We came back this week from a great trip to Chicago. Of course we had to visit the Art Institute and the National Museum of Mexican Art to get our art fix. Our third always inspirational visit was to the Museum of Science and Industry. 

The Art Institute needs no real introduction if you have visited it. It contains a wealth of art that is astounding. It's current special exhibit is the works of Auguste Rodin. 

The National Museum of Mexican Art is an incredible example of combining art, history, and political dissent from Mexican artists. Our first visit was last year and we were stunned by the quality of work that is presented. If you find yourself in Chicago don't miss this great museum.

The Museum of Science and Industry with its changing exhibitions is a wonder of technology from the past to the present and for me artistically inspiring. 

Fluxing My Fluxus- Video Collage
Video Clips I took at the Museum
​Music - ArtotemArt

"Like Dada, jazz made its first impact during the Great War and overflowed the banks afterward, making the twenties roar. For a while, many took
​jazz and Dada to be two faces of the same thing." Jed Rasula
From the book "Destruction Was My Beatrice: Dada and the Unmaking of the Twentieth Century"​

Coltrane Collage
Neo Dada video collage by ArtotemArt
​Music - John Coltrane

While you are here check out...
​ Jono El Grande's  "Neo Dada" Album on Amazon"

​T​An Incomplete List of Backyard Species from Illinois

Mammalia
Groundhog (Marmota monax)
Raccoon (Procyon lotor)
Fox Squirrel (Sciurus niger)
Prairie Vole (Microtus ochrogaster)
Short-tailed Shrew (Blarina brevicaudia)
Virginia Opossum (Didelphis virginiana)
White-footed Mouse (Peromyscus leucopus)
Chipmunk (Tamias striatus)
Coyotes (Canis latrans)
White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus)
Red Bat (Lasiurus borealis)
Big Brown Bat (Eptesicus fuscus)
Eastern Cottontail Rabbit (Sylviligus floridinus
Stray People (Homo sapiens unfamiliaris)
Stray Cat (Felis silvestris catus)
Stray Dog (Canis lupus familiaris)

Insecta Lepodoptera
Monarch (Danaus plexippus)
Question Mark (Polygonia interrogationis)
Common Sooty Wing (Pholisora catullus)
Meadow Fritillary (Boloria bellona)
Pipevine Swallowtail (Battus philenor)
Gray Comma (Polygonia progne)
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus)
Cabbage White (Pieris rapae)
Clouded Sulphur-Orange Sulphur (Colias philodice-Colias eurytheme)
American Lady (Vanessa virginiensis)
Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui)
Buckeye (Junonia coenia)
Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta)
Viceroy (Limenitis archippus)
Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa)
Pearl Crescent (Phyciodes tharos)

Amphibia
American Toad (Bufo Americanus)
Gray Treefrog (Hyla chrysoscelis)

Sauropsida
Plains Garter Snake (Thamnophis radix)
Common Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis)

Aves
White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinenis)
Red-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta Canadensis)
Tufted Titmouse (Parus bicolor)
Black-capped Chickadee (Parus atricapillus)
Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis)
Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglotto)
Baltimore Oriole (Icrrus galbula)
Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus)
Barred Owl (Strix varia)
Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus)
Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura)
Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus)
Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis)
Fox Sparrow (Passerella iliaca)
White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis)
House Sparrow (Passer domesticus)
Chipping Sparrow (Spizella passerina)
American Tree Sparrow (Spizella arborea)
Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia)
White-crowned Sparrow (Zonottrichia leucophrys)
Eastern Towhee (Pipilo erthrophthalmus)
Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedorum)
Rose-breasted Grosbeak (Pheucticus ludovicianus)
Indigo Bunting (Passerina cyanea)
Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis)
American Goldfinch (Carduelis tristis)
Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus)
House Wren (Troglodytes aedon)
House Finch (Carpodacus mexicanus)
Purple Finch (Carpodacus purpureus)
Chimney Swift (Chaetura pelagica)
Brown Creeper (Certhia americana)
Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata)
Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescebs)
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius)
Hairy Woodpecker (Picoides villosus)
Red-headed Woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus)
Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus)
Common Grackle (Quiscalus quiccula)
European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris)
Brown-headed Cowbird (Molothrus ater)
Brown Thrasher (Toxostoma rufum)
Gray Catbird (Dumetella carolinensis)
American Robin (Turdus migratorius)
Cooper’s Hawk (Accipiter cooperii)
Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris)
Baltimore Oriole (Icterus galbula)
Eastern Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe)
American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos)
American Kestrel (Falco sparverius)

The Wunderkammer and a few of my works at Verde Gallery.

​
​In November 2016, we teamed up with the International Museum of Collage, Assemblage and Construction to celebrate the one hundred year anniversary of Dada and the coming Day of the Dead, November 2.
 
We met the owners of the museum, Cecil Touchon and Rosalia Touchon in October, when we realized our shared interest in Dadaism, collage and Day of the Dead. As I had co-owned a gallery in the past, and done a show specifically pertaining to the celebration of Day of the Dead I was excited to participate in yet another one. We then collectively came up with the idea of the exhibit to merge the celebrations into one experience, hence an artistic meaningful mash up. A celebration and honoring of an art movement that had put aside the norms of art’s past and a celebration and honoring of those who came before us.

The Altar to Kurt Schwitters
Note - Artomen is on the left.

​Years ago I read my first book by José Saramago, “Blindness”. I was hooked from that point on. His characters leapt off the pages into my mind’s eye and elicited real empathy in me as they experienced extraordinary circumstances. I didn’t stop reading Saramago, I have read everything he wrote that has been translated into English and I have never been disappointed.

​If you choose to read a Saramago novel you will quickly realize his use of punctuation is sparse.  You may at first be a bit flummoxed by this, however after a few pages in you will wonder why writers choose to use so many interruptions in the form of punctuation. In his case a dialogue can become a page and a half. Just commas and little else. No need for “He said” or “She said” because the characters are distinctive and realistic. 
​

Confronting the Surreal In a Real World
“Saramago’s novels often use the supernatural, allegorical, paradoxical and irrational to address questions of faith and existence.” – The New York Times
​In most of his novels average people are confronted with surreal experiences they are unprepared to deal with and yet they must cope with them in realistic ways.
 Saramago clearly rejected the idea that his work was related to Latin American ''Magical Realism”. I agree with Saramago. His work is straightforward, compassionate, and relatable to all of our human concerns and condition without attempting to be magical. 

My Conclusion
His work for me is a word collage of ideas and mental images in the form of a story.  He was an artist using words and concepts to impact our view of our own experiences and beliefs and to inspire us to a greater understanding of ourselves. His writing is like no other. 

Noble Prize in Literature

Saramago won the Noble Prize for Literature in 1998
 The Swedish Academy praised Mr. Saramago ''who with parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony continually enables us once again to apprehend an elusory reality.''
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