Pennies!

Hey ladies!  I am neck deep in the first forecast of the year, as well as prepping for a quarter close (things that I’m sure are irrelevant to you, but trust me, they’re HUGE in the life of a corporate finance person), so I thought I’d give you a quick video of some interesting work this week!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXlpLkH3kZo

 

This is a video of a portrait of President Obama, made out of pennies – I love how it’s all just pennies, but because some of them are older / dirtier / less shiny, they were able to create so many different shades!  I think this is very cool.  When I was in middle school, I made a portrait of a cowboy made out of M&Ms.  It had a lever attached to the back that you could turn and M&Ms would fall out, too.   I’m pretty sure it attracted bugs & we had to throw it away.  But it was cool while it lasted!  Pennies would make a much more durable medium!  If Uncle Patrick and I are able to move down to Florida, maybe we can try to make something like this together – it would be fun!

 

I also found a picture of a portrait of President Lincoln in pennies – appropriate, yes?  And my favorite, Steve Baker’s awesome art van, completely covered in pennies (pic below)…not only is it pretty, I particularly love that he found a matching outfit to wear in the picture with it!  I bet that thing looks AMAZING when the sun flashes off it!

 

Shannon, I can’t believe next week you’ll already be 11!  I hear that you’ll be attending your first concert this weekend too – much awesomeness.  I will try to think of something extra cool to talk with you about next week in honor of your birthday.

 

Know that I love you both and think that you’re awesome!

Hugs and Kisses,

Auntie Paula

XOXOXOXOXO

 

 

 

Leprechaun 4

Leprechaun 5 - last one!

Leprechaun 3

Leprechaun 2

Leprechaun 1

Find the Leprechaun!

Hello Ladies!

 

I was putting something together for my team at work, so thought I’d send it your way,too…just for fun.

 

There will be 5 posts that come after this one. 

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find the leprechaun that looks like this:

Kind of like “Where’s Waldo”! 

 

There’s one Leprechaun on each picture.

 

Love you tons!

Auntie Paula

Eric Hebborn

Hello My Favorite Princesses!

 

I hope this finds you well!  Auntie Paula is not amused today, as it is almost her birthday – and springtime! – and they are predicting ANOTHER six inches of snow tomorrow.  I am thinking about convincing your uncle to take me for one last snow tubing trip this Saturday, though, so at least that’s something good to come out of more snow!

 

Regardless, in honor of my birthday (I LOVE birthdays – YAY CAKE!), I decided I would look today for an artist who was also born on March 20…and as I looked, I saw a note that said “Eric Hebborn – artist/faker” was born on March 20, 1934.  And that seemed interesting enough to be worth taking a look –after all, we’re all fakers about something or another at some point in our lives, so I wanted to see what he faked that was significant enough that it got permanently attached to his name!

 

So Eric had a pretty tough childhood (that’s a bit of an understatement), but was lucky enough to realize he had some talent for art.  He actually started exhibiting art seriously when he was just 15 years old!  He was getting to be a bit known for his work when he went to work for an art restorer…someone who fixes old paintings that had faded or gotten dirty to make them look again how they looked in the first place…but this art restorer told Eric to maybe “improve” them a bit…and then eventually he would give him blank canvases and have him “restore” pieces that weren’t there at all!   And that was really what Eric did best – he didn’t just copy old art like most forgers, he made new pieces of art that were in the same style as someone famous, and then the experts would say it was the other person that created them!

 

After a bit, Eric started working on his own, and would buy pieces of really old paper to create forgeries on (because if he did it on new paper, you’d be able to tell!)…and that was actually how he got caught – someone noticed the paper was the same on two works from supposedly different old masters who lived in different places!

 

It might have worked out ok for Eric if he hadn’t been such a jerk about things.  He started telling everyone how great he was and identifying all kinds of things that were maybe his, maybe not, as his work, and challenging the “experts” to identify which things he had done (basically calling them idiots); he even wrote two books called “The Art Forgers Handbook” and “Drawn to Trouble” (love that title!)…and then, he was MURDERED! So maybe it was not such a good plan to brag about being the worlds best faker.

 

But all that makes him a fairly interesting man!  Plus he was born on my birthday, so he rules. J

Below is a picture of him working, and the cover of his book, which I think is a hoot.

 

In any case, know that I love you and think that you’re awesome!

Hugs and kisses,

Auntie Paula

XOXOXOXOXO

 

 

Nelson Shanks

Happy Thursday, lovely ladies!

 

Today it is almost 45 degrees in New Jersey!  Your auntie is happy, happy, happy.  It’s beginning to seem possible that spring might actually get here this year!

 

I thought this week I’d tell you a bit about an artist who has been in the news quite a lot right now.  His name is Nelson Shanks, and he’s a portrait artist who specializes in realism (making things technically very accurate to what we see in the real world).  He was born in Rochester, NY (you know someone from there, don’t you?), so that’s kind of cool.

 

Here’s a self-portrait from Mr. Shanks (on the left) – I think he looks a little like Vincent Van Gogh (his self-portrait is on the right)!

 

Up until recently, his most famous painting was from 2006, a portrait of Princess Diana, who was the Princess of Wales.  I’ve put a real picture of her next to it so you can see how much it really looked like her.  I can’t imagine painting all those little tiny ruffles on her shirt!  That must have taken forever!

 

But he also painted the picture below in 2006, of former US President Bill Clinton …it wasn’t maybe such a big deal at first (although it is an excellent likeness of the president – see his photo at right), but recently he announced that the shadow you can see on the left side of the painting (the one coming up over the fireplace pokers) was a secret reference to something that happened while Mr. Clinton was president, something that “cast a shadow” over his presidency, and that has suddenly made it a very interesting painting to the news people!  I won’t get into the details of it all, but what I find most interesting is that years later, something as simple as a shadow can make people start talking about a piece of art all over again – I’ve never really been deep into symbolism in art, but this case makes it really clear how important it can be!

 

 

 

In any case, know that I love you and think that you’re awesome.

Hugs and kisses,

Auntie Paula

xoxoxoxoxo

A new pic from EVA!!

Oh, Auntie Paula is delighted with life today! 

Such awesomeness I have received in the mail!!

Behold, the latest fabulous drawing from Miss Eva Larie Elliott!

 

 

I believe I see influences of Klimt’s tree of life in here, mixed with some of Picasso’s flowers (see below!)!

It is too magnificent!  J  Auntie Paula is inspired.  I think I have to paint something tonight!

 

 

You totally made my day, princess Eva – Love you so much!

Auntie Paula

xoxoxoxo

Snow & Ice!

Good morning, my favorite small humans!

 

What’s up in Florida?  Today in NJ it’s snowing….AGAIN.  But, the good news is that there’s at least a chance that today will be the last snow of this winter season.  I’m sure hoping so!  Last night, because the snow & ice has frozen to overflowing levels in the gutters of our house, we realized that water was coming INSIDE the house in the walls – and this is not a good thing!  So that’s what your Auntie & Uncle will be dealing with today, and we will be dreaming of Florida while we figure out how to fix this.

 

But, I thought I’d send you some pictures from the incredibly amazing Harbin Ice and Snow Festival in China this week.  It’s like the ice sculptures we went to see at Christmas time, only a LOT more of them, and they don’t need a giant freezer to keep them cold!  J  Harbin is in the northeast part of China, and it’s not unusual for it to be thirty below zero in the winter there!

 

I’m attaching a video about how they make it happen – most of the work is done by migrant workers in China, so they never really get credit for being the amazing artists that they are!  The video is about 10 minutes long and is focused on the ice (it’s kind of cool if you like seeing how things are made, though!), so just in case you don’t have that much time, I’ll put some pictures from the festival in as well!  I like the snow sculptures best – the ice is pretty because they can light it up in colors, but I think these snow sculptures are just AMAZING; they’re so huge!! I can barely make a snowman, so I’m pretty impressed that these guys can make details like curly beards and angel wings.  As much as I hate to be cold, to see this in person just might be worth a trip to China in the winter!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2szFIdqV3M

 

Know that I love you, and think that you’re awesome!

Hugs and kisses,

Auntie Paula

XOXOXOXO