Francesca Woodman

©Francesca Woodman

The works of American Photographer Francesca Woodman were ahead of their time. Her photographs had a contrary effect of being both elusive and voyeuristic at the same time. Francesca’s creativity seemed borne of an innate curiosity and avid attention to the world around her.

She studied at Abbot Academy (now Phillips Andover), Rhode Island School of Design & in 1980 was artist in residence at MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire. She spent summers with her family in an old farmhouse in the Italian countryside.

©Francesca Woodman

Although she may have honed her skills to some degree at art schools, I believe her greatest artistic inspiration and development came from her family, who place a high value on art as a way of life. For the Woodman’s, art is a very serious business, whether or not it is recognized, championed or not does not alter their devotion to it. Her mother Betty is a ceramicist & sculptor, her father George, a ceramicist, painter & photographer, and her brother Charles a video installation artist and professor.

Francesca’s photographs, usually black & white, are quite unique to her. Many of the photographs of her have the face obscured or blurred, others she appears to be dissolving into objects. In one amazing photograph she is nude in the water beside a beautiful tree, her arm reaching up slightly into the roots becoming one with it.

©Francesca Woodman

Some of the photographs have motion, and life; others have an eerie ghostlike quality to them. It might be too simplistic a view to see that she was always drifting away – a preparing of sorts to disappear from the earth and although there may be some truth to that, you can also make the case that she was just an original artist, always thinking, always seeing something new.

Francesca moved to New York in the hope of gaining recognition for her work but people were not receptive, unable to see the unique value of her vision. She became depressed and with the help of her parents sought treatment. But after a series of disappointments, a broken relationship, a stolen bicycle and being turned down for an endowment, sadly, she jumped from a building to her death on January 19, 1981 at the age of 22.

The Woodman’s – A documentary film by C. Scott Willis

Versatile Blogger Award

I want to thank my friend at The Wit Continuum for nominating me for the Versatile Blogger Award. She has a terrific blog herself {be sure to check it out} and I truly appreciate her inspiration,& friendship. I love writing about artists who inspire me on Just Under the Surface and I hope in turn that it’s interesting and inspiring to everyone who stops by to read it.

As part of the post, I am to write 7 things about myself and although I am famously private – I’ll give it a try….

1. I am drawn to objects from the ’60′s & ’70′s out of pure nostalgia for the era I grew up in.

2. My favorite way to spend a day involves love, literature and music.

3. It takes a lot to make me angry but once I am….duck & cover.

4. I’m trying to learn the guitar. It’s not as easy as you’d imagine.

5. I have a love/hate relationship with technology.

6. I’m Irish, French & Italian.

7. I have traveled quite a lot across America but never overseas. My fave places in the US: Big Sur, San Francisco, Carmel (CA) Savannah (GA) Traverse City (MI)  & Bangor (ME)

Thanks again Wit! And now….drum roll….I pass along the award to a few of my favorites:
Beth @ Living a Quotable Life & White African Tomboy
Merle @ Fernweh, Fernweh

James Montgomery: From Detroit to the Delta

“It was the first time I ever saw a band play live blues with harmonica. At the Chessmate, anyone could go because it was all ages – this was around ’66. Detroit had a great blues scene back then. At the Chessmate you could go in and catch a Muddy Waters set and then see the backstage shows. They’d have jams in the dressing rooms with John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters & James Cotton – it was just a really great time to grow up in Detroit.” ~James Montgomery {Metro Times/Brett Callwood}

Although James Montgomery was born in Detroit, by the end of the sixties he’d made his way to Boston, hoping to make a name in the more blues-heavy northeast. Apparently James made the right choice as he did well for himself, playing cities where blues and jazz artists are well appreciated and even today gigs are easy for him to book.

A life-long blues man, {singing & harp} James has played, collaborated and formed friendships with some of the best: B.B. King, Buddy Guy, John Lee Hooker to name a few. He has played alongside his longtime guitarist, Jimmy McCarty, as well as, Johnny Winter, the Allman Brothers, Aerosmith, J. Giels, and Wayne Kramer (MC5).

Montgomery will headline the ‘Antifreeze Blues Festival’ at The Magic Bag in Ferndale on January 6^th and has an upcoming record, collaborating with The Uptown Horns, James Cotton, Brad Whitford (Aerosmith), Johnny Winter, & DMC from Run DMC – called “From Detroit to the Delta”. For info on the blues fest & his new cd:

The Magic Bag

James Montgomery

A Million Reasons for Being Anywhere…

“When a man walks into a room, he brings his whole life with him. He has a million reasons for being anywhere, just ask him. If you listen, he’ll tell you how he got there. How he forgot where he was going, and that he woke up. If you listen, he’ll tell you about the time he thought he was an angel or dreamt of being perfect. And then he’ll smile with wisdom, content that he realized the world isn’t perfect. We’re flawed, because we want so much more. We’re ruined, because we get these things, and wish for what we had.” ~Don Draper

*Quote from AMC’s Mad Men/Episode “The Summer Man” – written by: Lisa Albert & Janet Leahy and Matthew Weiner

A Winter’s Tale

The Poet’s Dream, Robert Weir, c. 1830/Detroit Institute of Arts Collection

The Detroit Institute of Arts is currently holding an exhibition called, “Once Upon a Time: Prints & Drawings that Tell Stories” which runs from December 21, 2011 thru May 13, 2012. The exhibition features works that have rarely or never been seen at the museum before.

Some examples on display, (from the DIA website): David Hockney’s etchings from Six Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm, a volume of Moby Dick with illustrations by Norman Rockwell, a copy of the 15th-century Nuremberg Chronicle, Wassily Kandinsky’s Klange, Henri Matisse’s Parsiphal, Jim Dine’s Picture of Dorian Gray, and many more European and American works on paper from a variety of eras.

The DIA’s Facebook page says that the exhibition is free with museum admission. If you live in the area or are visiting family or friends over the holiday season, be sure to check it out.

The Detroit Institute of Arts
Once Upon a Time: Prints & Drawings that Tell Stories

I Have to Pull Up My Stakes and Roll, Man

Photo of Jack Kerouac/Alan Ginsberg ©1953

Came across this from Kerouac today and loved it. It’s from a piece he wrote called “I Have to Pull Up My Stakes and Roll, Man” which is from a longer version: “Farewell Song, Sweet from My Trees,” August 1941.

The passage below is the narrator’s answer to the Merrimack River’s question, “Hey, who the hell are you?” as he prepares to leave his neighborhood of many years:

“I am of the American temperament, the American temper, the American tempo, river. And I tell you I am not Socrates wearing a robe, nor Shakespeare in breeches, but I am a poet in trousers, hat, shirt, coat, shoes, socks and my hair is combed, parted on the left side, I can jive a little bit, I play football and baseball, I go out with dames and I love America. That’s who I am.” ~Jack Kerouac

*Excerpt from: Atop an Underwood: Jack Kerouac {Early Stories & Other Writings}, by Paul Marion ©1999

Come to the Edge

Photo Credit: H. Shapiro

  Come to the edge.
We might fall.
Come to the edge.
It’s too high!
COME TO THE EDGE!
And they came,
and He pushed,
And they flew.

~Christopher Logue {1926-2011}

3 from Carl Van Vechten

Cab Calloway ©Carl Van Vechten,1933

It’s been quite a few years since I first viewed the photographs of Carl Van Vechten (1880-1964) when they were on loan to the Detroit Institute of Arts. I purchased the book that went along with the exhibition called, “The Passionate Observer” and I love re-visiting his photographs on a Sunday afternoon, usually in winter for some reason. Carl worked for thirty years taking photographs of the prominent painters, writers, actors, and musicians of his time, some 15,000 photographs between 1932 and 1964.

Anna May Wong ©Carl Van Vechten,1932

Salvador Dali & Man Ray ©Carl Van Vechten,1934

All photographs from “The Passionate Observer” ©Carl Van Vechten,1993

A Different View

©Lisa Chapman/2011

My walk around town last August, turned into sketch form, just for kicks. I usually don’t dig effects, but thought this was kind of cool.

The Old Guitarist

Last night I took my 2-book set of Picasso’s artwork off the shelf and looked through the first one. I was so taken with this painting, there was just something about it that resonated with me and I couldn’t turn the page. The old man’s eyes are closed and he’s lost in the music and the guitar that clearly still brings him joy.  Just wanted to share it with you too.

Picasso’s “The Old Guitarist” 1903 {blue period}