Friday Finds

...which, I confess, is rarely posted on Friday. Saturday is good!

1

From my newest treasure, I LOVE brainpickings.org. Go find it, and think about a small donation to this ad-free wonder site. Letters from Frida Kahlo to  Georgie O'Keefe

brainpickings.org

"...contrary to the toxic myth of the solitary genius, creative culture is propelled by the power of scenius, by the goodwill and generosity of kindred spirits, by tangible reminders that we belong to a human enterprise larger than we are.

One of the most touching such exchanges was between two of the greatest artists and most remarkable women the world has ever known — Frida Kahloand Georgia O’Keeffe. Both were prolific letter writers — Kahlo in her passionate illustrated love letters to Diego Rivera, and O’Keeffe in her equally passionate love letters to Alfred Stieglitz, her lifelong correspondence with her best friend, and her emboldening missives to Sherwood Anderson. But what Kahlo wrote to O’Keeffe in 1933 was a wholly different kind of epistolary and human magic..."

...And that, perhaps, is the point — a palpable reminder that the history of arts and letters is strewn with these barely visible threads of mutuality, generosity, and goodwill, which stand as the most steadfast support structure for the creative spirit...

Note:  I looked up scenius, a word I'm not familiar with and could not find it. A typo, perhaps? Or a new cultural word? Anybody know ? 

http://www.brainpickings.org/2015/02/27/frida-kahlo-georgia-okeeffe-letter/

2

Jennifer Carland

Those of us who love maps will appreciate Jennifer Carland's cool abstract paintings of ....maps!   Find her here.  I learned about her from Mary Nassar's blog.  Mary at least shares the title of Map Queen, if not owning it solely.  Jill Berry might share that throne. 

3

Not this week, but recently I discovered an online course I am really enjoying."Studying Under the Masters" is a course organized by Jeanne Oliver. It's so much fun and very informative. Each guest, among them, Jane Davenport, Alisa Burke, Jenny Doh, Katie Kendrick, and nearly two dozen others presents a week-long course with ample videos, PDFs, and challenges. The first two 9- and 6-week courses were originally live, as the upcoming third course will be.  Each gues picks an artist to research, get to the core of the artist's style and techniques, and works several different pieces trying to apply that style. We students follow along with our own interpretation. Each new segment is video-heavy and very rich in content. Reasonable cost, very worthwhile. We become "apprentices" under some of my favorite artists...Hopper, O'Keefe, Kahlo, Matisse...   and I've learned so much about artists I never knew, such as the amazing Antonio Gaudi. Now I have to go to Barcelona...

4 and 5

I put some interesting things from recent Sunday  papers on the Sunday Papers page. Go there to find details and pictures: 


Oliver Sacks, My Own Life, written as he faces terminal cancer.


Climate Haiku: Fun, creative, scary, sad, visual. I discovered this 2013 clipping  cleaning out my files this week!