I is for INNOVATIVE CHICAGO ARTWORK #AtoZChallenge

For this year's challenge, my theme is The Fun in Writing. Each of my 26 posts for April is aimed at illustrating fun parts of an author's day. A writer doesn't only write. Creating a story or an essay requires research, revision, editing, and lots and lots of coffee and chocolate.

 

What can be more fun than researching background information for a novel, and then spending your free time checking out the architecture, sculptures, and artwork of the Windy City? Which do you recognize? (Answers below.)

 



(1)



 

(2)

(3)

 

(4)

(5)

(6)

 

(7)

 

 

(1)

The ticket entrance to Auditorium Theatre

of Roosevelt University

A theater in the grand old style, an architectural gem built in 1889

50 E Congress Pkwy, Chicago, IL

 

Saved to your Map

View on Map

(2)

City of Chicago: Calder's Flamingo

50 W. Adams St
Chicago, IL 60610
  

(3)

A bridge near downtown Chicago

I love this picture because of its unusual vantage point,

but I honestly cannot remember where in Chicago I was standing when I took the photograph!

Anyone have a guess? 

 

(4)

"The Picasso" (Untitled sculpture)

Daley Plaza
50 W. Washington St.
Chicago, IL 60602

 

(5)

Sculptor Loredo Taft’s Fountain of the Lakes

Art Institute of Chicago,
South Garden

 

(6)

The Winged Victory of Samothrace

A copy of the original from Greece, circa 200 BC, which is now in the Louvre Museum, Paris.

This is cast from a mold of the original sculpture in the Louvre Museum, Paris, France.

Location: lobby of the Bank One Center

131 S Dearborn Street

 

(7)

Navy Pier Flags

Navy Pier is a 3,300-foot-long pier on the Chicago shoreline of Lake Michigan.

It is located in the Streeterville neighborhood of the Near North Side community area.

 

 

Z is for Zeitgeist: Picasso's Recurring Theme AtoZChallenge

The theme of my 2014 A-to-Z Blog Challenge is BLUES, PUPUS, and REVIEWS.

Monday & Wednesday - REVIEWS: mini-style book reviews 

This brings full circle my A to Z posts which

began with: 

ART: Picasso’s recurring theme - desolation of social outsiders - which answers to his BLUE period extending from 1901 through 1904; 

 

and end with:

 

ZEITGEIST (the general intellectual, moral, and cultural state of an era): where Picasso’s recurring theme - desolation of social outsiders - answers to the spirit of the time, the artistic and intellectual avant garde at the start of the twentieth century. 

 

 

In the book, PICASSO by Jp. A. Calosse, the author addresses the three essentials of Picasso’s ripening style during the second half of 1901. 

1. Predominance of form in composition

2. Sentimental themes

3. Use of monochromatic blue 

Together, these three essentials help me appreciate the artist’s state of mind during a period of time when his genius poured forth onto canvas for the world to view, study, and absorb. 

The writer in me believes Picasso did not consciously create a “BLUE PERIOD” in his life. As a painter, he did what came naturally to him. Would you agree with my conclusion that, rather than use his paintings to editorialize his feelings, he painted to explore his artistic talents?

 

Jp. A. Calosse: Picasso

http://www.amazon.com/Picasso-Jp-Calosse-ebook/dp/B00CR6CYFO/ref=sr_1_8?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1398650248&sr=1-8&keywords=Picasso

 

A to Z CHALLENGE - ART: Picasso's BLUE Period

 

Thank you to Arlee Bird,

Alex J. Cavanaugh, and all the co-hosts

of the 2014 A to Z Challenge,

for your tremendous efforts

to 'make it happen' each year.

 

 

 

 

The theme of my 2014 A-to-Z Blog Challenge is BLUES, PUPUS, and REVIEWS.

Tuesday & Friday - BLUES: Art, Movies, Music, and Police;

Thursday & Saturday - PUPUS: Hawaiian snacks to whet your appetite;

Monday & Wednesday - REVIEWS: mini-style book reviews

When I worked in the Chicago Loop, my interest in Picasso was fueled by a daily lunchtime rendezvous with Picasso’s unnamed sculpture. Donated to the city in 1967, it dominated the Civic Center (Daley Plaza).

 

I also spent an inordinate amount of time at the Art Institute of Chicago (now The Chicago Institute of Art) in Grant Park. Picasso’s most popular ‘Blue Period’ painting, THE OLD GUITARIST, was displayed prominently there. I purchased a poster of the piece, framed it, and hung it on my apartment wall. Years later, the poster still triggered images of the original painting’s genius brush strokes. Far from feeling blue, the obvious message of despair Picasso projected, I felt my spirits soar.

 

I especially like the elongated fingers of the old guitarist in the painting. They reflect the influence El Greco had on Picasso. His blue period, from 1901 through 1904, was dominated by themes of loneliness and poverty, possibly sparked by his friend’s suicide.

 

Some say it was not poverty that led Picasso to paint the impoverished outsiders of society: beggars, prostitutes, drunks, and outcasts, but that he painted them made him poor himself. If this is true, does it follow that subject matter also determines a writer’s spiritual wealth?