Frederick Gill Watercolor

Frederick Gill

Frederick Gill (1906-1974) was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His media of choice includes acrylics and watercolors. Not only was Gill a painter, having studied at the Pennsylvania Museum School of Art, the University of Pennsylvania, and The Tyler School of Art, but he was also an accomplished jazz saxophonist. 

Gill's works were first presented through the Philadelphia Watercolor Club's traveling exhibitions in 1942. His exhibitions went on to include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, American Academy of Arts and Letters, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Butler Art Institute, and one-man shows at the Philadelphia Art Alliance. 

His works are in many private and public collections, including at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

On the Reading Table: Our Inner Ape -- On Muderous Chimpanzees, LovingBonobos, and Human Nature

Frans de Waal

Frans de Waal

Frans de Waal

"In Our Inner Ape/" Frans de Waal, one of the world's great primatologists and a renowned expert on social behavior in apes, presents the provocative idea that our noblest qualities -- generosity, kindness, altruism -- are as much a part of our nature as are our baser instincts. After all, we share those qualities with another primate: the lesser-known bonobo. As genetically similar to man as the chimpanzee, the bonobo has a temperament and a lifestyle vastly different from those of its genetic cousin. Where chimps are aggressive, territorial, and hierarchical, bonobos are gentle, loving, and erotic (sex for bonobos is as much about pleasure and social bonding as it is about reproduction)." 

"While the parallels between chimp brutality and human brutality are easy to see, de Waal suggests that the conciliatory bonobo is just as legitimate a model to study when we explore our primate heritage. He even connects humanity's desire for fairness and its morality with primate behavior, offering a view of society that contrasts markedly with the caricature some people have of Darwinian evolution. It's plain that our finest qualities run deeper in our DNA than many experts have previously thought."

One of the world's foremost primatologists explores what our two closest relatives in the animal kingdom-the violent, power-hungry chimpanzee and the cooperative, empathetic bonobo-can tell us about the duality of our own human nature. We have long attributed man's violent, aggressive, competitive nature to his animal ancestry. But what if we are just as given to cooperation, empathy, and morality by virtue of our genes? 

From a scientist and writer whom E. O. Wilson has called the world authority on primate social behavior comes a lively look at the most provocative aspects of human nature-power, sex, violence, kindness, and morality-through our two closest cousins in the ape family. For nearly twenty years, Frans de Waal has worked with both the famously aggressive chimpanzee and the lesser-known egalitarian, erotic, matriarchal bonobo, two species whose DNA is nearly identical to that of humans. 

De Waal brings his apes to life on every page of this book, letting their personalities, relationships, power struggles, and high jinks captivate our hearts and minds. The result is an engrossing and surprising narrative that explores what their behavior can teach us about ourselves and about one other. 

It's no secret that humans and apes share a host of traits, from the tribal communities we form to our irrepressible curiosity. We have a common ancestor, scientists tell us, so it's natural that we act alike. But not all of these parallels are so appealing: the chimpanzee, for example, can be as vicious and manipulative as any human. Yet there's more to our shared primate heritage than just our violent streak. 

In Our Inner Ape , Frans de Waal, one of the world's great primatologists and a renowned expert on social behavior in apes, presents the provocative idea that our noblest qualities -- ''generosity, kindness, altruism ---are as much a part of our nature as are our baser instincts. After all, we share them with another primate: the lesser-known bonobo. 

Where chimps are aggressive, territorial, and hierarchical, bonobos are gentle, loving, and erotic (sex for bonobos is as much about pleasure and social bonding as it is about reproduction). While the parallels between chimp brutality and human brutality are easy to see, de Waal suggests that the conciliatory bonobo is just as legitimate a model to study when we explore our primate heritage. He even connects humanity's desire for fairness and its morality with primate behavior, offering a view of society that contrasts markedly with the caricature people have of Darwinian evolution. It's plain that our finest qualities run deeper in our DNA than experts have previously thought. 

Frans de Waal has spent the last two decades studying our closest primate relations, and his observations of each species in Our Inner Ape encompass the spectrum of human behavior. This is an audacious book, an engrossing discourse that proposes thought-provoking and sometimes shocking connections among chimps, bonobos, and those most paradoxical of apes, human beings.

Umberto Bellotto: Art Glass

As you will see, I'm getting into learning about Italian Art Glass. Amazing artistry.

 Umberto Bellotto

 Umberto Bellotto

 Umberto Bellotto

 Umberto Bellotto

 Umberto Bellotto

The son of a blacksmith, Umberto Bellotto was born in Venice in 1882. He died in Venice in 1940.

Bellotto was first an ironwork master, becoming known for executing the railings of the café-restaurant of the Venice Biennale in 1903. From 1905 to 1907, he collaborated with architect and decorator Cesare Laurenti in furnishing the restaurant Lo Storione in Padua, where he combined traditional ironwork with new, organic forms. It was with Laurenti that Bellotto collaborated to obtain a patent on a technique to combine ironworks with glass.

Bellotto’s popularity increased after the Venice Biennale of 1914, where he had a solo exhibition of his eclectic ironworks, combining them with materials such as leather, ceramics, and glass. He also displayed his imaginative pieces at the Venice Biennale of 1920. Throughout the years, Bellotto worked with glassworks ateliers that included Vittorio Zecchin, Vetreria Artistica Barovier, Toso Fratelli, and Pauly & C.

When combining glass and wrought iron, Bellotto always used iron as the supporting structure and predominant element, while the glass played a subordinate role, often partially covered by the ironwork. It is telling that the Murano Museum of Glass refers to Bellotto as the “Magician of wrought iron”. Contemporary documents refer to Bellotto’s workshop in Venice as the “wizard’s workshop” because of his skill in the medium of wrought iron.

In fact, it was not until approximately 1925 that Bellotto focused exclusively on glass. Bellotto was a leading artist at the Monza Biennales from 1923 to 1927, his work characterized by an interpretation of art deco and Jugendstil models. Bellotto’s reliance on geometric form and on dark contrasts would prove highly influential in the production of Murano glass in the following years. Bellotto stopped making glassworks in 1928, when he accepted a commission from the ministry of public works in Rome to decorate prestigious buildings.

Georges Braque in His Studio

Georges Braque

Anzolo Fuga: Art Glass

Born in Murano in 1915, Anzolo Fuga studied at the Carmini State Institute of Art in Venice with Guido Balsamo Stella. In 1939 he graduated in graphic arts, design and artistic stained glass. Together with his brother he opened a boutique in 1947 specialized in the decoration of blown glass and in artistic stained glass. After having left the laboratory in 1955, he set up on his own. From 1951 to 1972 he was director and instructor at the Abate Zanetti School. Between 1955 and 1960 he was a freelance for A.V.E.M., for I.V.R. Mazzega and for the Domus Vetri D'Arte firm.

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Dan Dailey: Glass Art

Dan Dailey

Dan Dailey

Dan Dailey

Dan Dailey

Dan Dailey

Dan Dailey

American visual artist Dan Dailey has simultaneously produced sculpture and functional art with an emphasis on lighting since 1970. Made primarily from glass and metal, every piece of work begins with a drawing. Dailey's drawings and the objects they inspire depict human character and the world we inhabit, with many familiar forms rendered iconic. Dailey's myriad series explore extraordinary concepts with a broad range of themes and styles. These attributes and his forty years of achievement and recognition have made Dan Dailey a prominent artist in the history of glass, and unique among American artists.

Dailey was born in 1947 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Philadelphia College of Art. Dailey received his Master of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design. He is Professor Emeritus at Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, where he founded the Glass Department in 1973. He has taught at numerous schools including Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Rhode Island School of Design, the Pilchuck Glass School and the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, and he has given lectures and workshops throughout the United States, Europe and Japan. Dailey's emphasis on the individual development of his students' sculptural concepts has defined his approach to teaching. He now works in his New Hampshire studio with the help of a staff of assistants.

Since 1971, Dailey has participated in over 250 group, juried, and invitational exhibitions, and has had numerous one-person museum and gallery exhibits including a major retrospective at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution. He has completed more than 70 architectural commissions for corporate headquarters, hospitals, municipalities, a county courthouse, a performing arts center, and private residences. His work is represented in over 45 museum collections around the world.