June 6 - June 28
1208 & 1210 Turner Street Old Town Lansing
Overview statement
Do we need art to survive? Given concerns with the bottom line and the globalization of businesses and business practices, art seems to have become trivial and insignificant. It is simply something to match our new furniture. It no longer matters if that piece over the new leather couch is an original piece of art or a print, and no one seems to be worried about the difference between Manet and Monet.
The question becomes, what would happen if all of the world’s artists, art galleries, and art museums to decided to close shop? If you had one last chance to see original art, would you want it to say something? The Lansing Art Gallery near the Capital Building, and the Banyan Gallery and Studio 1210 in Lansing’s Old Town, are providing just that opportunity. A World Without Art will offer some of Michigan’s finest artists taking on some of the most pressing and important social issues facing Michigan, the US, and the world. This show will include photography, paintings, sculpture, poetry, and essays from all around Michigan. This is a great opportunity to see how the Michigan art community sees Michigan’s past, present, and future. Do not let this be the last time you will see art in Michigan.
En plein air is a French expression which means “in the open air”, and is particularly used to describe the act of painting outdoors.
Artists have long painted outdoors, but in the mid-1800s working in natural light became particularly important to the Barbizon school and Impressionism. The popularity of painting en plein air increased in the 1870s with the introduction of paints in tubes (resembling modern toothpaste tubes). Previously, each painter made their own paints by grinding and mixing dry pigment powders with linseed oil. The Newlyn School in England is considered another major proponent of the technique in the latter 19th century.
It was during this period that the “Box Easel”, typically known as the French Box Easel, was invented. It is uncertain who developed it first, but these highly portable easels, with telescopic legs and built-in paint box and palette, made treks into the forest and up the hillsides less onerous. Still made today, they remain a popular choice even for home use since they fold up to the size of a brief case and thus are easy to store.
French Impressionist painters such as Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir advocated en plein air painting, and much of their work was done outdoors, in the diffuse light provided by a large white umbrella. In the second half of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth century in Russia, painters such as Vasily Polenov, Isaac Levitan, Valentin Serov, Konstantin Korovin and I.E. Grabar were known for painting en plein air. American Impressionists, too, such as those of the Old Lyme school, were avid painters en plein air. American Impressionist painters noted for this style during this era included, Guy Rose, Robert William Wood, Mary Denil Morgan, John Gamble, and Arthur Hill Gilbert. The Canadian Group of Seven originated by Tom Thomson and Filipino American artist Sherie Sloane [1] are examples of plein air advocates.
Excerpt from Wikipedia. Click here to read more.
In the past couple of weeks, there have been a number of reports signaling an increasing recognition of the importance of arts education, not only to personal growth and development, but to our broader workforce and economy.Last week, The Conference Board and Americans for the Arts, in partnership with the American Association of School Administrators released Ready to Innovate: Are Educators and Executives Aligned on the Creative Readiness of the U.S. Workforce? From that report: “Overwhelmingly, both the superintendents who educate future workers and the employers who hire them agree that creativity is increasingly important in U.S. workplaces (99 percent and 97 percent, respectively), and that arts training - and, to a lesser degree, communications studies - are crucial to developing creativity.Yes, there is a gap between understanding this truth and putting it into meaningful practice.Our findings indicate that most high schools and employers provide such training and studies only on an elective or ‘as needed’ basis.”
When you think about where in your K-12 public education you were encouraged to think “out of the box” or “color outside the lines” . . . where you were encouraged to use and develop your imagination, my guess it was in some type of an arts course or experience.It seems only common sense that in a world that values creativity and innovation, we want to guarantee that every child has the opportunity to develop that imagination. Spread the word!
Precious Metal Clay represents a dramatic development in the handling of precious metals. PMC consists of microscopic particles of silver or gold suspended in an organic binder to create a pliable material with a consistency similar to modeling clay. PMC can be worked with the fingers and simple inexpensive tools to create a vast range of forms and surfaces that would be unattainable or laborious with traditional techniques.
When heated to a high temperature, the binder burns away and the metal particles fuse to form solid metal that can be sanded, soldered, colored and polished like conventional material.
“In every block of marble I see a statue as plain as though it stood before me, shaped and perfect in attitude and action. I have only to hew away the rough walls that imprison the lovely apparition to reveal it to the other eyes as mine see it.”—Michelangelo
The stature and prominence, the importance and influence of Michelangelo’s David statue may surprise you!
The David statue tells a story, yes, and that story is here. But the statue has his OWN story to tell, one that not many people know.
I have attempted to tell the David’s story, both in history and all the way through to modern pop culture, as a resource for you. I hope that you not only find out how fascinating Michelangelo’s most famous statue is, but that for school and education purposes, or even pure appreciation, this will be an entertaining and enlightening page.
The idea of an artists’ cooperative is really very simple - a group of artists get together to divide expenses and chores so that they can exhibit and sell their work. They rent communal space; they volunteer their time and contribute to shared expenses. Their hope is that they will find a reliable place to exhibit work and that they will mutually benefit from being in the business of selling work in addition to creating it.
The effort may be a cooperative one among colleagues with a common purpose. It may be based on the spirit of volunteerism and without the expectation of huge profits. That being said, it is still very much a business venture, and so it may be helpful to review some business basics.
Hilarious and spot on! Creature Comforts answers this question. Making people laugh is an art also as the video points out at the end. A must see. I discovered it on the ArtBizBlog. Thanks Alyson.
Faux painting is used to describe a wide range of decorative painting techniques used to replicate or simulate the look of other materials such as marble, wood and brick.
A Mosaic is a work of art that has been created from small pieces of well just about anything. Colored glass, stone or other material like broken ceramic and pottery pieces are commonly used.
Pique Assiette is a french phrase for mosaics made from “cast-off” broken dishes/crockery.
The stature and prominence, the importance and influence of Michelangelo’s David statue may surprise you!
