See Saw

SeeSaw is a featured blog at TypePad today. YAY!

Just have to brag a bit today. Thanks so much to Typepad for making SeeSaw a featured blog.

 

Mother/Daughter photography

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.

SPELL CHECK

Liza Cowan/CowanDesign

If activists mic check, do witches spell check? 

PAINT BY NUMBER: A video from the 2007 Pine Street Art Works Exhibit

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

SMALL EQUALS KEEPSAKE BOXES

Small Equals Keepsake Box, chicken painting by Liza Cowan

For those readers who have been enjoying my ephemera and my art over the years - I'm now putting them on the Keepsake Boxes I've been developing for the past couple of years.

I have the boxes made for me in Vermont, of Vermont pine, so they are lovely and local. Small footprint for me, please. Vermont Wooden Box, the company that manufactures the boxes, is a tiny outfit on a dirt road about an hour's drive from my studio. Feels just right to me.

Small Equals Keepsake Box. Sew To The Moon. Cowan Ephemera Collections

I know there are a lot of needle pack lovers out there, and these make great sewing kits.  See more about needlepack HERE on this blog.

Small Equals Keepsake Box, Wells Richardson Lactated Food, Cowan Ephemera Collections

You can read more about Wells Richardson & Co. HERE on this blog.

Small Equals Keepsake Box, Trumpet Vine, photo Liza Cowan

These boxes and more are available at the Small Equals Online Store HERE

 

Liza Cowan Occupy Graphics.

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.

Today We Occupied Burlington. Poster ©Liza Cowan/CowanDesign 2011

 

OCCUPY BURLINGTON VERMONT POSTCARD

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.

THE FROZEN BUTCHER. FARMERS MARKET

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

www.snugvalleyfarm.com

 

Trumpet Vine Flowers

Trumpet Vine Flowers photo by Liza Cowan

FARMERS MARKET, BURLINGTON VERMONT: city hall park

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.

SOUTH BURLINGTON FARMERS MARKET AT HEALTHY LIVING

 
Farmers Market, South Burlington Vermont photo Liza Cowan

 

screen capture from Healthy Living Website.

 

Screen capture: Healthy Living/South Burlington Facebook Page 

FARMERS MARKET, BURLINGTON VERMONT

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.

Liza Cowan posters in NY Times: NO LOCKHEED

 

 NO Lockheed, poster, What Will Lockheed Bring, by Liza Cowan, 2011

On May 12th The New York Times ran an article about Burlington Vermont activist group, No Lockheed, and the struggle to prevent a partnership between the city and the war profiteer arms dealer Lockheed Martin. 

I'm a part of the group and the story featured two of my 14 agit prop No Lockheed posters. 

STORY HERE

LOCKHEED: DOING BAD THINGS BADLY

NoLockeed sticker: LOCKHEED DOING BAD THINGS BADLY design @ Liza Cowan/CowanDesign 2011, for NoLockheed, Burlington VT. 

LOCKHEED MARTIN & THE TROJAN HORSE

WHAT WILL LOCKHEED BRING? DON'T BE FOOLED.

No Lockheed. Burlington, Vermont, Earth

Cowan/Design for NoLockheed

IF YOU ARE SQUEAMISH DON'T PROD THE BEACH RUBBLE

If You Are Squeamish. Rubber stamps/paint/old window. Words by Sappho, window © Liza Cowan 1999

This painting cracked and broke in 2001, during a move. I just found the only photo I took of it. I used rubber stamps for the text, and even though I used waterproof ink, I found I had to paint over the lettters with black paint. the panes are translucent, but I placed a white foam core board behind so the letters would be legible. 

Amazons. Long may we prosper.

Amazons. In honor of International Women's Day.  Long may we prosper!

 

Drawing by Liza Cowan, Cowrie Magazine, 1973

 

 

KISS OF DEATH

Orignial movie poster for Kiss Of Death, adapted by Liza Cowan

for more on Lockheed Martin, see here

War Is Peace: Lockheed Martin's Dystopian Vision

 




Adapted from  Signet Books cover for George Orwell's dystopian novel,1984

The idea of Lockheed Martin heading up Climate Initiatives makes about as much sense as wearing a plunging neckline while sporting a button that reads "Anti Sex League"

"War is Peace"

"Freedom Is Slavery"

"Ignorance Is Strength"

 Quotation source

And because this IS an art educational blog, you will be interested in the source of this image as well:

George Orwell, 1984, Signet Books 1951. Cover art by Alan Harmon

Lockheed Martin wants what's best for you: If by "you" they mean "themselves"

Poster by Liza Cowan CowanDesign for NoLockheed

Do not listen to the poison that spills from the pens of the Public Relations department at Lockheed Martin. To earn your trust, they spend more per year than you make in a lifetime. 

 

Will you let them buy you?

 

I have a nice bridge I could sell you.

 

 

No Lockheed Martin: they will never do what's right, only what serves them.

Lockheed Martin, whose mission is profit through endless war, will never beat their swords into snowplows. Liza Cowan/CowanDesign

No Lockheed, Burlington Vermont

(where we are having a snowy winter)

 

Lockheed Martin, starring in Faust

Lockheed Martin, Starring as Mephistopheles, in a gruesome production by Burlington VT. 

 

Parents Of Burlington VT- Do you want Lockheed Martin Using Your Children?

for more information go to FB: No Lockheed

 

No! Lockheed Martin in Burlington Posters by Liza Cowan

Posters made by Liza Cowan for NoLockheed Burlington Vermont

For more on Lockheed Martin in Burlington Vermont see HERE

 

 

 

Find more No Lockheed posters by Liza Cowan on Flickr HERE

PERFUME BOTTLES, AUTOCHROME, LUMIERE BROS, BURLINGTON

How do vintage perfume bottles lead to an historic Lumiere Brothers factory in Burlington Vermont? Follow me.

Vintage perfume bottle, photo © Liza Cowan 2010. Available online here

Yesterday I stopped by to chat with my friend Mary Heinrich Aloi at her wonderful antique store, Vintage Inspired Antiques/Whistle Stop Antiques, on Flynn Avenue  in Burlington. I went to discuss business but I cant help looking around her packed- to- the- gills shop whenever I stop by. I spied some antique vintage perfume bottles. Not only were they beautiful, but I'm kind of a perfume nut. 

 
I bought a few bottles and carried them back to my store, not to sell but to photograph, and to delight in the lingering scent of Bandit by the infamous perfumer Germaine Cellier, and whatever delightful aromas might be waiting in the other bottles.

In addition to Bandit I found Tabu, Geoffrey Beene and the alluring Private Collection 1973 by Estee Lauder.

 

 

 I set up the bottles in many different configurations, with the sunlight changing as I went. The next one, along with the one at the top, are my favorites. The bottles have a strange sensuality, evoking not just their scent, but a presence bestowed by the  somewhat anthropomorpic shape of the glass itself.

Two Perfume Bottles,Estee Lauder Private Collection and unknown, photo @Liza Cowan 2010.Available online at small equals store

These photographs reminded me of the work of a photo secessionist artist, but I couldn't remember who, so I went on a little cyber hunt to see what might be lurking in the back of my visual memory.

 

Heinrich Kuhn, Still Life with Glasses, 1914, Brown pigment

Heinrich Kuhn, Austrian photographer. 1866-1944. Worked initially with the multi-gum bichromate process, and  platinum and oil transfer prints, In 1907 he met up with Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Steichen, and they began experimenting with the new process developed by the Lumiere Bros, the Autochrome.

Here's a Kuhn Autochrome.

Heinrich Kühn, Miss Mary and Edeltrude at the Hill Crest, ca. 1910, autochrome 

How does this lead to Burlington Vermont? It's a little known fact that the Lumiere Bros. set up a factory to make autochrome plates in Burlington Vermont. The factory was here in Burlington for about ten years, starting around 1902. And where was the plant? In the very building,  or at least on the very spot - because the original factory building burned down - on Flynn Avenue where I bought my perfume bottles at Vintage Inspired Antiques/Whistle Stop Antiques.

Want to know more ? Use these links to get you started.

Germaine Cellier from the blog Perfume Shrine

Bandit from the blog Perfume Shrine

Heinrich Kuhn and Lumiere from the blog The Blue Lantern

Heinrich Kuhn, Lumiere, Steichen, Steiglitz from the blog Venetian Red

more about Kuhn from the  blog The Blue Lantern

autochrome article from NPR

Vintage Inspired Antiques

Vintage Inspired Etsy shop

Lumiere in Burlington from Photo-Era Magazine 1907

about Autochrome from Rhode Island Historical Society

 

From The Photo Miniature Vol 3, 1902