LADDERS AND CONSTELLATIONS

MIRO

Elizabeth Gordon  at Miro Museum in Barcelona      

         photo by Ann Suggs

 Miro is one of many artists that didn't capture my attention in college like some of the rock star artists of the era. I wasn't much enamored with Dali or Picasso or the Surrealist.  Perhaps it was because art history was so boring and taught so poorly.  I am not sure, but memorizing 200 or more slides a week, with a test at the end of the week with 25 or more unknown to place in a style and time period, wasn't my cup of tea.  Yes, I can recognize many art works and artists, but what can I tell you about their lives and what influenced them to paint in their day.  Art history should be taught in a much more interesting and connected way.  I have hear there are programs like that, just not where I attended.  There was once a program on Public Broadcasting called Connections, and it did just that, it connect political, social, environmental and commercial influences on art.  It was fascinating and the way I had wished I had been taught in art history.  
Later as an art teacher I would do more and more research on artist when I was teaching different units for my students.  A double learning took place, one for them, and another for me.  I love learning and I love research, so it was a win-win situation.  
The more I learned about Miro, Picasso, and other artists I had not studied in depth about in school, the more I wanted to know more.

Ann Suggs and Elizabeth Gordon         Barcelona   Gaudi's House

On a trip to Barcelona, I visited Gaudi's architecture that changed the way I viewed the way I thought building must be designed like.  I did not know they could look as if they were melting, and did not have to have hard angles. 

 On the same

trip, I discovered there was Miro's Museum  sitting there on a high hill overlooking the harbor and city. It such a magnificent view and reminded me so much of my home, Tampa.  It is a city on a bay as well.  I thought it would take an hour or two max to see the museum but

, I stayed there all day and left at closing.  I was blown not away by, not only, Miro's art, but also his thinking about art and creativity.

Below is a video from you tube about Juan Miro you may enjoy.

Today a friend sent me this link to a slide show walk through of Miro's museum and work.  I thought I would include that here for you.  Take a walk with Miro, look at his work, listen to his discussion of his artist process.  Look at the time he, Picasso, and Dali lived in, all working in Southern Eastern France and North East Spainish during relatively the same time period  in an area called Catalonia.  Click on this link now for your tour.  

Miro, Picasso, and Dali lived in the same area and painted at similar times.  Miro and Picasso lived through the Spanish Civil War, WWI and WWII.  At different times they fled Catalonia for Paris and then when the Nazi's occupied Paris, back to Spain.  

Guernica by Pablo Picasso                    from google image for educational purposes only

Picasso's Guernica was painted in response to the bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil war. 

One of the series of Constellations by Juan Miro  
   from google educational purposes only

 The painting became an iconic statement for peace.  Miro hid in his imagery of his Constellations and Ladders references to war the times.  That is why it is so important to look at all the influences of a given era that art is produced in and what effects the artist.  In some eras it could be the invention of a new art media like acrylic paints, or the extinction of a mollusk that once thrived in Europe, or the inability of flax to grow in England.  

A GREAT ARTIST IS ALWAYS BEFORE HIS TIME OR BEHIND IT.  Edward Edward Moore

The Roof top of Gaudi's Batllo house in Barcelona                     photo by elizabeth Gordon

Happy Birthday Gaudi!!!!

Antonio Gaudi
The Birthday of an Architectural Genius

Antonio Gaudi

One of my favorite trips will always have been one I took to Barcelona.  I had read about Antonio Gaudi and see a photo of his work in art history class, but I truly did not have a grasp of his genius.  It is a bit of a sad story at the end....Antonio at the close of his life penniless going begging door to door for money to finish his finest masterpiece "La Familia", the cathedral of artistic wonder.  His architecture is not angular nor right angle block like, it is fluid like a river, or a melting candle.  It bends and flows like a fine sculpture, it is more like a living thing than not.  I will include here a series of pictures I took during that trip.  

Sagrada Familia

Casa Batllo

Roof Chimneys of Casa Batllo

Sagrada Familia

La Familia /Barcelona                   Gaudi      photo Elizabeth Gordon

Art is a human activity which has as its purpose the transmission to others of the highest and best feelings to which men have risen.
Leo Tolstoy(click)


It might seem odd to pair a photograph of Gaudi's(click)Church Architecture with Leo Tolstoy, but it tells a story about the highest and the best of ourselves. Gaudi worked a good bit of his later life on the designs and construction of La Sagrada Familia,(click) he actually died while begging money for the continuation of the building.  When I visited in the early 2000's it was estimated the workers working today on the cathedral would not live to see it finished in their life time.  Gaudi had passion and talent, but people recognized that what he had started was so brilliant and exceptional it was worth building on another hundred years!

Street Artists

Street Artists

All over the world there are people who paint themselves and stand out on the streets for the odd tourist coin. They must be brave and persistent. They must be immune to criticism and taunts. I am amazed by these people.

The silver man in the photo below is from New Orleans in the French Quarter area and the copper cowboy is from Las Ramblas in Barcelona, Spain. I am fascinated by people who want to do this kind of work: where their body becomes the art. They paint themselves each day. I can't imagine it is a healthy thing. They train themselves to stand without moving, flinching or blinking. I could never stand or sit without moving more than a few seconds my whole life!

You might be able to tell the silver model is a man, but perhaps not realize the copper cowboy is a girl. Is this a form of art and what is the history? I wonder if it originated from the French Mime?
French Quarter/New Orleans

Las Ramblas/Barcelona, Spain

MIRO

Miro

One of my favorite artist is Miro. On a trip to Barcelona I visited Miro's Museum high on the top of a hill over looking Barcelona. Up a winding road with towering trees, up the bus went and then at the top is this wonderful museum that overlooks the city and harbor of Barcelona. There are gardens, scupltures outside, and in. There is a cafe and then there is Miro! I thought I knew his work, but I truly did not. I learned so much about his life, who his artist friends were and his philosophy of art. As I listened to the documentary of his life and how he felt about art in his own terms, I became mesmerized! I felt at home, like someone put in words what I had felt all my life.
There is a good bit of the arts teacher left in me that wants to share and educate. I hope you will take the time to go to his museum if you can, it will be a treat to yourself to go. To go to Barcelona at all, is a gift to ones self. In one city you can see the works of Gaudi, Picasso and Miro. If you can not travel physically then go by the internet and visit Miro's Museum and life!

The Calling

The Calling

What is your life calling to you? When all the noise is silenced, the meetings adjourned, the lists laid aside,and the wild iris blooms by itself in the dark forest, what still pulls on your soul?

In the silence between your heartbeats hides

a summons Do you hear it? Name it, if you must,

or leave it nameless, but why pretend it is not there?_The Terma Collective. The Box: Rembering the Gift

(Gaudi in his elder years still fighting for his calling)

Each one of us has a calling!

Each of these artist heard the calling and answered.

There were people who believed buildings should be square and rectangular, professional who scoffed a Gaudi's vision of architecture. Craftsmen and masons said it was impossible to craft.

Miro, did odd shapes and talked of wonderful theories, he hid symbols and ideas, but the critics may have said it just little shapes, it makes no sense, it is not a pretty picture.

And Dali, what a mad man people thought, how odd are his ideas, flamming giraffes and melting clocks!?

Believe in your calling, no matter what friends, family or critics say...it is your calling not theirs! And what ever your calling is, it is your passion, your being, your experiences, your background, and your expression of yourself-there is not another you out there. Do you have to be a Dali or Gaudi or Miro, no you do not. All you have to do is listen to that small voice inside that says oh I so want to do this. Listen, listen with your heart and give it life!

Gaudi/Barcelona/Two of my favorite things

I love Barcelona. It was a love story from the beginning. Everything Spanish draws me, as it is partially my roots, here in Tampa. We have Spanish, Cuban, Italian and a whole bunch of other folks. But Ybor city and West Tampa were a strong influence. So when I went to Barcelona it was a bit like coming home. They I saw Gaudi's architecture and was awed beyond belief. How could someone make hard rectangular concrete...look soft, dripping, melting , curved and sensual? Gaudi was a master. Someday I hope to be there again on Los Rambles having cafe con leche!