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Happy Birthday Giorgio Vasari! July 30, 1511

7/30/2023

Dedicated to the study of Italian art and architecture from prehistory to the present!

Happy Birthday Giorgio Vasari!
The painter, architect, collector, and influential author was born on this day (July 30) in 1511 in Arezzo.
A successful painter and architect in the service of Grand Duke Cosimo I de’Medici, Vasari is best known today for his Lives of the Artists, a collection of biographies from Cimabue through his autobiography. Published in two editions (1550/1568), the text has had a profound impact on the development of connoisseurship, art history, and Italian Renaissance studies.

St. Luke Painting the Virgin, Photo credit: Web Gallery of Art.

Self-Portrait, between 1550 and 1567. Florence: Uffizi.

Apotheosis of Cosimo I / Cosimo I de’ Medici among the Artists of his Court (1563), Fresco ceiling painting by Giorgio Vasari

“I have represented the lord Duke Cosimo triumphant and glorious, crowned by the personification of Florence with an oak wreath” -Vasari

The centre of the entire ceiling’s decorations is Cosimo I de’ Medici: the Duke is wearing a purple cloak, is seen sitting on the clouds and is accompanied by the Ducal crown, the cross belonging to the order of Saint Stephen and finally the Golden Fleece (received from the Emperor in 1545). Surrounding him are the symbols of the city and the insignia of the Florentine Arts. Photo: Simone Lampredi

For more on Vasari, see:
Julian Kliemann and Antonio Manno.
“Vasari.” Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web.
[http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T088022pg1].

An Equestrian Monument for Giorgio Vasari

In collaboration with Paradise for Artists of Pasadena, California, the cultural association Paradise for Artists of Arezzo presents the sixth appointment of a program of events and collective exhibitions to support the project:
"An equestrian monument for Giorgio Vasari
on tour in America and in Italy"
and raise funds to dedicate a bronze statue to Giorgio Vasari, the father of art history, the first art historian.

sculptor, Christopher Slatoff,

PARADISE FOR ARTISTS INC
is a 501(c)(3) Nonprofit Corporation,
Federal tax ID# 87-0978724
Your donation is tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.

Our goal is to create an Equestrian Monument for
the Father of Art History and the First Art Historian
GIORGIO VASARI

For any further information
please contact the number (+39) 338 6005593
or
write to the following emails:
[email protected] .

www.ParadiseforArtists.org
www.GiorgioVasari.org

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Keith Haring Murals

7/24/2023

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“For myself, I aim for an art which would be in immediate connection with daily life which could start from our daily life and which would be a very direct and very sincere expression of our real life and real moods.” -Keith Haring

Though Keith Haring’s murals can be found around the world, his work for the Belgian Channel Surf Club in Knokke is certainly a standout piece. By invitation of Roger Nellens in 1987, Haring arrived in Knokke to continue the legacy of the Nellens family — as his father is the man to have commissioned René Magritte’s The Enchanted Domain in the nearby casino. Painted in a single day Keith Haring’s mural depicts the swimmers present in the rising tides, crashing through waves and advancing towards a grotesque but humorous sea monster that aims to consume them. With his characteristic pop-art figures and comic-book-like language, Haring’s impression on the seaside town cemented an artistic legacy lasting far longer than the tragically short life of the artist.

Antwerp Contemporary Museum of Art

“One of the things I have been most interested in is the role of chance in situations–letting things happen by themselves. My drawings are never preplanned. I never sketch a plan for a drawing, even for huge wall murals. My early drawings, which were always abstract, were filled with references to images, but never had specific images. They are more like automatic writing or gestural abstraction.” -Keith Haring

Pasadena Mural at the Art Center College of Design

Stedelijk Museum Warehouse

Current Exhibitions

One Person Exhibitions
Keith Haring: Art is for Everybody
The Broad, Los Angeles, CA
May 27 – October 8, 2023
Visit Website

Keith Haring: Amsterdam Notes
May 26 – November 5, 2023
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
Visit website

Keith Haring: Against All Odds
April 15 – September 24, 2023
Akron Art Museum
Visit website

Keith Haring has murals all around the world,
check out the map/link to find his work near you.

https://www.haring.com/!/archives/murals-map

The murals map is temporarily unavailable.
-However-
There are images and information about the murals
that Keith Haring made around the world. Enjoy!

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Teotihuacán Murals

7/17/2023

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Beatriz de la Fuente
Teotihuacán Murals Museum
San Martín Centro, Mexico

Excerpts from an article on Atlas Obscura at:
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/beatriz-de-la-fuente-teotihuacan-murals-museum

The pigments used to color Teotihuacán murals were sourced mostly from semi precious stones and earth; hematite produced a startlingly bright red, malachite an emerald green, and azurite a deep blue.

One of the many well-preserved wall murals of Teotihuacan. https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/teotihuacan-murals.htm

ELABORATE MURALS ONCE TATTOOED THE walls of thousands of residential complexes across ancient Teotihuacán. Today, many of them live in an unassuming museum within the archaeological site: The Beatriz de la Fuente Teotihuacán Murals Museum. Named after Mexican art historian Beatriz Ramírez de la Fuente, the museum houses over fifty millennia-old murals along with several artifacts recovered from on-site temples and palaces.

Teotihuacan fresco. Museo Nacional de Antropologia. Ciudad de Mexico

The museum consists of nine main rooms, each with its own thematic focus, spanning space and time. Within the murals, the real and the fantastical merge; a feline donning a feathered headdress sticks out a forked tongue and magnificent birds release fountains of water from their beaks. Human-like figures appear throughout the museum, too, some mortal and others deities.

The passage of time, closely linked with astronomical observation, is a recurring theme across murals and artifacts throughout the museum. A small monolith believed to have been used to keep track of time and solstices can be found toward the center of the museum. Two ceramic jars, along with eighteen obsidian blades and a human femur, found in an astronomical observation cavern are also on display.

https://www.picfair.com/pics/06542777-wall-mural-of-jaguar-palace-of-tetitla-teotihuacan-archeological-zone

Wall Mural of Jaguar, Palace of Tetitla, Teotihuacan Archaeological Zone, UNESCO World Heritage Site,
State of Mexico, Mexico, North America

Know Before You Go
The museum is open to the public Tuesday through Sunday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The fee for general admission, which includes entrance to the archaeological zone, is 80 pesos.

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Red Rocket Signs / Rodney Vicik

7/10/2023

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Here’s a really good 'Old-School Sign-Painter' guy
in Virginia, still hand-lettering in the modern world!

Red Rocket Signs
1803 E. Pembroke Ave,
Hampton, VA 23663
(757)723-7700
http://www.redrocketsigns.com

Melding Traditional Sign Painting
and Computer Skills

Rodney Vicik’s skills were developed through years of continuing education and a desire for excellence.
As important as these hand skills are, they are not the only things that make his signs extraordinary.

Having learned the trade of sign painting just at the brink when computerized sign-making equipment was entering the marketplace, Rodney is competent using both mediums, old-school sign painting and computer technologies, in the production of his signs.

(from his website)
“I am the owner of Red Rocket Signs located in Hampton, VA.
We are the "go to" shop for hand lettering and gold leaf in our area. Our niche is boat lettering, but we also do a variety of commercial sign work with an emphasis on good design.

My interest in hand lettering has led to an extensive collection of sign and lettering books dating back to the late 1800s and into the early 1900s when sign painting was an art form."

"Though I prefer the old method of using pencils and brushes,
I am also proficient at digitizing hand drawn artwork into computer files. In today’s world, most designs will eventually need to be reproduced digitally.

Another by-product of my melding of traditional sign painting and computer skills has been the conversion of hand drawn alphabets into complete fonts that can be installed onto any computer. These are available for purchase in the 'Retro Fonts' section of my website.” -Rodney Vicik

Here’s a peek into Rodney’s brush-box!

"I’m a real ‘brush-freak’ and I love seeing
what goes on behind the scenes.
Meanwhile...while your here,
check out this link to some of my
signs, totems and super-graphics.” -Roberto

http://www.artandsoulproductions.com/signs-totems--super-graphics.html

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Faux Finishes, Part 4b: Soft Surfaces

7/3/2023

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"I'm back from my trip to Baltimore, and it looks like I got out of Dodge just in time! It's a beautiful city with lots of great murals and art museums and historical architecture. Stay positive, curb your guns and be kind to others.
Here is part 4b of my Faux Finishes Blog posts. scroll back through the blog for earlier posts on Faux Finishes (and much more) or search the Blog by category" -RQ

Here is another one of my favorite books from my library...

Soft Surfaces
Visual Research for Artists,
Architects, and Designers
by Judy A. Juracek

Modeled on the successful Surfaces (1996) book, this stunning collection of photographs catalogs how hundreds of varieties of textiles, grouped by structure and surface treatment, look up close and in interior and exterior applications such as window treatments, upholstery, awnings, tents, and floor coverings.
The book is tailored to research needs in scope and focus, offering examples for architects, interior designers, textile professionals, theatrical and film designers, illustrators, and graphic designers.
Interviews with professionals describe how they use visual research in their work.

1,200 high-quality color images
of traditional and innovative textiles,
in print and on CD-ROM

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...to Roberto's Blog!

‘Duit-On-Mon
-Dai-Luna-Prime’

  Roberto has been pestering the ‘Marketing’ staff here at Art and Soul for some time now to get together with ‘Research and Development’ to come up with a fun way for him to share all the great work out there of all the many other talented muralists and artists he's been "influenced by" over the years. ‘Sales’ was totally against the idea! ("How could that possibly improve the bottom-line?!"). ‘Marketing’ remains split, as usual ("We need more data"). ‘R&D’ thought it might be a fun way to "show off a little", and to showcase all those great ideas they keep finding out there on the internet. ‘HR’ said it might be a good way to keep 'The Crew' distracted ("Since they are all so bored since Covid hit, and Roberto is spending more and more time in his studio working on all those silly little easel paintings").
'The Crew' said: ’'Sure, We've got nothing else going on …but only if we get to share stuff about technique, materials, and equipment." ‘Receivables’ said: "It obviously won’t make more work for us, so why not!". 'Legal' said: "No Way! You are NOT going to reveal where you steal all your ideas from!" (Although Roberto values their legal advice, He rarely listen’s to their hysterics anyway). So... here we are! Welcome!

‘Duit-On-Mon-Dai-Luna-Prime’
     "As the title implies, I will post once a Month (on the first Monday, more or less). Feel free to leave a family friendly comment. Dialogue and praise is encouraged. Creativity, passion and wonder should be expected. Politics and personal grievances hopefully kept to private emails. And please… no Whining! and no sales pitches either (you can make your own damn blog for that).
   I expect to start becoming a little more savvy with all this social media stuff, but for now ‘Bookmark’ my website and check back every once in a while. I hope you will find it interesting. Don’t be too persnickety over my whimsical spelling and creative punctuations either, my Editorial Department is not what it used to be… I am seriously understaffed these days."
Peace and Love...
-Roberto Quintana, WFA

Happy Birthday Giorgio Vasari! July 30, 1511

Keith Haring Murals

Teotihuacán Murals

Red Rocket Signs / Rodney Vicik

Faux Finishes, Part 4b: Soft Surfaces

...to Roberto's Blog!

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