Quotes on Art to Motivate and Inspire. We, as artists, need to feed our souls!

“When I say artist I mean the one who is building things … some with a brush – some with a shovel – some choose a pen.” ~Jackson Pollock

“The main thing is to be moved, to love, to hope, to tremble, to live.” ~Auguste Rodin

“Life is the art of drawing without an eraser.” ~John W. Gardner

“Art doesn’t have to be pretty. It has to be meaningful.” ~Duane Hanson

“To draw, you must close your eyes and sing” ~Pablo Picasso

“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time”. ~Thomas Merton

“Go and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here. Make. Good. Art.” ~Neil Gaiman

“The earth has music for those who listen.”  ~William Shakespeare

“Art is not a thing, it is a way.” ~Elbert Hubbard

“Art is when you hear a knocking from your soul — and you answer.” ~Terri Guillemets

“Art reaches its greatest peak when devoid of self-consciousness. Freedom discovers man the moment he loses concern over what impression he is making or about to make.” ~Bruce Lee

“I am interested in art as a means of living a life; not as a means of making a living.” ~Robert Henri

“We dance for laughter, we dance for tears, we dance for madness, we dance for fears, we dance for hopes, we dance for screams, we are the dancers, we create the dreams.” ~Albert Einstein

Read more at:http://skinnyartist.com/150-amazing-quotes-to-feed-your-creative-soul/

Ai Weiwei                   photo by Elizabeth Gordon

Flying Among the Stars

FAITH RINGGOLD

AN AFRICAN AMERICAN ARTIST OF RENOUN

Flying Among the Stars  by Faith Ringgold   from google image for educational purposes only

I have had the pleasure of hearing Ms. Ringgold speak twice in my life.  Once I drove to Sarasota, Florida to hear her speak at the city convention center and what I remember from that time was my first introduction to Ringgold's Tar Beach.  I was enamored by the piece and the qualities of  quilting/fabric as art and the story telling emphasis of the work.  Later she did a childrens' book called aTar Beach which was a wonderful introduction to her art and the culture of Harlem and the African American experience.  I would see her again where she spoke at a national art education conference and again I was so impressed with her as an artist and as a person.  She has a generous larger than life personality.  

THE POWERFUL VOICES OF BLACK WOMEN ARTISTS IN AMERICA

BlackWomen Who Rule in the Arts

Phoebe Beasley      from google image for educational purposes only

African American Artists were few and far between in earlier periods of America, unless they produced  were a practical craft that benefited the people they worked for or were owned by. Art done on plantations where many African American were forced to live were crafts they had brought with them from Africa.  Along the costal highways of South Carolina one can still fine stalls that sell baskets learned and passed down from one generation to the next.

Bettye Saar  from google image for educational purposes only

Gullah Basket Weaver on Coastal South Carolina Highway

 The baskets were made for rice harvesting and brought to America by the captured enslaved people from the Rice Coast of Africa.  

Faith Ringgold's Tar Beach     from google for educational purposes only

      Fine arts seems to be regulated to those who had money for college and money for extra mentoring.  But, bit by bit, Black artists have made themselves a place in American art. Even more rare were the presence Black women artist, then came Faith Ringgold, Lorna Simpson, Thelma Golden, Bette Sayre, Kara Walker, and Elizabeth Catlett. These women had a huge impact on the world of art. They could express their way of life and how harsh and painful it was, they could tell of the unfairness of slavery and maltreatment and of the humiliation they endured as being treated as less than people.  

Now a new wave of African American Women Artists is arriving with new messages and imagery.  In our next posts we will look in depth at individual African American Artists who made a difference in the early movement of Black artists in America and the we will move on to the present and look at the new exciting group of Black women artists making a difference today.

STRONG WOMEN BRIGHT

Our friend and fellow glass artist Joseph Cavalieri is showing a new body of work about strong women that have influenced his life.  Please check out his show in NYC at the Dixon Gallery.(click)

A POWERFUL VISUAL VOICE FOR MUSLIM WOMEN

THE ART OF LALLA ESSAYDI
a powerful visual voice for Muslim women 

from google image for educational purposes only

Lalla Essaydi is a successful and famous painter and photographer. She was born in 1956 in Marrakech, Morocco, and spent her childhood there as well as Saudi Arabia. She grew up in a family where her father was a successful painter. As a young girl, Essaydi was brought up in a strict Islamic household, which aided her in forming her identity as an artist. In an artist description, the Lisa Sette Gallery gives us a taste of Essaydi’s childhood days. It states, “an empty family house in Morocco is the setting for her current body of work; as a young girl, when Essaydi acted inappropriately according to the rules of her traditional Islamic family, she was sent to this house as punishment, in a sort of solitary confinement. Having grown up in both Morocco and Saudi Arabia before receiving an art education in the U.S., Essaydi now returns to the site of her childhood confinements and sees the space as delineating both her Arabic background and her current life as an independent Western artist (Lisa Sette Gallery).” more......

from google image for educational purposes only

from google image for the sole purpose of education

EAST OF WEST IN SEARCH OF ART AND MEANING/A WOMAN'S VIEW

Grappling with Culture, Art and

Identification/Iranian: Artist Haleh Anvari 

In an interview with the UK Guardian journalist, Natalie Hanman talked to Haleh Anvari about how her photographs of women in brightly colored chadors attempt to redraw the image of Iran in the west. Speaking of her past, Haleh tells of pushing the limits too far and being confined to her house, in frustration she picked up a camera and started a new career as a photographer and artist.   

The Photography of  Haleh Anvari Iranian Artist               from google image for educational purposes only 

  

Haleh grew up a Shia Muslim and  is 46 years old.  She went to an English boarding school and went on to study at Stafforshire University.  She returned to Iran in 1992 and married.  Then came great changes to Iran, it was a time of turmoil and violence. The hijab was made compulsory for women if they were in public and black was considered more desirable than other colors.

Anvari grew up in a family that wore the chadori, and it was considered an act of entering adulthood to begin wearing a chadori after ones youth.  But in her family women wore different colors of dress and that gave her a more liberal view. Growing up in what she calls "a chadori family", she explained it is where women wore the chador "to enter the world".  

from google image for educational purposes only

She goes on to say, in the article, that Iranians are well known for having a double life, outside and inside. She points our Iran's architecture and language show it in many ways.  In a one woman photographic showing and conversation she discusses how the West has eroded the complexities of the relationship of the culture and dress. In her view a black hijab has become almost like short hand in the way the West views Middle Eastern women. 
  

Reading the article gave me more insight than I think I have ever had about the complex feelings Iranian and other Middle Eastern women have about wearing a hijab or chador. In my Western women's view I only saw it as restrictive and a symbol of enslavement for women.  It is so interesting to hear the voices of Muslim women. I am sure the feelings are diverse and not of one view.  It is a conversation worth listening to and understanding.  But without the ability to speak up and have a platform Anvari's voice would never have been heard.  We must thank her and the many women who are speaking up in words, art and photography to let us see into their worlds.

A World View For Women in The Arts

MUSLIMA
MUSLIM WOMEN'S ART AND VOICE

The International Museum of Muslim Women(click for link) is an added voice in women in the arts.  I thought you might like to have a more international view of women in the arts.  It is too easy for those of us centered in the West to think from a center of our own culture and way of thinking.  We want to work at making Rabbit's Moon as open as possible to art in every area and in every culture.  Women need a platform in which to show their art and let their voices be heard world wide, but in some cultures it is harder for women to be heard.  So we here at Rabbit's Moon herald Muslima and making it possible for Muslim women's art and voices a stage to be heard!

Artists unknown from google image and Al Jazeera  Streaming

Jackson Pollock As You Never Knew Him-No Drips!

Los Tres Grandes by Jackson Pollack  from google image for  educational purposes only

There was a time when "Jack the Dripper" did not do the abstract drip paintings on the floor that you may know him by.  Many people do not know about his time in the WPA(click) and the Federal One Project. He studied with other artists who would later become famous as well. Another artists you may know is Thomas Hart Benton.  From 1935-42 Pollock's work was very different artist than the abstract expressionist he became later.  He revered the Mexican muralist artists of the 1930's, one of which was Diego Rivera.  When you look at Rivera's art it is not hard to see the influence. 

Diego Rivera   Mexican Muralists  from google for education only

"Jackson Pollock, often considered America's greatest modern painter, was born on January 28, 1912, in Cody, Wyoming. He grew up in Arizona and California and studied art at the Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles, eventually studying with the painter Thomas Hart Benton at the Art Students League in New York.

Thoma Hart Benton  Work Project Mural

Pollock admired the Mexican muralists of the 1930s. These artists had a great influence on his work, particularly with regards to scale and social theme. Like many artists of the day, he found work through the WPA Federal Art Projects from 1935 to 1942. During these formative years of Abstract Expressionism, Pollock's role as leader came to be recognized. He had his first show at Peggy Guggenheim's gallery, The Art of This Century, in 1943. 

Pollock, who suffered from alcoholism and depression, underwent psychoanalysis for several years. His treatment fostered an interest in Carl Jung's theories of trans-historical archetypes that formed the basis of the artist's works, particularly from 1942 to 1947. 

In the late 1940's, Pollock began to develop the technique of "action painting." Placing the canvas on the floor, he used brushes as implements to drip paint. This moment marks the greatest Abstract Expressionist achievement – symbolized by the Drip and a rejection of the traditional figure-ground relationship, often referred to as the Allover. In this process, Pollock challenged the entire Western easel tradition. In 1949, Life Magazine, placing Pollock on the cover, asked "Is This the Greatest American Painter?" catapulting Pollock and the Abstract Expressionist movement to the forefront." from an article with the L&M Gallery  

It is Never Too Late to Pursue Your Passion!

TODAY I WITNESSED A SMALL MIRACLE!
Seek your Dreams and they will find you!

Early this morning I awoke and made a journey across the bay to attend a very special event.  It was to attend the college graduation ceremony of a friend of mine.  Bright and early near the water under the palms Pat received her college diploma after 40 years.  She had taken university courses when she was younger, but events in her life had taken her away from her pursuit.  Now in her fifties it looked like her dream of being a college graduate might not happen and then the closing of her job offered her the chance to go back to school.  Two years later and lots of hard work Pat graduated.  It was held under a giant tent in the Florida heat and humidity.  The names were called off, one hopeful young person after another stepped up and families cheered.  When Pat's name was called we, her family and friends, yelled and clapped. The pride in her face was so wonderful to witness and the pride in her husbands face who also had graduated two years earlier, was just as great. It is much harder to go back to college when you are older among much younger students.  This college, as some do, offer a program for experienced learners.    

You may wonder why I put this story in an art blog, but the pursuit of ones dreams is no small thing when you don't relent and don't give up the satisfaction is twice as sweet!  But, Pat is an artist as well.  She is one of the most creative people I know.  Her most recent research paper is about the artists of the WPA and Federal One project.  It is a fascinating topic of how in the worst of times people found a way to bring out the best in human nature.  During the worst depression America has ever known a government group had the idea to support art and artists with federal monies and get people back to work. This is a wonderful topic and I would like to cover it more in depth in another post, but now I would like to focus on bringing your passion and dreams to reality as Pat did today.  

It is truly a miracle at what Pat achieved today.  There is so much in life that can keep one from seeking ones dreams, there is no end to reasons or events in life that we give credit to being obstacles to our success.  And there are many countries where a woman and a mature person could never to school much less go back to school.  So it is no small achievement that was done today and my friend walked across that stage and received her diploma with honors when one considers the small percentage of women in any country that could go back to school in their 50's and get their degree.  

So be like Pat, wherever you live and how ever old you are, seek out your passion, let nothing stand in your way and go after that dream!  Pat will go on to give much back to her community and to others because she sought out a higher education.  People will be enriched and lives improved, just like a pebble dropped in a pond...the rings of influence will reach out even when Pat doesn't know her passion and love of learning and art has touched other lives!

Pursuit of the Race  WPA Art       from college for educational purposes only

How to Feel Fulfilled As An Artist

Our joy and struggle as artists is a constant dance of a mix of emotions.  If you are like me there is an inner voice that constantly says make art, you must make art.  I can ignore it for months and even years, but everyday it is there constantly nagging, constantly urging.  And why do I not make art during those times, sometimes it is self sabotage and other times a lack of confidence, or a million excuses that really are only blocks, procrastination and other things, but it comes down to one thing giving in to that inner voice, sitting down and making art.  I recently picked up a book called the War of Art  and a friend said it will really kick your butt about giving in to excuses and procrastination..and he was right it surely does. I do highly recommend the book.  Also I suggest always working around positive accepting people, an accepting safe environment brings out the best in the creative act.  We may be motivated by pain we see in the world or suffering around us, as well as by beauty, but when it is time for the actual making of art and the act of creation a safe environment free of criticism is essential.

Monica has made huge progress with her classes in pottery
and wheel throwing.  Look at the expression of pride in ones self!

from google image for educational purposes only

Joseph Cavalieri Continues to Shine!

JOSEPH CAVALIERI          NEW WORKS

Joseph is one of our favorite artists who we art Rabbit's Moon Studio love to follow. We first met Joseph at Duncan McClellen's Glass Studio where he was guest artist. He is an energetic highly productive artists.  He is constantly exhibiting, making art, or teaching.  His work is wonderful and I have an idea his workshops are fantastic as well.  I can hardly wait to sign up myself, as I am always loving to explore new media and learn new techniques. I think when an artist is willing to do that there is constant growth in oneself and ones art! You owe yourself a treat, check out Joseph on his website, go see his work in a show, or sign up for a workshop.  I plan too!

New York Artist Joseph Cavalieri was asked to create new work for a gallery in New York.  The work is entitled "Motown to Def JAM2.  The show was curated by Sou L Eo.  It will take place in Harlem on June 11th(6-9pm).  The address is La Maison d'Art Private Gallery at 259 West 132 Street New York.  It will be part of the ArtCrawl.
Cavalieri named worked with the song Soulsville by Isaac Hayes for inspiration.
slums, ghetto and blac, belt, they are all one and the same. And I call it Soulsville.

This song represents a look at the portrait of a depressive inner city in the 1970's and ends with a glint of hope that God will put an end to all of this misery or so it says in the song.

DUNCAN MCCLELLEN HITS IT OUT OF THE PARK WITH ART!

Duncan McClellan's Glass Studio is well on its way to becoming one of the largest hot glass studios in the USA.  

Duncan McClellan's latest show highlights Washington D. C. glass artists, each exhibiting cutting edge designs in glass mixed media art.  Every new exhibit Duncan has put together shows innovative glass work from studio artists around the country. All the events that Duncan does are well attended and smartly done.  He certainly has a talent for community involvement, promotion, and entertainment, as well as, his own art.  He is building programs with resident artists, educational outreach programs, on site workshops and no telling what else.  Our area is richer for his vision, passion and leadership.

In the most recent show Sean Hennessey, Tim Tate and Michael Janis, Erwin Timmers, and Allegra Marquart are very innovative and creative glass artist from Washington Glass Studio. Each artist offers a new way of experiencing glass media art.
Sean has wonderful pieces that speak of history, mythology and archeology. It is as if one were an archeologist unearthing a recent treasure that was just peaking out from under the surface.  There is a wonderful mystery to Sean's work.

Sean Hennesey  Killing Time  Mixed media and Glass     photo used with permission of artist

Tim Tate's work is innovative, edgy and yet there is a hint of today as if it illusionary passing over into the future.  He is passionate about his art and generous with his time and talent. He was one of the founders of Washington Glass.  He has great energy and is an artist who shares his ideas and techniques.  I have met many artist through the years if they discover something they want to hide it, keep it to themselves and protect it from others. This is not Tim, he is a builder and a leader and a teacher.  What a pleasure it was to meet Sean and Tim.  One can tell this is a studio full of positive energy and talent.  It made me want to hop on a plane and go to D.C. to sign up for classes!  My hope is Duncan can talk some of these guys into doing workshops here!  Hint, Hint.

Tim Tate         Video Tea Time    photo used with permission

I did not meet Michael, but Sean gave me a wonderful explanation of his process and technique.  I thought when I first saw the work it was a photo transfer, not so.  Michael is actually manipulation frit bit by bit to prouduce these photo realistic works.  I was totally amazed.  And to add to that it fires it layer by layer.  This is a process I must see in person and meet the artist also.

Michael Janis  Washington Glass Artist   

ABORIGINE ART IS SOME OF THE OLDEST ART ON EARTH

28,000 Years ago an Aborigine Artist drew and painted on a rock!

From google image for educational purposed only

A recent discovery in Australia had dated the one of the earliest painted art on Earth.  The Star News reported that archeologist discovered this detailed painted rock in a remote region of Austraila. Following is a section of the article from the Star, to read more, click on the highlighted blue text below.
"

THIS intricate rock painting is thought to be one of the oldest in the world after it was dated to 28,000 years ago.

The charcoal piece, discovered at a remote site in Australia, is some of the earliest evidence of human painting.

The Aboriginal artwork was found last June in Arnhem Land in the country's Northern Territory but was dated only recently by experts from New Zealand’s University of Waikato radiocarbon laboratory.z"

Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4379804/Aborigine-art-among-oldest-ever-found.html#ixzz2Syv0KQDX


An interesting story about Aborigine art comes from a trip I took to Sidney in the 1970's.  I was a young art teacher working on Subic Bay Naval Base in the Philippines and went with a group of teachers on our spring break to Sidney for a vacation. While I was there I got very interested in Aborigine art and bought several bark paintings.  I kept them in my art room for example when teaching art to young children.  I would pass the paintings around and let the children feel and hold the bark paintings. We did large units on Aborigine art and the children did their own Aboriginal art.  It was not until recently I discovered these old works were worth a great deal of money and here I had  been just letting them be handled by kids and not so gently I might add...if you know kindergarten and 1st graders..you know what I mean. Wow, what a surprise for me.  The only sad part, is the names of the artist that were on the back fell off years ago, so I can't identify them anymore.  They are quite wonderful though. The other sidelight is I came home from that trip with pneumonia and was delirious when I got off the plane! It was a memorable trip in more than one way. 

ARTISTS NEVER NEED TO TAKE AN ART CLASS AGAIN! NOT!

Art is just good for you, no matter how you look at it!!!  No matter what you do for a living! And especially if you are an artist!!

Some artists may believe that they never need to take another class, but not me and not most of my artists friends.  There are many benefits to being a student.  Learning a new media, a new style, stretching yourself beyond your current mode, seeing things a little differently, interacting with other artists as a giant think tank, and remember what it is like to be a student. If you teach others, it is essential to remember what it is like to teach and be a student, it is to easy to fall in the rut of giving orders, delegating and helping too much or too little.
  

Betsy making fused glass earrings at Hyde Park Studio/Tampa  City Recreation
This is the busiest retiree I know and the reason I am in these classes 

Throwing and centering, frustrating, rewarding

Monica has blossomed greatly under this program
Our Peruvian friend excels

Fused Glass

Unloading of the kiln

My Raku Sculptural pot

Raku Sisters  Mila and Monica

Carol, College Administrator still finds time to Raku!

Millie is taking a break from her Ocean Cruise Liner Work to Raku

TODAY IS ART CLASS FOR ME THOUGH I AM A PRACTICING ARTIST.  HOW ABOUT YOU, STEP OUT OF YOUR STUDIO, LEARN SOMETHING NEW, STEP OFF YOUR HIGH HORSE OF ANY EGO YOU MIGHT HAVE ABOUT YOUR WORK, YOUR PERSONAL VISION, OPEN UP AND SEE THINGS A LITTLE DIFFERENTLY.  I GUARANTEE YOU, YOU WILL GROW IN YOUR ART AND IN YOUR SELF!

BOSTON SHOW A MUST SEE!

IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN JOSEPH CAVALIERI'S WORK IT IS A TREAT!

Joseph is one of our favorite artist we have covered.  What he does with stained glass and painting on glass is quite exceptional.  Check out this link to the Boston Society for Arts and Crafts where Joseph's work is showing. I love this series Joseph did as a nod to r. crumb, an artists artist.  It is amazing how Crumb's work shows up in many artists work, but the influence is lasting.
Joseph did a show in our area at Duncan McClellen's glass studio recently.  It was wonderfully attended and it contained a large range of his work.  It is a different approach to using stain glass, drawing and painting in innovative ways.  I think you would love this work, treat yourself and go take a peak!

 Joseph Cavalieri's nod to r. Crumb        from google image for educational use only

HUGE BENCHMARK FOR RABBITS MOON STUDIO!

70,459 HITS !!!!! The Little Blog that Could!

That is huge for this little blog that started only two years ago!  And it is building faster every day, as we broke another daily record yesterday, two days in a row.  We are just elated!  And this is where I thank you, because it is your readership that has made us successful!  When one sits down to write about art, artists, and making art it is just pure passion and love of art that drives my spirit.  Rabbits Moon is growing in other ways and there will be international articles as well, artists interviews and review of workshops.  What  ever is helpful and of interest to you our readers.  We always appreciate feedback and your ideas.  Thanks again, our next bench mark goal will be when we reach 80,000!

WHEN ART TURNS A LIFE AROUND AND UPSIDE DOWN!

Bask

Story line: A young boy immigrates to America with his family. The adjustments to a new culture are hard.  The youth takes the wrong path making the wrong friends and gets in trouble with the law.  He is sentence to community service to a major art museum.  Youth becomes an adult whose forced influence to art turns his life around and he becomes a famous artist. 

Ales Hostomsky    BASK

This sounds like stuff of Hollywood movies or a highlight in the arts section of the New York Times, but for Ales Hostomsky  or BASK(his art name) it is his life. Ales is a product of Pinellas Country Schools in St. Petersburg, Florida.  This county has invested heavily in the arts. The art education programs are excellent and money for a penny tax goes to supplement a program that would have floundered during recessionary times, but instead held its true course.  St. Petersburg itself, with the influence of a strong City Arts council and a program called ACE(art for complete education) engaged community leaders and held them accountable over a period of many years. The fruit of that effort is the emerging city of the arts St. Pete has become and the influence on individuals like Ales, aka, Bask. AND THE REST OF THE STORY IS THE  MUSEUM  ALES WAS FORCED TO DO COMMUNITY SERVICE WAS NONE OTHER THAN THE FAMOUS SALVADOR DALI MUSEUM!

Ales Hostomsky work has been collected by Robert Downey Jr. and featured  the film Iron Man

Just Keep Breaking Records!!!

Biggest single day total of hits in one day for Rabbit's Moon Studio!!!!

THANK YOU ALL!  If you love Art Keep Sharing and Keep it in Your Heart!

Ai Weiwei  Washington D.C. Hirshhorn Gallery

THE DNA OF ART

WHERE ART AND SCIENCE MEET

Leonardo Da Vinci      from google for educational purposes only

Artists have used science and science has used art for hundreds of years, it is almost a symbiotic relationship. We just are not always aware that is so and has been so for ions.  

Leonardo Da Vinci invented not only the thought processes that led to helicopters, airplanes, machine guns and other technology, but he also invented techniques and applications of art that were new to his time. Have you ever noticed when you view the Mona Lisa she seems to follow you where ever you are standing in the room? It is the way in which he painted her eyes that helped achieve that end. Sfmato was another technique Leonardo invented, which blurs the background to the image. His use of complex perspective allowed us to see art more dimensionally that we ever had previously.  Have you ever noticed how Dali used the double helix in his symbology in his paintings. Dali was friends with the brightest scientific geniuses of his time.   Paints in tubes took artists outdoors and enabled them to do plein air painting for the first time.  New paints changed the color pallet artist had available. 

To See a time line of art innovations click below
Time Line of New Techniques in Art...read more(<click here)

• ARTIST WHO USES DNA TO PRODUCE PORTRAITS!

Dewey-Hagborg’s odd habit has a larger purpose. The 30-year-old PhD student, studying electronic arts at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, extracts DNA from each piece of evidence she collects and enters this data into a computer program, which churns out a model of the face of the person who left the hair, fingernail, cigarette or gum behind.

Dewey  Hagborg Dna portraits    from google for educational purposes only

It gets creepier.

From those facial models, she then produces actual sculptures using a 3D printer. When she shows the series, called “Stranger Visions,” she hangs the life-sized portraits, like life masks, on gallery walls. Oftentimes, beside a portrait, is a Victorian-style wooden box with various compartments holding the original sample, data about it and a photograph of where it was found.

Read more: http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/artscience/2013/05/creepy-or-cool-portraits-derived-from-the-dna-in-hair-and-gum-found-in-public-places/#ixzz2SLyqjN62 
Follow us: @SmithsonianMag on Twitter

Rabbits Moon Studio had a banner day yesterday!  

The most single visits in one day in the history of the blog and we are approaching a new bench mark goal for us...we are at 69,000 plus hits and we are fast closing in on 70,000 visits world wide!  For a little studio blog that started with one person sitting down with a computer to talk about art, we have grown beyond our wildest dreams.  We thank you for your support and love of art and creativity.  It our pleasure to have you in our readership and to keep art in your lives and to help improve community after community through art outreach programs.  We know art changes lives for the better, that it strengthens communities and bonds the good in countries and the world.   I remember a saying from the 1960's I love and here I will share it with you, "Make Art, Not War!"

Photo by Elizabeth Gordon

HELLO FIJI!

Hello Fiji, so nice to have you visit Rabbit Moon Studio!

In the Hawaii Art Museum Collection    Art Cloth of Fiji

RABBIT'S MOON NEW ARTIST SERIES YOU WILL LOVE THIS NEW ARTIST!

RABBITS MOON STUDIO IS PLEASE TO INTRODUCE


                                                NJIDEKA AKUNYILI 
                                                an exciting new artist we would like you to discover also

"(CNN) -- Njideka Akunyili started college planning to be a doctor, but left as an artist and is now billed as one of New York's most promising new talents.

The 29-year-old Nigerian-born artist has just completed a year-long residence with the prestigious Studio Harlem in New York.

All five of her works sold in the first half hour of this year's Art Basel, the world's top fair for modern and contemporary art and African style magazine Arise described her as "fast becoming the art world's newest star." See more......

THE THING AROUND HIS NECK   BY NJIDEKA AKUNYILI                    from google image for educational purposes only

Njideka is an interesting artist for many reasons.  She is Nigerian born, sought to be a doctor, but chose to be an artist instead, and studied at the Harlem School of Art in a rich tradition of artists who came before her. Her work is an interesting mixture of transfers, charcoal, paper and painting.  
One cannot help but think of Jacob Lawrence and Romare Bearden when looking at her work and......She handles collage in a much similar fashion in her use of large dominate shapes, rich texturing of image, and handling of complex social issues in a bold, yet simple, presentation.  
Lets look at Lawrence and Bearden's work and see if you can see the similarities and influence.

Romare Bearden Collage                    google image for educational uses

Jacob Lawrence Painting and Collage
google image educational use