December, 2014 | Beverly Shipko, Artist

My Detroit Roots Are Showing Again

December 31, 2014 by Beverly

I have been thinking about the 1969 riots in my native Detroit ever since Liz and I finalized the latest bi-monthly theme for the art card group, Abandonment and Reclamation. Back then, I was a junior at Southfield High School in Michigan, and it seemed that Detroit was never the same after the riots. Six months later when I went to a Detroit Pistons basketball game at Cobo Arena, there were so few people downtown at the game that Piston management offered free tickets to everyone who brought their ticket stubs the following week.

Here is my collage card titled “Detroit – A Prototype of Abandonment and Reclamation”, which I mailed to another member in the group. Somehow the theme struck a nerve with me this time, perhaps because of Detroit’s much publicized plight, its financial woes, together with the relatively recent Ferguson case in Missouri that resulted in more destruction.

The art card includes these two photos of the largest plant in the world, the Ford Rouge River Plant, so you can see the before and after. The Ford plant has risen from the dead like a phoenix from the ashes, and now offers popular tours to the public.

In between the two plant photos, you can see houses from the Heidelberg Project, which was started in a devastated area on Detroit’s east side. The homes were given over to communities of artists to restore and decorate using recycled material, resulting in a new tourist destination and with the ultimate goal over time being a viable arts center for the city. Here is the Dotty House, perhaps the most well-known structure since it’s showcased by the Heidelberg Project.

The right side of the card shows a rainbow of shards that are pieces that Mike Kelly recovered from the riverbeds of the Detroit and Rouge Rivers. I took some photos at Kelly’s 2013 MOMA show, as did my daughter Laura (aka my webmaster) which I used in the collage. The shattered pieces are central to the Kelly installation that partially inspired this card called the John Glenn Memorial Detroit River Reclamation Project (Including the Local Culture Pictorial Guide, 1968–1972, Wayne/Westland Eagle. 2001.

This shot shows much of the installation, which filled a large room dominated by the huge figure covered in more shattered shards.

I thought this was a rather haunting portrait of Detroit made from found bottles and jars, which is situated on the river – here a river of crushed porcelain (hence the name detroit which means strait in French). The collection of glassware presents a hauntingly fragile vision of a city in decay (I’m thinking New York City in the Pixar movie Wall-e).

Both the Heidelberg Project and the Ford Rouge River Plant tour (which gets rave reviews) are on my list of sites to see this upcoming year when I visit my mother – and the Detroit Institute of Arts, of course.

Let’s keep our fingers crossed that these two glimmers of hope represent a turning point in the history of Detroit, and open a new chapter now for this city that has finally emerged from bankruptcy – with the Detroit Institute of Arts still in tact. May 2015 be a much better year for my hometown.

In that spirit, I wish all of you a happy, healthy – and even more creative – New Year!

A Mom Who Loves Sports

December 26, 2014 by Beverly

Today I would like to introduce you to my mother, Dorothy aka Dots and Dash with Lots of Flash, the woman who supported me in every way throughout my entire life. She encouraged me to pursue my art – even when I decided to pass on art school as an undergrad so I could apply to the liberal arts college at her alma mater, the University of Michigan, and major in math (a subject that still makes her shake when she hears it, even now, long after her school career ended.)

Mom still supports my art, only now we’ve reached a new phase where she buys sweets for me to paint (or so she says), which I encourage on special occasions such as this.

Unlike most women of her generation, my mother loves sports! She says, “I love my Tigers, I love my Pistons, and I LOVE (drawn out like looovve) my Lions!”.

When I mentioned that her University of Michigan Wolverines were noticeably absent from this illustrious list of Michigan sports teams, she answered, “I am a poor sport. I hate them when they lose.” Spoken like a fan who attended a lot of games on campus during the “Fritz” Crisler era (the head football coach with a basketball arena named after him), culminating in the national football championship in 1947 during her senior year. You should hear my mother when Michigan plays Ohio State on Thanksgiving weekend… or when UM makes it to the Rose Bowl… Mom still calls to remind me that Michigan is playing, especially now that it’s basketball season – which I love! I think I grew up singing the Michigan fight song. I am hearing “Hail to the Victors” in my head right now. Go Blue!

Now Mom even follows Missouri sports since my husband grew up in St. Louis. Jay reports she’s always up on the news on his favorite Mizzou teams. Mom says Jay is still talking about the 1968 World Series Game 7 when Mickey Lolich, the infamous Detroit Tiger far out-pitched Bob Gibson from the less fortunately St. Louis Cardinals, who lost the series as a result. Mom also keeps tabs on the University of Illinois teams now that Laura goes to school there (not that Laura does…).

Often people ask me if Mom is an artist. While she isn’t, her sister, my aunt Ruth, is a talented watercolorist who lives in Columbus, Ohio (home of the Ohio State Buckeyes, of all places). Actually, I take that back. Mom is an untraditional artist if you define artist as a person who has an exceptional skill in a particular area. You could call her an “artist of current events”. Mom thrives on listening to the radio – I think of her as a radio junkie. She picks up so much information about everything and anything, including sports and the arts, and keeps me posted on what’s happening in Detroit – and, surprisingly, New York. Once she actually called to tell me a bus overturned on the NY State Thruway! You can always count on Mom for a lively discussion about current movies and TV shows, even when she has never seen them.

And did I mention that she’s a Mitch Albom fan? Mitch is a long time Detroit sportwriter and author of acclaimed books such as Tuesdays with Morrie. Mom recently got a new convert in my eldest daughter Laura, who now regularly listens to his radio broadcasts on Detroit’s WJR. Laura says he’s really funny.

Upon reflection, I think Mom earned my 2013 Sports Artist Award when she proved her sports prowess to the outside world by winning our accountant’s March Madness basketball pool – and took home $1,600! Her lead was so convincing that she claimed the prize before the final game was played. Amazing, isn’t it? All those macho men in the pool (with 180 entries!) were left behind in the dust, scratching their heads.

Dot, we wish you luck in the 2015 March Madness pool, but you may not need it with your track record – as long as you don’t get sentimental about the Wolverines and the Big “Ten”! From your greatest fans.

2003

Monet Through a Different Lens

December 22, 2014 by Beverly

Jay and I decided to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City yesterday to see the Assyria to Iberia exhibit. When we got there, we took a quick detour through the Impressionism rooms – always a favorite.

We both came to a complete halt by this painting, Claude Monet’s Garden of Sainte-Andresse (1867), where we both had strong feelings of déjà vu, like we had been there before. The feelings of going back in time were powerful, and Jay said he felt like he had been talking to Monet while the work was being painted.

Why did we feel this way? The simple answer is: We had been there before! In fact, in was a multi-sensory experience – we walked in the garden, saw it from all angles, felt the warm sunlight on our skin and the breeze in our faces. We even “met” the artist. Being a guy, Jay remarked,”The restaurant is to the left, so I’m getting hungry”, a comment that makes me smile even now.

The good news is that you don’t have to go to France to do this. Just take a drive to Hamilton, New Jersey and visit the Grounds for Sculpture where Seward Johnson constructed his outdoor sculpture installation titled, If It Were Time, based on the Monet’s Sainte-Andresse painting. If It Were Time is a full scale 3-D translation of Monet’s 2-D oil painting, which I had previously included in a June blog entry. The installation sits on a plot of land at least as large as our house lot (1/4 acre) looking out on a lake (unlike our house which looks right at our neighbors).

© The Sculpture Foundation, Inc., photo: David W. Steele

While the photos of these two works of art look similar in this blog post, our interaction with these pieces couldn’t be more different. Viewing a painting as an outsider looking in is a far cry from inhabiting the space as a participant.

To give you some idea of Seward Johnson’s sense of humor and irony, which comes out in subtle ways in many of his sculptures, here is a bronze cast of Monet who greets you at the entrance before you walk down the stairs to the scene below. Monet is working outdoors for the day in his plein air style, as he typically did.

Take a closer look at what Monet is doing in this photo, taken from a different viewpoint. The artist is painting Johnson’s If It Were Time sculpture, which is in turn based on Monet’s own Sainte-Andresse painting at the museum! Seward Johnson provocatively named this bronze portrait of the artist, Copyright Violation!!, raising numerous issues on many levels.

Is Johnson’s work really an original work of art, a slavish imitation, or a copyright infringement? The art historian in me is intrigued by all the possible interpretations. What do you think? I would love to hear your opinions.

Here’s a photo I took of the sailboat that Monet is painting, before I realized how the boat fit into the bigger picture. (FYI. While we looking at Monet’s painting at the Met, we noticed the many boats on the horizon line for the first time – quite a contrast to Johnson’s serene focus on a single sailboat.)

As you walk down the stairs and begin to inhabit the space, the effect is startling. The cast bronze bronze sculptures almost come to life, somehow bringing out the playfulness in you, as if you are actors on the stage, or talking and taking pictures with costumed interpreters at Williamsburg.

You not only walk around Johnson’s re-creation, you touch it and even sit on it. Jay was delighted there was an empty chair so he could take a break with his newfound friend.

The dictionary definition of “installation” explains things well and gives you a handle on the way to think the Monet and Johnson connection. Installation: a large sculpture-like artwork which alters the way a space is experienced. Certainly that was the case in New Jersey, quite a vivid memory too. What we didn’t expect, was for that memorable interactive, multi-sensory experience to carry over and enrich our viewing of the original artwork back in New York. At the time, we felt it was quite surreal since the two works of art became inseparable.

Yesterday we were looking at the Monet’s painting through a different lens. Our perspective changed, probably forever, which is a good thing. In fact, I think a visit to see Seward Johnson’s work at Grounds for Sculpture is an excellent way for people, particularly kids, to be exposed to art and to get truly excited about it.

P.S. We did make it to the Assyria to Iberia show, a major scholarly undertaking which is excellent, just not as much fun.

Matisse’s Cut-Outs: A Triumph

December 8, 2014 by Beverly

It must be over five years ago that I bought this box of Matisse holiday cards at MOMA. I always smiled when I looked at the uplifting design composed using cut paper, and was reluctant to use the cards since they were so “special”. After hanging on to them for so long, it was exciting and somewhat jarring at the same time to come across the magnificent original work in the “Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs” exhibit at MOMA in Manhattan (through February 8th, 2015). The scale of the real cut-out (over 10 feet tall vs. my 9 inch card) seemed absolutely gigantic, reminding me how important it is to see artwork in person to fully appreciate the artist’s intention.

In addition, I had forgotten that this cut-out design was actually a full-size mockup for a vibrant stained glass window. While I don’t think the experience of interacting with original artwork can ever be completely replicated by the online world, you can get an idea of the scale of Matisse’s works by viewing the slide show from the New York Times review. (The ‘no photo’ rule was strictly enforced by the guards the day I visited.)

“Henry Matisse: The Cutouts” at MOMA. Courtesy of Ruth Fremson / The New York Times. October 9, 2014 review.

When I first entered the show, I overheard someone say, “But these are just cutouts!” – which is exactly the point.

Matisse elevated the simple cut-out – which we all did as kids – to a major art form in his late work. After spending much of his life as a painter and sculptor, using cut-outs as mockups for stage sets, books (“Jazz”), and stained glass, Matisse turned to them as his primary medium in his last decade out of necessity (the mother of invention, so they say) – but on his own terms. Although wheelchair bound, Matisse rejuvenated himself with the help of assistants who painted custom paper to his color specifications and then cut the forms under his direction. A fascinating video part way through the exhibit demonstrates the process of cutting, pinning and re-pinning shapes (almost foreshadowing Pinterest!) that Matisse used to realize his vision, before glueing down the pieces for the final composition.

The entire show is a colorful, exuberant experience, and a testimony to Matisse’s vision and commitment to making art. He was a passionate artist with a mission, who would not allow anything to interfere with his art, whether it’s a divorce from his wife of 31 years, World War II, or abdominal cancer surgery. It’s interesting that the spirit of the work transcends these major life challenges – truly a triumph for Matisse on many levels.

If you want to see an upbeat, light-hearted show that will put you in the holiday spirit, go see the Matisse cut-outs and find out for yourself why over 500,000 people went to see this exhibit the Tate in London. Enjoy lunch at MOMA’s 2nd floor Cafe, take a short stroll to see the tree at Rockefeller Center – and don’t forget to walk by the Saks and Bergdorf holiday windows. It will be a lovely way to spend a day!

The Cake Lady, My Alter Ego

December 4, 2014 by Beverly

When I was straightening up the dining room for our Thanksgiving feast, I came across this Thank You card addressed to “The Cake Lady” from the art students who attended my August presentation at the Frank Sinatra School for the Performing Arts in Astoria, Queens.

But this wasn’t just any card – it was a giant card packed full of goodies inside drawn by aspiring artists!

While I was preparing the talk about my art career and gathering images on my laptop, I visualized my paintings projected on a small, standard size pulldown screen. Imagine my surprise when I looked up and saw this! No wonder the Cake Lady nickname stuck!

We all had a great time that day. There were a lot of questions so the presentation was interactive. Getting up in front of the students brought me back to my days as an art history lecturer at the University of Michigan, which I used to love! At one point, I even wanted to be an art history professor.

Back then I would spend days in the UM slide collection library of over 100,000 slides, flipping through numerous drawers of slides, looking for what I needed to give my weekly lectures. When I recently showed the kids a sample sheet of slides, I learned they had never even seen slides before. (I know, I know. I dated myself…). How things have changed! This time around I used an iPad too, which gave me the freedom to walk around and zoom in on details.

Thank you to Laura Blau, art teacher and friend, who invited me to speak to her class. (And no, we didn’t talk about clothing in advance. I guess artists naturally gravitate toward black so they don’t distract from the art, and then add chunky, artsy necklaces to make a statement and break up the black. )

Afterwards Laura and the kids took me on a personal tour of the student art show in the main lobby, the culmination of an entire summer’s work. I was so impressed by the breadth and depth of the exhibit, and Laura’s ability to introduce such exciting projects to her students and then step back and let their creativity flourish.

Here are a few of the many fine pieces that span a variety of media and moods, from a delicate black & white cutout of a tree, to colorful paintings and marker drawings, to intense 3D mixed media pieces (this one depicting stress by using real books to represent the weight of the world pressing down). And these kids are only in 8th and 9th grade!

It was such a nice surprise to receive The Cake Lady card during the summer and then to recently find it again. And as The Cake Lady, it felt good to rediscover a part of myself that I had forgotten, my alter ego. When I was up in front of the kids, I fell back into an old and familiar rhythm that I want to hang onto this time around. I just have to figure out how, when, why, and where (minor details…).

Any suggestions?