Wednesday, July 31, 2013

More 'Mountains' of Grief


The Parents, 1923
Kathe Kollwitz


Michelangelo's Pieta, 1499


Kathe Kollwitz
Mother with her Dead Son
Installed 1993 in the Neue Wache
Berlin, Germany


Tuesday, July 16, 2013

The Parents

The Parents, 1923

Came across this today while teaching drawing to young'uns (teens).  
As I was showing them a book on Kathe Kollwitz (Kollwitz again, see older post re: Newtown),
I saw this image upside down.  
The overall shape-quality embodies a 'mountain' of grief.  
The abstraction is so concrete, descriptive and expressive. 
 A woodcut about the loss of children to war.  
Today I think of Trayvon Martin's parents, and all parents who have lost children to gun violence.
Their grief, our grief, is embodied and recognizable here, almost 100 years later. 
Might Art play a part in the movement against gun violence?
(As I teach, the young'uns teach me.)


Friday, April 5, 2013

More Energy Fields - Ode to Schlemmer and Athena Tacha


Athena Tacha - Mathias Baldwin Park, Philadelphia

For various reasons, I googled 'southern California beach art' (!) 
and came across this image of energy fields (top).  Coincidentally, 
the environmental artist, Athena Tacha, a colleague and friend, 
has a show opening tomorrow at the Marsha Mateyka Gallery 
here in D.C.  Along with drawings, etc., it includes 
photographs of the project above.