RMW Ramblings

  Stations of the Flag Iwo Jima Next on our Stations of the Flag tour we move from painted and post card imagery to photography, and from Maryland to the far side of the Pacific in World War II.  On February 23, 1945 Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal took this iconic photograph of USS Marines raising the flag on the crest of Iwo Jima's Mount Suribachi. The image has been adapted many times, on stamps, coins, posters, and most famously of all, as the inspiration for the Marine Corps War Memorial near the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery.     You can buy a kitsch version through Amazon.         The flag of World War II had 48 stars.    

  The Brothers Walsh A Short Homemade Book    In 2012 I read George Howe Colt's Brothers: On His Brothers and Brothers in History,  a memoir of his family of four brothers with alternating chapters about well known brothers. the Kelloggs, the Van Goughs, the Booths, the Marx brothers. I loved the book and bought copies as Christmas presents for my brothers and supplemented it with a little homemade book, "The Brothers Walsh," my memoir of our family of six brothers. It was mostly text, illustrated by a few brother photographs.          

  Presidential Halos   Haloed images are found in photography as well as art. US presidents often make public presentations with the seal of the presidency behind them. With careful choice of photographic angle they can be presented with a presidential halo. Here are some photos of recent presidents following this trope.        

  Autumn Leaves The ginkgos and sweetgums are at their peak color now.  I celebrated them in the past by painting this diptych, framed in a thrift store folding copper frame.  [Mixed media on hardboard, 3 x 5 in. ea.]   Here in past photos are our sweetgums and ginkgos nearby on Greenhill Ave.  

Out the Bedroom Window   

  Staffage Staffage    ​ [stafaʒ] is the term used in art for figures in a painting or photograph that are not the primary subject of the picture.  The silhouetted figures in my photograph, Sunset at Lido Key, are important elements of the total composition but not its focus.      The crowd in Isabel Bishop's Dante and Virgil in Union Square ,  a favorite of mine at the Delaware Art Museum, is similarly a use of staffage.   Here are staffage examples from some of my paintings...

  Color Is Where You Find It, 5

  Hazy Morning   This morning  the air was hazy from the Canadian wild fires.  Even then there was a beauty,   The color bands add a moire effect from our screen windows.

  Rockford Tower Visitors Commemorating the re-opening of Rockford Tower to visitors in 2002, I painted this visualization of  1902 opening day visitors on the observation deck.       During a Wilmington Flower Market I later photographed modern visitors to the observation deck.

      California Poppies This year's heavy rainfall initiated a "superbloom" of wildflowers in California (https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/20/us/california-superbloom-flowers-climate/index.html) especially California poppies ( Eschscholzia californica ),  A photo on the news link reminds me of a painting I did of Mt Shasta.  The link was sent to me by our son-in-law Bill, who with Maura own the painting.

  Clutter Collections 3 Smith Island in the Chesapeake.

  Blue Glory Our brains are programed to identify patterns, a survival skill called pardeidolia, which enabled our ancestors to quickly identify threats in the wild.  We see faces in shadows and clouds, but not all such interpretations are of faces and animals.   Here I saw a flag as Mary sorted out some things, Blue Glory.    

  Clutter Collections 2 Remote Transform Consumer technology marches on; the detritus goes to flea markets.

  Clutter Collections 1 Rubber Duckies Leaving minimalist photography for the moment, a look at another category of photos I like to shoot, which I call clutter collections.   Prime sources for me are outdoor flea-market and yard sales. Here is Rubber Duckies.    They loose their individual identity and become a color abstraction.

  Minimalist Photography 2 Apothecary Shadow  

  Minimalist Photography Shutters Our last posting, Sand & Water, was exemplar of minimalist photography, photos that are primarily about light and pattern.  Here is another example, Shutters...   And here is a minimalist Bob...