Tuesday, August 11, 2015 -- Mattie died 309 weeks ago today.
Tonight's picture was taken in July of 2007. Mattie was outside in my in-law's backyard in Boston. What was he looking for? Mattie was in search of chipmunks. Each day the resident chipmunk came out and Mattie was fascinated by him. Mattie named him, Chippy!
In fact, this photo of "Chippy" was used by Mattie for a kindergarten class assignment. His teacher asked him to bring in about five or six photos that would inspire him to begin the art of writing. Mattie and I went through several photos together and one of the six we chose was "Chippy."
Quote of the day: What you allow is what will continue. ~ Unknown
Today we ventured to Salem, Massachusetts and went to the Peabody Essex Museum to see the special exhibit entitled, American Epics: Thomas Hart Benton and Hollywood. I have to admit I really had no idea at first who Thomas Benton was however, as we began touring the exhibit it became clearer that I knew his works from his famous lithographs advertising the Grapes of Wrath and the illustrations in many of Mark Twain's novels.
This is the first major exhibition on Thomas Hart Benton in more than 25 years and the first to explore important
connections between Benton's art and the movies. After working briefly in the
silent film industry, Benton became acutely aware of storytelling's shift
toward motion pictures and developed a cinematic style of painting that melded
European art historical traditions and modern movie production techniques. In
paintings, murals, drawings, prints and illustrated books, Benton reinvented national
narratives for 20th-century America and captivated the public with his visual
storytelling.
Benton wanted to become the major American artist of his
time. He trained in Chicago and Paris and was a member of New York's artistic
vanguard, but by his mid-20's, Benton had yet to make the kind of defining
contribution to the art history of the United States that his ancestors, U.S.
Senator Thomas Hart Benton and John Charles Fremont, had made to the nation's
political history. Casting about for work and opportunities, Benton became a
set painter on silent film productions in Fort Lee, New Jersey - the nation's
"first Hollywood."
"Benton developed a modern cinematic painting
style to communicate epic narratives as memorably as the movies of his
day," says Austen Barron Bailly, PEM's George Putnam Curator of American
Art. "He wanted to capture the feel of motion pictures on canvas: the
illusion of three-dimensional space, rhythmic motion and the glow of projected
light." To achieve this, Benton adopted techniques used by 16th-century
Italian painters to sculpt and illuminate clay models before sketching the forms
to work up a final painting. Early filmmakers also adopted these Old Master
techniques to study scene composition. Benton's meticulous artistic process
parallels the storyboard-to-final-take methods developed by the film industry.
Benton became acutely aware of the motion picture industry's
rising influence and mass appeal. Themes of cultural identity, westward
expansion, prejudice, tolerance and the American Dream were given epic
treatment on movie screens, and Benton sought to paint them. Like the movies,
murals are a form of public art, so Benton embarked on a self-commissioned,
independently produced mural series, American Historical Epic. This sweeping
series painted between 1920 and 1928 runs to more than 60 feet in length and appears
in the exhibition. Benton selected episodes from American history familiar from
1920's silent films, but he depicted the nation's past in unconventional ways to
engage the hot-button issues of the day:
citizenship, race relations and national identity. As Benton explained,
"history was not a scholarly study for me but a drama."
Simultaneously, Benton started traveling regularly around the country in search
of distinctly American subject matter. Like Hollywood, he recognized
typecasting as a way to transform individuals into a cast of American
characters and personalities, among them Yankees, bootleggers, musicians and
cotton pickers. Inspired by his characterizations, 20th Century Fox
commissioned Benton to create a series of lithographs (as seen here) in 1940 to promote John
Ford's filmed adaptation of John Steinbeck's best selling novel The Grapes of
Wrath.
After we our our Museum adventure, we then headed to a large warehouse in Salem that featured four floors full of antiques. It literally had something for everyone. It seems to me this particular warehouse is the best kept secret in the area for antique furniture at a wonderful price. I even met the buyer of the pieces and commended him on his prices. All I know is if I had a house and wanted to purchase furniture for it, I would be heading to visit this fellow! Antique desks, tables, dining room sets, and so forth.... all at very reasonable prices! Also in good condition because in many cases he and his business partner recondition them. As I was walking through the warehouse, the fourth floor was like a walk down memory lane. I found things from my own childhood that caught my attention!
I would like to think I am NOT an antique, however, I know when I was a child I had two lamps that were just like this! They were like music boxes. The children sat on a turn table, that could be wound up to play music. I loved these lamps! I did not wind this lamp today, but I would bet you if I did it played the song, "School Days, School Days, dear old golden rule days...." given the fact that over the little boy is a sign that reads, 'School.'
Now this next photo, I am a bit more sketchy on! These are a pair of roller skates. I know my first pair of skates couldn't have possibly been these, since these skates are from the 50's. So I imagine they probably belonged to a family member of mine. None the less as a kid, I played with them and used them because they were adjustable. Yet I can remember putting them on and rolling all over our house in them!
My last favorite toy find that I spotted today was this cute Fisher Price phone. I loved this phone. Not so much for talking, the dialing, or the noise it made. But I loved its pretty blue eyes, and I can recall walking this phone like a dog. As a child, I would pull the handset like a leash just to watch the pretty blue eyes move along with me. In many ways this was a walk down memory lane today, something that I wasn't expecting to see or experience. But this is the art of antiquing.
