Balzer Designs

Toulouse-Lautrec Exhibit at the MFA

There is  currently a great Toulouse-Lautrec exhibit at the MFA (Museum of Fine Arts) here in Boston. When they first announced the exhibit, I wasn't that excited about it.  I had seen a wonderful Toulouse-Lautrec exhibit at MoMA (The Museum of Modern Art) in NYC in 2014 and I thought there was no way this one could top it. 

I was wrong.

This exhibit is an entirely different beast. The official title of the exhibit is "Toulouse-Lautrec and the Stars of Paris."  I would say about half of the exhibit is artwork by Toulouse-Lautrec's contemporaries.  This exhibit, therefore, tells a story about Toulouse-Lautrec's myriad influences.  I found it quite interesting.

I didn't take a ton of photos, but here are a few of my favorite pieces from the exhibit:

In the final room of the exhibit, I saw an item that looked familiar.  As it turns out, it's an item from my late Father's collection of optical toys.

It was lovely to see it on display in the museum.

The exhibit runs through August 4, 2019 and I think it's worth a visit if you're in the area!

Thanks for stopping by!

Cleveland Museum of Art: Part Two

Today I'm sharing more photos from my visit to the Cleveland Museum of Art.  Lots of lovely paintings to see today.  I tried to take a lot of close ups so that you could really see the hand of the artist.  Enjoy!

I am mildly obsessed with this George Bellows painting of two men boxing.  Personally, I have a lot of trouble watching boxing in real life.  Two people hitting each other in the face isn't my idea of a good time.  Nonetheless, this painting is done with such mastery that I must have stood and stared at it for 15 minutes.  I love the way the faces in the crowd were rendered.  It's so full of life and movement and yet absolutely painterly.  Swoon!

So what are you going to take away from today's post?  Is there a color palette?  A painting technique?  A subject matter?  And idea for a composition?

Tell me! I'd love to know!

Thanks for stopping by!

Cleveland Museum of Art: Part One

While I was in Cleveland, I stopped by the Cleveland Museum of Art. This was my second visit to the museum and I got to see a bit more of the museum this time around.  In fact, I saw enough of the museum that I've divided my pics into two posts for you.  Today is part one -- lots to see and enjoy and be inspired by!

These next few images are from an exhibit on Scandinavian Textiles (swoon):

I find fabric design absolutely fascinating.  I can spend hours scrolling through Spoonflower and thinking about how clever and talented other people are.

Some things to take away:

• Once again, I encourage you to take a moment after scrolling through these photos to think about how they might inspire you.
• The first half of this post is a lot of sculptural elements.  Does that kind of 3-D work inspire you in any way?  The texture?  The shapes?  The dimension?
• The second half of this post is mostly hand drawn textiles.  Does that style of work inspire you in any way?  The colors?  The lines?  The layering of patterns?
• Even if it's just for 5 minutes, consider sketching one element you see here.  Here's a sketch I did of one of the floral elements -- done on a scrap of paper with a ballpoint pen:

It doesn't need to be great art. It's just a reference.  But taking the 5 minutes to create the sketch (a) means you did something creative today and (b) means you filtered some of the incoming inspiration through your own personal artistic style filter.

I hope you found some inspiration for your day! I'll be back tomorrow with more photos!

Thanks for stopping by!

Art in Bloom: Part Four

For today's Art in Bloom post, I want to talk about the "so what" factor.  What is the "so what" factor?  In essentials, it's the question: Why does this matter?  Every time I write a blog post I hope that it does one (or more) of the following things:

• inspires
• educates
• brings joy

One of the reasons I love Art in Bloom is because it does all 3 of those things for me.

Inspires

I am inspired by the notion of creating a new form of art based on a piece of art.  It's not a literal translation, but an interpretation.

I am inspired by the plants and flowers.  Lots of shapes to draw.

I am inspired by the color schemes.

Educates

I think the key to life-long learning is understanding that you are responsible for educating yourself.  What I mean by that is, there are opportunities for education all around us, but we have to take responsibility to take in the lesson -- to answer, or at least thing about, the hard questions.  Asking myself why certain floral pieces work for me and why some of them don't helps me to learn about my own work.

I have said it before and I will say it again: being able to verbalize what you like and what you don't like about art (yours or other people's) is one of the most vital art skills you can develop.  You can't fix anything until you understand what needs fixing.

How do you get better at verbalizing?  Practice, practice, practice!!

Brings Joy

Art in Bloom combines two joyful experiences together: looking at art and looking at flowers. How could that not bring you joy?  It also makes me happy to see so many people in the museum discussing art and how the flowers relate to the art.

So, with all of that in mind, let's look at some art + flowers:

And finally, there were a few free-standing floral arrangements in the museum -- meant to enjoy as stand alone art.

In sharing all of these photos, I hope that you are finding inspiration, education, and joy!

Thanks for stopping by!

Art in Bloom: Part Three

I've got more flowers and art to share with you today.  My Mom and I went to Art in Bloom -- where I took all of these photos -- together and talked a lot about what we liked and didn't at the time.  But she called me yesterday and said, "I'm finding all of your Art in Bloom posts really interesting."  So we went on to discuss that.  There is something about seeing them in photos that creates a different viewing experience.  It's both easier and harder to see the similarities and differences. Photos flatten a 3-D experience.  You miss the smells and even some of the scale.  But the photos also miss the phalanxes of people swarming around the flowers, blocking your view, and pronouncing their opinions of good/bad.

So, without an further ado, for your viewing pleasure and art judgment, here are more flowers + art:

Believe it or not, there are still more photos to come next week!   I hope you're enjoying this series!  Have a great weekend!

Thanks for stopping by!