Mother Nature and the Flower Fairies have been busy in my garden making the flowers grow. My job is to take pictures of the results.
Image source
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My new photography show, Saki, Pug For Fun opens in two days but I'm still shooting for it. Crazy, right? Today I took four pictures I'm very satisfied with. One will go in the show, maybe two.
Recently I started painting old chairs. This was my first. It's been a lot of fun and I'm so pleased with the results. I paint on any surface, really. Glass, walls, wood, canvas. And in the past I've painted some furniture, but discovering Annie Sloan Chalk Paint really made a difference. That suff goes on so easily and covers so beautifully. And no smell. And water cleanup.
Today I decided to photograph the chairs, on a beat up old table in front of my living room wall. I painted the wall 11 years ago when I moved into my house. You can see I like spots. I'm shooting with my iPhone 4, using the Camera+ app.
Here's Saki on the spotted chair. Saki is a very good poser. For a dog who doesn't relax even when she's asleep, it's fascinating to me that she will calm down and pose as soon as she sees a camera.
And here is Stella, the doxy. Stella's not quite as happy in front of the camera but the floor was a long way down and she was not about to attempt a jump. So she sat. Here she was listening to the sound of a car outside. It's best when something captures their attention.
Most of these images will soon be available as greeting cards on my online store.
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The Amazons are still travelling. Digital collages by Liza Cowan. Here's a sample of where they've been. For the complete series check them out on Flickr
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The Amazons are on walkabout, roaming the earth and skies, at work and at play.
Amazons Allons-Y. Background from the cover of the charming children's book, Trees In Britain, by S.R.Badmin, Puffin Picture Books. Amazon drawings based on Greek vase paintings.
Amazons, Let's Go Make Mother Earth Safe For All. Made on Sept. 12th, just after the news of the troubles in Cairo and Libya. Safety for all beings on the planet.
Amazons Allons-Y. CowanDesign
You can follow the Amazons on Flickr
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Amazons, Allons-Y. Let's go save Mother Earth. Drawings by Liza Cowan. Map, 1880 Japan. Liza Cowan, CowanDesign.
As far as I am concerned, The 10th Doctor can be an honorary Amazon.
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My daughter and I enjoyed ourselves thoroughly at the Pug Fest at Alice Austen House Museum last weekend. Not only are we pug fans (and owners) but we are fans of Alice's life work as a pioneering 19th Century photographer. See more about Alice on this blog here and the Alice Austen House Museum website here.
View From Alice Austen House Museum, across The Narrows. Photo ©Liza Cowan
This view across the Narrows would have been very different in Alice's day. But it is still gorgeous.
Staten Island circa 1900. You can see The Narrows in the upper right.
Willa and Saki in the water at Alice Austen House, Staten Island NY. ©Liza Cowan
View from Alice Austen House across the water. ©Liza Cowan
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At the Alice Austen House Museum, Pug Day. What a beautiful day to be at Clear Comfort, Alice's Staten Island, NY, house on the water. Here, my daughter and I recreate Alice's self portrait with her pug, Punch. I bet Alice would have loved to be able to wear jeans and boots, and keep her hair short. Imagine lugging hundreds of pounds of camera equipment around wearing a corset and floor length dress. Kudos to Alice for managing so beautifully.
Alice Austen and Punch, self portrait. Willa and Saki by Liza Cowan
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Last week I posted this image of a billboard in progress in Greenwich Village, NYC.
Photo ©Liza Cowan
Barneys New York Billboard. Photo ©Penny House
Today my friend Penny sent me this picture of the finished billboard. It's for Barneys New York.
And here's the inspiration for the billboard:
screen capture from wallpaper.com
"Helmut Lang's cast-resin replica of five front-row seats from his final fashion collection are installed in a concrete room in the window of Barneys, replicating the artist's own basement, where the piece has been stored. Flat-panel plaques on the floor display the fashion items the artist selected as highlights of 2009"
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Two nuns crossing 7th Avenue. Photo ©Liza Cowan
Missionaries of Charity Enter Chase Bank. Photo © Liza Cowan
When I started following the sisters it was because I loved the flow of their saris and the way they walked so closely together. When they entered the bank I had to laugh. I'm sure that the Missionaries of Charity have bank business, but for a brief moment I had a vision of them robbing the joint. You know - to give to the poor.
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Walking around New York City is never dull. I grew up in the city but now I am just another visitor with a camera.
This is my first post via iPad do bear with me as I learn. Always a journey, right?
Billboard in process. NYC, photo ©Liza Cowan
Shop Window. Ralph Lauren, Greenwich Village. photo ©Liza Cowan
Flowers in shop. New York City. Photo ©Liza Cowan
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I am so pleased that my daughter Willa loves to take photographs. And she's good.
W taking a photo of a utility sink at the Belgo Building in Montral. Photo © Liza Cowan.
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Liza Cowan et al, Paint By Number, at Pine Street Art Works on Art Express, PBS
I've just found this video by Paul Larsen, host of Mountain Lake PBS' popular show Art Express. The show segment is about Paint By Number, Anonymous Works from Mid 20th Century America, one of the most successful, and one of my favorite, of all the exhibits I curated during my five year tenure as Director and owner of the Burlington,Vermont art gallery, Pine Street Art Works.
The video features Harry Bliss, Mark Waskow, Christie Mitchell and Liza Cowan.
Mad Magazine, September 1958. Liza Cowan Ephemera Collections
Here's what I wrote in 2007 about the exhibit on the Pine Street Art Works Website:
Paint by number. The craze of the 1950's - paint by number swept the nation in the era of Eisenhower, Levittown, post war prosperity, and a post war concept of leisure time - which probably had more to do with women being squeezed out of the workforce and back into the home than with any real decrease in the need for labor. It doesn't seem surprising that paint by number was marketed to women, although plenty of men did enjoy making the paintings.
Is Paint By Number art now? Was it art then? Do time, distance and a changing art market alter our perceptions and judgements?
At Pine Street Art Works we love them, or we wouldn't be showing them. We are fascinated by their subversive allure - the tension created between the pleasure of viewing and the original - and ongoing - horrified responses by the gate keepers of high culture.
Although now PBN has been the subject of a show at the Smithsonian, and of many academic and popular essays, and regularly show up in design magazines and blogs, there is still the vacillating response - are we allowed the pleasure we get from looking at (or making) these paintings?Most of the paint by number sets of the fifties and early sixties depicted nostolgic scenes: historic and pastoral landscapes, christian religious images, adorable or noble animals, sentimental glimpes of far distant cultures as well as copies from the canon of romanticized European figurative art. Critics at the time were disgusted with the mechanized mass produced nostalgia.
But now, with our vantage point from the 21st century, these paintings have aquired the patina of age and distance. Have they aquired the "aura" that Walter Benjamin wrote about? Or are we nostalgic for the more innocent nostalgia of the 50's? Are we caught up in second order - or even third order -nostalgia?
The August Paint By Number show doesn't answer these questions but provides some gorgeous evidence for future theories.
The website I refer to in the video, where I saw the post about the room-sized Paint By Number that inspired me to curate the show, was Apartmenttherapy.com and the painting was by Curtis Robinson. You can see it HERE. I was very pleased that Curtis actually came to Burlington to see the show.
For more images from the exhibit see Pine Street Art Works website and an earlier post on SeeSaw
Postcard for Paint By Number exhibit Pine Street Art Works, design by Liza Cowan 2007
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When I was designing posters for the Burlington Vermont No Lockheed Campaign, I realized I had a real taste for agit prop (see them HERE). So when Occupy came to town, I set my hand to designing a series of posters. You can see them on my Flickr sets HERE.
This one is my favorite. It is available through Occuprint
Occupy Vermont. ©Liza Cowan/CowanDesign
I know that local Occupy movements are important, but I decided to focus on an overarching theme: Occupy Patriarchy. The drawing is one I made in the early 1970's copying an image from a Greek Vase.
Occupy Patriarchy poster by ©Liza Cowan/CowanDesign 2011
If you are interested in the ideas behind Occupy Patriarchy you can find a great resource HERE
Below is one of my favorite Occupy Burlington posters, using what my regular readers know is a constant source of pleasure, vintage postcards. This one from 1906.
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Today we occupied Burlington. Hope you can make it next time. Love, Us.
Early 20th Century postcard, City Hall Park, Burlington Vermont. Site of the Occupy Burlington actions and General Assemblies. Postcard from Cowan Ephemera Archive. Adaptation:CowanDesign.
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The Frozen Butcher at Essex Farmers Market. Photo Liza Cowan
The Frozen Butcher
photo Liza Cowan
Using contemporary technologies, this small, family-run, Vermont business brings their farm- raised, organic beef to local farmers markets. The refrigeration in their mobile shop, aka the truck, is powered by Solar Energy. Yes, the panels on the top of the truck are solar. So they can run all day and not burn any fuel. Cool, eh? And the meat is delicious too.
Snug Valley Farm
East Hardwick, VT
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photo by Liza Cowan
Farmers Markets, Burlington, VT. Community building, great food, great for the environment, supports local farmers, AND retail theater at it's best.
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Farmers Market, South Burlington Vermont photo Liza Cowan
screen capture from Healthy Living Website.
Screen capture: Healthy Living/South Burlington Facebook Page
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Burlington, Vermont. Farmer's Market, June 2011. Photo Liza Cowan
City Hall, Burlington Vermont. Saturday Farmer's Market. All through the summer.
Perfect Saturday morning event in Burlington Vermont. There are several excellent Farmers Markets around town, and in South Burlington and Shelburne. Each one has a micro regional flavor. But in all of them Vermont organic farmets display their produce and flowers, local small bakeries bring their breads, cookies, tarts. Organic beef, chicken, turkey, all raised practically right around the corner. Tibetan tea and momos, hand blended oils, maple syrup, wine. Home made root beer, candles. And a bit of craft, art and music in the mix. Good times.
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