Needlepoint Portraits

I ran up to the Washington National Cathedral to see the work of an artist I know and came across these great needlepoint kneelers featuring the names of "noted Americans" (and Winston Churchill).  They must be well known since they're in the brochure and labeled as a stop on the self-guided tour.

A sucker for all things needlepoint and cross stitched, I ran around looking at all of the artists depicted, I was happy to report that artists are well represented in this collection.  Not many women artists though.  But I love what was chosen to represent each, check them out.  I also apologize for the terrible quality of the pictures but it was pretty dark and I didn't have a flash.  

It looks like palettes and brushes are pretty popular symbols for artists, since it looks like all of them have them.  John Singer Sargent's also has an easel, that makes sense, but what about the griffin and the fleur d'lis? 

John Singleton Copley was known for his portraits so it's no surprise that one is depicted in the lower right hand corner but the crown is a conundrum to me.












Here I found three artists together!  Well two artists and an architect.  Both painters, Gilbert Stuart and Charles Willson Peale, bear brushes and palettes and Stuart, famous for his portraits of George Washington, has one of those on an easel but the rest of the symbols are a mystery.

Any thoughts?

Art Everywhere US

I was thinking of cute ways of starting this post.  Something like "Look!  Now YOU can be the curator!"  But it just wasn't coming.  This is fun, it doesn't need such introductions.  Art Everywhere US is a program that will place 50 works of American art on billboards, bus shelters, and basically places where everyone will see them.  It's a way to get art seen without having to draw someone into a museum.  It's art coming to the people.  What's more is people get to vote on what they'd like to see.  Well, if you have an internet connection, you get to vote on what you'd like to see.  But it's no more than an internet quiz, and people love those!  How many of us have gone down the rabbit hole of Buzzfeed quizzes right?  You just pick the works you like, 10 per day, yes per day, you can vote every day if you'd like.

There is some possible value to this though.  The selections were chosen by curators in top American art museums so there is a variety of styles, eras, and media from which to choose, and not all of them depict George Washington and rolling fields of corn.  If you really get into it and vote multiple days you're going to start wondering who these other artists are, why are their works considered "great American art" and maybe you'll do a Google search. 

I have hope that people will learn about a new artist, appreciate a style in a new way, or discover just how much there is to being American and how awesome that is for our art.

#TBT: Greek Caravaggio

Walking along a small street in Iraklion, Crete, I spotted this image through the window of a traditional Greek Icon painter. 


It's immediately recognizable as a copy of Caravaggio's Deposition of Christ: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Entombment_of_Christ_by_Caravaggio

I thought it was interesting seeing the work through the lens of an icon painter.  Caravaggio was known for his incredibly use of light to dramatize the scene but this version emphasizes the folds in the fabric and the muscles of Christ's body, much like the Byzantine icons after which it is patterned.