people: green man

Title:  unknown

Artist:  Bevin Chikodzi, 1966-2006, Zimbabwe

Style:  Shona sculpture

Medium:  green serpentine (?) stone

Measurements:

height: 27 cm

width: 9 cm

depth: 4 cm

Condition:  a few scratches

Signed:  By B Chikodzi

This abstracted figure was released from the stone by Zimbabwean sculptor Bevin Chikodzi.  Carvers in the Shona tribe contemplate the piece of rock in order to expose the spirit it contains. The figure revealed here has a large right hand, and a serene face reminiscent of traditional African masks.  I don’t know the title.

Bevin Chikodzi was born in Mrewa, Zimbabwe in 1966, and was an artist in Chitungwiza.  According to Efka, “The development of his talent is related to his uncle Wellington Mudhokwani, a local sculptor in Seke. Under his wings Bevin at the age of 16 dedicated almost his entire time to sculpturing. He sculptured for hours with passion often neglecting his school and later work. Next to his uncle also ‘Mr. Mdokwani’, probably sculptor Farai Mdokwani, taught him to carve in 1987.” (1.)  He set out on his own the next year.  Bevin worked as a full-time sculptor. (2.)

Bevin said, “When I sculpt I have to do it with spirit in my work. You can not just sculpt. According to some method or some book. You must place your whole emphasis on the spiritual content.” (1.)   He believed that, “nothing which exists naturally is inanimate” –it has a spirit of its own.  You must be aware of the stone’s contribution to the finished artwork.  (2.)

Bevin was a gentle man of good humor, respected in his community.  His art has been exhibited in Africa, UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, USA, Australia, Spain, Singapore, Japan and Belgium. Bevin represented Zimbabwe at the Expo 2000 Germany and the Expo 2004 in Japan. (1.)  His country’s name, Zimbabwe, means, “house of stone.”

Shona sculpture is, “perhaps the most important new art form to emerge from Africa in the 20^th century,” according to Newsweek. (3.)  Picasso admired Shona sculpture, but modern cubism was not an influence on the African artists. (3.)  They began with traditional subjects, and worked with the stone’s spirit to discover the image within.

In this stone, Bevin found a human with right arm bending.  If you tried to pose this way, your palm might be out.

1.  “Bevin Chikodzi African Abstract Bird Stone Sculpture Zimbabwe 2nd Half of the 20th C,” c.2016-2019.  Efka in the Netherlands, of BrandNewVintageStore on Etsy.  https://www.etsy.com/listing/611234687/bevin-chikodzi-african-abstract-bird
2. “A Mothers Love,” by Unknown in Somerset West, Cape Town, South Africa, Stone Sculpture blog, April 9, 2013, http://artcreationsafrica.blogspot.com/2013/04/a-mothers-love.html
3. “SHONA MODERN | The Peggy Knowlton Collection of 20th Century Zimbabwean Art,” Press Release by Material Culture, May 23, 2017, https://materialculture.com/about_shona_modern/

Mountain Range: Green Ireland

Unimpressive up close.  The brush strokes are shaky and hurried.  Weird choice of tinty colors.  Blobs of paint, here and there.

Back up.  From the right distance, it’s the real thing.  This painting captures a time and place—the emerald isle.

This is an artist that figured out his greens and purples.

Sean O’Connor, 1909-1992, was an Irish artist.  He painted landscapes in Ireland with watercolor and oil paint.  He was an elected Associate of the Royal Hibernian Academy (ARHA), similar to National Academy of Design in the U.S., and exhibited prolifically at the Royal Hibernian Society and the Water Colour Society of Ireland, according to antiques.com.

The painting is, “Patchwork Fields in Shanara,” says a card scotch-taped to the back.

As far as I can tell, Shanara, Shannara and/or Shanara Cross is a rural area in County Kerry (southwest Ireland.)  It is west of Killarney National Park.  A lot of O’Connor’s other landscapes are of the Killarney area.  Is it possible that this painting shows Ireland’s highest mountain, Carrauntoohil from a distance?

One of the condition flaws of this piece is the frame.  I believe it is the original frame, simply because other paintings sold online show the same frame.  This one has rusty brown spots on the left side of the cloth liner.  Maybe I’ll try to clean it.

This oil painting is on canvas board.  It’s labeled Daler Board for Oils, handmade in Wareham, England, Patent No. 634920.  It’s in a stock size, 18 x 14 inches.  The Daler Board Company was founded in 1946 after Terry Daler returned from a German prison camp.  According to Wikipedia, Ken Daler “created a new type of surface for oil painting that pulled the thick oil colour off the brush. Cardboard was sealed and primed through a mesh (a net curtain).”  This board looks more like masonite than cardboard.

So that means this painting was made between 1946 and 1992.  One of the works with a matching frame is dated 1972.

Many of his paintings are sold.  Prices range from $100 to $1471 in U.S. dollars.  That makes me happy with paying $6.99 at the thrift store.

If this scene inspires you to visit the land of Eire, I’m sure John and Eileen O’Shea would welcome you to their bed and breakfast, the Farmstead Lodge in the locale of Shanara Cross.

The Maiden, The Mountain

The Swiss Alps are awesome and beautiful.  Their imposing appearance challenges the mountaineer and the artist.

This pair of hand-tinted etchings are exquisite up close, but from a distance can be overlooked as maybe some souvenir postcards.  Our love for the mountains can also bring ubiquity.

Hans Frey made a lot of mountain pictures, as you can see on this website:

https://sites.google.com/site/cataloguespolygraphicum/hans-frey

In fact, the picture above is among the smaller ones near the end.  My first guess of the subject is the Dents du Midi, “teeth of noon,” near Lake Geneva, but I’m not so sure.

Frey either lived 1877-1935 or 1900-1983, in Munich, Switzerland, or Austria.  Some of his works were sold at Paul H. Wilde, Etchings, Prints, Fine Framing, 2427 Broadway, New York.  Neither of these have a gallery mark on the back.

The other of these aquatints is not represented on that website, but you can find one like it, “eiger.moench.jungfrau.” It is five up from the mass of tiny mountains at the bottom.

Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau are peaks in the Alps.  This northern wall is, “one of the most distinctive sights of the Swiss Alps.” [Wikipedia.]  After trains and a tunnel, this area became an enticing vacation spot.  In 2001, it was named a World Heritage Site.

Jungfrau is a maiden, a virgin, lovely but imposing.  Six Swiss Army recruits died climbing Jungfrau in an avalanche in 2007.

Mountain Range: Smoky

Smoky mountains.  The mist and the fog heavy on the ridges.  Feel it, quiet and thick.  Breathe in the silence.  Shrouded in gray.

Shrouded.

Shroud.

A shadow of death is here, but calm and beautiful, in the distance.  No fear.

The trees look on without a word.

This is a sober twilight view of the mountains painted by Betty Jane Posey.  She had her own art gallery in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, in the Smoky Mountains.  She painted landscapes, barns and flowers in the 1970s to at least the 1990s.   It’s easy to see them on the web.  Of all the pictures I saw by Posey, this one is the one I like.

I have not found biographical information about her, but Posey was (is?) part of the Great Smoky Arts and Crafts Community.  In 1997, she and Kathy Shields Guttman created a book filled with anecdotes and recipes from the people around them, the crafting community.  It’s called, Whop Biscuits and Fried Apple Pie.

Untitled

Betty Jane Posey

Gatlinburg, Tennessee

Paint on stretched canvas

12” x 24”

Mountain Range: Orange Ya Glad?

This is a color-rich scene with mountains in the background.  This picture by Lee makes me think of scenic painting for the stage.  An actor could enter stage left, or maybe an opera star could sing in front of the flat bush props.

Each element is thoughtfully painted with vibrant hues.  It’s almost like paper doll pieces cut out and arranged individually.  Here’s a tree.  Here’s a bush.  Here’s a rock.  They overlap each other.

The lake gleams, but is not reflecting the mountain or plants.  It’s hardly reflecting the sky. Is it dawn or dusk?  The orange light of the sky doesn’t affect what we see.

All the parts form something that grabs my attention.  I hope Lee continues to paint and study color, because there is definitely something interesting about the fearless combinations here.  Look at the foreground ground:  a lot of paints used in an appealing but primitive way.  Beautiful dirt.

This thrift-store picture was painted by Lee on canvas over masonite.

Mountain Range: La sera sper il lag

The Evening at the Lake

A solemn quiet here on the shore,
The lake is covered with shade,
The beautiful sun in his late light,
Humbled behind the mountains.

And in the sky, the many stars of the sky,
Look gently down into the darkness.
My heart, you ask again,
Sink yourself into sweet sleep.

A musical interpretation of a mountain scene has been performed by choirs and brass bands. The melody might remind you of the pop song, The Rose.

Music by Gion Balzer Casanova
b. Aug. 16, 1938, Switzerland

Written in the Romansh language, the “national” language of Switzerland, this was voted THE Romansh song. The national language is symbolic, but the “official” languages of Switzerland are German, French and Italian.

Words by Flurin Camathias
b. 1871, Laax, Switzerland
d. 1946, Laax, Switzerland

The words in Romansh: [1]

La sera sper il lag

Solem ruaus, ruaus cheu silla riva,
d’umbriva stat il lag curclaus,
il bi sulegl, cun sia glisch tardiva,
davos ils cuolms ei sesbassaus,
il bi sulegl, cun sia glisch tardiva,
davos ils cuolms ei sesbassaus.

E gui da tschiel, da tschiel las steilas biaras,
migeivel miran giu el stgir,
miu cor tgei aunc, miu cor tgei aunc empiaras,
va era ti tier dultsch durmir,
miu cor tgei aunc, miu cor tgei aunc empiaras,
va era ti tier dultsch durmir.

The words in French: [2]

Le soir au bord du lac

Un calme solennel ici sur la rive
Le lac est couvert d’ombre
Le beau soleil dans sa lumière tardive
S’est abaissé derrière les montagnes

Et du ciel les nombreuses étoiles
Regardent doucement en bas dans l’obscurité.
Mon cœur, que demandes-tu encore
Enfonce-toi dans le doux sommeil.

Notes:

[1] Lyrics:  http://www.marcellopedruzzi.com/#!La-sera-sper-il-lag/c1kiu/5708013e0cf2c53596ad2da9

[2] French:  http://choeur.ch/sites/default/files/u3/La-sera-sper-il-lag-Th-Epiney.pdf

[3] Listen to the choir:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yq9KsnWLUMY

[4] Listen to the brass: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VoiV1cJQwU

[5] Painting pictured above, “Untitled,” by J. Medina, looks like it was made with a palette knife and thick paint.  Sorry I don’t have an example of a mountain scene with stars.  Especially sorry that I don’t have some art by Rockwell Kent, like, “Starlight,”  http://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?museum=&t=objects&type=ext&f=&s=&record=0&maker=Kent%2C+Rockwell or like, “To The Stars,” one of my favorite paintings, http://www.artnet.com/artists/rockwell-kent/to-the-stars-R0INE9VbSp6sA6eVBmHXmg2

 

 

 

Mountain Range: Swiss Alps and the Toymaker

I don’t know how these two paintings ended up so far from New Jersey.  They certainly are eye-catching.  Pretty realistic, but not all.

Elsie B. Marcak painted these mountains, but painting wasn’t her main occupation.  She was treasurer of Bergen Toy and Novelty.  The company operated from 1932 to 1958, marketing Beton Plastic Toys in their Fifth Ave. showroom in NYC.  Her husband, Charles F. Marcak, was the president and general manager. [1]

Title:  Swiss Alps

Artist:  Elsie B. Marcak (1900-2000) New Jersey, USA.

Marking:  Price 150-

Elsie was born in 1900 and died in 2000.  Imagine living for 99 years.  Imagine seeing the entire 20^th Century:  cars, airplanes, radio, telephones, movies, television, rockets, and computers.  Imagine living through two World Wars, prohibition, Depression, more wars, assassinations, rock and roll, the beginning and end of the Soviets.  Imagine!

The Marcaks had a farm, Beton Farm, on Rt. 6, between Great Meadows, New Jersey and Townsburg.

Here’s what people said about them.  [2]

“…it is his [William Nussbaum, son of the company’s accountant] understanding, backed by the opinion of Louis A. Schiffman, who incorporated the firm on September 12, 1936, that Beton was never a particularly successful company.  The firm’s owners, Charles Marcak (pronounced MAR-sak) and his wife Elsie were at best middle-class.  To me, this was surprising news since Beton appeared to be quite successful, particularly in 1942-45 when its products were ubiquitous in 5 and 10s across the country, with virtually no competition…

“…Nussbaum believes the Marcaks, now deceased with no children, were born around 1896.  On March 11, 1944, they bought a home in Hackettstown, New Jersey, eventually moving the business there…  There, according to Schiffman, Marcak himself did the packing of the soldiers in his own ground-level basement.  Nussbaum agrees this could be true, as he knew Marcak to be “frugal.”  One of the reasons for the move to Hackettstown, according to Schiffman, was that Marcak hoped to do “a little farming” on the five or six acres of land on which his stone house was located.

“Possibly because Marcak was near retirement age, the company was sold, probably in the 1950’s, to Rel Plastics of East Paterson, a company which produced plastic toys.”

Title:  Untitled

Artist:  Elsie B. Marcak (1900-2000) New Jersey, USA.

The local newspaper gave this information:  [1]

“To take care of the greatly expanded market for plastic toys, Bergen Toy and Novelty Company, Inc. will move about April 1 from its present location at 49 Meadow Road Rutherford, to its own factory in Hackettstown, the Cloyd Cummins plant on Stiger Street which was recently acquired by the company.

“C. F. Marcak of Great Meadows, president and general manager, said the initial force will be about 30 or 40 employees…

“Marketed as Beton Plastic Toys, the company’s products have in the past been molded by contract and finished by company workers…This division is in charge of Fred P. Iv[?], vice president, who for many years has been engaged in the building of special machinery and processes for the toy industry.

“Lured By The Fish.

“It was the lure of the fishing in Budd Lake and the streams of Warren and Morris that first attracted Mr. Marcak to this section in pursuit of his favorite sport.  In April of 1944 he purchased the Kelsey property on Route 6 between Great Meadows and Townsbury and has made it his residence for the past year, disposing of his former home in Woodridge.  He has named the place Beton Farm and has been doing extensive remodeling work there.

“His wife. Mrs. Elsie B. Marcak, is treasurer of the firm and will work in the capacity of controller an office manager.  An accountant for many years, she is experienced in business management.

“In Business Since 1932.

“Bergen Toy and Novelty has been engaged in plastic toy manufacture since 1933, when it converted to plastics after a year of metal work. …

“…The toys are made available in every city and town of the United States, Canada, Central and South America, and many European countries.”

So, there’s the story of Elsie and Charles.  Maybe they traveled to European countries on business.  Maybe they took photographs of the Alps on vacation.  I suspect Elsie made these paintings by looking at pictures.  The composition seems like something captured by a camera, not something made up from imagination or by painting from life.

Ninety-nine-year-old Elsie could look back on years of work, change, travel and art.  She may have been “at best middle class,” but her legacy is creativity and bringing toys to the children of the world.

 

 

Stripes and Layers

Stripes and layers.

Bones, flesh and skin; bones, flesh and skin.

Wood, plaster, paint; wood, canvas and paint—

The makeup of this life

Repeated layer on layer

Inside and out.

 

The bones are not enough;

Flesh won’t do.

Surface is all.  Deep surface.

It is a thing of thin thickness.

We know what lies beneath the

Stripes and layers.

 

Support is not enough;

Muscle won’t do.

Elan is all.

 

This is a song dragged from Lethe’s borders.

This is about three things:

Soul, body and spirit.

This is about three stripes of all:

Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

This is.

Mountain Range: Green, Green Grass

Colors!  Blue Sky, Blue Water!  Green Leaves, Gray Mountains!

It’s not unusual to have white-topped peaks, but the white tree limbs set this artwork apart.  The power of this painting is simple:  colors and shapes—Simple.

Deceptively simple.  At first glace, it’s naïve art, folk art.  Like Grandma Moses.  Maybe MT (artist’s signature, lower left) is self-trained.  Maybe, but MT knows more than you think.  The elements are composed.  The tree branches are actually like nature.

The sky and the mountains are not like nature.  This is a different kind of mountain painting.  The foreground takes precedence over the background.  The mountains are not the focus, not the star of the picture.  The mountains are backdrop to lush green life.

The folk artist can tell you:  what matters is growing in dirt beside the stream. The unscalable peaks are far off.  They are a wonderful and soaring ideal, but they are blank and featureless.  All we know and love is here with us.

Mountain Range: El Cotopaxi

A pink painting of a volcano in South America was signed by Mitorales(?) This could be a tourist souvenir, showing Cotopaxi, part of the Andes in Ecuador.  The size is 7.5 by 10 inches, smaller than a piece of copier paper.

Like the Green Field painting, a pastoral scene in the foreground is backed by mountains the color of the sky.  Take a closer look (detail below.)  How about those sheep?  Little scoops of ice cream, pencil necks and triangle heads.  Well, maybe that’s what woolly lambs look like.  There’s a lot of detail, and the paintbrush must be very fine.

Compare these houses to the Green Field painting.  These buildings are the same size, but really do show what each side looks like with layers of colors.  Maybe it was painted fast, but the painter knows what needs to be there.  Could it be due to painting the same picture themes over and over for tourists?

The tiny birds use five colors each and at least eight brush strokes.  That’s not lazy.  Dang, those trees have branches and more than four colors of leaves.

These people live under the threat of eruption, tending their animals, working in the yard.  They pay no attention to the massive volcano on the horizon.  It seems like an idyllic life, simple and peaceful.  The pink peak fades into the lovely sky.

Can something so quiet and beautiful be cause for concern?