Robert E. Paige

Robert Earl Paige (1936) is a multi-disciplinary artist and arts educator working across textile design, painting, collage, and sculpture based in Woodlawn, Chicago.

As an artist and textile designer allied with the Black Arts Movement, Robert E. Paige trained at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and worked at the architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Sears Roebuck & Company and Fiorio Milano design house in Italy.

Paige was raised in Chicago's South Side where he continues to live and work, further developing his longstanding career in the decorative arts. His work visually and conceptually interrogates political and cultural themes that reflect both historical and contemporary African American art references, as well as traditional textile practices of West Africa.

For much of his career Paige considered himself a "ghost artist", as much of his work went into circulation without the attachment of his name as a designer, although his "Kool-Aid Color" textile designs helped popularize West African patterns to American shoppers.

He is now an artist in residence at the Dusable Museum and has expanded his creative practice beyond textiles and is experimenting in painting, drawing, and ceramics. His work has since been exhibited in major art institutions and museums including the Art Institute of Chicago, Salon 94 Design Gallery in New York, The Hyde Park Art Center, and Kavi Gupta Gallery in Chicago.

Robert Fitzgerald

Robert Stuart Fitzgerald (1910 –1985) was an American poet, literary critic and translator whose renderings of the Greek classics "became standard works for a generation of scholars and students".

He was best known as a translator of ancient Greek and Latin. He also composed several books of his own poetry. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. From 1984 to 1985 he was appointed Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, a position now known as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry, the United States' equivalent of a national poet laureate, but did not serve due to illness. In 1984 Fitzgerald received a L.H.D. from Bates College.

Jack Agüeros

Jack Agüeros (1934 –2014) was an American community activist, poet, writer, and translator, and the former director of El Museo del Barrio.

After serving for four years in the United States Air Force as a guided missile instructor, he attended Brooklyn College on the G.I. Bill, intending to become an engineer. Inspired by Bernard Grebanier, a charismatic professor of English, and his lectures on Shakespeare, Agüeros began writing plays and poems, and instead graduated with a B.A. in English literature and a minor in speech and theatre.

Two of Agüeros's poems were included in one of the first anthologies of Puerto Rican literature, Borinquen, edited by Maria Teresa Babin and Stan Steiner, which was published by Knopf in December 1974. The two poems, "Canción del Tecato" and "El Apatético", are both in Spanish and appear in the section "Where am I at? The Youth," which also includes Pedro Pietri's well-known poem "Puerto Rican Obituary".

Albert Wagner #2

Following yesterday's post on Albert Wagner: One Bad Cat.

ONE BAD CAT is about the transformative role art plays in the tumultuous life of 82 year-old, African-American, renowned "outsider" artist Reverend Albert Wagner. He has been a lightening rod for controversy his entire life. Racism, ego and lust led him to the brink of ruin. Miraculously turned onto religion at age 50, he was inspired by God to paint, and become a famous artist for a mostly White clientele. From a racist Southern upbringing, in his later years his artwork railed against the lifestyles of members of the African-American community, which created as many detractors as champions. Near the film's conclusion, an ailing Albert comes to terms with his checkered past. Was Albert's penitence real and did he achieve redemption through his art?
 

The Reverend Albert Wagner

The Reverend Albert Wagner (1924-2006) was born to sharecroppers in rural Arkansas, where he remembered loving to draw imaginary cars and airplanes (he had never been in either). His mother told him that if she had the money to send him to art school he might become a great artist. He left school after the third grade and eventually moved north to Cleveland, Ohio with his mother and brothers. 

After many years in the furniture moving business, Albert's childhood dream of becoming an artist came true. While cleaning up his house for his fiftieth birthday party, he was inspired by drips and splatters of paint that had stained an old board. From that moment he devoted himself to his art. His three story East Cleveland house is now home to both his People Love People House of God Ministry (basement) and the Rev. Albert Wagner museum and studio. 

Literally thousands of his drawings, paintings, sculptures and constructions were on display in every room of this unmistakable three story home. The Reverend's work is often religious, illustrating lessons from the Bible, but he also expresses his feelings on social matters and illustrates scenes from his childhood in the rural south. 

He has been widely exhibited around the country, including shows at the Akron Museum of Art and the American Visionary Museum of Art in Baltimore. Reverend Wagner was the subject of an expose "Faith in Paint" in LIFE MAGAZINE, May 25, 1998.

Arthur Cadwgan Michael

Arthur Cadwgan Michael was a Welsh painter and illustrator. He is largely known for his early black and white work, pictures of the First World War in the Illustrated London News and book illustrations.

Arthur J. Vidich

Arthur J. Vidich (1922-2006) was a long-term member of the faculty at the New School for Social Research as a professor of Sociology (1960-1991). 

He published dozens of books, papers, and edited anthologies, notably Small Town in Mass Society: Class, Power, and Religion in a Rural Community (1958). 

This collection contains material documenting his teaching, writing, lectures, and other academic and professional work spanning his entire career.

Art Lucs

Art Lucs was a multidisplinary artist and was a member of Propeller Gallery, until his death in 2018.  In addition to exciting work in the field of Generative Art, he was also involved in several large scale public art projects.

“Fifteen years ago I started taking photographs of the pond near our home, while standing in the same place every day — an activity that I have since applied to other locations as well. Along with these day-to-day photos, I began taking rapid sequence photographs as I moved through various. landscapes, such as the route of the Toronto Subway and the Gardiner Expressway in Toronto. I then used each photo collection to create a composite image made up of individual multi-layered transparencies. The end result is always a slow surprise, evoking a dreamlike memory and the spirit of each unique location."

Arthur O. Roberts

Arthur O. Roberts is professor-at-large at George Fox University in Newberg, Oregon, where he began teaching in 1953 after he received a Ph.D. in church history at Boston University. He is nationally known as the author of numerous books and as a Quaker scholar. 

His two most recent books are Prayers at Twilight and Exploring Heaventhe first exemplary of his gifts as a poet, the second as a writer of prose. His professional career began as a Friends minister, and he never abandoned his pastoral call during years of academic service. Through the written word and through the spoken word from lectern and pulpit, he has profoundly influenced students and peers. Arthur and his wife, Fern, live at Friendsview Retirement Community in Newberg.

Ilya Vartanyan

Ilya Vartanyan is one of Moscow’s top photographers. 

After moving from Armenia to Moscow in 1994, Vartanyan has been a regular contributor on all glossy magazines without exception: Vogue, GQ, Tatler, Esquire, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, etc. 

“Dreams of Armenia” is a chronicle of the photographer’s trips back to his homeland. The photographs tell the story of one of the world’s most ancient civilizations, its culture and traditions, along with breathtaking landscapes. The country itself inspires the author, leading him across ages and generations. 

Through his photographs, he tells his own story connecting him with his land. “Dreams of Armenia” is also the photographer’s self-portrait, through which he shares his experiences and impressions, using all sorts of details: landscapes, colors, emotions and images of people from various generations.

Vartanian spent the years of 2009-2014 working on his first major project in Armenia. For years, he documented life on the streets of Armenian cities and villages, visiting the country’s amazing natural wonders. He documented the life-pulse of this ancient land: the unusual beauty of the faces, subtle details conveying people’s characters and emotions, stunning views and landscapes. Over the years, Vartanian put together a unique chronicle, which made up his album and the collection of his exhibition about Armenia.

Arthur Legat

Arthur Legat (1898 - 1960) was a racing car driver from Haine Saint Paul, Belgium.

He participated in two Formula One World Champion Grand Prix, debuting on 22 June 1952. He scored no championship points.

Legat won the Grand Prix des Frontières at Chimay in 1931 and 1932 with a Bugatti. 

Thank You Beret Much

August 2017 was the 100th birthday of Arthur Walters, one of Scotland's oldest war heroes. The WWII veteran was celebrating with his family when four Royal Marines showed up, presenting Arthur with a very special beret.

Arthur signed up in 1935, so they gave him the navy-blue beret worn by the Marines at the time (the green beret was introduced in the 1940s). He said "I can still remember getting on my bike and peddling into Birmingham to sign up on 10 July, 1935. It feels like yesterday".

When asked about life in the Marines, he added "Well, I drank a lot of beer."

Arthur Herzog

Arthur Charles Henri Herzog (1862 - 1913), was a Swiss painter, best known for his Swiss landscapes and orientalist scenes.

Self portrait, 1905

In 1884, he joined a French scientific expedition to Algeria. He painted oriental subjects observed in Algeria which he sent to Neuchâtel, some of these paintings are preserved, but the large part of his work disappeared in a fire in the docks of Marseille on his return.

In 1897, he made a long trip to Egypt and brought back new orientalist paintings. He left Switzerland again in 1900 to take up a teaching position at the National Internado of Chile. He returned in 1905 and exhibited again at the Friends of the Arts of Neuchâtel.

A. J. Meek

A. J. Meek is an American photographer, teacher, and writer.

Meek is known for his selenium toned silver gelatin contact prints made with an 8 x 20 banquet camera of landscapes in Louisiana and the American West and for images that are a balance between the documentary tradition and the fine arts.

The core of Meek's work was photographing the landscape in his adopted State of Louisiana. People, gardens, churches, sugar cane mills, rural landscapes, and heavy industry in the Louisiana were many of his subjects. He used large format cameras (8 x 20 banquet, 8 x 10 field, and 4 x 5 field). Other projects included the Highlands of Scotland, American West, the central valley of California, and the Boboli Gardens in Florence. 

Selected to serve on the Board of Advisors to the former Civil War Center at Louisiana State University inspired his ten-year study photographing the major battlefield parks. His work has been exhibited in national and international museums, galleries, and included in many public and private collections. Prints and negatives from his archives before 1996 have been acquired by The Historic New Orleans Collection.

Doris Blackburn

Doris Amelia Blackburn (née Hordern; 1889 –1970) was an Australian social reformer and politician.

She served in the House of Representatives from 1946 to 1949, the second woman after Enid Lyons to do so. Blackburn was a prominent socialist and originally a member of the Labor Party. She was married to Maurice Blackburn, a Labor MP, but he was expelled from the party in 1937 and she resigned from the party in solidarity. 

Her husband died in 1944, and she was elected to his former seat at the 1946 federal election – the first woman elected to parliament as an independent. However, Blackburn served only a single term before being defeated. She later served as president of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.

Lizzy Kuoth

Lizzy’s Kuoth’s story is an inspiring example of finding strength in adversity and stepping into your power.

At the end of 2002, 11-year-old Lizzy escaped from war-torn South Sudan in Africa, with her grandmother, younger siblings and cousin, seeking safety as a refugee in Egypt. Like many South Sudanese people, the civil war forced them to leave their home country. Her grandmother Nyaluak had risked everything for a better life.

On her arrival in Australia in 2005, she faced many of the same challenges as most non-English speaking arrivals with a refugee background – from not speaking the language to feeling isolated and struggling to fit in.

Things slowly started to change as she went into volunteering and began to immerse herself into giving back. She surrounded herself with different people from different communities advocating for social justice. And she realised that community service was giving her an outlet that she didn’t know was possible.

The French Dispatch

The French Dispatch (titled onscreen as The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun) is a 2021 American anthology comedy drama film written, directed, and produced by Wes Anderson from a story he conceived with Roman Coppola, Hugo Guinness, and Jason Schwartzman.

It features an expansive ensemble cast and follows three different storylines as the French foreign bureau of the fictional Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun newspaper publishes its final issue.

In 1975, in the fictional French town of Ennui-sur-Blasé (from French, literally, "boredom on jaded"), Arthur Howitzer Jr., the editor of the magazine The French Dispatch, dies suddenly of a heart attack. According to the wishes expressed in his will, publication of the magazine is immediately suspended following one final farewell issue, in which four articles are published, along with an obituary.

In an epilogue, the French Dispatch staff mourn Howitzer's death, but set to work putting together a final issue to honour his memory.

The film has been described as "a love letter to journalists set at an outpost of an American newspaper in a fictional 20th-century French city", centering on four stories.

Last US WW1 Veteran Frank Buckles

Frank Buckles was repeatedly rejected by military recruiters and got into uniform at 16 after lying about his age. He would later become the last surviving U.S. veteran of World War I.

Buckles, who also survived being a civilian POW in the Philippines in World War II, died of natural causes Sunday at his home in Charles Town, biographer and family spokesman David DeJonge said. He was 110.

When asked in February 2008 how it felt to be the last of his kind, he said simply, "I realized that somebody had to be, and it was me." And he told The Associated Press he would have done it all over again, "without a doubt."

Dom Antoine Drouineau

With his Roman collar, his beret and his donkey, Dom Antoine Drouineau, 34, has not gone unnoticed on the roads of Loir-et-Cher, Loiret, in the Essonne and Seine-et-Marne. Chaplain in a school in Loir-et-Cher, he has been appointed priest referent in Moissy-Cramayel Lieusaint and Réau, and decided to turn his transfer into a pilgrimage.

“I wanted to make a little pilgrimage to arrive on my new ministry and have time to pray, he says. Walking with the donkey was conducive to meditation because it walks slowly.”

The journey of the young priest ran smoothly: “I put up the tent every night. People greeted me and offered me a shower or food. I went through the magnificent scenery of the Sologne, the Chambord forest, where we saw game, the Loire … “But a priest and his donkey on the roads has not failed to attract the curiosity of passersby: “When they saw that I was a priest with my Roman collar, they were even more intrigued by my approach. Some have asked me to pray for them. ‘

New Zealand Women's Auxiliary Air Force

The Women's Auxiliary Air Force was the female auxiliary of the Royal New Zealand Air Force during the Second World War. Established in 1941, it began with an initial draft of 200 women, reaching a peak strength of about 3,800, with a total of about 4,750 women passing through its ranks, of who more than 100 achieved commissioned officer rank.

The majority of WAAFs were quickly demobilised after the end of the war in 1945, but a small number remained, and under the terms of the Air Force Amendment Act 1947 became a permanent part of the peacetime establishment of the RNZAF.

In 1954 the WAAF was renamed the Women's Royal New Zealand Air Force. In July 1977 the WRNZAF was dissolved, and all members were integrated into the RNZAF, gaining equal pay and employment rights, and access to more trades and training.

Restrictions on women serving as aircrew were lifted in the 1980s, and the first female pilot qualified in 1988. By 2008 there were four female wing commanders and one group captain.

In March 2016 17% of RNZAF personnel were women.

Tête Bleue

Tête Bleue is an Istanbul based, genderless lifestyle brand founded by designer Elif Tasel in 2021. 

Elif’s design journey started at ITU and FIT New York. Following her graduation, she experienced New York fashion scene at brands such as Isaac Mizrahi, Cynthia Steffe, Vera Wang, Kenneth Cole and Jill Stuart. In 2012 she decided to return her hometown, Istanbul, and worked as a womenswear & accessories designer at Beymen Club. 

Looking at this old picture of herself in elementary school wearing tailored red French beret and gold-buttoned red cape rather than a blue school uniform, inspired Elif to create tête bleue. 

Aiming to remind the good feeling of something unique and handmade, the brand adopts local artisanship and ‘slow fashion’ approach in the world of fast fashion. tête bleue intends to reinterpret classic and timeless pieces, and follow a season-less, independent calendar.