Don’t miss the exhibit World War I and the Rise of Modernism at the Nelson Atkins.   Kansas Citians are given a rare opportunity to see the Wassily Kandinsky’s masterpiece Sketch for Composition II on loan from the Guggenheim in New York. Both the pastel and watercolor classes that I attended at the Nelson emphasized this work and the exhibit as a whole.   I don’t know how curator Jan Stahl pulled it off but I am in heaven.  This painting has been my favorite Kandinsky for years.  I can still remember the first time I saw it in New York it took my breath away.   Twice a week after class I make the trek from the Ford Learning Center to the exhibit galleries where I swoon at the colors and the images dazzle my eyes.   I think I must be the luckiest woman in the world.   The most exciting thing about that painting is that each time I view it I find things that I have missed on prior visits.  

One of our assignments in the pastel class was to sketch a section of a painting or other works of art in the exhibit.   Of course I choose the Kandinsky.   Here are my humble offerings.  Please note I did take liberties with the white horse and painted it that intense blue that is used throughout the painting.

White Privilege and Joe Scarborough

"Good "ol’ boy Joe" pretends to be sophisticated by using GQ photos of  him in designer clothes prominently displayed between segments.  In most of these photo usually has has the the brains behind his show, the dazzling Mika, at his side.   But when the hood comes off he his angers comes out like a red bolt of lightening and Joe reveals his true colors.   His rants about the Michael Brown case show just how little he understands about White Privilege and how the demonstrations are about much more than Michael Brown.

One night a white kid I know was stopped by the police.  The kid was questioned about where he was going, where he had been and what had he been up to by a very polite policeman.  The offense my nephew had committed to cause this kind of grilling was a one of his license plate lights had burned out. He was given a ticket.  To my nephew’s credit, even at 17, he knew that this was  one BWD stop because he had his best friend a black kid in the car.   

Had the policeman stopped Joe or his son, a warning would have been issued. But because one of the kids was black these two honor students and leaders in their school had to be punished so a ticket was issued.  

It shouldn’t be happening. If you are a black male in a car driving through affluent Kansas and Missouri communities you can bet you will be stopped and you better have a good excuse for being in that neighborhood or you could find yourself in jail something good ol’ Joe will never experience.  

So calm down Joe let’s see you and Donny become part of the solution instead of being the problem.  Start a real dialog on your show about race and maybe you might actually become a show that is worth watching.

giffinggermany:

West Berliners climbing the Berlin Wall

Having heard about the opening of the border control points on the West German news, more and more West Berliners arrived at the Brandenburg Gate. At some point they started climbing the Wall, which was about 3 m broad in this place. They couldn’t be sure how the East German border guards would react, but nothing happened. More and more people climbed the Wall, started dancing and celebrating. After a while people started jumping down on the Eastern side of the Wall, thus entering another country without any passport or permission. Still, the East German officers didn’t do anything to stop them. After 40 years, people were strolling through the Brandenburg Gate again. (x)

Pound Slam Kansas City

Last night I attended the POUND SLAM, Kansas City’s poetry competition for our national team.   After months of competitions 15 Kansas City poets were left standing and it was time to whittle down the team to 5.  Hard hitting, emotionally high pitched, and frequently humorous poet after poet presented us with a thought provoking look at our city and what separates us from the state line to Troost, dividing Kansas Ctiy into multiple worlds, this group of young poets are more proof of the amazing talent you can find here in our own home town. On more than one occasion I was moved to tears other times I found myself laughing and yet at other times anger pressed against my chest screaming to get out.  

When the words had settled and the results were in Jeanette Powers, Ezhno Martín, Dylan Kingsley, Keith L. Bohannon & Angela Roulette were chosen as the official team members.   A lot of hours of paperwork, rehearsals, heart and soul went into making of this amazing event.   I am so grateful that Slammaster Jen Harris invited me and that I had the good sense to take along friends to enjoy this amazing evening.

If you are a lover of words check out what is going on around the city and attend a Slam.   You may even find that you want to stand at the mic and let it rip.

Slammaster Jen Harris wowed the crowd with her poem and performance.

Clay-Clay-Clay

I have never worked in clay before this month.   I am finding that it is a most rewarding experience, digging into this tactile art.  While my first vessels (I am calling them my Troll Series) are nothing short of amateurish and childlike, the experience is exhilarating.   Next week i am going to adventure into giving my self a whirl at the wheel.   I hope this cheers your day, makes you laugh and just remember in the month of October this year the magic words are:

                    

                                                 GO ROYALS

                                                   I Believe

Once Upon a Time

Fragment III 

Neo-Platonic decrees

we communicate with

the Divine through Love.

In the eye of Venus

the breath of sea breezes

dances on my skin and

the delicate sounds of

waves caressing the shore,

fills my ears.

I kneel and pay homage

to this angelic face,

immersed in the spirit of Love.

            17 August 1994

             Upon seeing Botticelli’s Birth of Venus 

Once upon a time I sat writing in my journal, a poetry of sorts, while hiding from the Florentine sun on the patio of the Hotel Rivoli.  It was a magical time.

A Wild Week in Kansas City

I confess i love baseball, soccer (UEFA)  and football (American style). When the KC Chiefs brought home a victory on Monday night football I was pretty excited along with hundreds of thousands of other Kansas Citians. Then last night in what can only be described as a heart stopping moment, those magnificent KC Royals became officially the boys of October when they defeated the Oakland A’s in the 12th inning of a game that they led, then fell behind and then tied. Kansas City was rocking, horns were honking, people were in the streets shouting waking up sleeping neighbors.  Wednesday has brought us still another honor as President Barack Obama welcomed Sporting KC our national championship soccer team to the White House.  On Thursday we will  play our first National Playoff Game in 29 years.   What a sweet time to live in KC.

Finding My Muse

Spent the last two two days finding and painting my Muse. It was a great workshop lead by Amy Lenharth. The first item of business was to relax and take a guided tour along a path in search of your Muse.  When I finally got to mine she looked exactly like the witch in the original animated Disney Snow White.   I wasn’t sure if i should laugh or cry.   For the next two days, each person present, painted their Muse.   The results were quite amazing.   My Muse is shown above. 

Ann Coulter on Ebola Shows Her Godless Values

Prominent conservative voices are criticizing the decision to bring two medical missionaries who contracted Ebola back to the United States for treatment….

Ann Coulter went further, questioning why the missionaries were working in the “disease-ridden cesspools” of Africa.

Loved this

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I just realized that one needs to have a broken  heart in order to write poetry.

A Theory about Round Tables

Star Stained Heights © by Elaine Mills 36” x 36” acrylic

a friend has a theory

when friends sit in a circle

they are more likely to bond

she may be right.

have you ever noticed

when out with friends

how hard it is to talk to the person

sitting beside you in a booth

but round tables

invoke memories of

reading circles and campfires

games of childhood

the place king arthur’s knights swore

to do all things right and just

when you think about it

the overview of our universe is

a spiraling mass of stars and planets

meteors, moons, and atoms.

maybe going round and round

has made them stick together

through thick and thin

                                      March 11, 1994

9-11-2001 Remembered

                               

I painted this 3 days after 9-11.  The image that would not leave my head the absolute fear that color would never return to our lives. Thousands have been killed because of this event, no that should read hundreds of thousands have died.  They were American, Iraqis, Iranians, Syrians, Germans, Italians, English, Polish, Australian, Spanish and the list goes on and on.  And today all this time later we are still killing and being killed.  I wonder if this madness will end in my lifetime, in my nephew’s lifetime? How many generations of people must die.   If only I had a magic wand and could bring peace instead of war to the Mid-East.  

The Day the Laughter Died

The Day the Laughter Died

In Memory of Joan Rivers a kind and loving woman. Her biting humor made us all laugh, She was one of the very first feminist comedians.

My Inner Critic

My Inner Critic

Elaine Mills

Acrylic  on canvas

36” x 48”

Andy Warhol The Oracle of Our Time?

I have been reading the most famous quotes of Andy Warhol and he may have been the oracle of our time.  He saw the future and was able to articulate what it would be and his observations about art show his true genius.

“An artist is somebody who produces things that people don’t need to have.”

“Since people are going to be living longer and getting older, they’ll just have to learn how to be babies longer.”

                                                                               Andy Warhol

www.elainemills.com

Art is...

                                

To talk about paintings is not only difficult but perhaps pointless too. You can only express in words what words are capable of expressing— what language can communicate. Painting has nothing to do with that.

                                              Gerhard Richter

Art is the highest form of hope.

                                              Gerhard Richter

I drew the above portrait of Richter while watching the film Gerhard Richter Painting.    It is one of the few movies that allows you to see an artist process and in this case it is unique and a wonder to watch.I would highly recommend this film to all of my artist friends as well as those who are curious about how a painting evolves.

                                                 www.elainemills.com

The Lucky One

I always knew

you would erase me first

but I never thought

it would be this way

out of your control

     you were always the star

     the rest of us bit players

     in your private movie

     doing your bidding

where will your mind take you

when it is only you

inside your head?

will I be a shadow

or nothing at all

something that never was?

Are you the lucky one

Having forgotten

what once was

     dessert hikes

     cliff climbing

     skiing meadows

Bruce and Bob long dead

am I the only one

holding memories

     summers by the pool

     candle lit gourmet dinners

     fresh squeezed orange juice

     the bedside breakfast tray?

perhaps you are

the lucky one

                        Elaine Mills

                        9-3-2012

                     

                                                    Perfect Heart © Elaine Mills

                       

                                 Broken Heart Elaine Mills © Elaine Mills                     

                      

                                                  Healing Heart © Elaine Mills

www.elainemills.com