Framley
Museum. 'Framley Museum is a community museum
serving the Framley area, collecting relics from the
local past to tell the story of the history of the
people and places that make Framley what they are
today ... ' Local history.
A
Collection of British Legends. 'Dando was a
dissolute old priest whose flock heard more of horn
than of homily. At a "kill" one day, having drunk all
that his followers would readily offer, he accepted
the flask of a strange horseman. He returned it empty
and reluctantly, for never before had such rare
vintage stirred his veins. "I'll gallop to Hell for
more," he swaggered. "Then come!" cried the handsome
stranger, who whisked Dando on to his pommel and raced
away with the hounds at his heels. So great was the
speed that the pack was soon outdistanced and still at
night-time it follows its endless quest. '
The
Atlantic World: America and the Netherlands. 'The
Atlantic World: America and the Netherlands explores
the history of the Dutch presence in America and the
interactions between the United States and the
Netherlands from Henry Hudson's 1609 voyage to the
post-World-War-II period. The project is the product
of ongoing cooperation between the Library of Congress
and the National Library of the Netherlands, which has
enlisted the cooperation of other leading Dutch
libraries, museums, and archives.'
Nyerere's
Ghost. 'Commentary on the news, culture, sports
and current events of sub-Saharan Africa from someone
who's lived there.'
Jim
Dodd. 'It makes me feel good to paint. I paint
because that is what I do and what I am - an artist. I
have been painting since childhood and continue to
explore and learn with each new painting. For an
artist to succeed he must love his work, work hard,
and open himself to the creative spirit that lives
within each of us.' -
Jim Dodd. Gallery.
Wayne Thiebaud: Memories and
Delights.
'We celebrate the art and the career of Wayne Thiebaud as we delight in in his engaging and
thoughtful work. Thiebaud's strongly illuminated forms possess a dignity that transcends their
familiar origins. His memorable paintings of cakes and pies, display counters, shoes and ties,
Sacramento Delta marshes and vertiginous San Francisco streets offer an open-minded and egalitarian
view of American life ... '
Gerald Liu.
'Canadian artist Gerald Liu has been painting flowers-and-birds in traditional Chinese style for
more than thirty years. Born in Hong Kong, at the age of six he learned to write Chinese characters
using the brush technique unique to this art form. '
Rebkong (Amdo) Paintings.
'A series of tangkas from the Rebkong region of Eastern Tibet (Qinghai Provence, China) commissioned
between 1942 and 1954 by a single family. '
Mathabo Nthako.
An artist from Lesotho. 'In this piece Daniel wrestles a lion but seems more concerned with the
lion's dental hygiene than his personal safety. In other works hunters, apparently misjudging the
ferocity of their prey, seek refuge in insubstantial trees, women go about their daily business
carrying bundles of various kinds on their heads and Meshack, Shadrack and Abednego staunchly refuse
to bow down to the "Animal God". '
The Farewell of Telemachus and Eucharis.
'Fixing the viewer with a dreamy gaze, the fair-haired Telemachus grasps Eucharis's thigh with his
right hand while holding his sword upright with the other ... '
The St Albans
Psalter. 'Evidence from the text and illustrations
suggests that the
book was essentially created for Christina of Markyate,
an anchoress
(born c.1096- died after 1155), by Geoffrey de Gorham
(or Gorron), Abbot
of St Albans (1119-1146).'
'Briefly, Christina was an attractive Anglo-Saxon girl
whose parents
forced her to marry, much against her wishes. She had
made a private vow
to become a nun following a childhood visit to St Albans
Abbey. She
repudiated her husband on her wedding night, struggling
to remain a
virgin, and eventually managed to run away from home.
She fled to a
series of Anglo-Saxon hermits who protected her for a
number of years,
finally reaching Roger the Hermit, a monk from St
Albans, at his cell at
Markyate. When he died, she took over the cell and was
subsequently
protected by Abbot Geoffrey. She exerted considerable
influence over the
abbot's spiritual development and administrative
decisions, while he
provided her cell with financial support. Their
intimate relationship
remained chaste, but caused malicious gossip and
jealousy at the abbey.
Geoffrey was originally a school master from Maine in
France who started
teaching at Dunstable near St Albans. While producing
a liturgical play
he
accidentally burned some copes he had borrowed from the
abbey, and
decided to become a monk as recompense. His interest
in drama and
teaching is evident in the psalter.'
'The book is important because of its outstanding
illuminations,
particularly the miniatures painted by the so-called
Alexis Master,
which are among the finest examples of English
Romanesque painting. The
Chanson of Alexis is the earliest surviving example of
Old French
literature and is a key text for the development of the
French language.
Lastly, the connection with Christina and Geoffrey
adds a further
dimension of interest because Christina's Life is
recorded in a
contemporary manuscript, partly dictated by Christina
herself. (Talbot,
1998). This vivid document, containing the dramatic
account of her
struggles to become a nun, provides a profound
understanding of her
faith, love, visions and thoughts.'
Floria
Yancey. Outsider/folk
artist. 'Floria is a self-taught Southern Black Folk
artist, who began
her art as a way to express the dreams and visions
that she has
experienced all her life, with a lot coming from early
childhood
memories, her Southern outsider folk art, along with a
few other black
artist, such as John Henry Toney, Mose Tolliver, Annie
Tolliver,
Thornton Dial etc ... is popularly known as African
American Art, Black
Art, Black folk art, Black outsider folk art, Outsider
Art, Southern
Outsider Art, Primitive Art, Art Brut, Visionary Art,
or Primitive Art
Works.'
Tupperware! 'Using interviews with Tupperware
executives and dealers from the
early days and wonderful, little-seen footage of
Tupperware Jubilees,
this funny, probing program re-examines assumptions
about American
culture in the 1950s.'
Motivational writings from the 1950s.
Tibetan
Art in the Norbulingka Institute. 'The Norbulingka
Institute,
located near Dharamsala, India provides an environment
and necessary
resources to preserve and develop the Tibetan arts and
literary
tradition.'
Goya: 'The
Black
Paintings'. 'In 1819, Goya was 72 years old and
nearing the end of
his productive, yet trouble-filled life. Having become
completely deaf
at age 46, living through the violence of the Napoleonic
Wars and the
turbulence of Spanish politics after the defeat of
Napoleon, Goya
developed an embittered attitude towards the
possibilities of human
society. He moved into a simple rectangular, two-story
house outside
Madrid with his 30 year old companion, Leocadia Weiss.
The "Quinta del
sordo", or "Country-house of the Deaf-Man" was named
after a previous
owner who had also been deaf. Living outside the city
made Goya's
cohabitation with Leocadia less obtrusive to the social
mores of
Restoration-era Madrid.'
'Goya proceeded to decorate the "Quinta del sordo" with
some of the most
intense, disturbing images ever painted. Executed in oil
directly on the
plaster walls, these so-called "black paintings"
represent the
culmination of Goya's artistic efforts. They combine
the freedom, or
"Capricho", and eerie imagery of his etchings with the
scale and
decorative purpose of the tapestry cartoons he executed
early in his
career. After almost two hundred years, they retain
their capacity to
reduce the viewer to shocked silence.'
Gallery.
Richard
Dadd. Mad Victorian fairy artist.
'Richard Dadd is remembered today for the mysterious
and magical fairy paintings produced after his
tumultuous descent into the realms of madness and
insanity ... ' Gallery.
Ligmincha
Institute.
'These sacred art works of the Bon Religion, comprised
of paintings, sculpture and murals, are located in
various monasteries in Eastern Tibet (Kham) and at the
Bonpo Monastic Center, Dolanji, HP, India. '
Penelope
Unravelling Her Web.
'In Homer's Odyssey, Penelope, awaiting the return of
her husband Odysseus from the Trojan War, was beset by
suitors who claimed that Odysseus had been
shipwrecked. She promised to marry one of them after
she completed a shroud for her father-in-law.
Steadfastly loyal to her absent husband, Penelope
unraveled her weaving at the end of each day to avoid
remarrying. '
The
Fountain of Love.
'In the midst of a verdant forest, a young man and
woman eagerly rush forward, their feet just reaching
the edge of a fountain's basin. Putti frolic in the
fountain's waters and billowing spray, and one of them
offers a cup of the magical liquid for the young
lovers to drink. The story of the Garden of Love, an
allegory of the nature and progress of love that has
its origins in the poetry of classical antiquity and
the Middle Ages, centers on this Fountain of Love. '
Ma-Africa
Art Gallery in Soweto. 'Ma-Africa Art Gallery was
established in 1997 by
Walter Sibeko, a man of many entrepenuerial skills.
His love of people has led him to various projects to
help and organise life in the townships.
He was exposed at a young age to art, in the form of
his brother, Peter.
His unflinching support of his brother's talent has
led to this special man's mission to help and support
our local artists.'
The
Glory of the Gothic Page. 'Featuring whimsical
marginal decorations, vivid narratives, and the lavish
use of gold leaf, Gothic illumination is among the
most innovative and beautiful art forms of the Middle
Ages. Gothic was a term originally coined by
Renaissance writers who disliked the nonclassical
style of architecture that emerged in France around
1150, which they attributed to the barbarian Goths.
Its early negative meaning has long since been lost.
The word is now also applied to the style of
manuscript illumination that evolved around the same
time, characterized by a naturalistic style of
painting and a sense of liveliness in the format of
the page. Gothic illumination, which flourished in
northern Europe from about 1200 to 1350, graced the
pages of some of the most stunning works of art to
survive from the Middle Ages ... '
Comic
Art: The Paris Salon in Caricature. 'Caricatures
of the Salons appeared in abundance from the 1840s to
about 1900. These Salon reviews in pictorial form
poked fun at the yearly exhibition, from its dizzying
display of thousands of paintings and sculptures, to
the self-importance of viewers, to the prevailing
mediocrity of the works. Much of the humor results
from the clash between the Salon's growing irrelevance
to contemporary life and the edifying role accorded to
the fine arts in French culture ... '
Notes from
the Road. North American travelogues.
'Notes from the Road is a project in experimental
travel writing. ' 'Because Notes from the Road is a
travel site, not a travel guide site, we do not try to
provide our readers with all-encompassing information
on what to see and do around the world. For
independent travelers, that sort of information is
easy to come by on a number of excellent sites and
books. Notes from the Road is about subjective travel;
the kind of real world of random things and real
people.'
NYCLondon.
Black and white photoblog, especially street
photography and night photography.
Latin American Pilgrimage Journal.
'In 1998 I completed a twelve-month pilgrimage through
14 countries of Latin America. Driving a 1977 VW van
22,000 miles through steamy jungles, high mountains
and the driest deserts in the world, I visited and
photographed 120 pre-Colombian sacred sites and
Catholic pilgrimage shrines. Along the way, I wrote a
journal about my travels, my experiences at the sacred
sites, and my understandings of the pilgrimage
traditions of this wonderful region ... '
Wat That Phanom Chedi, Thailand.
'In north-eastern Thailand, a kilometer from the
shores of the great Mekong river, stands the exotic
temple complex of That Phanom on the sacred hill of
Phu Kamphra. According to the earliest known legends,
the original sanctity of this site derived from visits
by Kakusandha, Konagamana, and Kassapa, the Buddhas of
the three previous ages. Long after these mythical
visits the Buddha of our current age made a
pilgrimage to the sacred hill to venerate the relics
of the earlier Buddhas ... '
Sacred Sites of Armenia.
'Armenia was converted to Christianity in 303 AD
(some sources say 301) and the Apostolic Orthodox
faith still includes some elements of ancient pagan
practices such as rituals involving animal sacrifice.
Many of the oldest and most important of Armenian
churches were stationed directly above the destroyed
remains of pagan sun temples. Churches and monasteries
were constructed from the plentiful supply of volcanic
tufa stone, which is ideal for the intricate carvings
that decorate many of the churches. '
Neolithic Temples of Malta.
'The Mediterranean island of Malta figures in the
historical record of Europe due to its association
with the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, who fled
to Malta from the island of Rhodes in 1530. Yet this
small island of 243 square kilometers has a far
greater importance in European prehistory due to its
extraordinary collection of megalithic temples ... '
Aw-aw-tam Indian Nights: The Myths and Legends of the
Pimas.
'This is a rare book of Pima folklore, transcribed
by a sympathetic amateur ethnographer at the beginning
of the twentieth century. The Pima live in the arid
deserts of southern Arizona, and originally survived
by horticulture, hunting and gathering. Lloyd was not
a linguist, and collected the stories through an
interpreter. All of the Pima words and phrases are
written using a crude 'phonetic' system, which no
doubt is fairly inaccurate. However, this does not
invalidate the folklore, which is well-told and
consistent with other southwestern Native American
mythology, particularly in its repetition of the
number four. '
Randell Morgan.
'Morgan looks with hands through the mud clay for
these faces and he finds them there, looking out as
he pulls and molds and twists, all hands, all thinking
of other things. '
Simon Orrell.
'Using old world techniques and materials and the
strength and artistry of his hands, Orrell creates
proud and beautiful artwork frames. '
Echoes of Incense:
A Pilgrimage in Japan.
'The route of the eighty-eight temples of Shikoku is the classic
Japanese Buddhist pilgrimage. Its 1300 kilometers test the body and
spirit and open the mind to an experience of its true nature. For over a
thousand years, only Japanese followed the path to the remote places of
the Japanese island of Shikoku. In the winter and spring of 1993, I
walked this path. Afterwards, I wrote Echoes of Incense to record what I
experienced in words and pictures. The book was translated into Japanese
by Tomoko Shimotomai. For the past five years, it has been sold in
America by Gateways Books in Santa Cruz, California and in Japan by
several of the pilgrimage temples and the bookstore at Koyasan. Since it
will soon be out of print, I decided to make it available on the WWW ...
'
Kobayakawa Kiyoshi.
'Kobayakawa Kiyoshi is best known for designing woodblock prints of
modern Japanese women. Born in Hakata, a town in the Fukuoka Province of
Kyushu, Kiyoshi was one of many artists who studied with Kaburagi
Kiyokata, the famous painter and print designer. Kiyoshi entered
Kiyokata's school at age twenty and probably knew Kiyokata's other
students including Ito Shinsui, Kawase Hasui, and Torii Kotondo.
Unfortunately, little is known about Kiyoshi's life compared to those
other print designers. During the 1920's and 1930's, he exhibited
Nihonga (Japanese-style) paintings at several exhibitions including the
Kyodokai and the Imperial Academy Exhibition. In 1923, he contributed a
print design to the series, "Complete Collection of Chikamatsu". This
was probably Kiyoshi's first experience designing woodblock prints ...
'
Gallery.
Albert Bierstadt. An artist of the Hudson River
School.
'Recognized as the foremost painter of the American frontier during the
nineteenth-century, Albert Bierstadt was born in Solingen, Germany, in
1830. At the age of two, he and his family emigrated to the United
States, settling in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Nothing is known of his
early art training; however, he might possibly have been influenced by
local landscape painters and daguerreotypists. By the time he was
twenty, he was supporting himself by teaching "monochromatic" painting
and his work was beginning to attract the attention of New Bedford
collectors ... '
National Quilt
Register. (Australia)
'The National Quilt Register is a major initiative of the Pioneer
Women's Hut, a museum located at Tumbarumba at the foothills to the
Snowy Mountains in southern NSW, Australia. '
'The museum represents ordinary rural families, especially the women, in
their everyday lives. It opened in 1985 and is a free, self funded
museum run by community volunteers. '
'The collection is shown in changing themes relating to domestic life
and women's other roles as 'another pair of hands' and in earning cash
income: Coping with flies, Time for fancywork, Mondays, Never Done,
Caring for Clothes and many more. '
'It is our policy to collect domestic objects relating to rural
families, especially the women and by gathering the stories put these
objects in the context of their lives. We recognise the great diversity
of women's lives and from the first days of settlement, the very
different ethnic origins that give us our Australian identity as women.
We acknowledge the major contribution of Aboriginal women, especially in
understanding the environment and remind our visitors they were our
first needlewomen ... ' Stories
from the Register.
The Golden Temple, Amritsar.
'Two thousand years after Buddha's time, another
philosopher-saint came to live and meditate by the
peaceful lake. This was Guru Nanak (1469-1539), the
founder of the Sikh religion. After the passing away
of Guru Nanak, his disciples continued to frequent the
site; over the centuries it became the primary sacred
shrine of the Sikhs. The lake was enlarged and
structurally contained during the leadership of the
fourth Sikh Guru (Ram Dass, 1574-1581), and during
the leadership of the fifth Guru (Arjan, 1581-1606),
the Hari Mandir, or Temple of God was built ... '
Mount Croach Patrick.
'Rising to 2510 feet (765 meters) near the town of
Westport in County Mayo, the quartzite peak of Croach
Patrick was a pagan sacred place long before the
arrival of Christianity. For the Celtic peoples of
Ireland it was the dwelling place of the deity Crom
Dubh and the principal site of the harvest festival
of Lughnasa, traditionally held around August 1
(until the mid-nineteenth century only women were
allowed on the summit during this pilgrimage and
childless women would sleep on the summit during
Lughnasa eve in the hope of encouraging fertility).
According to popular Christian stories, St. Patrick
visited the sacred mountain during the festival time
in AD 441 and spent forty days and forty nights
banishing dragons, snakes, and demonic forces from
the site ... '
Assisi.
'Approximately 90 miles north of Rome, in the rolling
hills of Umbria, stands the exceptionally
well-preserved medieval town of Assisi. Known
primarily as the birthplace of St. Francis (1182-1226
AD), the town has been a sacred place since long
before the Franciscan era ... '
Sacred Sites of the Dogon.
'The Dogon are an ethnic group located mainly in the
administrative districts of Bandiagara and Douentza
in Mali, West Africa. This area is composed of three
distinct topographical regions: the plain, the cliffs,
and the plateau. Within these regions the Dogon
population of about 300,000 is most heavily
concentrated along a 200-kilometer (125 mile)
stretch of escarpment called the Cliffs of Bandiagara.
These sandstone cliffs run from southwest to
northeast, roughly parallel to the Niger River, and
attain heights up to 600 meters (2000 feet). The
cliffs provide a spectacular physical setting for
Dogon villages built on the sides of the escarpment.
There are approximately 700 Dogon villages, most
with fewer than 500 inhabitants ... '
Carl Heilman.
Nature photography of the Adirondacks.
Kelly Moore.
'Oil...sand...acrylic...canvas...color...boxer shorts,
paper bags....you'll find all of that and more in these
paintings by Kelly Moore. Most of the art size is 20x30
or larger and with titles like Ex-Girlfriends, Fish
Are People and Rabbit Hunting, we can tell Kelly
thinks and paints. '
