Elaine Kingeekuk:Yupik Doll

Elaine Kingeekuk

Elaine Kingeekuk

Elaine Kingeekuk

Elaine Kingeekuk

Elaine Kingeekuk

Elaine Kingeekuk

Elaine Kingeekuk

Elaine Kingeekuk

Here is an Alaska Eskimo/Siberian Yupik doll, in traditional seal gut parka with hood, fur leggings, mukluks, and mittens. This eight-inch tall doll, with great attention to detail, was made by noted Yupik Eskimo gut sewer and doll maker, Elaine Kingeekuk from Savoonga, Saint Lawrence Island, located in the Bering straits region of Alaska.  

Elaine acquired her doll-making skills in part from her relatives, Floyd and Amelia Kingeekuk, widely considered to be two of Alaska's greatest Native doll makers.

On the Reading Table: Michael Pollan

Michael Pollan

I'm working my way through the books of Michael Pollan, who in 2010 was named by Time magazine as "one of the 100 most influential people in the world." I finished "Second Nature," and since Jane is still reading my copy of "The Botany of Desire," it's now on to "Cooked."

"In "Cooked" Michael Pollan explores the previously uncharted territory of his own kitchen. Here, he discovers the enduring power of the four classical elements -- fire, water, air, and earth -- to transform the stuff of nature into delicious things to eat and drink. Apprenticing himself to a succession of culinary masters, Pollan learns how to grill with fire, cook with liquid, bake bread, and ferment everything from cheese to beer."

Fun with Sixties Super-Heroes

In 1966 with the success of the "Batman" television show and the "Green Hornet" and the "Marvel Super Heroes" show, Button World put out several buttons of both the Marvel and DC characters. These buttons turned out to be highly collectible, even in 1966.  

The collection consists of 20 known buttons. 12 of them are numbered on the front (from #3-#16). Numbers 1, 2, 11, and 12 are missing. Research has uncovered a display card for the actual buttons. (see red display stand above picture). The card only advertises the first 10 Super Hero buttons, but you can clearly see that they included #11 as "Sad Sack" and #12 as "Casper." It may be that the #1 and #2 buttons were the "Superman Club" and the "Batman Society" pins. Button World did not have the rights to make the "Green Hornet" button which was neither a Marvel or DC character. They were sued by ABC TV (who ran the TV show), and that lawsuit put them right out of business. 

Finally, of note, four of the original Marvel buttons (Spider-Man, Thor, Submariner, and Daredevil) were considered to have inferior artwork. They were then revised by Marvel artists and reissued, which is why you have two different ones in this set. In the collecting world these revised buttons are considered more valuable than the original versions. One original button in its original poly bag and header card can sell for as much as $200 on eBay. This gives you an idea of their value.

The display stand is a fan's creation. Needing a way to show them off, he created the artwork for the top of the stand, using button artwork to keep the whole concept consistent. Later he found the artwork for the actual banner. He then used that to head a second stand. Using peg board metal posts, the buttons were hung as shown. Perhaps some sort of rack was originally used, as there were holes in the header cards for such a purpose.

Gaslighting

Gaslight, 1944

She hears footsteps from above, shuffling against the attic floorboards. A framed painting suddenly vanishes from a wall. The gas-fueled flames of the chandelier flicker and dim. 

She is certain it happened — but her husband assures her that she’s imagining it all. It’s her behavior that seems odd, he insists; perhaps she’s going mad? And, slowly, she begins to believe him.

This is the plot of the 1944 Ingrid Bergman film “Gaslight.” It is also the origin of a buzzword that has spread from pop culture to clinical psychology and back again.

This is a very specific accusation. To “gaslight” someone isn’t just to lie to them or to manipulate their emotions. It is a deliberate attempt to deceive someone into questioning their own perception of reality. (“Suddenly, I’m beginning not to trust my memory at all,” says Bergman’s character, Paula, as her faith in her senses begins to fray.)

Fortunately, some of our gaslighted heroines from fiction offer tips on how to break free of the cycle: 

Either it becomes so evident that something is wrong -- as in “The Shining,” where blood pouring out of the elevator is hard to ignore -- “or you need a witness, someone who is there to help you through it and point it out.

Dance, Dance, Dance -- Sixties Style

Laurie Hickman Cox Painting at the Meadows Museum of Art

Laurie Hickman Cox

John Singer Sargent Watercolors

John Singer Sargent

John Singer Sargent

John Singer Sargent

John Singer Sargent

John Singer Sargent

John Singer Sargent

John Singer Sargent

John Singer Sargent’s approach to watercolor was unconventional. Going beyond turn-of-the-century standards for carefully delineated and composed landscapes filled with transparent washes, his confidently bold, dense strokes and loosely defined forms startled critics and fellow practitioners alike. One reviewer of an exhibition in London proclaimed him “an eagle in a dove-cote”; another called his work “swagger” watercolors. For Sargent, however, the watercolors were not so much about swagger as about a renewed and liberated approach to painting. In watercolor, his vision became more personal and his works more interconnected, as he considered the way one image -- often of a friend or favorite place -- enhanced another. Sargent held only two major watercolor exhibitions in the United States during his lifetime. The contents of the first, in 1909, were purchased in their entirety by the Brooklyn Museum of Art. The paintings exhibited in the other, in 1912, were scooped up by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. 

John Singer Sargent Watercolors reunites nearly 100 works from these collections for the first time, arranging them by themes and subjects: sunlight on stone, figures reclining on grass, patterns of light and shadow. Enhanced by biographical and technical essays, and lavishly illustrated with 175 color reproductions, this publication introduces readers to the full sweep of Sargent’s accomplishments in this medium, in works that delight the eye as well as challenge our understanding of this prodigiously gifted artist.

The international art star of the Gilded Age, John Singer Sargent(1856–1925) was born in Italy to American parents, trained in Paris and worked on both sides of the Atlantic. Sargent is best known for his dramatic and stylish portraits, but he was equally active as a landscapist, muralist, and watercolor painter. His dynamic and boldly conceived watercolors, created during travels to Tuscan gardens, Alpine retreats, Venetian canals and Bedouin encampments, record unusual motifs that caught his incisive eye.

Milton Avery Paintings

Milton Avery

Milton Avery

Milton Avery

Milton Avery

Milton Avery

Milton Avery

Emile Bernard

Emile Bernard

Emile Bernard

Emile Bernard

Emile Bernard

Emile Bernard

Christian Dior Fashions From the Fifties

Christian Dior

Christian Dior

Christian Dior

Christian Dior