Colorful New Etsy Treasury Feature: Pantone Fall/Winter Colors

Etsy Treasury: Thread, Gems & Art

My In the Middle of Nowhere necklace is featured in the warm tones of this Etsy Treasury created by PaulaArt. The colors in this treasury are very much in line with the lovely Pantone Fashion Colors for Fall/Winter 2009/10 Season.


Their color for 2010? Turquoise.

In the Middle of Nowhere has been part of my Same Name Game series.

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Cinematic Journeys From One Traumatic Transition to Another: Puberty, Aging, Alzheimer's

This event fits right in with one of my main interests, life transitions. How do we go through them, help one another through and how do artists depict them in their work? So much of what we go through alone is being experienced by others who also think that they're alone.

The Royal Nonesuch Gallery in Oakland, CA has a Serial Life Crisis film series. Saturday, February 27th drops us immediately into the warm lap of puberty.

"We will start our exploration of leaving one stage of life and beginning another on an awkward note with the trials of puberty in Slums of Beverly Hills (Tamara Jenkins, 1998), followed by the fears of leaving college in Kicking and Screaming (Noah Baumbach, 1995) and ending with fading stardom in Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, 1950)."

The gallery will have more in the series in March and April so keep watch for upcoming additions.

What other films do you think could be added? Were there any movies that helped you through tough times? Any that seemed to mirror transitions that you went through?

Recently, I remember the film Hanging Up with Walter Matthau, Meg Ryan, Diane Keaton and Lisa Kudrow. It is a good film about a family's dealing with

their aging father who it may be assumed has Alzheimer's Disease.

I discovered this film while my siblings and I were dealing with our mother's Alzheimer's and it became a transitional sort of film for us. There's something interesting about art, film in a situation like that. It doesn't have to hit you over the head. In fact it probably doesn't have to when we're going through something major in life. We can look at something with a different kind of analysis.

All of the factual, rapidly changing [and sometimes controversial] information that you take in is vital and helpful, and it seems neverending. Sometimes it's the art, the film, the music, the visual arts that seem to give you an escape or help when nothing else will, whether it is creating or viewing/listening or both.

I wrote a short article with Alzheimer's movies and songs which includes some ideas that were helpful to me.

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Hutchinson for Murder One, Tuesday Flashback Feature, Starsky and Hutch

This is part of my Tuesday Flashback Feature series. We reminisce about classic TV shows usually from the 1950s-1970s where gemstones or pieces of jewelry featured prominently in the storylines.

Starsky & Hutch
Hutchinson: Murder One
February 22, 1978

It's been what we hear is "four years, six months and twelve days" and Hutch's (David Soul) ex-wife Vanessa (Veronica Hamel) suddenly contacts him. They meet at The Pits, run by Huggy Bear (Antonio Fargas).

At first you can see a bit of the attraction that lingers, but soon old issues arise and he takes off.

She follows him claiming that she's ill with what may be malignant cancer. He takes her home and she tucks a huge, expensive uncut diamond under the seat of his car. 

She spends the night at his place and he sleeps on the couch. She tells him that she's going into the international jewelry business. When she's alone there, the big jewel thief's thugs burst in.

There's a cheap replica of the diamond in her bag. They think it's real. They find Hutch's badge and end up killing her with his gun in the living room! Hutch returns home finding her dead and Starsky (Paul Michael Glaser) races to the scene in the Torino.

TV GUIDE June 3, 1978
Starsky & Hutch
Paul Michael Glaser, David Soul cover

An investigation is started by Internal Affairs. A warrant is put out for his arrest especially when the real million-dollar diamond, which turns out to be stolen, is found in Hutch's car.

Captain Dobey (Bernie Hamilton) sends Starsky to bring Hutch in on that charge of Murder One. The partners work to solve the mystery and nab the real killers, clearing Hutch's name.

As with other police dramas, Starsky and Hutch had its share of plots concerning valuable gems and jewelry. The main characters were not averse to wearing some jewelry themselves, masculine of course, but that may be for another blog post.  

This episode had inconsistencies in the scheme of the overall series as pointed out by fans. For instance, in the pilot episode, Hutch's ex-wife's name is said to be Nancy, and here she's Vanessa. Certainly a point to ponder.

Starsky and Hutch 8X10 Color Photo

Each Tuesday, we'll feature a different show, often a US sitcom. Information, including spoiler plot outlines come from various sources.

Particularly when the episode hasn't been recently viewed personally, information is as accurate as possible. When available, a show photo will be included.

I'm always interested to hear your memories, and will often include links so you can get DVDs of the shows.

This episode is part of the show's third season and Starsky & Hutch: The Complete Third Season is available on DVD. The first season can get you acquainted with the characters. All four seasons are out on DVD.

Starsky and Hutch is one of the many tv programs made into a feature film. This one starred Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson. It featured Vince Vaughn and Snoop Dogg: Starsky & Hutch (Widescreen Edition). Paul Glaser and David Soul have cameos.

Their red and white Torino became nearly as big a star as the people on the show. It's still collectible today. I found two models, Ertl Collectibles '76 Ford Gran Torino 1:18 Scale Limited Ed. which is out of production and a different version, Diecast Set Cars with Figures by Johnny Lightning 1:64.

A pair of adidas Originals Men's Gazelle Shoe the Adidas Sneakers like his cardigan sweater are Starsky trademarks. 

Don't feel sorry for Hutch. Things work out okay for him in the end.

360flip Starsky T-Shirt by 360flip

The partners rushed around to find evidence of Hutch's innocence. A case rides on the evidence.

Dragnet Early Television Cop Series 1950s

Paul Glaser lost his young daughter and his first wife, Elizabeth Glaser to the AIDS virus. They created The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.

See an article with links to previous Tuesday Flashback Features

 

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Starsky Torino Keychains by maddmaxart
Check out another keychain.

Paper Art on Etsy: The Energy of Ephemera

Paper Art

The Ephemeral is Tamed on Etsy

It's everywhere. Even in this age of digital this and video that, we are still often surrounded by paper. "Get me a hard copy!" There are some amazing artists around who create with paper. An international paper art exhibition, Slash: Paper Under the Knife is at The Museum of Arts and Design in New York. See my previous entry for details. In the spring I had a blog post on Betty Pepper. Paper, often recycled, is among her signature materials.

There are many exciting examples of paper art to be found on Etsy. Here are just a few.

The Cruel Sea is a sculpture, an altered hardcover edition of Nicholas Monsarrat's The Cruel Sea. You can find this piece in Andreanasophia's Shop.

In Which She Reveals Her Characteristic Energy is an original sculpture. It's a diorama inside a 7x7x7 inch wooden box. From the description: "The egg shell inside is paper maché made from old books. The paper is all cut by hand in the traditional Swedish method of Scherenschnitte." This item is at Mollybosley's Shop.

Make Waves Which Illuminate is "a cut drawing with burn/fire marks, threaded text, wanting to highlight that it's not just an idea to make waves, but let's have them be purposeful and illuminating for all." This comes from UlaEinstein's Shop.

The print, Cloud Climbing, is from Roadside's Shop. From the description: "The image looks three-dimensional – but it is, in fact, a 2D print. I created it through a unique process of 3D illustration. This involves taking a dimensional work of art and turning it into a 2D image for print - in my case, by digitally photographing my original cut paper artwork."

Supercoolspyclub has the Love Bugs Paper Cut. "This one-of-a-kind piece of art is hand-cut from paper and displayed in a 10 inch x 10 inch shadowbox."

"A sweet paper bird made using a newspaper crossword puzzle. Hand stitched using fine embroidery thread" is the Crosswords Paper Bird Mixed Media Sculpture at Cottonbirddesigns.

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Slash: Paper Under the Knife, International Paper Art Exhibition

I've always been interested in and amazed by the art that people create with paper. The Museum of Arts and Design in New York has had some brilliant exhibits and its current show is called Slash: Paper Under the Knife. The exhibit runs through April 14, 2010.

The artists are international and the techniques are delightfully varied. The types of paper as well as the techniques used are often as meaningful as the finished works themselves. (Image to left by Andrea Dezsö)

Image at right is Célio Braga's Placebos. These garlands were cut from the papers that come from prescription drugs. From Braga's web site:

"I use a variety of techniques involving a constant process of cutting, perforating, rearranging, assembling, destroying and mending
papers, textiles, wax and photographs. The works are often bold and melodramatic, sometimes silent, but always in searching of a balance between excess and austerity."

When you tear up that old love letter, that parking ticket, that photo of the damned so-and-so....

Consider taking back some power over some of tons of paper in our lives, that rejection note, that 'good luck in the future' letter or anything that unfortunately says your test results are positive. Next time why not consider slaying it as it tries to slay us?

There are personal rituals that involve paper. Tearing, discarding or safely burning paper has been a part of certain rituals for a long time. When would you create art from the paper vs. burn it vs toss it into the winds?

Artist Oliver Herring has created Alex, a sculpture out of digital c-print photographs, museum board, foam core, and polystyrene. The subject was photographed, the photos cut up and then reworked like an almost kaleidoscopic puzzle of the original subject to create the sculpture.  Herring has done other works such as Wade.

The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden has an archived interview in their group of podcasts available on MP3. It's called A Conversation with Oliver Herring and is from 2007.

Carlos Amorales' Black Cloud is actually an installation piece consisting of moths, but as a large group, it has a plague-like, ominous quality. It's a swarm. An April 2008 edition of ArtBlog has a very good article on the piece.

Andrea Dezso's Tunnel Books are part of the exhibit and were featured this month at the museum. Her work is intricate and enthralling and many tell stories. (see top of page)

At the gallery's web site, I like to download the Teacher Resource Packet. A lot of galleries kindly make them available to the general online public and they're very informative and thought provoking. It's worth a visit to the site even if you can't make it to the actual exhibition.

Images from the artists' respective web sites, links given

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Gathering Snowflakes

Growing up on the east coast, snowflakes sometimes meant an early weekday morning, sitting anxiously by the radio. You're in your boots and heavy winter coat and hoping, hoping to hear the announcer say that your school was closed due to the snow. Yippee!

You could build a snow fort or make snow angels or go get that metal saucer and slide down the hill. Maybe times like those are part of why I like snowflakes as a motif as much as I do. They're sort of like memories.

When looking for some pretty snowflake-themed items on Etsy, the hard part was finding just a few to feature in a blog post. You cold create a never-ending list of snowflakes!

The first one that caught my eye was a snowflake in name only. It's an original photo of a sweet white cat called Snowflake in the Window from Donnapool's Shop.

AStonesThrow has a corduroy pleated purse in pink with subtle snowflakes.

Spittintoad's Midnight Frost Neck Warmer features handmade snowflake ceramic buttons. The yarn used is a wintry combination of colors with metallic thread woven through for sparkle.

Finally, you can get a personalized One In A Million Snowflake Bowl from Elmstudiosonline.

So even if you've never made snow angels, never had snowflakes on your eyelashes or never had cold snowflakes tickling you down inside your winter boots.... You can still love the pretty images of snowflakes that artists create.

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Lucy Meets The Burtons, Tuesday Flashback Feature, Here's Lucy

This is part of my Tuesday Flashback Feature. We reminisce about classic TV shows usually from the 1950s-1970s where gemstones or pieces of  jewelry featured prominently in the storylines.

Here's Lucy

Lucy Meets The Burtons

Sept. 14, 1970

In this episode of Here's Lucy Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, big movie stars and a famous real-life couple, played themselves. Burton must escape fans and does so disguising himself as a plumber.

Lucy Carter (Lucille Ball) mistakes him for real plumber. Calling himself Sam, Burton takes advantage of the circumstances and says he'll help Lucy.

He fixes the faucet. She offers him $23.50 for his time (later knocking off $.50 because of his Shakespeare recitation) but Burton refuses payment and leaves.

Lucy later finds a remarkable diamond ring in his discarded overalls. Lucy discovers that Burton has forgotten the Taylor-Burton diamond, Elizabeth Taylor’s 69.42 carat pear-shaped diamond ring.

She decides to try it on and accidentally gets the famous ring stuck on her finger. By the time Lucy discovers it is the famous diamond ring that Burton had purchased for Elizabeth Taylor, it's too late and she can't get it off.

Burton returns to get the ring and finds it stuck on Lucy's finger. He starts to panic.

Liz and the ring are to appear at the Hollywood Press Corps in a few hours.

He brings Lucy back to their hotel suite explaining to Elizabeth what happened. Liz suggests that champagne to help get it off. That doesn't work. Liz desperately tries to get the ring off Lucy's finger once, perhaps only half-jokingly, suggests amputation.

Lucy suggests that Taylor stand in front of a curtain while meeting the press with Lucy herself positioned immediately behind her. Lucy's arm, with the diamond on her hand, is substituted for Elizabeth's hidden arm. They're a success!

On television, particularly on comedies, getting stuck, isn't uncommon. A host of things may be stuck on a character's toes or head. More than one program has had Thanksgiving turkeys on someone's head! But I suspect that rings on fingers may top the list: Herman Munster, Theodore Cleaver and now Lucy Carter.

But this show had an added twist. This one had the 1970's version of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie and a very real, very famous enormous engagement ring guest starring. It's another engagement ring trouble episode as well!

If they were around now, would the couple of Burton and Liz Taylor be referred to as something like Blizzard in the press? They were a hot commodity and Lucille Ball got them to appear on her show, her third network television sitcom. It ran on CBS from 1968 to 1974.

Some say this episode was the most famous episode of the series. A photo graced the cover of the September 5, 1970 TV Guide. The drama was complete with backstage legend of tension between Richard Burton and Lucille Ball. Supposedly each had unpleasant things to say about the other's style of working when they wrote their memoirs.

The program also featured the real ring which featured a diamond of nearly 70 carats. In 1969, Richard Burton bought his second wife Elizabeth Taylor one of the world's largest diamonds from the jeweler Cartier. The pear-shaped stone was cut and polished by Harry Winston. 

Taylor and Burton had been married in 1964 and that marriage lasted ten years. They married again in 1975 but that marriage lasted under a year.

from www.luciearnaz.com :

Lucie Arnaz, Ball's daughter, said she was nervous about meeting the Burtons. Arnaz, who announced her engagement during the filming of the episode, said her ring looked like a spitball compared to Elizabeth’s Taylor-Burton diamond. According to the actress Elizabeth was kind, and recommended toothpaste to clean it. Security had been beefed up on the set as Elizabeth insisted the actual Taylor-Burton diamond be used.

Want to dress like Ricky Ricardo for Halloween, a 1950's party or Masquerade? Find tips on how to make a costume that works for you!

The episode appears on a DVD collection, Here's Lucy: Best Loved Episodes from the Hit TV Series This DVD also includes episodes with Jack Benny & George Burns, Flip Wilson, Wayne Newton,Sammy Davis Jr., Eve Plumb and Donny Osmond to name a few.

Bonus material pertaining to the Burtons appearance includes commentary with Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz Jr., rehearsal footage, behind-the-scenes footage, the original episode ending, and the script for an alternate opening scene. According to Lucie Arnaz, so much behind-the-scenes footage exists because of the importance of the Burtons appearance.

This episode was written by Lucie's mother's long-time comedy writing team Madelyn Pugh-Davis and Bob Caroll Jr. This was also the highest rated episode of the program, but unfortunately Lucie and brother Desi Jr. were not in this episode.

Madelyn Pugh-Davis and Bob Carroll, Jr. received a 1970 Emmy nomination for writing the episode.


Pugh-Davis wrote a book  Loving Lucy: An Illustrated Tribute to Lucille Ball. Davis and her longtime writing partner Carroll co-wrote virtually every episode of I Love Lucy and continued to write on all of Lucille Ball's sitcoms through 1986's Life with Lucy.

Each Tuesday, we'll feature a different show, often a US sitcom. Information, including spoiler plot outlines come from various sources.

Particularly when the episode hasn't been recently viewed personally, information will be as accurate as possible. When available, a show photo will be included.

I'm always interested to hear your memories, and will often include links so you can get DVDs of the shows, too.

For a look at Lucy at her finest, Here's Lucy: Best Loved Episodes from the Hit TV Series is available on DVD.

The book, Loving Lucy: An Illustrated Tribute to Lucille Ball has a lot of information about the show as well as a section about the episode with Burton and Taylor.

Thinking of Lucille Ball's and Elizabeth Taylor's arms intertwined during the press conference scene reminded me of images I've seen of the Hindu goddess Lakshmi, the goddess of fortune, beauty, fertility:

Goddess Lakshmi T-Shirt by kshiraj
Create your own t-shirts online at Zazzle.

Elizabeth Taylor poster print Other shots of the glamorous star are available as well as other iconic screen legends. Accept no substitutes.

big girls need big diamonds t-shirt by pinkflamingodzyn
Browse more Retro T-Shirts

Famous Femme™ Throw Pillow 
Browse Zazzle for a different throw pillow,
create one yourself with photos and text.

Liz Taylor has been known for her amazing jewelry through the years. Elizabeth Taylor: My Love Affair with Jewelry is a catalogue of her jewelry but put together as a biography of the woman herself.

Some images from sitcomsonline
See an article with links to previous Tuesday Flashback Features

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