"Moonlight Serenade" - Johnathan Harris

Man you have to keep busy to keep up. Internet marketing is constantly changing and just when I put my foot down and say no to the next social marketing craze I end up eating my words. Well things may be complicated but it really is fun for me to try and keep up with the next best thing. Like our newsletter...we have a new service and now we have figured out how to utilize more integrative systems to reach more people. Reach of course is what it is all about, but for us it's not just about selling things, but "reaching" that person that will fall in love with a certain painting or other art work and we will connect the two. That is what Creative Consumerism™ is all about, connecting the art lover with the art. So here is the link to our latest newsletter. If you'd like to start receiving our newsletter, please visit any page of our site and on the lower left hand side of the page there is a place for you to sign up.

(c) 2012 - Ruth Mitchell - all rights reserved

Artist Antzee Magruder, a featured artist at the Bottle Tree Gallery has been selected to participate in the Memphis "Unveil Downtown," a city wide art tour ongoing June 1-20, 2012.

(c) 2012 - Ruth Mitchell - all rights reserved

Ancient Kauri Wood

The grain of ancient Kauri wood has a luminous quality.

Okay, it sounds too strange to believe, but here's the story. Ancient Kauri logs, 50,000 years old, yes, 50,000 years old are being harvested from fields in New Zealand, and because they are not petrified, but have been preserved by peat bogs, make a wonderful medium for artists and craftsmen.

The logs, some with a girth of around 40 feet, and a total height of nearly 200 feet long, grew for 1,200 to 2,000 years before they were felled in an unexplained act of nature at the end of the last ice age. Radio carbon dating places the age of the Ancient Kauri trees being excavated from New Zealand fields at 50,000 years old. This is the maximum limit of radio carbon dating, so it is possible the logs are even older.

The logs were preserved by a unique balanced environment beneath peat bogs, that kept them so well from rotting or becoming  petrified. Ancient Kauri is similar in density to cherry, with textures like basswood. The grain has a luminous quality that gives the ancient wood a unique quality. Kauri trees still grows today in countries around the Pacific Rim.

(c) 2012 - Ruth Mitchell - all rights reserved

Art of Information

We've been publishing our blog since May of 2008 and since that time we've had nearly 80,000 page views. We have racked up a good bit of information about art on our website in that four years and wanted to remind you that the buyoutsidethebox.com blog has become a good resource, whether we've written about your or a topic you enjoy. You can use our blog as a specific information center by using the blogger search slot, located at the top right hand corner of the page, to search our blog for a certain topic. I use this tool all the time to reference information that exists within the blog. Also, we'd like to invite you to "friend" us on Facebook. This wonderful resource is connecting people all over the world and gives us another outlet to work with our public audience. Have a great weekend!--Ruth Mitchell

(c) T2012 - Ruth Mitchell - all rights reserved

"The Lantern Bearers" by Maxfield Parrish

Recently I was privileged to stand within one foot of this amazing painting, "The Lantern Bearers" by Maxfield Parrish at the Crystal Bridges Museum, in Bentonville, Arkansas. Although the painting was originally created to be reproduced as a frontispiece for the December 10, 1910 issue of Collier’s magazine, its visual effect is much like the Grand Canyon, you just have to see it in person to understand the magnitude of depth it presents.

Parrish achieved the glowing blues and yellows in this work by layering pure pigment and varnish repeatedly on a blue white background, a time-consuming technique inspired by Old Master painters. In this particular painting the lanterns appear to glow as if they are back lit. Parrish also took photographs and worked from them; the seated figure in the lower left of the painting is based on a photograph of Susan Lewin, a favorite model who was employed as a housekeeper in the Parrish household for many years.

Parrish would build up the depth in his paintings by photographing, enlarging, projecting and tracing half- or full-size objects or figures. Parrish then cut out and placed the images on his canvas, covering them with thick, but clear, layers of glaze. This explains the clarity of the faces of the clowns that are not painted but yet do not look out of place. The painting was purchased for the museum at Christie's in New York on  May 25th, 2006 for $4.272 million. Go see it if you can.--Ruth Mitchell

(c) 2012 - Ruth Mitchell - all rights reserved

Star Bright - Suzanne Valadon

Dance at Bougival, by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Oh, If I could have half the fun in life as impressionist artist Suzane Valadon and have a crater on Venus named after me as she did.  The beautiful model for Renoir's painting, Dance at Bougival, was not only the subject of several of Renoir's paintings she was an impressive artist in her own right, becoming
the first woman painter admitted to the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts.

Valadon painted portraits, flowers, still lifes and landscapes, but is best known for her candid female nudes. Her style features strong composition and vibrant colors. A perfectionist, she worked on some of her oil paintings for up to 13 years before showing them.

"Reclining Nude" Susane Valadon

In addition to appearing in several of Pierre-Auguste Renoir most famous paintings, Valadon also modeled for  Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (who gave her painting lessons), and Pierre-Cécile Puvis de Chavannes. Composer Erik Satie purportedly proposed to her the first night of their relationship, and was  devastated six months later when the relationship ended. Her marriage to stock broker Paul Moussis ended too when, in 1909, she left him for a painter half her age, André Utter. Artist Pablo Picasso was present at her funeral. 

(c) 2012 - Ruth Mitchell - all rights reserved

WHAT???? REALLY???

Sometimes I am more naive than I realize. I am always grateful for the information that the internet lays at my fingertips, but reading the Kipling Report recently, I came across this little gem, and I don't think I'm alone in my innocence.

Apparently your browsing history is tracked and this information is sold to online marketing groups so they know what kind of advertising to deliver to you. And while the Digital Advertising Alliance, which includes over 95% of online advertisers will begin to push its members to off a "do not track" option on web content, many people don't realize that Mozilla's Firefox has offered this option for over a year. I know I use Firefox and was unaware of this option. Currently only 10% of Firefox users are using it.

At buyoutsidethebox, we think this ability to track your browsing is wrong, so if you use Firefox here's how to enable the option:

The Do-not-track feature is turned off by default. To turn it on:

At the top of the Firefox window, click on the Firefox button (Tools menu in Windows XP) and then click Options
Select the Privacy panel.
Check Tell websites I do not want to be tracked.
Click OK to close the Options window

(c) 2012 - Ruth Mitchell - all rights reserved

Cross Sections

"The Silence Of Our Friends"

Arkansas-born comic book artist/illustrator Nate Powell who was drawn to comics at an early age, self-publishing his first collaborative book at 14. His breakthrough graphic novel Swallow Me Whole won the 2009 Eisner Award for Best Graphic Novel, 2008 and 2009 Ignatz Awards for Outstanding Artist and Outstanding Debut, and was named a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist for Young Adult Fiction—the only comic to be nominated in that category.

Nate's comments concerning his upcoming exhibit, "Cross Sections," at the Historic Arkansas Museum April 13 through June 3, 2012.

"These are slices of much longer narratives developed from 1998 to the present. Viewing long-form comic book work in a gallery setting has its difficulties—each story or graphic novel I create sits as a single body of work, but is also made of 200-300 individual pieces, each then comprised of 5 or 6 panels, all of which are intended to be absorbed as part of the larger body, but which must also hold their own, free of sequential context.

"With this exhibition, I present core samples from more than a dozen different projects over 14 years. The first period of work, from 1998 to about 2005, is defined by focus on failed communication, guilt, transience, and thinly-veiled desire. The second era, lasting until about 2008, is more focused on unassuming depictions of highly subjective experiences and characters, finally exploring dread, menace, selfishness, and loss of control. Works from 2009 to 2012 condense these questions, reintroducing them as more pointed narratives about Southern culture, shifting notions of identity, questionable legacies, and the threat of violence.

"Many of my narratives are ambiguous or open-ended, and some readers are uncomfortable with the absence of a clearly established viewpoint. I’m personally drawn most to stories that demand multiple visits, those that contain the strong possibility of multiple true perspectives, and those that respect an audience’s ability to explore those questions themselves. My work is increasingly defined by questions that invite (and require) the reader to meet me halfway, invest some of their own lives into the narrative, and emerge from a unique and immersive reading experience with questions and dialogue of their own." Read more here....

(c) 2012 - Ruth Mitchell - all rights reserved

Artisan "Art-as-in" Cheese

Recently I visited the Schoolhouse Artisan Cheese Company in Egg Harbor, Wisconsin and was delightfully presented some of the best cheeses the state of Wisconsin has to offer by Peter Kordon, lead Cheesemonger. Peter and Kathy McCarthy prepared my party an array of artfully presented cheeses to our delight and opened a bottle of 2009 French Vouvray to complement the array of flavors.

Kordon holding a veined cheddar

One of the more interesting cheeses was a semi-soft – Mobay by Sid Cook of Carr Valley Cheese, in LaValle, Wisconsin.

The unique Mobay is derived from an old French cheese making style  that features two layers separated by a layer of edible grapevine ash. The French cheese uses two different types of cows’ milk to create two separate layers of cheese. One layer is made up of morning milk, and the second layer is made up of cows’ milk from the afternoon milking. This process is said to have developed by small farmers with limited dairy supplies who had to wait until afternoon to get enough milk to finish the cheese. This ash layer prevented the waiting milk from forming a crust.

Two-layered Mobay cheese

In the United States, artisan cheese makers are creating a cheese that is one layer goat and one layer sheep's milk. The strong flavor of the goat cheese is mellowed by the sheep cheese layer, creating a flavor that is both delicate and rustic. It is a must try--Ruth Mitchell

(c) 2012 - Ruth Mitchell - all rights reserved

Ooh la la mon cherries

Cherryful Door County Cupcakes

I so regret not getting one of these artful cherry cupcakes at Door County Coffee and Tea the other day in Carlsville, Wisconsin. What was I thinking? But then the breakfast to follow was out of this world. We toured the roastery and learned much about roasting coffee. Our host the CEO, Vicki Wilson, was a true delight. She bubbles over with enthusiasm for making coffee.Read more...