Day: October 28, 2019

Music Recommendation: HALLOWEEN EP by The Lad Mags

BRUCE’S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC THAT YOU PROBABLY WON’T HEAR ON THE RADIO

Music: Halloween EP

Artist: The Lad Mags

Artist Location: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Info: Four women and a garbageman drummer, transmitting spooky garage soul harmonies, somehow pulled from an invented history where Motown begat psychedelia.

Has two songs: “Dig My Bones” and “Awhooooo”

The Lad Mags on Bandcamp

The Lad Mags on Facebook

The Lad Mags on Twitter

Price: FREE DOWNLOAD

If you are OK with paying for it, you can use PAYPAL or CREDIT CARD.

Genre: Pop Punk, Bizarro Scuzz (The Lad Mag’s term)

The Lad Mag’s Halloween EP

 

David Bruce: The Coolest People in Art — Work

Work

• The art of Howard Hodgkin is loved by the public. Early in his life, he knew that he wanted to be an artist, and he ran away from nearly every school he was sent to. Once, a police officer asked him why he had run away from a school: “Why did you do this? Are they maltreating you?” The young Howard replied, “No, I ran away to be an artist.” The understanding police officer replied, “Good for you.” For many years, Mr. Hodgkin taught art, which he believes is actually “a great trap for an artist as it becomes a substitute life.” When he decided to tell art teacher Clifford Ellis that he was going to stop teaching, Mr. Ellis told him, “I know what you’re going to say, and I’m amazed it’s taken you so long.” At age 75, Mr. Hodgkin was working hard on his art, for a practical reason: “Old age.” He told reporter Tim Teeman, “I think the time comes when you think, ‘Well there’s not much time left.’ When I was your age, I thought time was endless and suddenly it becomes clear that it’s not.”

• Claude Monet created a series of paintings with the haystacks of Giverny as their subject. Why did he paint the haystacks over and over? So that he could capture the various kinds of light on them. When he first decided to paint the haystacks, he sent Suzanne Hoschedé, his stepdaughter, to get him two canvases: one for painting the haystacks in direct sunshine, and one for painting the haystacks when a cloud covered the sun. However, he quickly discovered that there were other variations of light that he wanted to paint, and so he kept sending Suzanne to get more canvases. When Suzanne returned with the first two canvases, Monet remembered, “I noticed that the light had changed. I said to [her], ‘Would you go back to the house, please, and bring me another canvas?’ She brought it to me, but very soon the light had changed again. ‘One more!’ and, ‘One more still!’” Eventually, he was painting on five canvases, moving from one to the other as the light changed.

• Jack Kirby is King of Comics, and his art filled many, many comic books. He was known for working well and quickly, filling page after page with high-quality artwork. However, early in his career Mr. Kirby worked for Victor Fox, a man who paid artists poorly and who wanted profits much more than masterpieces; therefore, Mr. Kirby took shortcuts in his artwork. For example, he would draw a large cloud, which took little work, then add a tiny, quickly drawn airplane to fill a panel of a comic book. One day, he filled an entire panel with the word “Wow.” Mr. Fox was puzzled, and he asked Mr. Kirby what was the point of the word “Wow.” Mr. Kirby stumbled out an explanation about relating to kids on their level. This satisfied Mr. Fox, and very quickly his other artists started to fill panels with the word “Wow,” knowing — as Mr. Kirby did — that this was a quick way to create a panel.

• The security guards at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. covet certain rooms to guard. For example, the most coveted rooms are those devoted to the French Impressionists because those works of art are so greatly loved by both the museum visitors and the security guards. For a while, security guards weren’t so happy about working in the East Building because those rooms are devoted to 20th-century art, which is more difficult to understand. Sometimes, museum visitors will tell the security guards, “My kid can do better than that!” However, the curators of the 20th-century works of art began to educate the security guards, pointing out that at first people had rejected the French Impressionists and made the same kind of comments about their works of art. After receiving these art lessons, the security guards don’t as much mind working in the East Building.

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Copyright by Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved

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THE COOLEST PEOPLE IN ART

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