Today in the Good News Now was about The Arts.

For whatever reason, the stories that got my attention were stories about art. I like to hear about exhibits and local artists; what they are doing and why. I like to know what motivates an artist to create the way they create. I like to know how an artist deals with their struggles. I want to know how they market their art. I want to know about how they see the world and the process they go through as they develop their work and style. I want to know who and what influences them.

Baltimore painters keep the urban folk art of window screen scenes alive

This is story about and artist from Baltimore MD and a form of art I have never hear of. It is more a craft or folk art but Dee Herget is determined to keep the art alive. She is well know for screen painting. The art come about in 1909 when William Octavec owned a grocery in Baltimore. In the summer he noticed that the sun dried his fruits and vegetables. His solution was to paint the screens that covered his produce with pictures of the produce. People liked them. He decided to paint charming little landscapes of the area. People liked his work so much they requested painting on screens which they put in their doors and windows. In the 40’s and 50’s this art form was so popular there were an estimated 100,000 painted screens throughout the area.

The next article that got my attention was hilarious. It is about a French performing artist Sophie Calle.

A Woman Scorned Turns Rejection Into an Art Form

Sophie received an email Dear Jane letter from a boyfriend and turned it into art. I always say the best revenge is to live well, well she takes it a step further the best revenge to give the email to 107 women of varying professions and talents that have them translate, dissect, reinterpret and a variety of artistic expressions that are blown up and cover the French pavilion at the Venice Biennale, wall to wall and floor to ceiling.

“Calle gets female experts to translate the note into Latin, Braille, Morse code, bar code and shorthand, all presented huge on the pavilion wall. A female journalist writes it up as the briefest wire story; a puzzle writer turns it into a crossword; a grade-school teacher reworks it as a fairy tale with a sad ending; a pair of Talmudic scholars put it through the most rigorous scriptural analysis.

In a room of ever-changing videos, Calle has the e-mail read and commented on by the great French actress Jeanne Moreau, by British stars Miranda Richardson and Vanessa Redgrave, by pop singers Peaches and Feist. It gets "interpreted" by a clown and a puppeteer. It's sung out by an opera diva and danced to as a tango, a ballet and tough punk rock.”

(Blake Gopnik Washington Post June 14, 2007)

Too good to be true and I have a dear Ruth letter I would like to pass around. This just showed me Big Time to not care what people say… to fear God not man. After all what is said about one can be seen in so many different ways from so many different perspectives and analysis, who is to say who is right on how someone is to be understood. I would like to see my letter painted in cubism, performed in a tap dance, sung as a ballad and shot by an archer and more.