Creative Words to Live By

THESE WORDS should be displayed in every art school, design shop and creative environment for all to read. Please click on image for larger view.

Via World Famous Design Junkies.

The Visible Woman

Click any image for larger view.

Click any image for larger view.

(Above) The Renwal Company’s Visible Man and Visible Woman, c. 1960’s; plastic model kit.


WHEN I WAS A KID IN THE 1960s, the Renwal Company came up with the bright idea to show “the insides” of a human body, with their Visible Man and Visible Woman model kits. It must have been a huge success for the company, because within a few years they were flooding the market with The Visible Horse, the Visible Dog, the Visible V-8 Engine and so on and so on.

When I first saw The Visible Woman down at Green’s Hobby Shop I wanted one! Mr. Green was a slight Jewish man with a friendly disposition but he had The Visible Woman displayed high up on a shelf. I could only glance at it as I hung around looking at model airplanes, Rat Fink cards and Superman comic books. What I was really there for was to get a better look at that Visible W-O-M-A-N! Why? Well, you already know why! 50 years later I am coming clean! It was for one reason and one reason alone—so I could finally, actually SEE what a woman’s private parts looked like. OK! I ADMIT IT! I was 10 years old and those things were a big mystery to me.

My plan was simple: Christmas was coming up and I would ask for The Visible Woman kit along with a few other things around it. I’d just throw it on the list like it was no big deal... 7 or 8 down from the top. (I didn’t mention, did I, that there was the counterpart to the The Visible Woman—and that was the totally BORING Visible Man! Ugh-h. “Who would ever want THAT!?” I thought.

I remember going up to my dad as he sat in HIS chair and asking him if I could tell him what I wanted for Christmas. “Isn’t this kind of early son,” he said, “I mean, it’s just August!”

“Well pa, (I always called him “Pa” when I wanted something) I just wanted to get a jump on what I want Santa to bring me for Christmas this year,” I said, lying through my tooth (I had actually lost one of my front baby teeth).

I started reading my list: “I want an Etch-A-Sketch; a Johnny Reb Cannon; a Jon Gnagy ‘Learn to Draw’ Kit, a Visible Woman model, a box of 64 Crayola’s.....”

My father, who was about as fuddy-duddy as they came (he was born in 1910!) cut me off and was immediately suspect. “What do you want with this ‘invisible woman’ thing?” he asked. He called it “Invisible Woman,” but that was a minor detail.

“Well pa, so I can learn about science and stuff! I love models and this is all about science and... and....” I gave it my best sales pitch... EVER!

“We’ll see,” was his answer, cutting me off.

I dropped it because I didn’t want him to know that I was SICK! ... that I was perverted !!! Oh-h the humanity! I was going to hell and I knew it!

Fast forward to Christmas morning 1961—and there it was—a rectangular box (I had memorized the shape down to the square inch). I could have cared less about the other stuff. All those other gifts I told him about was just patter to mask what I really wanted.

“BINGO! This is it!” I thought. Picking it up I was thinking, “oh yea-a-a-a... this is a model alright!” as I listened to all the pieces clickety clack inside. “This is gonna be great!”

Tearing off the paper my heart was thumping outta my chest! Yes! This is it!! Thank you Jesus!” I thought—when it happened. “Wha-a-a-a-at?” the voice in my head screamed! “It’s... it’s... it’s... the stinkin’ Visible MAN!!!”

If one could possibly HEAR the sound of disappointment, well, mine was personified by the loudest freight train whistle right there in our living room; the sound of a screaming woman from the Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Hour, or a head on automobile collision right outside our house. This was the WORST Christmas of my life!

“They were outta that ‘Invisible Woman’” my dad said. “So I gotcha this one!”

“LIAR!!!” I thought!! They had PLENTY last time I looked, which was yesterday—Christmas Eve! I do not know whether he could see the disappointment (the horror) on my face but I tried to mask it so he and my mom and twin sister would not know that I was on a mission from God to see breasts!! And that other female thing, which I had some other slang word for I can’t remember now.

A few months later a buddy of mine did get the Visible Woman, (lucky bastard) and well, it was not all it was cracked up to be. All the good parts were smoothed and glossed over and it was just another of a series of let-downs in my life. Besides—they were called mammary glands, WTF?

It would be a couple more years before I did indeed score big with a stash of men’s girlie magazines I found in neighbor PeeWee Pascal’s house.... and you can read about that adventure from a past post if you click here.

Hidden in Plain Sight

(Above) This eBay photo sent in by a reader... love it!

Above and below: photos for the selling of deer antlers. Click on any image for larger view.


Below: trying to document a monkey doll for sale on eBay. Click on any image for larger view.








Below: a series of eBay snapshots showing various views of three plastic figures being sold. Click on any image for larger view.






THERE IS NOT A DAY THAT GOES BY THAT I DO NOT LOOK AT EBAY. I am looking for the proverbial needle in the haystack, the great object or snapshot or whatever catches my eye.

When we think of vernacular photography, we think of the printed image—something you can hold in your hand. If we define a snapshot as something made not so much as “art” but as a documentation of something by everyday people, you begin to see the difference between fine art photography and the snapshot. As a collector of vernacular images, I specifically look for images that stand far and away from the ordinary family snapshot. I look for images that have a sense of mystery, an untold story to tell, strong composition, good tonal values and rarity. I find these images at garage sales, estate sales, and on-line auctions like eBay.

When you think of eBay, hundreds of thousands of people shoot pictures not as art, but as documents to try and sell their product. So, given this definition of vernacular photography, wouldn’t these digital images on eBay be considered as such? I ask, why not?

Hidden in plain sight on eBay are these digital images (made simply to document a product for sale), that I think are rather interesting in their own right. What do you think?

Happy Babies Absorbed in Sweet Bliss for Tranquility of Mind

Click any image for larger view.


Click any image for larger view.



YOU JUST GOTTA LOVE VINTAGE COMMUNIST CHINESE PROPAGANDA. In an effort to show the perfect nation, the perfect people, the perfect... babies (funny, I do not see any females in this poster) this state-approved Chinese artist painted cherubic almost identical children. This poster, c. 1950s-60s, is about 29 inches x 22 inches in size.

What I also like, besides the fact that these fat little happy babies are wearing lipstick, is the fact that this work reminds me quite a bit of contemporary California-style art—funky, punky, hip and slightly surreal. Puppies, kitties, birds and fresh flowers—all absorbed in sweet bliss for tranquility of mind.

- - -Sewing- -Snapshots- -With- -Thread- - -

Click any image for larger view... you’ll definitely want to!



Click any image for larger view






Click any image for larger view





MANY OF YOU KNOW THAT I COLLECT SNAPSHOTS. I have seen snapshots that have been cut and glued to other surfaces, snapshots that have been painted and altered, transferred to other surfaces, and held pristine as objects—but never sewed on. My friend Robert Jackson, a collector of snapshots, told me about the work of Jane Deschner. Jane’s work is a powerful blend of word and image, and from my vantage point within this field, unique.

Learn more about Jane Deschner’s work here.

Artist Statement:
“For over twenty-five years, I have utilized found photographic images in my artmaking—found on magazine pages, they were the material of cut-and-paste photomontages. During graduate school, I became fascinated with vernacular photography, especially in its most ubiquitous (and human) form, the snapshot. Since 2001, I have collected, studied and altered early- to mid- twentieth century snapshots and studio portraits, press and movie photographs—worked to uncover what this rich repository can teach about our essential humanity. I’ve created over a dozen series, more than five hundred artworks. When we look at snapshots that are two, three and four generations old, what is immediately obvious is what has changed. But, when we look into them—we discover what has remained constant. We are reminded of how we are to one another.”

“I’m aging and my maternal side wants to pass on what I’ve learned. I want to moralize about accountability, acceptance, love, honesty, compassion, integrity, authenticity, gratitude and generosity. I appropriate and integrate the found photographs of strangers with the embroidered words of the famous.”

“Sewing binds photographs together; embroidery inscribes a quote. Stitching by hand into these photos both destroys and mends. I puncture and suture, wound and heal, simultaneously. It is an intimate activity, meditative and, sometimes, physically painful because of the tedium of the activity and the osteoarthritis in my thumb joints. I connect with generations before me.”

“Creating garments from stitched-together snapshots, “wearable-photo-albums,” is a recent direction. I craft a narrative in the snapshots I choose, sometimes enhanced by an embroidered quote or image. The garment is a metaphor for ways we identify ourselves, as we do in the photographs we choose to take. Our photos, our clothes—what we shed when we pass on.”

“We all snap photos of people and things we love and times we want to remember. In a studio, we hire a professional to immortalize us looking our best. When I alter a photograph’s original intent and appearance, the viewer is invited to deduce, speculate and fantasize. There are many ways to appreciate ourselves in the common photograph—even those of people, places and times we never knew.”

Discovering Chronics

Images of cover and records courtesy of Killed By Death Records.



Image below courtesy www.clepunk.com.

NOT LONG AGO I WAS BROWSING THROUGH a flea market and stumbled upon this 45 RPM vinyl record. It was the cover art that caught my eye, printed off register in cyan, magenta, yellow and black, the 4 printing colors used in full-color printing. The graphics were a beautiful example of rock ’n roll art from the short-lived, anti-authoritarian punk rock era in the late 1970s—that hard-driving, body slamming music that was the antithesis of the smarmy disco music that was playing in every mainstream club in America.

The 45 sleeve was for a band called Chronics, and included the vinyl record. Personally, I was never really deeply into punk rock at the time, but did like the The Clash and the Ramones. Here, I figured, was a “garage” punk art band, and since the price tag was only $3, I figured I would buy it for the cover art if nothing else.

Later, it took just minutes for me to find out quite a bit about Chronics. The band was composed of Bill Elliott, playing lead guitar, singing vocals (backing); Dave Deluca, rhythm guitar, vocal (lead); Dan Didonato, drums, vocal (backing); and Tim Dorman, playing bass guitar and singing backing vocals.

The web site Clepunk has this brief bio of Chronics:

“Right before Dan, Dave, Bill and Tim formed Chronics, Dave and Bill were in the Nuclear Ants with Mark Nolan and Brady Burnett. Dan was the drummer of Oil Can Harry and Tim was the sound man for OCH. In early ‘77, inspired by the Sex Pistols, Dave, Dan and Bill met at Bill’s house for a game of riffs. After the first triplet, something clicked. “Let’s do this a lot”, they chimed in unison, “all we need is a bass player.”

“Searching high and low they eventually begged Tim to pick up the bass and join. He gave in. After 3 months of rehearsal (2 months and 29 days more than the public deserved) they hit the road for a gig in Youngstown followed by a stint in the Motor City and then back to the Pirates Cove in Clevo, opening for the likes of Raven Slaughter and hanging out with Johnny Dromette. About that time, former member of Cookie (band Dave and Dan were in ’68 to ’70) Rick Perez had become a successful Cleveland lawyer and got a few of his lawyer buds to throw in some dough and pay for a recording session at Suma Recording giving birth to Nuclear Record #1 Calling All Cardinals/Test Tube Baby (2000 copies were pressed).”

“On the recording Ron Pirtle played bass on Test Tube Baby and Brady Burnett played drums with Dan DiDonato on percussion on Calling All Cardinals. Sending copies overseas, the record got to #11 in the Netherlands and also hit the charts in Germany. At Tri-C, Chronics made a lip-synch video for Test Tube Baby. They also played Henneseys, opened for Ubu at the Pirates Cove, and played at Major Chords in Columbus with the Pagans. Writing tunes with social commentary and popability, Chronics untimely demise came in the summer of ’79 following a scuffle at a wedding party between Bill and Dan. At the time, interest in the 45 release had reached L.A., but the band had to decline offers for gigs there.”

NME, the e-zine music news site, calls “Test Tube Baby” and “Calling All Cardinals” the number 1 and 2 songs for Chronics.

• 1. Test Tube Baby
• 2. Calling All Cardinals
• 3. Callin All Cardinals
• 4. Make you move
• 5. Slippin’ and Slidin’
• 6. Put ’em Down
• 7. Chronic Disease
• 8. Soulshaker
• 9. Save Me
• 10. Shake And Make

Finally, it turns out the record I found is pretty rare (only 2,000 pressed) and sells for between $50 and $75 bucks if you can find one. For me, it’s the cover art that caught my attention—but I am digging the tunes!

If you know anything about this band, please comment—I’d like to learn more!

Cabinet Card of Folk Art Carving

(Above) Cabinet card, c. 1880 (click image for larger view)

(Above) Detail (click for larger view)

(Above) Back of Cabinet Card (click for larger view)

IF YOU LIKE PHOTOGRAPHY AND FOLK ART (like I do), here’s a two’fer for you. A 4” x 6-1/2” photograph, taken about 1880, of a rare folk art carving by Asa Carpenter (1834 - ?). It is a Civil War carving of General grant on his horse surrounded by three Union soldiers and a field cannon carved from what appears to be a single piece of wood. The seller of this cabinet card says that, though little is known about this artist, an actual carving of a sow and young piglets realized $44,460 at the October 25, 2008 Pook and Pook Auction in Pennsylvania. It is not known if this carving exists or has been lost through time.

The seller was able to learn that Carpenter was born in Niagara, Canada on September 8, 1834, the 6th of 11 children by Asa Philopilus Carpenter and Margaret Ullman. Early in his life he was involved in the lumber industry before becoming known as an artist and sculptor. Various locations that note his residence include Howard City, Michigan; Crystal Valley, Michigan; and Scottsville, Michigan, possibly in that order.

The photographer of this cabinet card was Samuel L. Sharpsteen (b. 1850 - ?) and is being sold on eBay here.