Three Things: The Surreal Family Edition
Today I’m in a surreal mood. Let’s narrow that down a smidge, though, and focus our attention on surreal families this week. Have some real-life family strange-ness from which to draw? Even better!
Sammy Slabbinck, Seafood, 2013. Collage on paper. www.sammyslabbinck.tumblr.com
Pablo Picasso, Family of Saltimbanques, 1905. Oil on canvas. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Slinkachu, Wonderland, 2009. www.slinkachu.com
Three Things: The Still Life Edition
Happy Monday! This morning I’m staring at inanimate objects. Mostly because I’m feeling brain dead, but let’s go with it! Imagine that these objects are sitting in an empty room, moments before your character walks in. Then what?
William Brooker, Still Life in a Harsh Light, 1975. Oil on canvas. York Art Gallery, York, United Kingdom.
Taca Zhijie Sui, Untitled from the Odes… series. Photograph. www.tacasui.com
Pablo Picasso, Still Life with Glass Under the Lamp, 1962. Linoleum cut. Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY.
Three Things: The Spotlight Edition
This Wednesday, we’re inviting you (yes, you!) to step into the spotlight* (or at least, stand in front of our microphone) and read your work at our third Words at WAM. Co-hosted by yours truly and our dear friends, the WAM Collective, this third iteration of Words at WAM will feature writers Katie Sisneros and Dobby Gibson, and however many more of you we can get through in an hour and a half (get there early to sign up!).
Intimidated, ever-so-slightly, by the idea of a spotlight? Don’t worry, it’s much easier than you think. It won’t be anything like the following three performances. Unless, of course, that’s what you want. In which case, it will be exactly like that.
Pablo Picasso, Curtain for the ballet “Parade”, 1917. Tempera on canvas. Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France.
Lisa Swerling, portion of All the World’s a Stage. Mixed media; shadowbox sculpture. www.glasscathedrals.com
George Bellows, Dempsey and Firpo, 1924. Oil on canvas. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
* We don’t have an actual spotlight. Sorry, folks.
Summer is the time for road trips and getaways — and with it, sleeping in hotels and motels. Let’s pack a bag, jump in the car, train, boat, or jet, and spend a few days in another place, enjoying the new view from our foreign beds. Here are three such views to prompt some plots.
Edward Hopper, Western Motel, 1957. Oil on canvas. Yale University Art Gallery, Connecticut.
Pablo Picasso, Postcard to Jean Cocteau, St.-Raphaël, 1919. Ink and watercolor on card.
Walker Pickering, Motel Bien Venido, 2010. Photograph. www.walkerpickering.com