Who Arted: Weekly Art History for All Ages

This is an encore presentation of my episode about Jim Davis, the creator of Garfield. My guest for this episode was Lindsey Little, creator of the Oni Girl comic. Here is her link tree for all the places to find her and her work https://linktr.ee/OniGirl Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. Connect with me: Website | Twitter | Instagram | Tiktok Support the show: Merch from TeePublic | Make a D...

The Swing, also sometimes called The Happy Accidents of The Swing, is a Rococo painting by Jean-Honore Fragonard. It is intended to be light-hearted and fun as it depicts people in a care free moment on a swing in the garden. Interestingly, while today's audiences would likely see riding on a swing as a wholesome activity, centuries ago it was considered to be a bit of a risque activity as clothin...

This is an encore presentation. I wanted to start 2021 with something fun, so I decided to do an episode about a classic episode of The Simpsons. In season 10 episode 19 titled Mom and Pop Art, Homer becomes an outsider artist. While much of the humor is derived from the premise that Homer Simpson is inept and could never be a decent artist, but I thought it would be fun to consider what kind of a...

This is an encore presentation of my very first Fun Fact Friday mini episode. This week's Fun Fact is that the ROY G BIV model of a rainbow is somewhat arbitrary. The only reason people slip indigo between blue and violet is because Sir Isaac Newton wanted to have seven colors in order to match the musical scale. If you are interested in learning more about color or the other elements of art, chec...

Art Smart season 2 began last week with an episode on Modern Art. If you like this episode, search for Art Smart on your podcast app and hear the next episode on Post Modern Art. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is an encore presentation of my episode on Vincent van Gogh and his painting, Starry Night. In this episode, I continued my discussion with Chuck Hoff about Vincent van Gogh. We covered the later part of his life and career after he moved to France. The painting we specifically focused our attention on was The Starry Night from 1889. During the episode, we also briefly discussed The Night Caf...

This is an encore presentation of my episode covering a lesser known bit of art history - the Nazca Lines. In the Peru there are massive geoglyphs etched in the ground with the full design only visible from the sky leaving people to wonder how they were created around 500 CE and for whom to enjoy. Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. Connect with me: Website | Twitter | Instagram | Tiktok Suppor...

This is a two part episode about Vincent Van Gogh. Part 1 focuses on his early life and development up to his first masterpiece,The Potato Eaters from 1885. Next week we will discuss the mature phase of his career and how his style shifted upon moving to France. Remember this week I am also starting season 2 of Art Smart with new episodes coming every Wednesday. Please be sure to follow Art Smart...

The Scream by Edvard Munch is one of the most famous artworks out there, and one of the most widely referenced. We see it in pop culture on t-shirts and posters, in the Simpsons and other cartoon parodies and one of the most famous scenes in the movie Home Alone saw Kevin mimic the pose of The Scream as he put on after shave. Of course, while we think we know the work, there is a lot people get wr...

This is a bonus episode of my other show, Art Smart. Season 2 is coming July 20 with new episodes every Wednesday. In this bonus episode, I discussed the steps to make sense of any work of art. For season 2 of Art Smart, I will be making art history quick and easy. Each episode will focus on a different time period or movement in art covering the big ideas in broad strokes, then sharing a few arti...

For this episode, I talked to Janet Taylor, art teacher and writer for the Art of Education. She actually taught be about Njideka Akunyili Crosby, the contemporary Nigerian/American painter. Njiedeka Akunyili Crosby was born in 1983 in Enugu, Nigeria. Her father was a surgeon and mother was a professor of pharmacology. Her mother won the green card lottery allowing Njideka to come to the U.S. to s...

The Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in southern China had over 140 works stolen from their collection, but nobody noticed for years. This is because the thief replaced every item he stole… with his own paintings. Now some guy working in a museum quietly helping himself to the collection of artworks then replacing them with his own copies seems pretty strange and bold, but this next bit brings the s...

July 4 is America's celebration of independence from England. In honor of the holiday, I decided to make an episode covering a little bit about 4 artworks from American history. I started with a piece from the people who were here before the Europeans. I discussed a transformation mask from the northwest coast. Specifically, I was looking at work from the Kwakawak. In this episode I also shared ab...

A few years prior to the immersive experiences, filmmakers brought Vincent van Gogh's paintings to life in a completely new and different way. In 2017, Loving Vincent was a film made of oil paintings. Today Vincent van Gogh is sort of the model we hold in our minds for a tortured artist. He saw little to no commercial success in his lifetime. He struggled with addiction and mental health. He lived...

In 1979, after some modest success a Japanese video game company opened an office in America. They started off in New York but eventually moved to Seattle. They wanted to break into the new North American market, but the game sales were lackluster. The head of the American division tried to keep them afloat and asked for more talent to be sent over from Japan. Most people at the top were involved...

In the 1400s, influencers couldn’t simply scout a location, arrange the perfect lighting and pull out their camera phone to snap dozens of pics testing different angles to find the perfect shot demonstrating how much better their curated life is than the lived experience of the rest of us plebeians. No back then, if someone wanted a picture to go along with their smug sense of superiority, they ne...

One of the things that really strikes me is that he is creating scenes of people being joyful. Adams says that part of the appeal of being an artist is getting to create the environments you would like to see and experience. I also think that there is something really nice about normalizing and even elevating fun and celebration. My guest this week was Goldie Robinson, an art teacher out of Atlant...

I live in the United States where this weekend, people will be celebrating father’s day. I thought this would be great time to dedicate a mini episode to an artist who created a beautiful work for his father. I love MC Escher’s portrait of GA Escher not only because it shows us the Escher men had a strange proclivity for referring to humans by letters rather than names, but we see some similaritie...

In 1964, Life Magazine ran with Lichtenstein on the cover and the text read “Is He the Worst Artist in the U.S.?” Lichtenstein responded to criticism of his work saying “I think my paintings are critically transformed, but it would be difficult to prove it by any rational line of argument." Seems like kind of a weak defense. Basically, ‘I think my work is good, but there’s really no rational argum...

I have talked a bit about Daguerre and his photographic methods in a previous episode about the world’s first photobomb. Listeners may recall that the first photograph to feature a human happened by accident as Daguerre was taking a photograph of the view out his window. Those early photographs needed a long exposure. I’m talking around 15 minutes and few subjects could sit still for that long. Th...

My guest this week is Janet Taylor, an artist and art teacher at the high school and college levels. Find her work and more about her at www.jatayolorart.com In 1936, Meret Oppenheim was having lunch with friends when they began to joke about wrapping things in fur. She went back to her studio later and wrapped a cup, saucer, and spoon in fur thus creating what many consider to be the quintessenti...

In November of 1957, a small committee was formed. February 17, 1958, they held the first public meeting of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. That same year, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament asked the artist Gerald Holtom to create a symbol for the movement. The CND has been at the forefront of the peace movement in the UK and claims to be Europe’s biggest single-issue peace campaign. Holt...

My guest this week is The Real Michael Lee, a musician, graphic designer, illustrator and comic enthusiast (find him and all his social media at bit.ly/heartrml) . We had a great talk about Jack Kirby, the legendary comic book artist who made contributions to both Marvel and DC among others. Kirby was responsible for the development of several notable characters including The Fantastic Four, Thor,...

The Sun Stone is probably the first bit of Aztec art I became familiar with even before I studied art. It has been widely represented in various forms of culture from the relatively recent Mexican folk art tradition of Amate paintings to pop culture such as Legends of the Hidden Temple which I must confess was one of my favorite Nickelodeon game shows in the 90s. On its face, we see a beautiful im...

While Alma Thomas worked for decades as a teacher, but she continued pursuing her art. She took classes at American University in Washington. She showed her work in group exhibitions with other African American artists. While she obviously experienced some setbacks as a black woman, her work was not taking on feminist or racial themes. Her early works in the 1950s were generally academic, realisti...