art | moonieandme

The Whale Guitar

Posted on September 8, 2015 by annierhodeisland

Art and music have power; they can reach people more deeply than nearly any other medium. That’s why toy designer, musician and all around cool person Jen Long gathered a group of eclectic artists (William Schaff, Rachel Rosenkrantz, Gwen Forrester and Jess Rosenkranz) to help make her concept of The Whale Guitar a reality. Their combined mastery has transformed a scrap of Corian into an incredibly lifelike piece of scrimshaw, or carved whalebone, that makes beautiful music to bring attention to the plight of the whales.

Well, not just whales. We humans have a big effect on our oceans, and The Whale Guitar is one means to monitor news, issues and victories concerning the marine environment that covers so much of our world.

The Whale Guitar is a beautiful sculpture with clear sound that has been played by scores of talented musicians since its public debut last spring. So of course Moonie had to get up close and personal with it.

Here he is above J Mascis’ signature. Yup, the dude behind Dinosaur Jr. has played The Whale Guitar.

William Schaff

Posted on August 26, 2015 by annierhodeisland

William Schaff is a prolific artist in many mediums, from pen and paint to embroidery and collage to comics and movies. Check out his gallery of recent works, some of which are for sale. In fact, Moonie and I are the proud new owners of one of his smaller (Moonie-sized, if you will) drawings from the very gallery!

He’s also a musician and a good friend to many musicians, so it’s not surprising that William has designed a dizzying amount of album art for both local and far-flung bands. Here’s a tiny taste of some of his albums:

I thought Moonie’s head might pop off the way he had it tilted all the way back, his little eyes bugging out as he tried to take in all of William’s artwork crawling up the walls – really, every surface – of his home base, “Fort Foreclosure.”

Unicorn Heaven

Posted on July 20, 2015 by annierhodeisland

This past spring, unicorns descended on Greater Providence thanks to artist Camomile Hixon and curator Helene Miller. Sparkly pink unicorns appeared in libraries by the dozen, while “missing unicorn” posters adorned telephone poles all over Providence offering a reward if the unicorn was found. It’s been nice having a little magic around our fair city between the life-sized glitter unicorns – which dispersed to various places after their installations at the Providence and Warwick public libraries ended – and the search for the missing unicorn, which included its very own phone booth hotline for anyone spotting one.

Moonie, loving anything glitter and anything magic (not to mention pink and purple), has been over the moon for the “unicorns in residence.” Don’t tell him that the project will end this month, because ever since he and I found each other in April, he’s also had a knack for finding unicorns around town.

This was his favorite, because pink and glitter.

But then this became his favorite, because he loves purple as well. And of course the glitter.

And then he found the special unicorn hotline phone booth, which is completely decked out in sparkles.
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Tape Art

Posted on May 26, 2015 by annierhodeisland

Many thanks to the ninjas behind Tape Art, pop-up installations around Providence that don’t cause damage to the buildings they appear on. Right now, it’s fun to look for their 14 different installations in various neighborhoods, thanks to their collaboration with the PopUp Providence program that introduces interactive artistic displays throughout our capital city.

Moonie found this cool catfish right near our house, and according to PopUp Providence’s list of current exhibitions, the Tape Art should stay up through June 15 – giving us plenty of time to track down the others.

Moonie hopes there are more polecats. He really wanted to pet the kitty, even if it was a mite skeletal.

Drawn Together

Posted on May 23, 2015 by annierhodeisland

There’s a great non-profit, Resources for Human Development, that believes that art “breaks the barriers between people with and without disabilities.” A friend of mine had been an art therapist at RHD-RI for years, and I still love going to their shows and concerts to see what fun and beautiful and interesting things their clients have created.

This month RHD-RI has been collaborating with The Drawing Room, a Providence venue founded by photographer and artist John Jacobson to “promote drawing locally, regionally and nationally in all its glorious forms.” Together RHD-RI and The Drawing Room created “Drawn Together by Chance: A Collaboration Featuring Modified Oblique Strategies.”

Moonie and I checked out their closing reception Thursday evening and loved the scribbles, sayings and drawings that covered every inch of the Drawing Room’s long white walls. Moonie even learned a few things.

Then he studied some of the art adorning the smaller, un-scribbled-on walls.