The Louvre Museum, Paris, France
Welcome, welcome one and all to the second annual July 4th edition of Daily Kos Art Expo. In this edition you will be able to see all the hard work and glorious achievements of those members of Daily Kos who we like to call...”creatives” . Some of us write awesome and engaging poetry and prose, other make incredible works of art of all genres and many different modes. Here, you will get to enjoy it all!!!
Please feel free to browse through all the pieces, enjoy the visual delights, moving words and images, and make your pleasure and feelings known to the creators and take a moment to discuss the various pieces. We welcome your feedback.
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WESTERN ART BY M.T. SPACES
“Fire Over Flathead Lake” — Digitally-aided watercolor by MT Spaces (Model: Lisa)
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“Pathfinder” — Digitally-aided printmaking with brushed watercolor by MT Spaces (Model: Ruth)
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“Mountain Duo” — by MT Spaces (L) Analog photography and gouache; (R) Conte crayon (Model: Lynn)
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PAINTINGS BY DESERT SCIENTIST
These represent my love of the natural world, both as a scientist and artist. I use mixed media a lot. Usually watercolor and pen and ink, but occasionally with watercolor pencil or straight color pencil.
The Alligator was one that lived in a large freshwater pond at Key Deer National Wildlife Refuge on Big Pine Key in Florida. The work was painted in 2014 from a photo I took in 1974 on a 1/4 sheet of Arches cold press watercolor paper 140 lb. weight.
The Braided River is a 2019 painting in watercolor, color pencil, and pen and ink. It is of the Rio Chama near Abiquiu, New Mexico. This is a particularly beautiful stretch of the river south of Georgia O'Keeffe's Ghost Ranch and is from a photo taken by me in fall of 2006. On a 1/4 sheet of Arches cold press 300 lb. weight.
Finally, in the last painting I tried to capture Apache plume in fruit along the Ice Canyon trail in the Organ Mountains of New Mexico. Again watercolor and pen and ink painted in 2018 from a photograph that I took in 2015 and also on a 1/4 sheet of Arches cold press 300 lb. weight.
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PAINTINGS BY RALPHDOG
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JEWELRY BY LSLGRM
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Art By Gwennedd:
The Jellies
More Jellie
Painted sticks — a fun project that caught my fancy. Living in a rainforest provides lots of branches usable for walking sticks and other fun things.
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Comic Book Pages by Matt Z
My name is Matt Zimmer, and I have written and penciled my own crudely drawn comic book called Gilda And Meek And The Un-Iverse. It can be read for free at
gildaandmeekandtheuniverse.blogspot.com/...
In previous expos I’ve showcased some of my covers and characters, but I don’t know if that’s gonna be the thing to whet a person’s appetite. One of the interesting things about The Un-Iverse is that it’s a drama masked as a comedy. Mostly so as to attract people into dumb or silly jokes. Maybe I should be showcasing some of that in my portion of the Expo.
The first page is from UnComix One-Shots #1 The Humans (Un-Iverse #15) and the first page sort of showcases how dumb, funny, and ridiculous The Humans stories are. The Narrator always uses a comparison between how dumb this story is compared to Our Universe, and Our Universe’s example is always plenty dumb (as it’s usually political.)
From UnComix One-Shots #1 The Human (Un-Iverse #15)
The next example of humor takes place during a dramatic scene with high tensions and stakes as Gilda sneaks into a hospital to search for supplies for a dying Meek (without getting spotted by her enemy’s Werewolf bodyguards or spies). As usual the funny quip occurs with little fanfare and is simply a part of the story:
From Gilda And Meek #20 “Fight Or Flight” (Un-Iverse #32)
Finally a color sketch of Gilda in a look used for the issue Gilda And Meek #32 “Dark Child: Part One: The Riddle” (Un-Iverse #46). That issue isn’t available on the Gilda And Meek site (although the Sketch is) but I thought the design was funny enough to share.
Sketch by Matt Zimmer
My Un-Iverse Site has gone through some (VERY) recent changes, in celebration of the Kos Art Expo. I have redone the artwork entirely for the first issue Gilda And Meek “Groundwork” in a Special Edition. It was necessary because the newer version more closely resembles my current art style and less closely resembles a heinous vat of hogshit (pardon my Gragnock). There have been a few tiny revisions to the script too, but they are utterly superficial. I actually redid it not to improve the script (which was all right), but to make it so the reader doesn’t automatically vomit at the very first thing available at the site. The first version of Groundwork was hardly me putting my best foot forward.
I suspect my story might be polarizing for many people. But why give y’all the extra EXCUSE to duck out early? Thank you Kos Art Expo for keeping me honest! I always planned to get around to doing this at some point, but this Expo gave me a good excuse to actually do it. I actually think it looks pretty good now (if still done in my singularly crude pencil style). I think you’ll dig it.
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Painting Creations by A Pagan in Arizona
Goat Skull. Acrylics on natural bone. 2021.
Late last year my kids found this skull while hiking near our property. It needed a lot of cleaning up but eventually became a perfect surface for painting on. I enjoyed creating this very much, and hope that eventually one of us finds another perfect bone for me to embellish.
Doodle. Acrylics on canvas board. 2021.
I've been a doodler in pen and pencil all my life, but this was the first time I did it using paints. It was a very freeing experience, and something I will certainly do more often.
Cosmic Billiards was named for the planets seen in it by friends of mine, and the billiard balls I myself saw in the image. Another doodle of sorts, in that it continually changed as I went along.
Cosmic Billiards. Acrylics on canvas board. 2021.
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Paintings by cmae
The first painting is another imaginary portrait, I love doing these, because it is interesting to me to see if I can imbue a painting from my mind's eye with feeling, which is very important to me.
'Imaginary portrait' Acrylic on canvas
The next painting is based upon me looking out my window at night. I used a palette knife to enable me to get my initial impressions down on canvas quickly. I wanted to see what would happen if I didn't get too analytical with it.
'Blue Night' Acrylic on canvas
Title, 'Flower lines' Acrylic on canvas
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PAINTING BY STAR HAWK
Horse Head Nebula With Mustangs 36 X 48 Acrylic by Star Hawk
I enjoy mixing deep space photos with Earth critters.
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Sketches and Studies by Nolana
Over the last few months I have been looking after my sister, who underwent shoulder replacement surgery in February and has had a long and difficult recovery. While I am glad to be able to help her, it has cut into my art time, and I have produced no finished works in a long time. So in lieu of a completed painting, I present here a few random sketches and studies.
Study for Big Branch, Acrylic on paper, 14”x16.5”, January 2020
This is a quick study I did of an element in a larger painting I hope to finish someday — a view up the Big Branch in Mt. Tabor, VT, where this tannin-stained river comes crashing down a steep cleft, roaring over quartzite boulders, before disappearing into the marshes near the head of Otter Creek. I have been told I don’t know how many times that you can’t achieve depth and naturalistic color with acrylics. I want to prove these statements wrong.
Cedars at the Art Center, Ink and Watercolor on Bristol sketchbook paper, 9”x12” May 2019
I had just signed up for membership in the local Arts Center, and celebrated by doing this portrait of a pair of the great old cedar trees just outside the main gallery building. Rapidograph pens, waterproof ink, then color from my stackable Koh-i-Noor field watercolor set and a small waterbrush.
Studies for Chickadees on Sunflower, Graphite in Bristol sketchbook, 9”x12”, December 2019
Getting proportions right and wrong, counting wing feathers, otherwise working out the bugs. This became an ink-and-watercolor that sold for actual money!
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Drawings by niemann
I’ve always liked old things and old styles, so it’s probably obvious that my work has been very influenced by the classic illustrators and literature.
It struck me once that there seem to be two kinds of artist. The first is the kind who look at the world outside themselves and internalize the external, somehow making things that anyone can see intensely personal. The one who leaps to my mind as the epitome of that is Vincent van Gogh. Anyone could have looked at the things he looked at, but how many could have done … THAT? The second kind externalize the internal, pulling things out of their minds and psyches for the rest of us to see. I think of William Blake as a big representative of that.
I can appreciate both, but obviously I’m more the second kind. This first picture was started as a stream-of-consciousness doodle done during a boring staff meeting. I had layered different colors of acrylic paint on pieces of bristol board, for the purpose of carrying around for just such moments. Then I let my mind find patterns in the paint, to see what emerged. I have no idea what is going on here:
Red watercolor pencil on yellow acrylic on bristol board. c. 2007-8
This second was done to go along with a piece of music I had composed — a choral setting of the “Carol of the Field-Mice” from Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows (one of my favorite books):
“The Carol of the Field-Mice”; THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS
Pencil and ink on yellow acrylic on a textured watercolor board. 2009
I’ve always been interested in the way different creative fields overlap, so that one’s an example of the meeting of story, music, poetry, and pictures. This third is from an illustrated edition I did of Lewis Carroll’s The Hunting of the Snark. The book was all done in pen-and-ink, black and white, but now that self-publishing is a thing, I’ve had it in mind to add watercolor to the full-page illustrations and design a nice second edition myself.
"Just the place for a Snark!" the Bellman cried,
As he landed his crew with care;
Supporting each man on the top of the tide
By a finger entwined in his hair.”
THE HUNTING OF THE SNARK
Pen and ink on bristol board. 1991
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Art and Jewelry by sharondonovan
For 28 years, I have been working as a professional artist. I have been calling myself “Covid Retired” for the last year or so. I feel my job was already a downhill struggle, my customers have been middle aged women and older, who were shopping less and less.
In July I face exhibiting in my first art show in 17 months. I am feeling all the emotions I pushed down over the last year. I also feel the strain of finding where I stashed all my equipment and trying to resurrect my business, a daunting task.
The last high quality work of 2020.
New Jazz Geometric Earrings IX
Sterling silver, 14k gold, Yellow Sapphires, Victorian bronze and aluminum beads, glass contemporary beads, silk thread, and gold wire.
I began to make protest art in 2020, while I enjoyed being home for a long period for the first time in 26 years.
Covid45 Flag II. Polyester and cotton, brass, recycled copper, thread.
The need to work has curtailed my weeks of freedom, but keeps me housed and fed. Using time more conservatively, I have whittled my thoughts down to the most bare concept.
Kill None: Glass, electrical tape, markers
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Paintings by michelewln
I am an expressionist painter. Expressionism, artistic style in which the artist seeks to depict not objective reality but rather the subjective emotions and responses that objects and events arouse within a person.
Desert Sunset was inspired by a description in a mystery I was reading of a sunset with cream, lavender, and pink. It was done in acrylics in 2020.
Lavender started as a painting lesson. It was done in 2020 in acrylics.
Old Wooden Pier is my favorite painting. It came out exactly the way I wanted. It was done in 2020 in acrylics. I just had this idea for a painting in my mind.
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Drawings by composernan
Art Class Instruction: Sketch your hand. Sketch the broken chair. Sketch your shoe. Try to fill the page. Make details as realistic as you can.
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Ceramic Art by MEL in PGH
Here are 2 selections of my latest work.
The first is a photo of new address number tiles that I made for my house. The original numbers were Frank Lloyd Wright bronze plaques from Fallingwater. But true to Wright’s “style over function” they did an excellent job of collecting dirt and road salt and looked horrendous for most of the year. The new tiles are made using my “signature” style of shellac resist and black matte glaze on white porcelain.
These tiles are very customizable. If you are interested in having a set made send Kosmail
The second photo shows the beginnings of something I am calling The 50 Plates Project. I am making gifts for a special group of people over the next 2 years and I will need to have at least 50 plates for the entire group. Here are plates 1-5. I am not crazy about the one in the lower right and may discard that one. Stay tuned for additional plate photos as they are completed.
I am looking forward to trying out many different decoration techniques to complete 50 plates
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On The Fence a weekly web cartoon by PartOfTheSolution
I’ve worked as a visual artist for General Motors, graphic designer for Blue Cross of Michigan, illustrator for Detroit Metro Times newspaper, a magazine designer, book designer/illustrator/editor and too many other clients to mention. I started On The Fence because I needed a project that reflected the insanity of the modern USA, and one that would motivate me to continue. Friends have told me to concentrate on writing about society and politics, but there are plenty of writers out there doing that, and the people who need to be brought back to sanity aren’t known for reading. And so On The Fence was born.
On The Fence is a story of neighbors in conflict, since that was in my mind boiling the present reality down to its essence. A maniac was in charge who spent all his time deflecting from his grifts and scams with daily insane and inflammatory comments. When I started to put together this cartoon, people told me that no one wanted to see or think about Trump. I said, what do you mean, this is about a composite of my former redneck neighbor Walt and all the other douche bags I’ve had the displeasure to meet. Coincidentally, he sort of looks like the Former Guy.
I spent decades scribbling out drawings with my crow quill pen and india ink. Now I sketch out my drawings in pencil, scan them and open them in Adobe Illustrator. Then I trace my sketch with the pen tool and adjust the lines with the Line Width tool. After adding backgrounds I open the line drawing in PhotoShop and add color and any effects I feel like. In the past my work was much more detailed, but for this comic I decided to keep it as simple as practical for better viewing on mobile devices. I’m hopeful to take it to the next step, animation.
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A Painting By boran2
Bodiam Castle, UK, Acrylic on canvas, 9x9 inches, 2021
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Paintings by mflinn
I’m in a disastrous frame of mind. Recent events, including the ongoing unprecedented heat wave we’re experiencing here in the Northwest, and my own inability to see the future resulted in a couple of unfinished paintings that I wanted to share in this Expo. For now, within the general theme of, “Beyond Control”, I submit the following older attempts (some of which have appeared here and there previously) for your kind consideration. May things find an even keel soon.
She’s A Science Fiction! by M.Flinn oil on canvas 20” X 24” for sale by artist mflinn.com
Fringe Jacket Dharma by M.Flinn oil on canvas 24” X 20” for sale by artist mflinn.com
Seanachie Sunset by M.Flinn oil on canvas 52” X 40” for sale by artist mflinn.com
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Clock Art by Rknrobin
I make clocks out of recycled vinyl albums (33rpm & 78's), epoxy, mica and clock works.
I do custom colors for those interested. I also work with other mediums, wood and acrylics. In addition I give in home FlowArt Paint Parties. Well I did before Covid. It's been very difficult to get things rolling again. Here are 3 clocks. If your like to see my other artwork check out Rock Slayer Art on FB or Instagram. Or if you're in NM and would like to experience flowart first hand send me a shout.
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Political Art by Nonnie9999
Our friend and famous wit, Nonnie9999, has titled the piece Cheney Leaves the House of Twitler. The original painting can be found here: Original image (Peter Paul Rubens: Hagar Leaves the House of Abraham). This adaptation includes “Shecky McCarthy, The Little Slurmaid Elise Stefanik and Liz Cheney (whom I still don't trust and think is an opportunist, and this latest gig on the 1/6 Commission just coincidentally coincides with what she thinks is best for her political ambitions….)”
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Paintings by Marko the Werelynx
I haven’t really sat down to do a lot of painting lately, but I thought I’d like to share a few things, like the last two oil paintings that I’ve finished.
The chateau at Velké Losiny in Slovakia- Oil on particle board, 26 cm x 31 cm
That one started as a sketch. The family didn’t give me a lot of time for sketching that day, so I ended up finishing my little oil painting at home— years later. I’ve got a wooden box that I like to use while sketching outdoors. I can keep my paints, brushes, jars, rags and even the sheets of particle board that I like to use all in one box. You can see it under painting in the next picture.
“Nessie”— oil paint on particle board, 26 cm x 31 cm. Work in progress.
Okay, so that photo was taken before the piece was actually finished, still a bit of work went into that leg in the foreground and I signed it. Currently this one is at the framers, so I couldn’t get a good pic of the finished painting.
Otherwise, I’ve been doing a bit of commercial work. I’ve been working with a small brewery as their graphic designer and did this illustration for an Easter-themed special beer.
Walnut ink wash drawing. 20 cm x 30 cm
And that’s what it looks like on one of my label designs.
Hopefully, as my summer gets going, I’ll have more to share for the next Art Expo.
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Music by GAS
My previous contribution to ART KOS was a few songs from punk artist Dr. Grace’s Symphony No. 1 which I helped produce. Symphony No. 2 is in various stages of production and includes a viola quartet and Wagner tuba.
The decade of the nineties was a period of musical growth for me beginning with a restart of composition after fifteen years laying fallow while learning the orchestral repertoire first hand (horn). Conductor Kent Nagano, before a rehearsal with the Berkeley Symphony, saw me copying parts for a wind quartet I’d written and asked me to write something for the BSO. A Romantic would write a concerto for their instrument and perform it, I half mused, resulting in Horn Concerto, premiered in 1993.
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Photos by gizmo59
Squirt (2021, Edinboro, PA)
The Side of a Barn (2021, Guys Mills, PA)
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Art by Stude Dude (a/k/a “Junkyard Doug”)
Binary Boogie Reboot
Throne Room
Captain Saucer: Airlock!
“These are comic and Sci-Fi art and pinups for various projects.”
— Stude Dude (a/k/a Junkyard Doug)
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Paintings by Rsie
Self Portrait painted around the mid 80s. Entitled: A Sunday Morning.
Also painted mid 80s. Inspired by a picture in the Sunday Globe. It is a tower in Spain for which I have forgotten the name.
Another from the 80s. It is an interpretation of a Van Gogh painting entitled: The Enclosed Field. November 1889.
All are acrylic on canvas.
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Photography by Trot
Dusk Settles
Swamp Fox Trail in the Francis Marion National Forest, SC
Feb 6, 2017
Winyah
Oct 10, 2013
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Art and a Web-Comic by Hatrax
Hello, I'm Hatrax. I do a young adult-friendly web and print comic with two of my friends called
The Extras. It's free to read online here:
www.theextras.thecomicseries.comFour girls from everywhere.
A school in the middle of somewhere.
A city at the edge of anywhere.
A school story like you'll find nowhere else.
The Extras is a modern take on a classic boarding school story in the tradition of Angela Brazil and Gordon Korman, a slice-of-life comedy / fantasy about the everyday adventures of growing up. Located in the City, the School of Saints Java and Hellbender is as much a character in the story as the girls from almost everywhere who live and learn there, and just as full of secrets.
We've professionally published our first print collection, a square-bound volume collecting the first 60-plus pages of the webcomic. If you're interested in a copy, PM me- DKos members get a discount.
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Photography by Marsanges
Marsanges
Marsanges
My friend, in a winter jacket in cold rain
sinks away into a dark miasma.
The ‘sharp angled peacock’ moth, macaria alternata.
Casts a dramatic shadow, as if it had a hidden wild soul,
although it just is a little peaceful insect
whose caterpillars live on willow and birch.
The big spider is not far.
I hope it knows its business.
Marsanges
Moths: Idaea humiliata, Macaria alternata, Eupithecia subumbrata
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A Memorial for RedWoodMan
(1950- 2021)
'When a person dies, he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past…All moments, past, present and future, always have existed, always will exist. It is just an illusion we have here on Earth that one moment follows another one, like beads on a string, and that once a moment is gone it is gone forever'
—KURT VONNEGUT
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6412093 .dailykos.com/...
'The Solstice Heron'
By 6412093
aka RedwoodMan
(1950- 2021)
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I'm having a kind of vision
of how my neighbor Ted sees me-
He is a Born-Aginner, but gentle and humble.
~
He hears me singing poorly
and dancing naked under the moon
with the frogs shredding hard, and it stirs his own Celtic roots.…
~
He sees me gain and lose weight and hair and joke about Celtic medicine
when he thought Christ had dominion over miracle cures.
~
He's an outdoors type.
But my backyard frogs and my heron overflights make him uneasy,
as if out of place in the Suburbs.
~
Maybe that's when he discovers
possibly, that his wife is actually a Selkie-
and she takes off with me
who has transformed into a Heron...
Or the frogs or the heron,
will then save his Life.
Photo of RWM Uploaded to dk library by 6412093
Link to Besame's Community Spotlight memorial for RWM : dailykos
Created for RWM By Lostintheozarks
(poem below by Angmar for RWM)
~
(1950- 2021)
Well Beyond Midnight
Dry rustle of treetops,
agitated by the wind- well beyond midnight,
dress again
and then I walk, through streets empty
Beneath the copper glowing streetlamps.
Only life a shadowy turbulence, moths beat themselves into glows
at the periphery of my vision
But sometimes,in silhouette
A something seeming - movement possibly
of friends who passed gone forever
Into the endless, movement of Time.
(For RWM)
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