Manceeeeeeep

Showing posts with label portraits. Show all posts

Class Photos: University of Iowa College of Dentistry

The University of Iowa has a vast and varied digital archive to explore. Included are over 80 years (1883-1967) of graduating-class photo boards from the College of Dentistry.

The early years, of course, have the most interesting boards, and not only for visual variety. I couldn’t help noticing a perplexing change in the number of women graduates over the years. During the first 40 years, 34 women earned degrees, with the classes of 1888 and 1902 graduating five women each. From 1925 through 1967, however, there were a total of seven female graduates--over the entire 42 years! I'm not quite sure which of those stats I find more surprising. Today, 40% of students at the College of Dentistry are women. Drill, baby, drill.

Reflections: Paintings by Susan Tammany

Paintings by Susan Tammany are on exhibit this month at Druids,
736 Tenth Avenue (between 50th and 51st Streets), in New York.

The recent works, which are oil on canvas and pastel on paper, are mostly portraits of women. Each sitter happens to be an artist of some kind (dancer, photographer, etc.), and each is situated in her own stage-set of an environment--complete with dramatic lighting, lush fabrics, and glowing jewel-tone color. These portraits are not as much about likeness as they are about the sitter as the star of her own personal drama. Which makes perfect sense since Tammany is both a painter and a playwright. Her plays, not coincidentally, are about the drama of creative women, most notably, a trio of plays, each one about a different female poet in history.

There is a reception tomorrow night, Wednesday, at 7:00. If you are in town, please stop by and meet the artist.

REFLECTIONS: An Exhibition of Paintings by Susan Tammany

DRUID'S RESTAURANT
736 Tenth Avenue (between 50 & 51Streets)
New York City

June 29 - July 31, 2010

OPENING RECEPTION: WEDNESDAY, JULY 14, 7p.m.

Elvis Is In The Classroom

Act-a-like, look-a-like and sound-a-like, are the three basic aspects of impersonation at the core of the workshop, ‘Elvis Was Here.’ What’s unusual about this training is that takes place in primary schools throughout the UK. The hope is that under the tutelage of Elvis Tribute Artist Paul Richie, enough children will qualify for the minimum Elvis standard to break the world record for the ‘Most Elvis Impersonators in One Location.’

The project was orchestrated by Onkar Kular, a conceptual designer who uses various media to address social and cultural issues—in this case, questions concerning the legal definition of impersonation and authenticity.

Elvis portraits, acrylic on paper

The ‘Elvis Was Here’ day took place in 2008 at St Saviour's Church of England primary school in Herne Hill, London ...

9:00 am Elvis Assembly, lecture, and performance

10:00 am Elvis life drawing class

11:30 am Elvis fashion class

2:30 pm Final Elvis ‘Hound Dog’ performance

Group snarl & point

Photographs by Thierry Bal

Almost Living Color

The Photochrom process was developed in Zürich, by Hans Jakob Schmid, in the 1880s. Used mostly for travel subjects, Photochroms took the place of hand-colored postcards, and were popular until the 1930s, when other color photographic technology became commercially viable.

The richly colored images were created by transferring a black and white photo onto a series of lithographic stones—anywhere from four to 14 -- that were then printed in color. In the U.S., the technology was licensed to The Detroit Publishing Company of Michigan, where thousands of views and millions of prints were produced. A very good technical explanation of the process can be found here.

The Library of Congress has more than 6,000 images, among which are the portraits and other peopled scenes here. Stay tuned for the mouthwatering landscapes ...