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2011 Sarasota Chalk Festival

November 8, 2011 by Leave a Comment


2011 Sarasota Chalk Festival

Now I Know Why Everyone is Raving About the Sarasota Chalk Festival

This is the first year I’ve made it to the Sarasota Chalk Festival. I was missing out!

The Chalk Festival combines a lovely festival atmosphere with great artists. There’s no hotel art here. It’s a mix of fantasy, religious art, and fun scenes–all “painted” on the street. The artists were remarkably skilled in their medium and as an artist as a whole.

The crowd was thick and it was a little hot in the sun, but it was well worth the visit. I enjoyed watching the different techniques of the artists and how they chose to apply their chalk. It was interesting to see some of them drawing, some painting, and some down there blowing and fanning their work. They got down and dirty, right into their medium.




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Art by J-Dog

October 31, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Art project by J-Dog

Art project by J-Dog

I recently bought this set of cards that had wonderful projects on them that were similar to art that real artists create. They have some history, technique, and context for the art on each one. They are simple projects that you can mostly do from things you have around the house.

We researched the artist on the internet too, a complete lesson!

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My art…in a bathroom!

September 15, 2011 by Leave a Comment

So this is pretty wild—some of my art now hangs in a bathroom. Check it out!

Modern art even belongs in a bathroom

Modern art even belongs in a bathroom

More modern art in a bathroom

More modern art in a bathroom

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Some recent artwork by J-Dog

September 1, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Here is some recent artwork by J-Dog. He has drawn houses with fun features lately.

House floating on grass

House floating on grassHouse with solar panels

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Inspired by Art

August 28, 2011 by Leave a Comment

I’ve always been inspired by art. I love how the colors make me feel. I love trying to figure out how an artist created something and why. Finding artists that can skillfully blend their vision with the medium is exceptionally exciting (and this doesn’t always happen).

I like both modern and more traditional art. I never really understood sculpture a lot and my try during sculpture class was dismal. The cardboard joke of a sculpture I created was embarrassing.

I noticed that art history class really made more of an impression on me than the studio classes when I learned about why artists did something or how they did. Learning about the different artistic movements and how art theory changed over time was just fascinating. I miss that. I’ve taken more art history classes than I can count and I still remember a lot from them some ten years later.

The art movement that I found most fascination was Impressionism. I’d say overall  Chuck Close is the most inspiring artist I learned about. His ability to adapt to a massive injury was remarkable and I think he took art to a whole new level. Check him out.

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Ringling Museum in Sarasota, Florida

July 1, 2011 by 1 Comment

My first post on the Ringling Museum was about the spectacular Beyond Bling show. But the museum has tons more to offer! I think it must be fairly unique in that it has a well-stocked traditional art museum, a circus museum, gardens, and a historic home on the same property.

John Ringling, of course, was an owner of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circus. The winter quarters for the circus was at one time in the Sarasota, Florida area and Mr. Ringling and his wife eventually made it their home. He had some fabulous art pieces, so he wanted his own museum to showcase them. After his death,  he bequeathed the art museum he had built to the state of Florida. Thus, the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art was born. For more information about this, visit http://www.ringling.org/ArtMuseum.aspx

Today, the Ringling Museum houses wonderful paintings by Rubens, van Dyck,  El Greco, and other artists. In addition, there are sculptures and other priceless items such as furniture and vases on display. The Museum also features traveling exhibitions that span many time periods and subjects.

The Circus Museum was created in 1948 and touts itself as the first museum of its type in the United States. On display you’ll find costumes, posters, tools, wagons, memorabilia, and more. I always enjoy the large display of circus posters. It’s fun to see how they changed over the years. The exhibits also pay respect to many of the important clowns and performers, like Emmett Kelly, and there is a planned expansion in Fall 2011 that will showcase them even more. One of the other popular parts of the Circus Museum is the The Howard Bros. Circus Model. This is lots of fun–very musical and magical.

Something I don’t recall seeing is the private Ringling railroad car on display. Sounds like I need to plan a visit this fall when the expansion opens to see all the new sites!

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Beyond Bling at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art

June 16, 2011 by 1 Comment

The Ringling Museum, in Sarasota, Florida, is another one of those places I’ve been to a lot. I went there for field trips in school and then my family and I started going on Monday holidays (since there is free admission on Mondays to the art museum).

Their newest exhibition, Beyond Bling, is a big change from the usual exhibits of wonderful paintings and sculptures from the past. In a word, the atmosphere is electrifying. I’ve never been so interested in seeing a particular show at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art before. They really step out of their comfort zone with this one and I think it’s worth it. The art, the movie, the books, the music…it all gels into a total experience. The art is bright and shiny (literally since a lot of it has rhinestones or something similar in it). They have iPods you can use to listen to rap music while you see the exhibit–three different playlists to choose from too, I believe. At the end they have a movie and lots of books to look through. It’s a media explosion!

The hip-hop culture really comes alive for visitors through the art and its descriptions. I love the piece of the speakers with rhinestones, where the description says the artist is trying to convey something that is visually loud. I’ve been thinking about that ever since. It’s really powerful. The movie is from the beginning of the hip-hop movement and definitely gives you an inside look at what the youths were doing to express themselves. There’s one part where they talk about graffiti being a way to play a game–who can do something faster, higher-up, bigger. Then there’s this part about how the graffiti is personal and tells a story. I thought the break dancing scenes were pretty nifty too.

In researching this post, I came across the Facebook page for the event. I think the page, along with the subject of the exhibit, really shows how the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art is evolving. Beyond Bling is a terrific way for the Ringling Museum to mix the old and the new–it creates a little something for everyone. It runs through August 14th.

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