Art environment Archives - Page 5 of 5

March 21, 2020 Bill Swislow

Petroglyphs: The Words At Waikoloa

Within decades of the first known contact with Europeans, in 1778, the Hawaiian language gained letters. For a brief period while petroglyphs were still a living art, letters, words, and sometimes dates were added to the great aggregation of carvings at Waikoloa. Much of the information on this and my other Hawaii pages is from the highly recommend Spirit of Place: Petroglyphs of Hawaii, by Georgia Lee and Edward Stasack. It seems to be the most authoritative account of what we know about the carvings, and the difficulties of knowing what we know. The extensive data it lays out reflects

March 21, 2020 Bill Swislow

Petroglyphs: The Figure Carvings At Waikoloa

An ancient survivor amidst golf courses, condominiums, resorts, and shopping centers, the Waikoloa petroglyph site runs alongside the King’s Highway, itself based on an ancient trail. Ancient carvings in a setting like this are not likely to survive unscathed, and large quantities of them have been destroyed by construction activities. At least a few thousand persist, however. Note that the stick figures are believed to be older than the triangle-bodied figures. Two of these carvings (the second and the last below) can be dated to after 1778, the time of the first known contact with Europeans, led by Captain James

Front view of Alex Rico's art environment in Chicago's Bridgeport neighborhood

March 8, 2020 Bill Swislow

Art Environment Fit For A Queen

You’re not too likely to stumble upon this art environment in Chicago’s Bridgeport neighborhood. It’s on an out-of-the-way dead-end street. But it’s worth the hunt. Alex Rico turned his home into a literal castle to honor his late wife Gisela, who died at 34. “I told my kids I want to do something so I could remember your mom. Not in the cemetery. This is something I see every day,” Rico told the news site Block Club Chicago. You can read the full story and see pictures here and below. See more art environments here.

November 5, 2002 Bill Swislow

E.T. Wickham’s sorrowful eloquence: Book Review

E.T. Wickham: A Dream Unguarded, Clarksville, Tenn., Customs House Museum & Cultural Center, 2001. Softbound, 9 x 9 inches, 108 pages, 99 color photographs, 21 B/W photographs. Foreword by Ned Crouch, essays by Michael Hall, Daniel C. Prince, Susan W. Knowles, Janelle Strandberg Aieta, Ned Crouch and Robert Cogswell, bibliography. Photographic essays by Clark Thomas and Carol Turrentine. The fate of E.T. Wickham’s historical sculpture park in north central Palmyra, Tennessee, is one of the tragedies of 20th Century folk art. Thirty years of vandalism since his death have left headless bodies where there aren’t stumps and bare plinths where