Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s vision for Over The River was conceived in 1992 and included 5.9 miles (9.5 kilometers) of silvery, luminous fabric panels to be suspended clear of and high above the water in eight distinct areas along a 42-mile (67.6 kilometer) stretch of the Arkansas River between Cañon City and Salida in south-central Colorado.
In August 1992, 1993 and 1994, in search of a site for the project, Christo and Jeanne-Claude and their team traveled 14,000 miles (22,530 kilometers) in the Rocky Mountains in the United States. On those trips, the team prospected eighty-nine rivers, in seven states, and six possible locations were found. After visiting the six sites again in the summer of 1996, the Arkansas River in Colorado was selected. Christo received all federal, state and local permits necessary to realize Over The River in 2011, when the US Department of the Interior announced its Record of Decision. This federal action was the final step of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), which is usually reserved for major infrastructures such as bridges, highways, dams and airports. The EIS for Over The River, the first ever completed for a work of art, began in the spring of 2009 and was prepared by the Bureau of Land Management, Royal Gorge Field Office, resulting in a 1,686 page comprehensive analysis. In 2012, a local group opposed to this temporary work of art filed lawsuits against Colorado State Parks in State Court and against the United States Federal Government, Bureau of Land Management, in U.S. Federal Court. In January 2017, after pursuing Over The River, Project for the Arkansas River, State of Colorado for 20 years and going through five years of legal arguments, Christo decided to no longer wait on the outcome and devote all of his energy, time and resources into the realization of The Mastaba, Project for Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. For more info: http://christojeanneclaude.net/projects/over-the-river
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"At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us." -- Albert Schweitzer
"Above all, art should be fun. My fan mail is enormous. Everyone is under six." -- Alexander Calder (1898-1976) Alexander is in the house! This summer, several of his mobiles and stabiles grace the buildings and landscape of Denver's Botanic Gardens, (thru September 24th.) Its great to see his work again after I saw the exhibit, Calder and Abstraction: from Avant-garde to Iconic at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2014. We forget he was an American in Paris in the '30s and knew Picasso and Chagall. And later his works were a favorite of architects Mies Van de Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright. It is the first outdoor exhibit of his work in a decade. Untitled, from 1976 is shown above in the left side of the panel. And shown at right is Incandescent, one of Teresa Booth Brown's wonderful mixed media abstract photo collages on display at the DBG's indoor Gates Garden Court Gallery. I was fortunate to previously view her show at Michael Warren Contemporary on Santa Fe. Her exhibit at DBG is up thru August 6th. To mix the glories of art and nature, the Denver Botanic Gardens, is the place to be!
For more info: https://www.botanicgardens.org/art-exhibits/current-upcoming "It is very well to copy what one sees; it's much better to draw what one has retained in one's memory. It is a transformation in which imagination collaborates with memory." -- Edgar Degas Dancers in Blue by Edgar Degas, 1890. To see more of his work click: www.edgar-degas.org/
On Thursday, former graffiti artist Jean-Michel Basquiat's 'Untitled' became the highest priced painting, by an American artist, ever sold at auction. (One of his works also set the record last year.) It was purchased at Sotheby's in New York by Japanese entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa. The artwork was created in 1982 when Basquiat was only 22 years old. He died of a heroin overdose in 1988. Jonathan Jones from the British newspaper The Guardian states: "It is a painting that bleeds history. Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Untitled (1982) portrays a black skull scarred with red rivulets, pitted with angry eyes, gnashing its teeth, against a blue graffiti wall on which someone has been doing their sums. Perhaps the street mathematician was calculating how many Africans died on slave ships in the 18th century, or how many people lived in slavery in America, or how many young black men have been killed by police guns in the last few years."
Happy Buddha Day! This is the time around the world when the Buddha's birth, enlightenment and liberation from the body into Universal Oneness is celebrated. Typically the energy during a full moon is very strong and energizes what is being held in our mental and emotional consciousness, good or bad. Hence busy police and emergency rooms during these times! But the Taurian full moon is said to be the most powerful of all. So today, while the added vivacity is further animating our desires, it is best to keep our attention on our best intentions and affirm that positive vision we have for ourselves and the world.
Above is my painting: Veil Circle, a 12x12 acrylic on canvas sheet, which is available. The latest painting in my Veil Series was inspired by the Beltane, noted in yesterday's post. It is believed that during this cycle of the year, it is one of the times when the veil between our physical plane and the metaphysical realm is the thinnest. This informs my abstract work and inspires my spiritual practice. This is probably also where the quote, The Goddess is alive and Magic is afoot, comes from. And being just a few days from the Wesak moon, the most powerful full moon of the year, just adds to the energy of this year's event. The title, Der Blaue Reiter, (The Blue Rider in English), was gleaned from the name of the pioneering German Expressionist modern art movement of the early 20th century. It confronted feelings of alienation within an increasingly modernizing world. Sound familiar? They sought to transcend the mundane or profane as it were, by pursuing the spiritual in art. Wassily Kandinsky, the father of non-objective art and Franz Marc were the center of the group, and the name "Der Blaue Reiter" referred to their belief that blue was the most spiritual color and that the rider symbolized the ability to move beyond... I work on my canvases sometimes from may angles, and when I finished this one and was sitting with it, I noticed the unintentional images of the blue horses, maybe even a unicorn, frolicking across the picture plane! Magic afoot indeed! It is an homage to Franz Marc's beautiful paintings of the blue horses and the long history of expressing the spiritual through art. Ride on!
May 1st marks the Celtic celebration of Beltane, also referred to as May Day. It is observed around the world to commemorate the turning point of the year when warmer days return. Celebrants mark the day by lighting fires, dancing, feasting and performing fertility rituals such as the maypole dance. In agrarian times, it affirmed the fertility of the fields and the promise of a bountiful harvest. Beltane is believed to refer to the "The Fires of Bel", in honor of the Celtic sun god Belenus. So in honor of the occasion, I offer a song by one of my favorite fiery redheads, Loreena McKennitt. Here is Huron Beltane Fire Dance, from her album Parallel Dreams. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NW2tYM2LZik To learn more about Ms. McKennitt and her music, click: loreenamckennitt.com/ We're all still here,
because we're not all there yet. |
Edward KosinskiFine artist Archives
August 2018
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