by Marja-Leena

My Top Ten

Tyler Green started something here by posting his top ten favourite artists and asking other bloggers to post their lists. Then today he posted those!
I’m late to the party, having such a very busy week, but have been inspired into thinking and doing lots of culling to get them down to just ten! So here finally is my list of favourite 20th Century artists, (except for the last one). A few of them I’ve written about in my blog and linked to; some have a scattered web presence, so a google search will be in order to see more examples of their work.
1. Kathe Kollwitz: grief
2. Jim Dine: printmaking
3. Robert Rauschenburg: innovation
4. Outi Heiskanen (Finnish printmaker & installation artist): magic
5. Axel Gallen-Kallela (Finnish painter): nationalism
6. Antoni Tapies: texture
7. Betty Goodwin: connectedness
8. Aganetha Dyck: bees
9. Ivan Eyre: drawing
10. AND all the anonymous cave painters and rock artists from our ancient past : inspiration
Jan.2.06 UPDATED new link for Aganetha Dyck

August 6, 2004 in Other artists Comments Off on My Top Ten

by Marja-Leena

Rock Art defaced

News from Stone Pages: Rare Rock Art defaced in Utah

Utah archeologists are fuming with the discovery that ancient art has been vandalized. The Buckhorn Pictograph in Emery County (U.S.A.) has been defaced with charcoal and chalk. The Bureau of Land Management is already putting up a $1,000 reward for information on suspects, and plans to try and remove the vandalism this weekend.

The Buckhorm panel is believed to be anywhere from 2,000 to 4,000 years old; the rock art was created by Native Americans in the San Rafael Swell. Now the art has been defaced, someone has written with chalk, “I love you Wendy” it stretches nearly six feet long. In another area someone has used charcoal to inscribe the name Sherrie next to another pictograph.

The rock art is some of the most accessible site for the public to see and is very rare. The vandalism is extremely disappointing for land managers. This site was recently cleared of vandalism in 1995 during a project to restore the rock art. Now the same rock art conservator, Constance Silver is being flown in from New York City this weekend so she can attempt to remove the vandalism without ruining the rock art. The BLM is asking for help in finding who is responsible and is offering that $1,000 reward.
Source: KSL News (4 August 2004)

Regular readers may recall I recently wrote about the fantastic rock art in Utah and the southwest US. I wonder if buckhorn wash* is the vandalized wall?

This kind of news makes me very sad and angry. Such vandals should be hung by their toes!

*link expired and removed

August 5, 2004 in Rock Art & Archaeology 1 Comment »

by Marja-Leena

Meta-morphosis X

MM-X-(primo).jpg
Meta-morphosis X (Primo)
Etching & Drypoint 76 x 56 cm.

MM-X-(secondo)72.jpg
Meta-morphosis X (Secondo)
Etching 76 x 56 cm.

MM-X-(terzo).jpg
Meta-morphosis X (Terzo)
Etching 76 x 56 cm.

MM-X-(passages)72border.jpg
Meta-morphosis X (Passages)
Etching & Drypoint 76 x 56 cm.

August 3, 2004 in Meta-morphosis, Printworks 1 Comment »

by Marja-Leena

Phonecam photo art

This is very interesting! Pinseri* (in Finnish, from the land of Nokia!) writes (my translation): “If you belong to the group always dreaming of a more expensive and superior digital camera, take an example from Henry Reichhold. He snaps piles of photos with a cellphone camera and assembles them to create fantastic panoramas.”

Read the BBC News article. Note the comparison of pixels to pointillism. Then look at the panorama gallery*. My favourite panoramas are the Icelandic scenes!

More about the art and the artist Henry Reichhold.

*expired links have been removed

August 2, 2004 in Other artists, Photography Comments Off on Phonecam photo art

by Marja-Leena

Inuit Places of Power

This is a beautiful and moving site that I came across yesterday in my web research on the art of Canada’s Northern people: The Canadian Museum of Civilization exhibition Places of Power, Objects of Veneration in the Canadian Arctic.

This online version is a selection of the 36 photographs taken by Norman Hallendy, showing extraordinary places and objects in the Canadian Arctic revealed to him by Inuit elders. The images celebrate ‘unganaqtuq nuna’, the Inuit expression meaning ‘a deep and total attachment to the land.’ These incredible sites were revered for countless generations by the Inuit — the Arctic’s first known inhabitants.

From the introduction:

These places are numerous and varied, and include ‘inuksuit’, the stone structures of varied shape and size erected by Inuit for many purposes. The term ‘inuksuk’ (the singular of inuksuit) means ‘to act in the capacity of a human.’ It is an extension of ‘inuk’, human being. In addition to their earthly functions, certain inuksuk-like figures had spiritual connotations, and were objects of veneration, often marking the threshold of the spiritual landscape of the ‘Inummariit’, which means ‘the people who knew how to survive on the land living in a traditional way.’

Enjoy and admire the photographs.

Addendum: Some time later I found this beautiful book:
Inuksuit: Silent Messengers of the Arctic by Norman Hallendy.

July 30, 2004 in Books, Photography, Rock Art & Archaeology Comments Off on Inuit Places of Power

by Marja-Leena

Southwestern US Rock Art

A few days ago I wrote about the endangered rock art of Nine Mile Canyon in Utah. One of the links for sites of images was that of Doak Heyser. While browsing elsewhere, I found a link to Heyser’s Southwestern US Rock Art Gallery, which includes the Nine Mile photos. I also found John Campbell’s Petroglyphs & Rock Paintings. These impressive galleries of numerous high quality photographs of some of the most beautiful artworks on rock have left me enthralled and awed and wanting to share them with readers – enjoy!

July 28, 2004 in Rock Art & Archaeology 5 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

Vancouver’s manhole cover art

I read about the results of this unusual public art competition twice in Zeke’s Gallery, a Montreal art blog! He refers to articles in the Globe & Mail and the National Post.

So where’s Vancouver’s own online coverage of arts news that made it to national news? Okay, it was in the Vancouver Sun newspaper, but the online version requires a subscription.

By the way, congratulations to an artist I know, Jen Weih, one of the two prize winners of this design competition.

July 26, 2004 in Being an Artist, Culture 2 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

Meta-morphosis IX

MM-IX-(primo)72.jpg
Meta-morphosis IX (Primo)
Etching & Drypoint 76 x 56 cm.

MM-IX-(secondo)72.jpg
Meta-morphosis IX (Secondo)
Etching 76 x 56 cm.

MM-IX-(terzo)72.jpg
Meta-morphosis IX (Terzo)
Etching 76 x 56 cm.

MM-IX-(passages)72.jpg
Meta-morphosis IX (Terzo)
Etching & Drypoint 76 x 56 cm.

July 26, 2004 in Meta-morphosis, Printworks 8 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

Nine Mile Canyon, Utah

News from Stone Pages (July 24.04): Court backs natural gas probe of Utah’s Nine Mile Canyon

A federal judge gave the go-ahead Wednesday for a company to search for natural gas near Utah’s Nine Mile Canyon, renowned for its ancient rock art, ruling that the work would not threaten the ancient etchings. U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan dismissed the challenge by the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance to the exploration plans in redrock slot canyons adjacent to Nine Mile Canyon, saying it failed to prove that damage would be done by the gas work.

Seismic exploration, using sound waves to penetrate the earth and search for gas deposits, is already under way in portions of the 57,000-acre project area. If the tests show a likelihood of gas in the area, then the company will file the necessary paperwork to develop the gas reserves. Diane Orr, a Salt Lake City photographer who has climbed and hiked Nine Mile Canyon photographing the rock art panels, said she already can see the difference in the area from the traffic that the exploration has spawned.

In May, the National Trust for Historic Preservation named Nine Mile Canyon area one of its most endangered places in the country because of the proposed gas development. The Bureau of Land Management says Nine Mile Canyon has more than 10,000 American Indian images etched into the canyon walls, making it the richest collection of rock paintings in the nation. Source: Salt Lake Tribune (22 July 2004)

The National Trust site, which has some images of the petroglyphs, states National Trust named Nine Mile Canyon one of America’s 11 most endangered historic places…Located in a remote part of Utah, Nine Mile Canyon is often called ‘the world’s longest art gallery’ as it contains more than 10,000 images carved onto canyon walls by Native Americans. This area is actually 40 miles long. These petroglyphs and pictographs are attributed to the Archaic, Fremont and Ute people begun about 1700 years ago.

The Religion & Ethics Newsweekly has an interview about how the drive for new energy development collides with the obligation to protect a sacred place.

Larry Sasputch, a spiritual leader of the Ute Indian tribe said: They call it rock art, because that’s all it is to them. It’s just like looking at our dances and stuff, that’s entertainment — it’s art, and that’s as far as they carry it. They don’t understand the symbolism. They don’t understand the spirituality. All they understand is what they see…. It’s really how native people think. Everything is connected to the Creator. This here is our church. These cliffs, they’re as high as any cathedral. They’re all natural. They’re what God put here. All those other churches and cathedrals — that’s man-made. This is already here.

Jerry Spangler is an archaeologist who has written a new roadside guide to the sacred sites of Nine Mile Canyon. Like others, he worries that the rumble from the seismic testing and the trucks and the dust will damage the carvings and drawings. He says,’ I think the risk to Nine Mile is too great. [It] is unlike any other place I’ve ever read about, let alone known about. We know of approximately 1,000 sites in Nine Mile Canyon today. We think we have maybe 5 percent identified; that’s absolutely amazing.‘

More images of the rock art:
by Max Bertola
by D.Heyser
Utah Outdoors

July 24, 2004 in Rock Art & Archaeology 2 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

Colony of Avalon

This caught my eye today on CBC Arts News: “Funding problems plague ongoing Nfld. archeological dig.”

An ongoing excavation project in Newfoundland and Labrador continues to turn up some of the oldest artifacts ever discovered in North America, but the archeologists will have to cut their field season short this year by lack of funds. For more than a decade, an archeology team has been excavating the long-forgotten Colony of Avalon, the settlement founded in 1621… Over the years, the site has turned up more than a million artifacts… So far this summer, workers have uncovered some coins they believe could be the oldest money pieces ever manufactured in the New World and a gravestone, which may help archeologists find the descendants of the colonists.

Ignorant and curious, I googled and found the Colony of Avalon, an excellent and extensive website about this archeological site and museum. It includes a fascinating Virtual Walking Tour. I spent a pleasant hour exploring the site.

Now in addition to L’Anse aux Meadows (that I wrote about a couple of times), there are even more reasons to visit our most eastern province of Newfoundland.

July 22, 2004 in History, Rock Art & Archaeology 1 Comment »