love
dad
Sunday, October 26, 2025
Saturday, October 25, 2025
Americana
F U R T R A D E R S 1 8 4 5
George Bingham 1811 - 1879
A French fur trader and his mixed-heritage son ply
their trade on the tranquil waters of the Missouri River.
Is that a bear cub or cat tied to the dugout canoe?
The trader wears a liberty cap - popular among
19th century French Revolutionaries because
it stood for freedom.
This is one of a number of paintings Bingham sent to
New York from his home in Missouri. The people
back East loved Bingham's idealized portraits of
the American frontier.
D R. G R O S S ' C L I N I C 1 8 7 5
Thomas Eakins 1844 - 1916
Philadelphia's celebrated surgeon, Dr. Samuel Gross,
removes an infected bone from the patient's hip
using his revolutionary procedure that replaced the
current practice of amputation as remedy. No one in
attendance wore masks or gloves as the surgery was
performed prior to the appreciation of sterile techniques.
Eakins is among those best representing the school
of American realism.
D A S H F O R T H E T I M B E R 1 8 8 9
Frederic Remington 1861 - 1909
Remington portrayed the cowboy in epic scenes
taken from stories of the Open Range where cattle were
driven five hundred miles to railheads in Abilene and
Wichita. There the cattle were herded onto wooden
freight cars, pulled by steam locomotives, destined
for the meat packing plants of Chicago.
Remington portrayed the cowboy as an individualist...
independent, self-reliant. But also someone who
would give you the shirt off his back if need be.
G U L F S T R E A M 1 8 9 9
Winslow Homer 1836 - 1910
A lone man awaits his fate as his fishing boat lurches
about in storm-tossed seas, both rudderless and
without a mast. A fearsome waterspout appears to
close in while hungry sharks circle the stricken vessel.
On the horizon a large sailing ship passes
unaware of the life and death drama unfolding
a short, rescuable distance away.
Winslow Homer was a New Englander with years
of experience sailing about the sometimes treacherous
seas of the Caribbean.
R E D C A N N A 1 9 2 3
Georgia O'Keeffe 1887 - 1986
Red Canna 1923 was among O'Keefe's earliest
close up portrayals of flowers, providing them
with an impact both monumental and sensual.
It was a modern still life, abstract and without
need of realistic detail.
"I paint because color is significant."
Georgia O'Keeffe
A C H E L O U S A N D H E R C U L E S 1 9 4 7
Thomas Hart Benton 1889 - 1986
Achelous, Greek god controlling the rivers, is depicted
as a fierce bull being restrained by Hercules in this parable
about the Army Corps of Engineers' attempt to control
the flooding Missouri River. A horn is ripped from the
bull's head and it, in turn, becomes the Cornucopia of
Plenty for the people of the surrounding valley.
It sounds like a splendid topic for a large public mural.
Hart's painting undulates with energy, and the robust
certainty of an MGM movie musical.
Oklahoma!
All for one and one for all.
* * * * *
© Tom Taylor
OVER EASY
Sunday, October 19, 2025
Saturday, October 18, 2025
Masks
A F R I C A N
The wearer takes on the spirit of the mask.
In this instance, the wearer brings justice
to wrongdoers.
Warrior Mask
The Bobo people of western African are mostly
farmers of grains and yams. They settled the area
around the Ivory Coast some twelve hundred years
ago, having migrated from a more drought plagued
land.
You will find no mask among them with a god image.
For the Bobo, the Creator of all being possesses
a power that places it beyond all description
and it can have no image.
Historic Revolution
Over four thousand years ago the Bantu people
flowed out of Nigeria into the surrounding lands,
bringing with them the breakthrough technology of
agriculture. No longer would you have to spend your life
wandering the jungle and savannah in search of your prey.
You could stay put because you grew your own food.
Family groups grew into communities, villages and
then towns. Artists could do things like sculpt rock.
A politically centralized system of government
developed. Civilization arrived.
People had homes.
S I C K N E S S M A S K
Performers of the Pende people wear these masks
depicting illness to dramatize lessons on morality
and for promoting good social behavior.
The images are contorted in pain from the conflict
that rages within. It is the forces of hope and
survival doing battle with disease and witchcraft.
Q U E E N M O T H E R
In the Kingdom of Benin it was tradition to execute
the Queen Mother once her son was crowned king.
Queen Idia's two sons fought a civil war for the throne
once her husband, the King, died. The support
she gave one son made all the difference in defeating
his brother for the crown. Grateful, the King had his
mother go into hiding until he was able to abolish
the law that called for murdering Mom.
Elaborate Masks
The Yaka people of the Congo region are mostly
Christian - Roman Catholic in practice. Still,
their native spiritual heritage has a strong influence.
It is a conservative society with women working
the land during the day while the men hunt animals
using their dogs.
These masks are an art with nomadic heritage.
It was an artform originating with people
always on the go.
* * * * *
© Tom Taylor
OVER EASY
Sunday, October 12, 2025
Saturday, October 11, 2025
Vincent
T H E S O W E R 1 8 8 8
Letters from van Gogh to his brother, Theo.
I think what you say is true, that my work must get
much better still. As to its being salable or unsalable,
that is an old file on which I do not intend to blunt
my teeth - but at the same time I will tell you frankly that
your energy to sell them might also be more sustained.
You have never sold a single one for me - neither
for much nor for little. In fact, you did not even try.
When I began to work I had plenty of canvases, and
Tanguy was very good to me. To do him justice,
he is just as good still, but his old witch of a wife
got wind of what was going on and opposed it.
All the same, he will do whatever I want of him.
Exaggerated studies such as the 'Sower' and the
'Night Cafe', usually seem to me atrociously ugly and bad.
The picture of the 'Night Cafe' is one of the ugliest I have
done. It is the equivalent, though different, of the
'Potato-Eaters'. But when I am moved by something,
as now by a little article on Dostoyevsky, these are
the only ones which appear to have any deep meaning.
There is a book of Tolstoy's called 'My Religion'.
He does not seem to believe in a resurrection either
of the body or the soul. Above all he seems not to
believe in heaven - he reasons just as a nihilist reasons,
but he attaches great importance to doing whatever
you are doing, since probably it is all there is in you.
And if he does not believe in the resurrection, he seems
to believe in the equivalent - the continuance of life,
the progress of humanity - the man and his work almost
infallibly continued by humanity in the next generation.
Because I am always bowed down under this difficulty
of paying my landlord, who after all isn't a bad fellow,
I swore at him and told him that to revenge himself
for paying him so much money for nothing, I would
paint the whole of his rotten shanty. Then to the
great joy of the landlord, of the postman, of the
visiting night-prowlers, and of myself, for three nights
running I sat up to paint and went to bed during
the day.
It astonishes me when I compare my condition
with what it was a month ago. I knew that one
could fracture one's legs and arms and recover,
but I did not know that you could fracture the brain
in your head and recover after that too. I still have
a sort of "What is the good of getting better?" about
me, even in the astonishment that getting well
arouses in me.
But the unbearable hallucinations have ceased,
and have now reduced themselves to a simple
nightmare, by dint of my taking bromide of potassium,
I think.
* * * * *
© Tom Taylor
OVER EASY
Thursday, October 9, 2025
happy birthday jack!
D R A G O N F L Y
B I O C H E M I S T R Y W I T H 6 L E G S A N D 4 W I N G S
H a p p y B i r t h d a y !
J A C K
love
dad
Sunday, October 5, 2025
Saturday, October 4, 2025
destiny unfolds
VENUS OF WILLENDORF AUSTRIA 30,000 BCE
Hard Life Beauty
This ancient artist's erotic desires closely matched
Darwinian specifications for a high endurance specimen
of human female built to overcome extreme hardship.
She would be big boned and husky, able to survive
multiple childbirths. Everything she ate over the
summer would convert to body fat, providing the
calories needed to outlast the long, snowy winter -
living on to provide the family a child in the spring.
The characteristics that maximize a species'
chance of success in its environment are
often genetically prescribed in male fantasy.
The same principle holds true for women's
fantasies, as well.
Ancient Egypt.
The beginnings of recorded history.
What better way to communicate with a vast,
illiterate population than with picture words.
They are interesting, colorful and easy to learn.
Human depiction, like all other words, must follow
rules of convention. For instance, both shoulders
must be fully presented no matter the pose struck
by the individual.
Functionality was the primary purpose of Egyptian art
but aesthetics also had its role.
A craftsman is skilled working with his hands.
An artist of ancient Greece attempted to portray
something exalted. The classicists of the time
believed they were portraying perfection.
The humans sculpted from stone bore features
worthy of gods.
The Greco-Roman artist had to strictly adhere to
depicting a balanced form. Art represented what
was believed to be eternal and universal in scope,
while also demonstrating love of reason, objectivity
and restraint.
ANATOMY LESSON OF DR. TULP REMBRANDT 1632
The politics of Mount Olympus are here replaced
by a group of surgeons watching the dissection of
a human corpse. Rembrandt made good money
providing portraits for the wealthy merchants of
Amsterdam. His settings were often unconventional,
even irreverent in treatment, but he was loved
because his subjects were ennobled by his treatment
of them with oils.
THE PLUM EDOUARD MANET 1877
Capturing the moment.
The immediacy of a photograph together with the
sensual pleasure of having it recorded in quick,
decisive brushstrokes of oil. An artist's impression
lifted by accolades to the realm of fine art.
Look at her.
Untouched sherbet. Unlit cigarette.
She's not off in a daydream.
She's bored and ignored.
The guy that brought her here is over at
a distant table flirting with another woman.
The men she falls for always leave her in the lurch.
When will she ever learn?
O P E N A L L N I G H T
It's coffee and a fresh pack of smokes for the couple
at the far end of the counter. The soda jerk talks about
the Cubs but the couple barely pay attention, satisfied
with merely being together in this weary hour of night.
Further down the counter a man sits alone with
his thoughts. His back is your only view of him.
"If you could say it in words there would be
no reason to paint it."
Edward Hopper
* * * * *
© Tom Taylor
EVER EASY
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)