One Woman Art Show - July 24th in Westbury, NY

Archstone Meadowbrook Crossing in Westbury, NY hosted its first art show: New York Artist, Sandy Frazier, a Mixed Media Expressionist, invited all Archstone residents and friends to a showing of 30 paintings, plus digital photography and more throughout the day on Sunday, July 24, 2011. A reception followed from 6:00 to 9:00pm. See slideshow here.

Cy Twombly dies at 83

Celebrated American painter Cy Twombly, whose large-scale paintings featuring scribbles, graffiti and references to ancient empires fetched millions at auction, died Tuesday. He was 83.

Twombly, who had cancer, died in Rome, said Eric Mezil, director of the Lambert Collection in Avignon, France, where the artist opened a show in June. Twombly had lived in Italy since 1957.

"A great American painter who deeply loved old Europe has just left us," French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand said in a statement. "His work was deeply marked by his passion for Greek and Roman antiquity, and its mythology, which for him was a source of bottomless inspiration." [more...]

The Van Gogh Museum Closing for Renovations

AMSTERDAM (AP) — The Van Gogh Museum is shutting its doors for six months for renovations starting next year, its director said Friday, becoming the latest major Dutch museum to close for reconstruction. But dozens of the tormented Dutch impressionist's finest works will remain on public display, moving across the Amstel River to the Hermitage Amsterdam museum during the work, scheduled to last from October 2012 through March 2013.

Van Gogh Museum director Axel Rueger said some 75 paintings and other works will move to the Hermitage, which will be staging an exhibition on impressionism at the same time.
"Art lovers will be able to see a splendid survey of 19th-century art by Van Gogh and his contemporaries in the Hermitage Amsterdam," Rueger said. "This represents a rare opportunity, one not likely to happen again any time soon." [more...]

Remembering the "Big Man"

Back in the late '70s, I remember attending the first Bruce Springsteen & The East Street Band concerts EVER in Chicago.  We went every time they came to town and what a show it was!  But the highlight of the show was always the "Big Man" - Clarence Clemons - and what a show it was!  R.I.P., Clarence... you were the best of the best!

Springsteen acknowledged the dire situation earlier this week, but said then he was hopeful. He called the loss "immeasurable." "We are honored and thankful to have known him and had the opportunity to stand beside him for nearly 40 years," Springsteen said on his website. "He was my great friend, my partner and with Clarence at my side, my band and I were able to tell a story far deeper than those simply contained in our music. His life, his memory, and his love will live on in that story and in our band." [more...]

Elaine's is Closing Its Doors

For decades, Elaine Kaufman held court at the restaurant bearing her name with a hand-picked selection of favorite regulars, literary luminaries and celebrities. After Kaufman died in December, longtime manager Diane Becker inherited the restaurant. She announced Tuesday that the Upper East Side restaurant will shut its doors for good on May 26. "This is one of the most difficult decisions I've ever had to make," Becker said in a statement Tuesday. "But the truth is, there is no Elaine's without Elaine." The place is filled with history - both real and imaginary. [more...] [Read more...]

Sandy's Art on WND

"Contemporary Christian artists are doing wildly new things, in keeping with the times and their own personal vision. Some of it is unorthodox and offbeat, but it is at least interesting and can be deeply moving.

"As Above So Below," permission by artist Sandra Frazier

I'll use the example of New York artist Sandy Frazier - inspired by faith, mystical artists and strangely enough, silent movies. Images from these shadowy, early films fired her imagination and fueled her first paintings. The silence inspired Frazier to create music CD of her own ['Resurrection'], and she wrote a book about the experience - 'The Mystic Artist.'"

Read more: Christian artists finally break through http://www.wnd.com/index.php/index.php?pageId=297393#ixzz1MKU37dAy [more...]

The Lennon Letters

Yoko Ono has granted permission for the first collection of letters by John Lennon to be published, publisher Little, Brown and Company said on Friday. The book, titled "The Lennon Letters," will be published in October, 2012 and include hundreds of letters and postcards the late Beatle wrote to friends, family, newspapers and organizations, the publisher said in a statement.

It will be edited by British journalist Hunter Davies, who wrote the only authorized biography of The Beatles. The letters will be arranged in chronological order to give a sense of the musician's life.
 
"For the first time, John Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, has given permission to publish a selection of his letters," the publisher said in a statement, describing the book as "an international publishing event." [more...] 

Mystic-Art in Ontario

Trinity Anglican Church Blyth, a church in a small community in southwestern Ontario asked to make a poster of Good Friday for their Good Friday church service.  It's so wonderful to see my art spreading via the Internet.  See it here.

Phantom Ebert

I saw "Ebert at the Movies" for the first time tonight... with its new, young movie critics sitting in for what appeared to be a "Phantom Roger Ebert" - no small irony for a man who focused his entire life on the greatest films of the 20th-21st centuries.

Growing up in Chicago on Siskel & Ebert, syndicated by the Chicago Sun-Times, my friends and I came to anticipate their reviews and though we didn't rely entirely upon them to tell us whether or not to see a film, we trusted their judgment.

No one could have predicted that Gene Siskel would suddenly die so young. (In 1998, Siskel underwent surgery for a tumor. He announced on February 3, 1999 that he was taking a leave of absence but that he expected to be back by the fall, writing "I'm in a hurry to get well because I don't want Roger to get more screen time than me.") Typical for Gene who was the perfect sidekick to Ebert.

After Siskel's death in 1999, Ebert teamed with Richard Roeper for the television series Ebert & Roeper & the Movies, which began airing in 2000. Although his name remained in the title, Ebert did not appear on the show after mid-2006, when he suffered post-surgical complications related to thyroid cancer which left him unable to speak.

Throughout his cancer treatment, he continued to be a dedicated critic of film, not missing a single opening while undergoing treatment. Ebert had pre-taped enough TV programs with his co-host Richard Roeper to keep him on the air for a few weeks.

Roger's face became unrecognizable and even horrifying... yet he didn't hide it. Much like Nigella Lawson's husband who was dying of throat cancer and couldn't even taste her feasts, Roger can't utter a word now and must rely on digital media and translators.

But those of us who remember he and Siskel bantering back and forth each and every week, his reviews are still Golden Globes, Oscars, Emmys, and continue to educate us about film history at its best. He may take leave as the Phantom of the Opera... but, unlike the phantom (for which Ebert, I'm sure would always prefer Lon Chaney's portrayal), he will never recoil from the spotlight. Roger won't haunt us like the phantom; he'll remain forever in our hearts as a great American icon in his own right.

Great English-American Screen Goddess, Elizabeth Taylor

Ever since yesterday morning, the media has inundated us with press about the passing of Elizabeth Taylor.  This is the best article I have read, because it actually mentions her children, who seem to have been forgotten all these years... at least from what I can recall, they're rarely in the press.  Read on about the life of the last of the greatest screen goddesses.  RIP, Liz!

I particularly enjoyed 'Cleopatra' because she was so ravishing in every costume.  I always wanted to decorate my house like those Egyptians!  And Richard Burton had great legs, too!  But I remember most 'The Sandpiper,' 'Butterfield 8' and 'Suddenly Last Summer' as her greatest acting roles.