your coffee table!
Carefully preserved to last the generations, this treasure will be honored as much as the lives that are part of the history of who were all are.
The best way to start is to begin with current photos. Put some pictures together by category. Maybe a vacation, a season, an event, or an occassion. Just gather them together.
You will need an album and there are many to chose from. My perosnal favorite is the post album because it is easily expandable and will hold a great deal of pages. Plus, your pages will lay flat and look very “put together”
There are many sizes to choose from. You amy want the 12″ x 12″ size to create a large story. The other most popular sizes are 9″x9″ and the 6″x6″ which is generally used as a gift or specialty album.
You will need memory protectors which are plastic pages that will hold your photos and keep them safe from destruction.You can select a matte or clear finish. I would suggest selecting a page that has an extra inch or so where you put the page into the album so that your pages lay flat.
Creating your pages need not take a lot of time or effort. There are many kits on the market that are basically simple to do with great results. Many have preformatted layouts and stickers that let you vertually glue the pictures on and then add the stickers or puchouts. These kits create a page in minutes with great results. Many kits some with page protectors and are a great value.
You can also create your own pages and layouts. With some paper, stickers, glue and embellsihments it is not all that hard to create something special. Start simple and remeber, you can always add on to your pages as time, experience and budget dictate.
Remember to journal or tell the story of your pictures. Some of this should be in your own writing, even if your handwriting would not impress a teacher.
Using the correct supplies will ensure a lasting memory. Remember always to use ligbin and acid free products. If it does not say that it is on the package, you can ssume it is not. Acid and lignin are the two elements that will cause you to lose those pictures that can never be recaptured.
Imagine the pride in your child’s face when you pull out a book that is all about him ! Imagine the thrill to your parents as you sit down with them collecting those nuggets of gold about their lives. Consider the joy of presenting your child a scrapbook of their lives on a wedding day !
Consider the thrill of your grandchilren telling their grandchildren all about you through the books you created !
Money legacies will be spent, but scrapbook memories will live on long after! Consider turning your memories into legacies.
Linda White is a Supervisor and Independent Consultant for Close To My Heart. She is a scrapbook teacher and designer.She also teaches stamping and papercrafts. You can visit her website, http://www.stampnscraps.myctmh.com for more information.
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Posted on April 12th, 2008 — in Arts
What is poetry? The meaning is apparently difficult enough that my dictionary uses circular defining. “The art or work of a poet” is the first entry. The other two definitions don’t clarify this much. I might define it as “The use of words in a primarily artistic (as opposed to informational) form.”
However you define poetry, a given poem often can’t be enjoyed universally. This is because unlike writing that “explains” things, poems use words to evoke scenes and emotions more directly. Words and their connotations are cultural, so as a result most poems don’t translate well. (An exception is haiku, which translates better because of it’s heavy reliance on simple nouns and verbs). Certainly the concept of “apple pie” and the words “red, white and blue” could evoke more feeling in an American than in someone from Mongolia.
More than just the larger cultural connotations of words, though, is the issue of the personal meaning that words and scenes have for each of us. A line like “Making love by the dashboard lights,” from the singer Meatloaf, may be very poetic to some, but meaningless or even offensive to others. It all depends on the experiences of the reader, and the personal meaning attached to the words.
Consider the following stanza from “Their Eyes”:
Shame becomes a smaller thing
The first time you reach down
On the side of the road
To pick up a can or a bottle;
Pick it up and put it in your bag
Without hesitation, without waiting…
For traffic to clear.
For some this would be meaningless. For others it would be understandable at least, because they know that in some areas people collect cans and bottles to turn them in for a refund or for the scrap aluminum value, and that the people who do this are looked down on or pitied. Now, for the person who has actually done this, who may have even been homeless and needed to collect cans - that person can relate more deeply to the poem.
Since this is not a widely shared experience, it may not be a poem that can be widely appreciated. On the other hand, writing poetry like this can be very cathartic and meaningful to the writer. It can even help him understand the feelings he has. This is why poetry is often more for the sake of the writer than the reader.
A lost love can be related to by millions. A margarine tub full of blueberries can bring back childhood memories for hundreds of thousands. Maybe a few hundred of us can relate to the sense of peace that comes from collecting blueberries on rocky islands a day from the nearest road. Without further explaining, two shoes on a tree stump might bring just one person to tears, while being meaningless to the rest of the world.
Of course these things can be explained. All experiences can be made more universally understandable in good poetry. However, as with jokes, the impact can be lost with too much explanation. It is wonderful to be able to touch others with your words, but in the end, perhaps the value of a poem starts and ends with its value to the poet.
Steve Gillman has been playing with poetry for thirty years. He and his wife Ana created the game “Deal-A-Poem,” which can be accessed for free at: http://www.dealapoem.com
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