Arty Farty Friday ~ Arman

The artist known as "Arman" was Armand Pierre Fernandez , born in Nice, France on 17 November 1928. He retained as his signature a printer's spelling error. He was son of an antique dealer/musician. After showing artistic talent in childhood he studied art in Nice and Paris, took European road trips with friends, during which experiences he absorbed some Eastern philosophy, felt inspired by early Chinese art as well as the martial art of judo. He even worked as an instructor at a judo school in Spain for a while. He served two years as an orderly in the French military in Indochina.

Inspired by collages of Kurt Schwitters, Arman’s first solo show, in Paris in 1954, exhibited his “Cachets,” assemblages and accumulations of stamps and fabric. In 1960 he and other artists signed the manifesto of the "New Realism" movement. New Realism aimed for "new, sensitive, perceptive approaches to the real.” Arman began examining the artistic possibilities of everyday objects, giving them an importance never seen before - in effect, transforming garbage or abandoned items into art - yet another, more complex, interpretation of Pop-art.

His style developed gradually, incorporating “colères,” (manmade objects smashed and reassembled, mounted on wood panels); “coupes” (slicing mass produced objects); and “combustions”: objects set ablaze, charred remains exhibited, aiming to represent acts of artistic creation through destruction.

After spending time in New York, inspired by the energy of the city, he made a home there, became a US citizen in 1973, with the official name Armand P. Arman.

More, and more ambitious, projects followed, including accumulations of tools, clocks and costume jewellery. Hundreds of pieces welded together into sculpted forms, some in miniature, some huge. The shapes of musical instruments inspired him too, to create accumulations and “coupes” of cellos, violins, and trombones.

Arman was the first contemporary artist to receive commissions from the Renault car company; a collaboration resulting in a series of works using car parts which Arman exhibited at the 1970 World’s Fair in Osaka, Japan.

 Long-Term Parking

 Hope for Peace

Arman created some monumental public sculptures. His “Long-Term Parking,” (1982) in a Parisian suburb, for instance: a 50-foot-high column of concrete encasing dozens of cars. Also, his “Hope for Peace”, commissioned in 1995 by the then Lebanese Prime Minister. It stands alongside the Lebanese Army Headquarters in Beirut and towers even higher than “Long-Term Parking”. “Hope For Peace” encases armored vehicles and tanks, whose barrels poke out through the concrete, pointing upward.

Later, Arman returned to painting. In 1991 he created a series of “robot-portraits” of classical composers, large-scale works evoking their subjects via assemblages of sheet music and instruments.

Arman was passionately engaged with human rights issues throughout his life. He served for five years as President of the New York Chapter of Artists for Amnesty International. In 1990, in his hometown of Nice, Arman made a major statement against religious prejudice. Weeks before the scheduled opening of an exhibition of his work, the city of Nice had hosted the convention of the Front National, a right-wing French political party whose guest of honor had been a German Neo-Nazi. The Mayor of Nice honored the F.N. and had made anti-Semitic remarks. In protest, staying true to his convictions, Arman cancelled his planned retrospective exhibition. It was not until 2002 that his work was exhibited in the city of his birth.

Friends had advised Arman not to mix politics with art. He responded, “If you are not willing to mix with politics sometimes, politics may one day mix with you—whether you want it or not.”
Arman died in 2005, he was 77 years old.

"I specialize very much in… everything,” the French-born American artist Arman told an interviewer in 1968. “I have never been — how do you say it? A dilettante.”

Main source: Arman's Website

A few examples of his work - there are dozens more available - see them by typing "Arman" into Google Image, or visit his website.

 Do ra mi fa so

 Avalanche (on campus of Tel Aviv University)

ASTROLOGY

Data from Astrodienst.

A well spread-out chart for a change! First thing grabbing my attention is a Grand Trine linking
Venus/Jupiter/Neptune in early degrees of Earth signs Capricorn, Taurus and Virgo. That's an artistic signature for Arman if ever I saw one! Venus (the arts), Neptune (creativity, imagination) and Jupiter (lots of everything - accumulations). If time of birth is near accurate, Jupiter was on the ascendant too- a powerful position in the natal chart!

Rather oddly, there's no planet in an Air sign - his Earthiness led his enthusiasm for practicality in using objects found or thrown away in his art. The skills needed to produce some of his work asked for more than the ability to wield a paintbrush. Craftsmanship and the more mundane practical abilities as well as creative vision, were a necessary accessory for success in his type of artwork.

Natal Sun in Scorpio sextile Moon in Capricorn:

From HERE The combination of Scorpio Sun sign and Capricorn Moon sign shows honor, integrity and authority as very important... not concerned with popularity as long as remaining true to high principles and honesty. This combination blends the emotional force, determination, and will power of Scorpio, with the ambition, shrewdness, realism, and practicability of Capricorn....

That fits Arman's obvious humanism and social conscience. I love that quote of his “If you are not willing to mix with politics sometimes, politics may one day mix with you—whether you want it or not.”

Scorpio - in Flesh and Blood ?

What more do I have to say about zodiac Sign Scorpio through which the Sun currently transits? Over the years since 2006/7, I've more or less exhausted possibilities. Currently, I know that a couple of valued regular commenters have personal experience of the sign, perhaps they will contribute observations on how Scorpio does actually perform in flesh and blood?

I haven't much to offer, even though I have one or two Scorpio credentials myself: natal Mars in one of its traditional domiciles, Scorpio. Scorpio's modern ruler, Pluto in my natal first house, and Sun in 8th house, a Scorpio domain. North Node of the Moon in Scorpio. Those, to me, are mere accessories, they don't reflect clearly in my personality - or at least not in a way I can identify from my vantage point - inside, but they might assist in my appreciation of others demonstrating characteristics of the sign.

Having natal Sun in a Fixed sign myself, I can appreciate fixity in others, Scorpio is one of the Fixed signs. Steadfastness and loyalty, for me, always trump shallow inconstancy and fickle flexibility, no matter how charming or exciting the latter can sometimes seem on the surface.

 Scorpio by Ronald Searle from "Searle's Zodiac"

The only two friendships with Sun in Scorpio people I've had, both ended badly. I had, inadvertently, said something which upset them. I was not forgiven; we never crossed paths again. I have to admit to a streak of this in my own nature too, courtesy of Mars in Scorpio, but it is usually, not always, kept in check by milder traits. Interestingly, both those Sun Scorpios were also married to Sun Scorpios (and as I was wont to offer, facetiously, but not to them : "it'll save spoiling two other marriages"). Both couples, eventually, had serious marital difficulties.

There are a couple of comments, about personal experience, or in general, under these old posts that could be of interest in this respect:
Zodiac Sign Scorpio
Mars-driven Aries & Scorpio

Any passing Scorpio-types? Do please let us know, in the interests of research, how Scorpio actually rolls in real life.

Keystone (not the Kops) XL (not the record label)

What are the odds now, given the results of last week's midterm elections, that President Obama will give his seal of approval, or will it be his veto to the Keystone XL pipeline?

There are small pockets of resistance around in Canada and in the US - even in Texas, in the city of Denton a small group of protesters did their best - see HERE.

Refresher on the Keystone XL pipeline (see HERE)

What is the Pipeline exactly?

The Keystone Pipeline already exists. What doesn’t exist fully yet is its proposed expansion, the Keystone XL Pipeline. The existing Keystone runs from oil sand fields in Alberta, Canada into the U.S., ending in Cushing, Oklahoma.

The 1,700 new miles of pipeline would offer two sections of expansion. First, a southern leg would connect Cushing, Oklahoma, where there is a current bottleneck of oil, with the Gulf Coast of Texas, where oil refineries abound. That leg went into operation in January 2014. Second, the pipeline would include a new section from Alberta to Kansas. It would pass through Bakken Shale region of eastern Montana and western North Dakota. Here, it will pass through a region where oil extraction is currently booming and take on some of this crude for transport.

The southern leg of the Keystone XL ties into the existing Keystone pipeline that already runs to Canada, bringing up to 700,000 barrels of oil a day to refineries in Texas. At peak capacity, the pipeline will deliver 830,000 barrels of oil per day. While the pipeline is initially carried U.S. light crude, it is expected to carry more heavy Canadian oil harvested from tar sands over the next year.

In passionate opposition to this pipeline "The Way of the Warrior" points to one way it might possibly be stopped, or at least construction of it and of other proposed pipelines be slowed down.
The Way of the Warrior: How To Stop A Pipeline by Abby Zimet, staff writer at Common Dreams.

With a newly elected Congress gearing up to pass Keystone, the inspiring story of the Unist'ot'en Camp, an indigenous resistance community established in northwest Canada to protect sovereign Wet'suwet'en territory and blockade up to 10 additional proposed pipelines aimed at expanding Alberta Tar Sands operations. The Uni’stot’en Clan, which has families living in cabins and traditional structures in the direct pathway of the Northern Gateway and Pacific Trails fracking lines, argues that "since time immemorial" they have governed Wet’suwet’en lands, which thus remain unceded and not subject to Canadian law "or other impositions of colonial occupation" - an argument that has been sustained in court cases, and bolstered by the camp's recent peaceable ejection of a drilling crew........."

More strength to all protesters, everywhere!

Dang! If I don't laugh, or at least drag out a wan smile, I'll cry. So...

“Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western spiral arm of the galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this, at a distance of roughly ninety million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue-green planet, whose ape descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea. This planet has, or had, a problem, which was this. Most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small, green pieces of paper, which is odd, because on the whole, it wasn't the small, green pieces of paper which were unhappy. And so the problem remained, and lots of the people were mean, and most of them were miserable, even the ones with digital watches. Many were increasingly of the opinion that they'd all made a big mistake coming down from the trees in the first place, and some said that even the trees had been a bad move, and that no-one should ever have left the oceans. And then one day, nearly two thousand years after one man had been nailed to a tree for saying how great it would be to be nice to people for a change, a girl, sitting on her own in a small cafe in Rickmansworth suddenly realised what it was that had been going wrong all this time and she finally knew how the world could be made a good and happy place. This time it was right, it would work, and no-one would have to get nalied to anything. Sadly, however, before she could get to a phone to tell anyone, the Earth was unexpectedly demolished to make way for a new hyperspace bypass and so the idea was lost forever.”

― Douglas Adams, from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

POPPY DAY

It is Armistice Day (also known as Remembrance Day and, in the USA Veterans' Day). In England 11 November is marked by 2 minutes of silence at 11 am; sombrely dressed dignitaries lay poppy wreaths on Cenotaphs in cities throughout the land to honour the dead of two world wars, 1914-1918 and 1939-1945.

Traditionally today commemorates the armistice signed between the Allies of World War I and Germany at Compiègne, France, for the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front of World War I. It took effect at eleven o'clock in the morning—the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month" of 1918.

Back in England, I always wore a poppy in my lapel in early November, as did millions of others. I almost certainly owe my own life to those who died to win World War 2. What makes me sad (and lately very angry) is that the world hasn't learned the lesson those many courageous men died to teach us.

This year The Tower of London's moat has been filled with nearly 900,000 ceramic poppies, to commemorate the First World War's start one century ago, and the number of British and colonial troops who gave their lives in the course of the war, 1914-1918.

On our last visit to an antique-cum-junk store I noticed this pretty poppy display on sale for for a couple of dollars and bought it for just this occasion- instead of wearing a poppy, I can display a bunch of 'em.


THE INQUISITIVE MIND OF A CHILD (Author unknown)

Why are they selling poppies, Mummy?
Selling poppies in town today.
The poppies, child, are flowers of love.
For the men who marched away.

But why have they chosen a poppy, Mummy?
Why not a beautiful rose?
Because my child, men fought and died
In the fields where the poppies grow.

But why are the poppies so red, Mummy?
Why are the poppies so red?
Red is the colour of blood, my child.
The blood that our soldiers shed.

The heart of the poppy is black, Mummy.
Why does it have to be black?
Black, my child, is the symbol of grief.
For the men who never came back.

But why, Mummy are you crying so?
Your tears are giving you pain.
My tears are my fears for you my child.
For the world is forgetting again.

Monday Movies ~ Winter's Tale & Olive Kitteridge

As I inched back to what I laughingly call normality last week, we watched a couple of interesting TV items, both on HBO as it happens. 1) the 2014 movie Winter's Tale, an adaptation of a 1983 novel by Mark Helprin; 2) a 4-hour mini-series, Olive Kitteridge, which, though shown in two chunks originally, was repeated on Thursday evening as a single 4-hour marathon, 6pm to 10 pm. This is also a book adaptation from the 2008 novel by Elizabeth Strout.



Winter's Tale

Critics hated it, something that never puts me off, in fact it can be of great encouragement ("nobody ever erected a statue to honour a critic").

I loved the movie. However I can appreciate that it takes a certain kind of... mindset to accept the fantasy, metaphor and mild mysticism involved.

It took a while for us to sort out the "who's who" of it, but that was fun. I'm not going to give the story away - for anyone who is curious, it's not hard to find detail online. I'll just say that it's a love story, set in New York, with a bit of time travel, a bit of magic and, I found, a lot of heart.


The first scene, on Ellis Island in (I think) 1895, shows a young couple with a baby being sent back to the country from whence they came, due to both showing signs of "pulmonary disease", presumably consumption - TB. The woman begs the authorities to keep the baby but they refuse. The couple board their homeward-bound vessel, but before it sets sail someone finds a tiny model ship named "City of Justice", into which the baby is set, then deposited into the river to float to shore.

Both movie and book span the years 1895 to 2014. Hat-tip to the lovely Colin Farrell for a superb and affecting performance.

Most observations on the movie say that the book is way, way better. I don't doubt it! The movie well-satisfied me though - maybe I'm easily pleased!



Olive Kitteridge

This was something else entirely! First, all hats have to be tipped to Frances McDormand who plays Olive - what a jaw-droppingly good actress this woman is!!

The 25-year span of the story takes us inside a marriage, right up close 'til you can almost see the pores of its skin. Not an entirely comfortable experience, and one which will likely hold the interest best of those who have matured sufficiently to recognise some characteristics the story portrays either in themselves or have observed them in others. It's a character study, and a relationship study. These people have complexities layered upon complexity, as do we all.

A slow-moving, densely detailed study of how we affect one another, and how we, in turn, have been affected by others - which then plays in to...well, everything. There's frustration, anger, temptation, danger - and how different personalities are able to deal, each in their own way.

Olive, the title character, the wife, is a very, very rough diamond: hard-edged, harsh-tongued but ultimately a well-meaning, steadfast and caring woman, married to an almost too saintly pharmacist (played beautifully by Richard Jenkins). They have one son, Christopher. They live in a small town in rural Maine, in a house with close views of the beautiful sea - it is just so gorgeous!

Drilling right down into its heart, this also is a love story, but realising as much takes time. I'm glad we saw this mini-series in one long dose - the continuity has to have been helpful to full appreciation. It was well worth the effort to concentrate, for four consecutive hours.

A keen astrologer could find an interesting study allocating possible natal aspects and signs to the lead characters - there are lots of clues, but I'm not going to dare to touch that!

WOLF

For some unknown reason I've always had a soft spot for wolves. Even back in the UK I had a couple of very nice ceramic wolf ornaments displayed in a prominent position in our living room - before a fire ate everything we owned, that is. I still have a wolf ornament where I can easily see it each day, often give it a pat on the head. Anyway, husband sent me this video just before I fell sick from the anti-bios. It's lovely - do take a look:





Then I remembered that, back in 2009 I'd prepared a relevant short post for a second blog I once started, supposedly for bits of our travel news. I've re-claimed that post, copied it here :

Wednesday ~ Western New Mexico - Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary and El Morro

Our visit to Wild Spirit was a lovely experience. We were given a tour by a very knowledgeable young man who had come to work at the Sanctuary from Boston last August, for 2 months only, loved the job so much, fell in love with New Mexico, and is still here. The sanctuary is manned by volunteers who are provided with very basic lodging. As it is located a couple of hours' drive from the nearest town of any size, volunteers have to be dedicated to the job and not afraid of hard work. At present the sanctuary houses 53 wolves, and wolf-dogs, rescued from abuse, transferred from zoos which had to close, and from private owners who could no longer cope.

Photos of the wolves are from both cameras, mine and my husband's (his are better!)















On the way back from Wild Spirit we took a short detour to see El Morro - an enormous cliff, a National Monument. The cliff stands on the old route taken by early Spanish explorers and soldiers, as well as in the lands previously occupied by early Native tribes, Anasazi, Pueblo and others. The walls of the cliff bear petroglyphs and engraved messages dating from around 1100, through the 1600s right up to the early 20th century, when El Morro, including Inscription Rock, was made a National Monument

Arty Farty Friday ~ Morris Graves - Idiosyncratic Visionary

Morris Graves - an artist of mystical bent whose name isn't well-known, except perhaps among art experts and local people. He has been described variously as idiosyncratic, visionary, mystical, introspective, intensely private, student of Zen Buddhism and Vedantic philosophies, spiritual and sylistic...and most eccentric of the "Northwest Mystics" - artists of the Northwest School in the USA..."going about life in an interesting, just out-of-societal-bounds manner".

He was born on 28 August 1910 in Fox Valley, Oregon, died in May 2001. He was a sickly and moody child, often ill with recurring pneumonia. His family moved to Seattle during his second year.

He dropped out of High School, but returned to his studies in Beaumont, Texas while staying with his aunt and uncle there. He eventually grew to a height of six-foot six. Some sea-going adventures as a cadet or a stow-away followed, accompanied by his brother or a friend, including voyages to Japan, where he found inspiration.

 Hat-tip to Seattle Art Museum.org

Morris Graves' name first became known in 1933, after winning the Seattle Art Museum's (SAM) Northwest Annual Exhibition. The winning painting, a symbolic self-portrait: "Moor Swan" (see right).

Further adventures followed, including working for the WPA, meeting (and falling out with), artist Mark Tobey, World War II, where despite registering as a conscientious objector he had to spend a brief time in the army.

Graves' paintings at this time featured birds. For him, consciousness assumed the form of a bird, or of a chalice. The birds he depicted were blind, wounded, maddened or immobilized, with large eyes and beaks. Graves's wounded birds proved to be popular in America, now embroiled in the war - as well as relevant to the artist's emotional state.

He lived alone in his self-built home, "The Rock", on an isolated promontory. Graves' paintings became more universally known and appreciated when first exhibited at New York's Museum of Modern Art in 1942. MoMA bought 11 of his paintings for their permanent collection, even though Graves was, at that point, virtually unknown. 34 of his paintings were bought by art collectors. Morris Graves had "made it!"

He was, for a time, the "in thing" for East Coast art and intellectual society. Success and appreciation of his style continued until Pop-Art came along - people, as is their habit, flocked to see "something completely different".

Once financially secure Graves was able to allocate a good proportion of his funds to providing inspirational surroundings. After The Rock, he built, or caused to be built, two other homes in Western Washington and California, both reported to be extraordinarily beautiful creations. He also owned a country estate in Ireland. There's a description and photos of one of his homes at website of Iona Miller,but you need to scroll down a way for relevant piece.

For more, and interesting, detail on Morris Graves, there's a long essay, a very good read, at HistoryLink.org. The essay, from 2003 is by Deloris Tarzan Ament.

HistoryLink.org Essay 5205

PAINTINGS

Some titles can offer a clue to understanding the paintings, but sadly not every website bothers to include titles. I've found as many as possible. One or two were designated "untitled" by the artist.

Please click on images for bigger or clearer versions

 Time of Change

 Conflict Battling Crane Heads with Chinese Ceremonial Bronze

We are told by a biographer that the birds at each other’s necks, imagined as a ceremonial vessel, was representative of the artist’s inner conflict and inability to finish a voyage to Japan.

 Chalice

 Hibernation

 Memorial Day, Abandoned Western Mining Town

 Young Pine Forest in Bloom

 Bird Maddened by the Length of Winter

The above is considered to be one of Graves' anti-war works, painted in 1944 as World War II raged.
"Look at `Bird Maddened,' Daniel DuBois (who published a book of Graves' works) says, "and you see the almost camouflaged central image of a very fragile bird looking back over its shoulder while just barely hanging on by the points of its claws to a rock in an environment, which is extremely hostile. Without a doubt, this reflects Graves' sense of the fragility of life in war.

 Bird Maddened by the Sound of Machinery in the Air

 Bird of the Spirit

 Bird with Possessions

 Bird, Snake and Moon

 Snake and Moon

 Sanderlings

 untitled

I find the painting above scary, or at least unsettling, for some reason.

There's a slideshow of more paintings HERE. More paintings at Humboldt Arts too.



ASTROLOGY

Chart set for 12 noon, no time of birth is available.
Born on 28 August 1910 in Fox Valley, Oregon.

Seattle Art Museum has an interesting page on Graves, it includes several quotes from books mentioning the artist and how he was perceived, personally, by others. Example below:

He comes from the Pacific Northwest; an exceedingly tall thin figure, with large transfixed, rather alarmed eyes. . . He is shy and self aware to a degree, aloof yet (you suspect) ruthless in his self-determination. . . . In short he is very birdlike: receding, private, mobile, and migratory. . . He has the willful steely quality of a bird—its fierce capacity to survive.
—Frederick S. Wight, Director of the Art Galleries, University of California, on meeting Morris Graves, 1956

An Earthy harmonious trine between Sun in Virgo and Saturn in Taurus = a meticulous, demanding and determined character with a reasonably good business sense.

Neptune (mysticism, creativity) opposite Uranus (the unexpected, innovation, eccentricities) is a generational opposition affecting many. Skyscript adds:

"...most noticeable in charts where it contacts the angles or Sun or Moon. Uranus fosters change and innovative breakthroughs. Neptune relates to mass consciousness. When these planets are in contact with each other, collective ideals will be shaken and disturbed in order to allow new modes of thought and collective expression to emerge."

Because we have no time of birth it's not possible to accurately place the opposition in Graves' chart.
Uranus also trines Mars and Saturn, so those aspects would tend to draw the opposition into a more personal significance. Each end of the opposition also forms square aspects to Jupiter, creating a T-square.

Venus (the arts) in Leo is in helpful sextile to Jupiter (religion, beliefs, travel) - that's a good fit. He was an enthusiastic traveller, always gathering inspiration for his art.

Moon conjunct Pluto? Maybe. We don't know correct Moon position without time of birth, but it was likely to have been in communicative Gemini. He was a solitary type, not given to social butterfly antics, but he satisfied urges to communicate using a paintbrush.

Any more?

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