Happy 101st Birthday Lawrence Ferlinghetti

The Howl Trial

(Note the woman in the far corner is holding a copy of Howl)

Ferlinghetti  experienced something similar with Zap Comix

Lawrence Felinghetti was born March 24, 1919

Self Isolation

                                  "A Sunday Afternoon of Self-Isolation"
Ben Jenning’s great take on Georges Seurat painting from The Guardian.


Here’s the original:

A Public Service Announcement

Here’s Alton Brown’s easy guide to hand washing..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIwdf3WKe3Y

Happy 99th Birthday Al Jaffee

Friday the 13, 2020 is master cartoonist Al Jaffe’s 99th birthday.  Jaffee was listed as having the longest career of a comics artist by the Guinness World Records (and that was back when he was only 95).

                                           (Photo from The Daily Cartoonist)

Jaffee is probably best known for his long tenure (64 years) with Mad magazine.

He created popular feature such as Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions :

and the Mad Fold-In:

                                           (Here’s a classic from the 1960’s)


Jaffee also created a syndicated comic panel, Tall Tales, designed to accommodate one newspaper column width. It ran for about 5 years.

(This one's from my collection)

(These scans from The Fabulous Fifties blog)

Before Mad he worked for Harvey Kurtzman’s other short lived parody magazines Humbug and Trump.

Here’s a strangely timely piece that Jaffee did for Humbug in response to the 1957 Asian Flu Pandemic (Humbug#5, December 1957)

Al Jaffee is still at it.

You can read about his remarkable (and often tragic) life in Mad Life written by Mary-Lou Weisman.

Here’s Al Jaffee’s website:

https://www.originalaljaffee.com/splash

A Mother Jones interview:

https://www.motherjones.com/media/2010/09/interview-al-jaffee-mad-life-snappy-answers/

Jeffrey Beauchamp exhibit

Jeffrey Beauchamp, yet another fine West Marin artist, just concluded a fun solo exhibit at the Fine Arts Gallery of the College of Marin.

Here’s a video clip of the work with guitar accompaniment by Jeffrey:

Super Bowl Sunday in the ’20’s

The 1920’s, that is...

Wes Wilson 1937-2020

Wes Wilson, creator of what was perhaps the definitive ‘psychedelic' poster style died January 24th.

(This classic Wilson poster is the first one I ever walked out of the Fillmore with in 1967)

Here’s a clipping about Wilson’s post-poster days from the December 31, 1969 edition of the Marin county weekly, the Pacific Sun.

(Click on article to enlarge)

Wes Wilson in his Lagunitas studio, Marin county circa 1970

(Photos copyright Harlan Floyd. Courtesy of Hank Floyd).

One of Wes Wilson’s latter day posters. This was created for the San Geronimo Valley Community Center’s first annual International Day of Peace Festival in September 2015. We hosted Moonalice, Wavy Gravy and a "What Does Peace look Like?” group art show among other activities at the event.

https://larryrippeeandmollyreaart.blogspot.com/2015/09/postscript-international-day-of-peace.html

2020 Vision

Here’s our New Year’s card (which so far this year certainly rings true; We haven’t a clue what’s going to happen next).

Happy New Year!

Happy 2020

Larry’s Art Vault: TV Art Instruction

For some reason Molly and I have become recepients of Bob Ross gift items.

Such as the Bob Ross ’Self-Painting Mug’.

And the legendary Bob Ross vinyl figurine ...

We are, at best, on the periphery of the Bob Ross universe (Molly teaches painting; I organize art shows).  He’s become a pop culture icon for a current generation.

But long before Bob Ross there was Jon Gnagy--the grandaddy of TV art instruction.

I once wrote on this site:

"Molly got her BFA at the San Francisco Art institute.

Me—I got my art education with Jon Gnagy.”

Pretty much the truth.   Bob Ross seems to have promoted 'happy accidents'. Gnagy dealt with fundamentals. 

You could (and I did) draw with Gnagy on a weekly basis by watching his TV show-- following along in the Learn to Draw book while using the Jon Gnagy Learn to Draw art kit.

Here’s a couple of  Gnagy booklets:

Here’s a basic nuts-and-bolts art lesson from his classic book:

If Bob Ross has aided people in their understanding and enjoyment of art, good for him.

Me, I’m still holding out for the Jon Gnagy action figure.

For  more on Jon Gnagy on this blog go to:

https://larryrippeeandmollyreaart.blogspot.com/search?q=gnagy

(January 22, 2012 post)

Images copyright to respective owners

Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays ........Glasses not included

Pressing Matters X: Printmakers Group Show

Things seem to be moving so swiftly that I feel like I’m racing behind the curve. Consequently, our 10th annual printmaking show, Pressing Matters, came and went without me ever acknowledging it.

So to make up for lost time here are a few shots I managed to get from the exhibit before it went down. This is an incomplete selection. My apologies to the artists I missed.

"The Observer"

Elaine Penwell’s block print and display made a nice introduction to the exhibit.

Micheley Allen’s nicely done etching "The Lark"

And her complex multicolor wood cut “Mt. Tam from the Trail Above”

Another nicely done piece-intaglio, monotype and oil pastel-- by Sophia Larsen entitled “Daydream”

Fred Berensmeier’s collagraph

“Raven Dreams of Earth Maker Hands and Interspecies Flying Lessons"

Johanna Herrera’s cool monoprint on clay, “H-Art"

Another fine piece. Cindy Miracle’s “Memory Takes a lot of Poetic License”

A monoprint with Chine colle

"The Embrace” a serigraph by Geoff Bernstein

Xander Weaver Scull’s “Lake Erie Water Snake” 

A monoprint stencil with homemade earth paint

Fred Berensmeier’s highly complex linocut “Cloud Shaman Calling Back the Red Fish”

“River Buddha” by Martha Cederstrom

Block print, screen print and acrylic paint

Three copper-plate etchings by Thomas Wood

“Tomales Bay"

“Deer Island"

And “Hamilton”

Barbara Morris’ monototype “Stars and Stripes 13"

Xander Weaver Scull created this large (I mean large) “Robin Williams #1”

(It’s a monoprint: spray-paint with four layers of freehand drawing and cut cardboard stencils on a birch panel)

Here’s a long shot so you can get a sense of proportion 

This remarkable piece, “Primus Goes to the Casino"was done by a young artist in his early teens, Wiley Raffael

It’s a hand printed and hand embellished 24" x 18” Serigraph

Sam Vaughan returned to the show with this stone lithograph, “Devil Inspects Stelae"

“Death Defied” a silkscreen

and another stone lithograph, “Man Making Stone Bed”

Zoltron contributed new hand printed serigraphs, “Widespread Panic, November 1”

and “Widespread Panic, October 31"

The show was held in November at the Maurice del Mue Galleries of the San Geronimo Valley Community Center.

I thank all participating artists--Micheley Allen, Fred L. Berensmeier, Geoff Bernstein, Martha Cederstrom, Kevin Gladstone, Johanna Herrera, Elan Kamesar, Sophia Larsen, Cindy Miracle, Barbara Morris, Elaine Nehm, Elaine Penwell, Wiley Raffael, Gabriele Schwibach, Sam Vaughan, Xander Weaver-Scull, Thomas Wood and Zoltron.

Oh yeah..I was in the show too...