This is my favourite art. What’s yours? Also, the Recent Unpleasantness that went down on Twitter has been very nicely talked out privately between myself and the initial woman who tweeted about it, and the two of us are now cool, so that’s a nice way to end a bit of a shit week.
This time of year is my spiritual booty call. Jesus and I see other people but we still talk every December. I used to feel bad about that because my Catholic-raised lizard brain connects regular church attendance with being A Good Believer, but lately I've been wondering if maybe the continuing struggle toward some kind of faith is okay for now.
I suspect it’s whatever this very nice guy I’ve been dating since the fall gives me for Christmas. I know it’s a print of something related to a sports team I like.
We’ve deleted the apps and we aren’t seeing anyone else and we’re exchanging gifts and he’s pet-sitting for me when I travel for the holidays. Yet I’m still scared to call him my boyfriend. Like I’ll jinx it somehow. Ahh, anxiety.
I like all pretty and fun art (and can't think of anything in particular at the moment, of course) but I would like to share my favorite gif of all time (if the embedding works here) since nothing brings me as much pure joy as this extremely pure gif: <iframe src="https://giphy.com/embed/bAlYQOugzX9sY" width="480" height="270" frameBorder="0" class="giphy-embed" allowFullScreen></iframe><p><a href="https://giphy.com/gifs/end-full-bAlYQOugzX9sY">via GIPHY</a></p>
My favorite artist working today is Makoto Fujimura, who does mostly abstract art using very old Japanese techniques. He expresses and struggles with his Christian faith through his art, and to me it’s inexpressibly beautiful and moving. Pictures don’t do it justice, but take a look. This is a link to a non-abstract piece he did that I love, it’s the quince tree on the grounds of the Cloisters, and he was drawing it on 9/11. The piece is called Shalom. https://www.artway.eu/userfiles/Fujimura%20Shalom.png
The Pieta always makes me cry, which makes it good, I think. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet%C3%A0_(Michelangelo) On a very different level, I love anything my teenage sister, an extremely talented artist, makes, and I legit want to display her artwork everywhere in my apartment
My favorite art is probably Michelangelo's David. I studied abroad in Florence and as part of my program we had an unlimited pass to that museum, which was on my way home from class, so I used to just stop in and see him any time the line wasn't too long.
(I also have never seen it in person but strongly, strongly relate to that painting--some googling tells me it's called "After the Ball" of the dark-haired woman lounging on a green couch with a book. I too have a green couch!)
I'm so glad you got the Unpleasantness cleared up. <3
The comic book Saga written by Brian K. Vaughan and illustrated by Fiona Staples is some of the best art out there right now imo (it’s v mature content, *Trunchbull voice* much too good for children). Great world building and I’ve been hooked since the first moment I opened it. It has been on hiatus for a minute and I really REALLY hope they get going again soon.
Also, any Jackson Pollock piece that I see in person *will* make me cry.
I wish I could post a pic of my favorite art, a palette of yellows and greens my daughter made via mixing, one of which is labeled "pee yellow". I think she'd get along with Amelia.
Nicole helped me find recommendations for kids' clothes for Operation Santa (basically nationwide Secret Santa for anyone who writes a letter to Santa in the US) and I shipped everything off this morning! The post office had no idea what to do with my boxes at first, but it all got straightened out and the lovely worker who helped me said he wants to do it next year!
Also, my boyfriend is at a wedding across the country, will be back for Christmas Eve, and will then go down to his parents' for a few days, and I am weirdly looking forward to this alone time stretching before me. So far I've watched a lot of Poirot and cross stitched.
I have prints from the series framed and hung on my wall. It's the first art I ever got framed, and it's a symbol of getting to have a space that is my own. I love them so much.
PS. how does one get a pet featured on the newsletter. Do I just.... email Nicole?? I have a charmingly bad cat with a tragic backstory who would love to be featured. (OK, she actually cares not one bit about being featured, but I love telling people about her.)
Xu Bing is one of my favorite artists, because he does such cool things with the idea of text and words and meaning and Chinese characters. (My PhD is in Chinese history.) My former housemate one time painted four bowls at a paint-your-own pottery place, each bowl inspired by a different piece of Chinese art that I liked.
Actually, I'm changing my answer: my favorite art is those four bowls.
One of my favorite artists working currently is Candice Breitz; she has a series of video installations where she's recorded fans singing and dancing to an entire album by one of their favorite musicians. There was one at the museum where I work over the summer, but this is the first piece of hers that I ever saw: https://vimeo.com/candicebreitz/queen
Mine wasn’t anywhere near as big a blowup as yours, but I spent a solid week getting roasted by twitter strangers who thought I was endorsing rape culture, so mazel tov on making peace. And yes, Amelia, a good green paint is a great thing.
So, okay, I just want to add that I got viciously harassed on Twitter in a similar way and over a similar type of issue and I think it's absolutely a trend being caused by Russian and GOP trolls.
I wrote something mild in defense of Elizabeth Warren and got attacked by a disgusting swarm of Kamala voters. They viciously attacked me, called me a racist, called me a racist for suggesting that Warren is not a racist, attacked me personally, attacked my NAME ("Oh PAM why doesn't PAM go drink her boxed white wine with the OTHER PAMS"), said I was as a Trump supporter, when one of my bewildered Twitter friends noticed what was going on and came to my defense they sneeringly attacked HER ("Oh look the Pam brought ANOTHER Pam, do they all hang out at the country club with their boxed wines") (Always with the boxed wines!), they sent me memes telling me to die, Twitter-screamed at me in all caps that I should fuck off and die DIE DIE DIE GO AWAY JUST GO AWAY!!!
I mean it was horrifying. I thought about leaving, and if it was important to me to be tweeting under my own name for professional or personal reasons, I would have. I ended up simply renaming my username and account into something completely gender neutral (and fierce, btw, do NOT fuck with me).
I was convinced then but am even more convinced now that there are filthy Russian trolls swarming on Twitter pretending to support each of the Democratic candidates, then using every filthy trick to rile up and sow bitter discord, either with their own sock puppet accounts, or by riling up actual real supporters by skillfully pinpointing their weak spots and activating their lizard brains. Persuading people of native American ancestry that Eliz Warren hates them for being Native American and is out to kill them, for example (which is what they were screaming at me),will get many people to seize up and have their actual brains stop working.
Twitter is a cesspit. The saddest part is you can go to any decently moderated site (Slate, Wonkette, even many of the subreddits) and see how it can actually work. If Jack Dorsey ran a restaurant, would he let people in who shrieked and screamed and abused and shit on his customers? How is running an online public forum different?
He could fix this--he could get an armada of willing citizen volunteers, we're all ready and willing. But he doesn't. The result is that good hearted and especially, people who are left wing politically, get harassed and run off these sites, and it is terrible for democracy and terrible for human interactions. It's ridiculous.
I finally got to The Cluny in Paris this year and stood in the Lady and the Unicorn tapestry room for about an hour in complete awe. That's my favorite. (at the moment.)
The Unpleasantness had a silver lining, which is a lot of people have been talking about the nice things you've done for them. Your good deeds are vast!! Love you! ❤️
I think I'm like Dan Lavery where the last piece of art I saw is my favorite. But the number one is probably Chris Dahlquist landscapes. It's hard to tell from the image on the website, but they're photos printed on metal and they shine literally like the sun dappling over a field in the light. https://chrisdahlquist.com/now-showing/35-x-51-gallery/
I can't figure out how to post a picture, but my best friend painted a huge canvas of a tree when I graduated vet school and got my first job last year. It makes me feel so special every time I look at it.
Also, Van Gogh, man. I became fascinated by him after that episode of Doctor Who. After seeing a few peices in the National Gallery in London, the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam felt like a ridiculous embarrassment of riches.
I feel like it's a cliche because I work in musical in theatre, but Seurat's "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" is my fave, and when I saw it in person in Chicago 10 years ago I was completely overcome. It's so huge! And the dots! I cried--a lot.
My friend is a painter and she does beautiful hand painted ornaments—we are doing holiday drinks tonight and I get to receive this year’s magic and I’m so excited. I hope you’re having a restful pre-holiday period! xoxo
when i was little "Luncheon at the boating Party" was my favorite art because we lived near the philips collection and used to go and see it all the time and I was very sad when it went on international tour. currently digging Monet's trees (shout out to the great exhibit at the denver art museum), cylfford still, and the Nam June Paik "electronic super highway: continential US, Alaska, hawaii"
I know it's a cliche about ~modern~ art, but if Amelia's art was hung in a museum I would be none the "wiser." Those eyes! So expressive! Is it a bear eating a fish? A man with a phallic nose? A commentary on good green paint? So good!
I think my favorite piece of art at the moment is a song by Lucy Dacus called "Night Shift."
I don't know if I'd call it my favorite, but I went to the Monet exhibit at the Denver Art Museum and was totally blown away by Monet's winter scenes. I didn't really have any idea that he had done them, and they were spectacular! Saw the bridge with the water lilies which was also incredible, but those winter scenes were something else.
I am not sure what my favorite art is but the Norwegian landscapes just DO things to my soul. Also my phone background is The Scream which seems very cliche but what can I say, the National Gallery in Oslo spoke to me.
Green is pretty great. I have like five hours of work before I am off until the 3rd and I was thinking about it and I’m pretty sure this is the longest stretch I have been off since my last maternity leave 5 years ago. I’m going to hang with my kids and read for 12 days and I’m so excited
I am having a really, really bad week and I'm so nervous. I've managed to make enough to pay my rent, but now bills are the issue and I just. Whatever,right? It'll all work out.
I'm having a good time making artwork though, but my carpal tunnel is starting to act up. I hope I can figure out how to keep drawing without pain. Does anyone else have this issue?
(This is Melissa) I took one art history class in college - all Italian Renaissance - and all of it was interesting and nice until I was introduced to Filippo Lippi. It spoke to me. I had that cliched moment of understanding. His stuff still takes my breath away. Recently re-saw one of my favorites at the Uffizi. I think he was superior to the famous painters who came after him. Everything for him is super soft and ethereal, almost like he was constantly in awe. Most after him or his peers loved to play with darkness but he only saw light. Idk! https://www.uffizi.it/en/artworks/madonna-and-child-with-two-angels
I haven't been to see it yet but I am fascinated by the new works going in to the Great Hall at the Met by Kent Mockman, a Cree-Canadian artist with a gender fluid alter ego named Miss Chief Eagle Testickle.
This image by Ms Amelia reminds me a lot of Goya’s Saturn Devouring His Son in the Prado, one of my favorite paintings. I think there is a lot of green in that one, too. Nicole, we miss you on twitter but the important thing is that you’re okay.
This time of year is my spiritual booty call. Jesus and I see other people but we still talk every December. I used to feel bad about that because my Catholic-raised lizard brain connects regular church attendance with being A Good Believer, but lately I've been wondering if maybe the continuing struggle toward some kind of faith is okay for now.
I suspect it’s whatever this very nice guy I’ve been dating since the fall gives me for Christmas. I know it’s a print of something related to a sports team I like.
We’ve deleted the apps and we aren’t seeing anyone else and we’re exchanging gifts and he’s pet-sitting for me when I travel for the holidays. Yet I’m still scared to call him my boyfriend. Like I’ll jinx it somehow. Ahh, anxiety.
I like all pretty and fun art (and can't think of anything in particular at the moment, of course) but I would like to share my favorite gif of all time (if the embedding works here) since nothing brings me as much pure joy as this extremely pure gif: <iframe src="https://giphy.com/embed/bAlYQOugzX9sY" width="480" height="270" frameBorder="0" class="giphy-embed" allowFullScreen></iframe><p><a href="https://giphy.com/gifs/end-full-bAlYQOugzX9sY">via GIPHY</a></p>
My favorite artist working today is Makoto Fujimura, who does mostly abstract art using very old Japanese techniques. He expresses and struggles with his Christian faith through his art, and to me it’s inexpressibly beautiful and moving. Pictures don’t do it justice, but take a look. This is a link to a non-abstract piece he did that I love, it’s the quince tree on the grounds of the Cloisters, and he was drawing it on 9/11. The piece is called Shalom. https://www.artway.eu/userfiles/Fujimura%20Shalom.png
Saturn eating his son by Francisco Goya. It’s grotesque and I love it
I have A LOT of favorite art, but I cried when I saw the bust of Nefertiti in person so... probably that.
Also glad some of that messiness is cleared up. <3
The Pieta always makes me cry, which makes it good, I think. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet%C3%A0_(Michelangelo) On a very different level, I love anything my teenage sister, an extremely talented artist, makes, and I legit want to display her artwork everywhere in my apartment
My favorite art is probably Michelangelo's David. I studied abroad in Florence and as part of my program we had an unlimited pass to that museum, which was on my way home from class, so I used to just stop in and see him any time the line wasn't too long.
(I also have never seen it in person but strongly, strongly relate to that painting--some googling tells me it's called "After the Ball" of the dark-haired woman lounging on a green couch with a book. I too have a green couch!)
I'm so glad you got the Unpleasantness cleared up. <3
The comic book Saga written by Brian K. Vaughan and illustrated by Fiona Staples is some of the best art out there right now imo (it’s v mature content, *Trunchbull voice* much too good for children). Great world building and I’ve been hooked since the first moment I opened it. It has been on hiatus for a minute and I really REALLY hope they get going again soon.
Also, any Jackson Pollock piece that I see in person *will* make me cry.
I am trying very hard to draft the last chapter of my dissertation (the fifth of five chapters!) and I am scared! Aaaaaa!!!
I wish I could post a pic of my favorite art, a palette of yellows and greens my daughter made via mixing, one of which is labeled "pee yellow". I think she'd get along with Amelia.
Glad the dust-up is resolved.
Does this mean you’ll come back to Twitter?
God lives so beautifully in your heart. Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Nicole helped me find recommendations for kids' clothes for Operation Santa (basically nationwide Secret Santa for anyone who writes a letter to Santa in the US) and I shipped everything off this morning! The post office had no idea what to do with my boxes at first, but it all got straightened out and the lovely worker who helped me said he wants to do it next year!
Also, my boyfriend is at a wedding across the country, will be back for Christmas Eve, and will then go down to his parents' for a few days, and I am weirdly looking forward to this alone time stretching before me. So far I've watched a lot of Poirot and cross stitched.
This (tastefully NSFW) series of pictures by Stasia Burrington will always have a special place in my heart: http://www.stasiaburringtonart.com/#/blush/
I have prints from the series framed and hung on my wall. It's the first art I ever got framed, and it's a symbol of getting to have a space that is my own. I love them so much.
PS. how does one get a pet featured on the newsletter. Do I just.... email Nicole?? I have a charmingly bad cat with a tragic backstory who would love to be featured. (OK, she actually cares not one bit about being featured, but I love telling people about her.)
I watched the episode of The Crown last night about Winston Churchill's portrait by Graham Sutherland (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutherland%27s_Portrait_of_Winston_Churchill). I wouldn't call it my favorite piece of art, but I sure wish Lady Spencer-Churchill had not had it destroyed.
My favorite art is probably Xu Bing's Books from the Sky: https://blantonmuseum.org/exhibition/xu-bing-book-from-the-sky/.
Xu Bing is one of my favorite artists, because he does such cool things with the idea of text and words and meaning and Chinese characters. (My PhD is in Chinese history.) My former housemate one time painted four bowls at a paint-your-own pottery place, each bowl inspired by a different piece of Chinese art that I liked.
Actually, I'm changing my answer: my favorite art is those four bowls.
One of my favorite artists working currently is Candice Breitz; she has a series of video installations where she's recorded fans singing and dancing to an entire album by one of their favorite musicians. There was one at the museum where I work over the summer, but this is the first piece of hers that I ever saw: https://vimeo.com/candicebreitz/queen
Good! Green! Paint!
I’ve treated myself to my first piece of Grown Up art Dawn Beckles and it makes me happy every day
(https://images.app.goo.gl/fmDsgpH3vDkw2by36)
Very pleased the unpleasantness is behind you. Happy Christmas!
Just saw Meow Wolf- so giant immersive video games meet art meet novella?
Mine wasn’t anywhere near as big a blowup as yours, but I spent a solid week getting roasted by twitter strangers who thought I was endorsing rape culture, so mazel tov on making peace. And yes, Amelia, a good green paint is a great thing.
So, okay, I just want to add that I got viciously harassed on Twitter in a similar way and over a similar type of issue and I think it's absolutely a trend being caused by Russian and GOP trolls.
I wrote something mild in defense of Elizabeth Warren and got attacked by a disgusting swarm of Kamala voters. They viciously attacked me, called me a racist, called me a racist for suggesting that Warren is not a racist, attacked me personally, attacked my NAME ("Oh PAM why doesn't PAM go drink her boxed white wine with the OTHER PAMS"), said I was as a Trump supporter, when one of my bewildered Twitter friends noticed what was going on and came to my defense they sneeringly attacked HER ("Oh look the Pam brought ANOTHER Pam, do they all hang out at the country club with their boxed wines") (Always with the boxed wines!), they sent me memes telling me to die, Twitter-screamed at me in all caps that I should fuck off and die DIE DIE DIE GO AWAY JUST GO AWAY!!!
I mean it was horrifying. I thought about leaving, and if it was important to me to be tweeting under my own name for professional or personal reasons, I would have. I ended up simply renaming my username and account into something completely gender neutral (and fierce, btw, do NOT fuck with me).
I was convinced then but am even more convinced now that there are filthy Russian trolls swarming on Twitter pretending to support each of the Democratic candidates, then using every filthy trick to rile up and sow bitter discord, either with their own sock puppet accounts, or by riling up actual real supporters by skillfully pinpointing their weak spots and activating their lizard brains. Persuading people of native American ancestry that Eliz Warren hates them for being Native American and is out to kill them, for example (which is what they were screaming at me),will get many people to seize up and have their actual brains stop working.
Twitter is a cesspit. The saddest part is you can go to any decently moderated site (Slate, Wonkette, even many of the subreddits) and see how it can actually work. If Jack Dorsey ran a restaurant, would he let people in who shrieked and screamed and abused and shit on his customers? How is running an online public forum different?
He could fix this--he could get an armada of willing citizen volunteers, we're all ready and willing. But he doesn't. The result is that good hearted and especially, people who are left wing politically, get harassed and run off these sites, and it is terrible for democracy and terrible for human interactions. It's ridiculous.
I finally got to The Cluny in Paris this year and stood in the Lady and the Unicorn tapestry room for about an hour in complete awe. That's my favorite. (at the moment.)
The Unpleasantness had a silver lining, which is a lot of people have been talking about the nice things you've done for them. Your good deeds are vast!! Love you! ❤️
I think I'm like Dan Lavery where the last piece of art I saw is my favorite. But the number one is probably Chris Dahlquist landscapes. It's hard to tell from the image on the website, but they're photos printed on metal and they shine literally like the sun dappling over a field in the light. https://chrisdahlquist.com/now-showing/35-x-51-gallery/
My favorite art atm is Dali's Galatea of the Spheres, btw
I can't figure out how to post a picture, but my best friend painted a huge canvas of a tree when I graduated vet school and got my first job last year. It makes me feel so special every time I look at it.
Also, Van Gogh, man. I became fascinated by him after that episode of Doctor Who. After seeing a few peices in the National Gallery in London, the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam felt like a ridiculous embarrassment of riches.
I feel like it's a cliche because I work in musical in theatre, but Seurat's "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" is my fave, and when I saw it in person in Chicago 10 years ago I was completely overcome. It's so huge! And the dots! I cried--a lot.
My favorite art is a painting of a potato I commissioned from my friend for a music video that never came to pass.
https://twitter.com/knockovercity/status/1201198773118152705?s=19
My friend is a painter and she does beautiful hand painted ornaments—we are doing holiday drinks tonight and I get to receive this year’s magic and I’m so excited. I hope you’re having a restful pre-holiday period! xoxo
when i was little "Luncheon at the boating Party" was my favorite art because we lived near the philips collection and used to go and see it all the time and I was very sad when it went on international tour. currently digging Monet's trees (shout out to the great exhibit at the denver art museum), cylfford still, and the Nam June Paik "electronic super highway: continential US, Alaska, hawaii"
I know it's a cliche about ~modern~ art, but if Amelia's art was hung in a museum I would be none the "wiser." Those eyes! So expressive! Is it a bear eating a fish? A man with a phallic nose? A commentary on good green paint? So good!
I think my favorite piece of art at the moment is a song by Lucy Dacus called "Night Shift."
Altarpiece #1 by Hilma af Klimt or The End of the World by my daughter, Pippa. They're both pretty great.
I too love a good green paint
I don't know if I'd call it my favorite, but I went to the Monet exhibit at the Denver Art Museum and was totally blown away by Monet's winter scenes. I didn't really have any idea that he had done them, and they were spectacular! Saw the bridge with the water lilies which was also incredible, but those winter scenes were something else.
I am not sure what my favorite art is but the Norwegian landscapes just DO things to my soul. Also my phone background is The Scream which seems very cliche but what can I say, the National Gallery in Oslo spoke to me.
Green is pretty great. I have like five hours of work before I am off until the 3rd and I was thinking about it and I’m pretty sure this is the longest stretch I have been off since my last maternity leave 5 years ago. I’m going to hang with my kids and read for 12 days and I’m so excited
This is exactly the kind of thing that makes me want to burn all my paintbrushes. Kids art is far superior.
who doesn't love a good green paint?
I’m glad things worked out. I’m sorry your week was bad. My favorite art is one my daughter drew of Bad Kitty.
There is a wonderfully named piece by Leonora Carrington called “Ladies run, there is a man in the rose garden” and it’s my current favourite.
Kid art is the best! Glad to hear you’ve worked things out. 😘 SuzyQ
I'm glad you've sorted some of that shit out.
My favorite painting is Millais's Eve of St Agnes. :)
I hope you will be coming back to Twitter soon.
I am having a really, really bad week and I'm so nervous. I've managed to make enough to pay my rent, but now bills are the issue and I just. Whatever,right? It'll all work out.
I'm having a good time making artwork though, but my carpal tunnel is starting to act up. I hope I can figure out how to keep drawing without pain. Does anyone else have this issue?
(This is Melissa) I took one art history class in college - all Italian Renaissance - and all of it was interesting and nice until I was introduced to Filippo Lippi. It spoke to me. I had that cliched moment of understanding. His stuff still takes my breath away. Recently re-saw one of my favorites at the Uffizi. I think he was superior to the famous painters who came after him. Everything for him is super soft and ethereal, almost like he was constantly in awe. Most after him or his peers loved to play with darkness but he only saw light. Idk! https://www.uffizi.it/en/artworks/madonna-and-child-with-two-angels
You remain True & Impossibly Good.
I haven't been to see it yet but I am fascinated by the new works going in to the Great Hall at the Met by Kent Mockman, a Cree-Canadian artist with a gender fluid alter ego named Miss Chief Eagle Testickle.
https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2019/great-hall-commission-kent-monkman
This image by Ms Amelia reminds me a lot of Goya’s Saturn Devouring His Son in the Prado, one of my favorite paintings. I think there is a lot of green in that one, too. Nicole, we miss you on twitter but the important thing is that you’re okay.
Also Amelia has an incredible talent