Recently, while browsing online for bear pictures (as all good arctophiles are wont to do), I chanced upon the work of Hungarian artist Reich Károly (1922-1988).
Just in case you’re feeling a little color starved and need some spring into summer inspiration, thought I’d share some of his children’s book illustrations today. Who can resist his bright colors, whimsy, and contagious joy?
Not only did I find the bears I craved (he once designed some bear postage stamps!), but so many other wonderful animals too. His style is child-like, charming, and irresistible. You just have to smile when looking at his pictures. 🙂
“The land created me. I’m wild and lonesome. Even as I travel the cities, I’m more at home in the vacant lots.” ~ Bob Dylan
Since the man is turning 77 today, we’re gonna sing a little birthday blues by featuring some of Dylan’s “bluepaintings” paired with bits of his song lyrics.
Did you know that besides being a 12-time Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter, poet, author, small-batch whiskey entrepreneur, metal works artist, and Nobel, Pulitzer, Medal of Freedom, Oscar, and Golden Globe winner, Dylan is also an accomplished painter?
We first saw his work gracing the covers of two 70’s albums (Self Portrait and Planet Waves), but he didn’t start seriously exhibiting and selling his paintings until 2007. Like many extraordinarily gifted creatives, his output benefits from the cross-fertilization of art forms.
Dylan is that rare person who can move effortlessly between music, word, ink, paint, as if he’s just futzing around with a few different instruments in the studio. Yet again and again he reflects life back to us with a truth and simplicity that defy words . . . seemingly unworried about how something looks, he’s not after artistic perfection, but something larger, a moment, a feeling. The effect is enthralling.
~ Marisha Pessl, New York Times
I love his frequent use of blues, and of course how often he depicts eateries. It’s fascinating to see the world through Dylan’s (blue) eyes 🙂 — he’s drawn to back streets, alley ways, country roads, bridges, train tracks — landscapes and urban scenes “unpolluted by the ephemera of pop culture.” There’s a noted absence of people in most of these paintings, conveying a sense of loneliness and a nostalgia for simpler times.
1. Not to sound corny or anything (tee hee), but I love bow ties! Ordinary bow ties in any color or fabric float my boat, but foodie ones send me right over the edge.
Know of any handsome gents who need to spruce up their wardrobes?
These are made by Rotterdam based artist Rommy Kuperus of RommydeBommy. You may remember when I interviewed Rommyas part of the Indie Artist Spotlight series a few years ago. In that post, I included two of her bow ties, and zippity doo-dah, now she’s added more!
Do check out Rommy’s Etsy Shop for all her outrageous foodie fashion accessories. In addition to bow ties, she makes purses, brooches, and necklaces. All will bring a smile to your face and jolt you out of your ho-hum doldrums (there’s nothing like having perfect strangers offer to lick your handbag). 😀
Was I happy to see that she’s now making tea bags? Oh yes.
Nanny Paws looks after Ally and Mae the only way she knows how—as a dog would. There’s nothing she wouldn’t do for her girls. She feeds them a hearty breakfast (cookies are best), picks up their toys (teddy bears fit nicely in freshly dug holes), and even walks them to school (running them there is fun too). But one Tuesday, Ally and Mae come home sick, and it’s up to Nanny Paws to take care of them…in her own special way.
Nanny Paws has already gotten *rave reviews* from Kirkus, Booklist and School Library Journal. I’m looking forward to sniffing this one out. How can you go wrong when the author/illustrator’s children resemble and act like standard poodles? Find out more about the book in this cool interview with Wendy at Mile High Reading.
Issa is probably my favorite of the four great haiku masters. I love the endearing humanity in his poems and seeing traces of his personality shining through. How could I not appreciate a poet whose pen name translates as “cup of tea,” or, “a single bubble in steeping tea”?
Recently, I was happy to stumble upon some of his “soup” haiku (many about pufferfish soup). While I’ll pass on pufferfish every time, I can certainly get behind this poem:
thin mist — night after night vegetable soup
Don’t you think Issa wrote it with me in mind, knowing its irresistible aroma would awaken my senses 213 years later? 🙂
Because May is the fifth month, today I’m serving up five of Issa’s “blue” haiku, paired with Japanese woodblock prints. Enjoy these lovely one-breath poems (all translated from the Japanese by David G. Lanoue). I hope their beauty will add a little joy, light, and the sweet fragrance of revelation to your day.
Today, for your feasting pleasure, the amazing oil paintings — yes, paintings (!) of Italian artist Luigi Benedicenti (1948-2015).
They can’t be paintings, they must be photographs, you say. I’m still in disbelief myself. Even if they were photographs, they would be awesome — but paintings? Truly incredible!
A native of Turin, Benedicenti developed his own style of “realismo extremo,” or hyper photo-realism, featuring Italian pastries as his primary subject.
Apparently the pastries were made by professional bakers, but he did not consume them after taking reference photos because he had diabetes. I imagine his family and friends were only too willing to help him “take care of” the pastries when he was through with them. 🙂
Jama's Alphabet Soup 