when sheets have animals drawn upon them...

it began with a cat, moved on to a giraffe, followed by a flat nosed deer, a camel, an elephant, and a burro or a horse... each as if fallen from the sky... or ...

it began with a burro or a horse, moved on to an elephant, and then a camel, followed by a flat nosed deer, a giraffe, and finally a cat... each as if climbing up into the sky...

(snapshot of an unknown hand drawn object by an unknown artist, in an unknown location with an unknown intended use...dated 1906 on the back).

when one nail just isn't enough...

when art fairs were in backyards rather than basel...

when drawings are found on the ground...

two drawings passed over while walking along venice blvd. on saturday on my way to a gallery. fortunately, the camera phone has released me from the need to pick things like this up anymore...

when things suggest and/or resemble... (or when portraits are in the center of scrawlings...)

atop is one of the most wonderful and strange cdv's i've ever found. it's from a photograph studio in evansville wisconsin, circa 1890, featuring a strange combination of a photograph of a guy with a horn and a small toy drum, floating in the center of some seriously wonderful scrawlings.

the boy in the center of this universe is clarence baker (at least that is what is scrawled on the back), and the rest of the images are "his chums" (at least that is what is scrawled on the back).

i've never seen a cdv that contained an image surrounded by drawings, and i would assume that the "drawings" are actually scratches etched into the negative. certainly dr. freud would have a field day with clarence's "chums", particularly all the snakes and the man with the horns (oh poor clarence has only one).

i wonder if the bloke in profile with a hat is clarence's alter ego and perhaps the old dude with the top hat pushing clarence forward into life - and oh what a life - is his father. i'm not sure about the strangely scary elf at the top, but clearly the horned guy with the pointed tail in his mouth is the devil - who clearly has clarence's smile...

the cdv kept reminding me of a painting, which i finally remembered was by thomas eakins, pictured below the photo of clarence. since the photo and the painting are from about the same time, i can't help but wonder if the approach of one was influential on the other. eakins painting is an 1897 portrait of henry rowland, who was considered "the highest known authority in this country upon the subject of the laws and principles of electricity..."

it is one of my favorite eakins paintings, not just because of the beautiful notational scribblings on the frame, but also the prism in the center, suggesting not just science, but perhaps some deeper mysteries and alchemical truths...

listen to the silent language of sculpture...

"so with our eyes we listen to the silent language of sculpture. listen carefully. to do otherwise - to be indifferent - is the greatest betrayal of one person by another, of one culture by another."

images and text from sculpture/inuit, 1971, canadian eskimo arts council. a super thick beautiful book of inuit sculpture from the early 1900s - 1960s. readily available on ABE for less than ten bucks. highly recommended. my copy, a soiled and worn reference, found in my grandmother's sculpture studio.

ferris wheel sheet music cabinet...

a cabinet card from the 1890's of a ferris wheel sheet music cabinet - one darn amazing cabinet of curiosities. at 9 and a half feet tall, this must've been an imposing object, particularly weighted down with so much paper, as it supposedly held 4800 pieces of sheet music inside it... talk about an archive! i love the mix of different type faces and sizes on the back, which tells you everything you need to know.

the voice of the bird...

the voice of the bird
for a bird of the air shall carry the voice
birds of the air have nests
birds of the air
flee as a bird
as a bird
speckled bird

"jesse howard, the man with signs and wonders, reinventing the past and talking to the present up there among the ragweed and thorn trees on sorehead hill, was never too old to learn."

from naives and visionaries, walker art center catalog, 1974
(p.s. note how nicely this sounds a bit like ian hamilton finlay...and the beautiful painted wheel...)