Saturday, August 29, 2009
RANDOM PRETTY
our calatrava art museum. meh. its white. milwaukee is not a 'white' kinda town. and i hate white.
_-_Viewing_the_Ships_(1896).jpg)
_-_The_Tuileries_Gardens,_Paris_(1895).jpg)
_-_Salem_Willows_(1904).jpg)
_-_Still_Life_w_Apples_(1913-1915).jpg)
RANDOM ART MUSEUM
more ashcan, tho, this one, can i say rubbish? maurice prenderast. didn't improve them seeing them in person. not my taste. i didn't get him. maybe is ill colors. they don't seem to have any life.
RANDOM 341 OBJECTS
RARE COLLECTION - 8 Old OIL PAINTINGS - WILLARD J. PAGE
he got $930. willard got 75¢. artists are always screwed.
RARE COLLECTION - 8 Old OIL PAINTINGS - WILLARD J. PAGE
he got $930. willard got 75¢. artists are always screwed.
I have a theory about this collection of eight miniature oils created by Willard Page sometime around 1935 to 1945, I believe. Every single day for a couple weeks I’ve been looking at them – looking at how nicely done they are and how they pretty much give us a fairly comprehensive insight into the body of work of Willard Page and his dearly loved wife, Ethel.
Willard and Ethyl were educators and vagabonds and artists and hippies way before there were hippies. (That's just me talking.) Willard’s paintings supported them as they traveled the Great Southwest in a makeshift camper. And this wasn’t just one trip. They were “on the road” for many years. Their story is fascinating, sad, adventurous and thought-provoking.
I think these first two represent the beginning of a journey. The one on the left is titled “Bear Lake,” which is somewhere around 25 miles north and west of Boulder. The one on the right is titled “Aspens.” I think these two were likely part of their “inventory” when they hit the road.
The Page’s weren’t novice travelers. Soon after they moved from Kansas to Colorado, he and Ethel joined the Chautauqua circuit. Think of it as educational Vaudeville. Ethel did dramatic readings and such, while Willard gave talks on various subjects as he made chalk drawings on a big board. Back then, they were known as “Chalk Talks.” They traveled all over the Midwest on the circuit. Teddy Roosevelt call it “the most American thing in America.”
Anyhow . . . Ethel was stricken with severe arthritis, and their lives changed as her condition worsened.
The Page’s weren’t novice travelers. Soon after they moved from Kansas to Colorado, he and Ethel joined the Chautauqua circuit. Think of it as educational Vaudeville. Ethel did dramatic readings and such, while Willard gave talks on various subjects as he made chalk drawings on a big board. Back then, they were known as “Chalk Talks.” They traveled all over the Midwest on the circuit. Teddy Roosevelt call it “the most American thing in America.”
Anyhow . . . Ethel was stricken with severe arthritis, and their lives changed as her condition worsened.
It’s hard not to have favorites, but I do. I love both the “Grand Canyon” (left) and the Adobe Hut” (right). The landscapes are terrific, but I think they also represent the first leg of a nearly 2000 mile journey – one they’d either made before or possibly their first big adventure since Ethel’s disability. They took off from Boulder and headed for the Grand Canyon. Sometime en route or just after seeing this marvel, they must have stumbled upon the hut. And here’s something important: Selling these miniature paintings for seventy-five cents each is how they survived while on the road. Would you have had the cajones for that?! It takes a very special mindset, as well as a shared confidence in one another.
I wonder how long they stayed in one place . . . Did they set up alongside the road at randomly selected parks? . . . Or did they just pull over when Ethel said it was time to call it a day?
Sure: It would be fun to travel back in time to sit and talk with Michelangelo and one of his buddies about their lives. And I guess spending the day watching Diego Rivera complete a mural as I sat doing shots with Frida Kahlo, poking fun at him from time to time, would have been a real hoot. But Willard and Ethel Page? Those are two folks I’d love to have known.
What happened next? I obviously don’t know for sure, but I think they were tired, and Ethel was definitely in need of some rest. I think they stopped at the University Gift Shop in Tucson and sold the remaining paintings to the owner. I’ll just bet he or she fell in love with the couple AND with the work. You will too. I absolutely guarantee it.
Will you EVER have a chance to purchase a delightfully comprehensive collection of eight of Willard J. Page’s miniature landscapes all at one time? I doubt that very seriously.
