It's Just Art Podcast

22/10/2022

Hello, It's Just Art Podcast Community! We’ve been quiet for a while. One of life’s beauties is how things constantly move and change, and that is exactly what has happened in our lives recently. It’s Just Art healed the wound in our hearts caused by the pandemic. The podcast gave us space to exercise our love and passion for art. And now, our professions allow us to do just that.
Christine, Anna, and I have truly loved making this podcast and sharing the fun world of art with you. But, we aren't able to continue with the podcast in the original format. We aren't walking away entirely, but we will approach making new content spontaneously. When inspiration strikes and the stars align, we will produce more. We hope that what we've put out so far inspires you to embrace art and explore it further.
If you want to reach out and ask questions we will happily answer them when we are able.Thank you for all of your support. It truly has meant the world to us and we look forward to making more fun art content in the future. And remember ... It's Just Art!

13/09/2022

This Meme Monday, we thought we would share our feelings about sharing our favorite memes.

10/09/2022

With the recent passing of Queen Elizabeth II we thought it would be remiss of us here at It's Just Art Podcast if we didn't take a moment to a person who has been documented by art as the sitter of the portrait 967 times. No matter what your thoughts may be on the Queen, the length of her life and impact was significant to many people. With such a wide variety of portrait styles and mediums it was a daunting task to chose just one. So in stead we chose the set of photographs taken of the Queen in 2007 by Annie Leibovitz. The first one in this set is an official portrait that can be found in the National Gallery in London. Annie Leibovitz's bold style certainly creates striking image that captures the multiple facets and complexities of the Queen, and her life. These photographs, not only capture the complex question of who is the Queen, but also moves the artistic depiction of the Queen into the 21st century. In this day in age of selfies and easily accessible photographs its important to take note of the artistic endeavors it takes to create works like these. Annie Leibovitz and her team spent three weeks preparing for a thirty minute photoshoot. If you were going to have a portrait created, what medium (painting, photography, sculpture, etc...) would you chose to be represented in?

09/09/2022

Happy Found Art Friday! This week, we found inspiration on our vanities, particularly our bottles of perfumes and scents. The scent I choose to purchase and wear feels so personal that I won't let anyone pick out a perfume for me! My favorite part, however, is the bottle. A mark of a truly iconic perfume is the easily recognizable bottle, like the famous Chanel No. 5.
Gorgeous little vessels such as these examples (from the collection of the It's Just Art team), provide an individual and artistic touch to our toilets.
Do you wear a scent? Which is your favorite?

03/09/2022

Today is a very special Spotlight Saturday. Anna is a big Temptations fan and has designated September 3rd as "Papa Was A Rolling Stone" Day due to the line "It was the third of September, that day I'll always remember". This song is art not only because of the incredible instrumentals, but because of the pensive, moody lyrics that take the listener on a journey. Take a listen below and let us know what songs you consider art!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXiQtD5gcHU

02/09/2022

For this Found Art Friday, Anna was surprised by this postcard at work. It features a Charles Albrecht Square Piano from the Historical Society of Pennsylvania’s collection. Postcards are a fun and inexpensive way to enjoy art in our everyday lives! Do you like to collect postcards when you travel? What are some of your favorites? We’d love to hear from you!

27/08/2022

Hello, this is your friendly neighborhood art history professor. I’d like to talk to you about the Pantheon of Rome, one of my favorite works of architecture on the planet Earth. The original structure was completed in 125 under the patronage of Emperor Hadrian, though the inscription above the portico cites Marco Agrippa. You can find all the facts and foibles about this building online and in textbooks, so let me share with you what I love about this building. This is the best-preserved structure from Roman antiquity; walking into this rotunda is the closest to being in ancient Rome you can get. We often imagine antiquity as clean, cold, white symmetrical lines, but the Pantheon—while still symmetrical—is anything but. The sun, shining through the oculus, bathes you in natural light and warmth. The colored marbles and gilt add a sense of three-dimensionality to the flat surfaces of the floors and walls. The whole space feels alive.
I had the immense pleasure of being in the space during a rainstorm. Water poured through the oculus and into the interior. (Don’t worry, there’s a drain in the center of the floor.) It was the closest I ever felt to magic.
Pantheon, Rome, Italy, competed 125 CE

26/08/2022

For this Found Art Friday, I took a look around my house and chose my antique reading table. Books are a huge part of my life and take up a large portion of the house. So, I was so excited to discover a way of displaying, storing, and celebrating books. I brought the table home, polished it up, picked my prettiest set of classics (published in the 1940s), and adorned the tabletop with a modern Turkish lamp and vintage curios.
My favorite part is that the drawer swings open and provides space for an ashtray and box of matches. I use it to keep a tea saucer for my beverages, but I love and appreciate a multifunctional piece.
This little table in the corner of my room brings me joy every day.

23/08/2022

is here again! One of the things we love here at It's Just Art Podcast is how art throughout time can continue to convey meaning and connection no matter what has changed. While the original wasn't about the embarrassing moment described in the text, someone saw it, made this connection and it certainly rings true. The facial expressions in this art and meme are priceless.

21/08/2022

It's again and we found a really unique piece to discuss today. The beautiful ball or evening gown shown below is not only captivating and wonderfully made, it also uses what many today would consider an unusual embroidery material ... Straw! The straws appearance, after being soaked until it softens and becomes pliable enough for use, has the appearance of golden thread. One of the appeals to using straw is the luster and appearance of gold while still being light weight for the wearer, and kinder to the material that it is embroidered into. Gold thread would weigh very heavily on the thin cotton gauze that the over skirt and lacey decorations are made from. The nature of the straw also means that when the young woman wearing this dress was dancing in the candle light of the ballroom, the straws sheen would have picked up the light softly and shone in a captivating manner. This fascinating piece can be found at the Wien Museum in Vienna. Have you ever encountered a material that you found unusual or captivating in clothing?



Unknown, Ballkleid 3 teilig, around 1865, Wien Museum Inv.-Nr. M 17636, CC BY 4.0, Foto: Christin Losta https://sammlung.wienmuseum.at/en/object/687125/

19/08/2022

One of our listeners, brought these amazing cookies to our attention. For this we want to give a shout out to The Cookie Dude for creating and amazing series of literary inspired delights. We highly recommend checking out their page and the other amazing treats they have created. Apparently you can have your books and eat them too! Okay bad jokes aside these truly are wonderful works of art. Have you ever made a cookie that you felt was a work of art? Even if it didn't look as amazing as these do some times the art is in the taste. Share some of your favorite tasty treats or found art from your life in the comments below.

13/08/2022

When I was a little kid, when my mom took me to the art museum, I always wanted to go to the Arms and Armor gallery first. Tiny Christine loved looking at suits of armor, the display of armored horses, and the beautifully decorated shields and weapons.
At the we find an extraordinary example of sgraffito decoration on a pageant shield.
Girolamo de Treviso used this technique (scratching away at the surface of the work to reveal another color underneath) on this gorgeous parade shield in the sixteenth century. By this time, the technique of sgraffito had largely gone out of fashion.
Only a small number of Renaissance shields, like this one, feature decoration on both sides of the shield. In this case, Girolamo took inspiration from battle stories of Roman history and Classical mythology.

Shield, attributed to Girolamo de Treviso, ca. 1535, wood, linen, gesso, gold leaf, polychromy, 24 5/8 x 4 3/4 in. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art.

12/08/2022

Sometimes we find unexpected art in our daily lives. This El discovered this gorgeous piece in their Facebook feed. Serena Nova is a self published author who lives in the Netherlands and listens to the podcast. She created the image below with the help of and AI program made and run through discord. Serena asked the AI to create this by giving is a sentence or group of words. In this case, she used: a heart filled with a fantasy world on black background high quality. Then the AI asked her follow up questions to help clarify the art. The artist can work with the the AI to edit and change things until the end result is what they are looking for. Both a fascinating process and magical result. You can create your own works by following the link below. If you do we would love to see what you make.
https://www.midjourney.com/app/

08/08/2022

We hope everyone is able to have great week. May technology be nicer to you that it's been to El recently. Silly phone doesn't know when words are words. Ah well. At least there boss laughed when work switched to forked.

06/08/2022

Mourning Jewelry is certainly a different type of art than we have looked at in the past but it is endlessly interesting. We have chosen two different pieces of early American made mourning jewelry to look at today. Historically Western societies have had much more structure and ritual around death and how to behave socially after someone passes. Mourning jewelry was created an worn to mourn someone who passed and to have jewelry to wear that was socially acceptable during your period of mourning.

The first ring is the oldest know American made mourning ring. Made of gold, it was made in remembrance of Dr. James Lloyd and was made in 1693. It was made by Jeremiah Drummer in Boston, Mass. and can be found at Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library .

The second was made in 1733 in memory of Catherine De Peyster. It is made of gold, enamel, glass, and hair (likely from the deceased). The shape of a coffin is clearly visible and was common iconography used in mourning jewelry made at this time. Coffins, skull and cross bones, and other images associated with death were often used as memento mori symbols. Death was a common occurrence and people were encouraged to remember that their death would be happening soon so they would led their lives in ways that would help them access the next life. This piece can be found at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

05/08/2022

This we wanted to look at origami. these pieces were created by El. I honestly couldn't tell you how many cranes I have folded in my life. This art form is something I enjoy doing while thinking. i specifically chose to share these with you because the aren't my best. You don't have to be a prodigy or life ling career artist to create art. I have made them out of all kind of scrap paper. I personally love there imperfections. What do y'all think? Do you have a form of art that you enjoy dabbling in?

01/08/2022

Admirers of sports are called sports fans. Admirers of the Sistine chapel are called what?
Ceiling fans.
I'll show myself out.

30/07/2022

For this week's let's look at bookmarks! Here are a few examples from Christine's collection. The goose was a lucky find in a local antique shop and the paper bookmarks were handmade by our friend
I'd never considered bookmarks as anything more than a fun novelty item. I love picking them up at local bookshops and libraries (for free!) but today I finally stopped to consider them as little works of art. They decorate and elevate our beloved books and precious time spent reading. They also add a little extra something to desks, bookshelves and, in my case, junk drawers.
Do you have any beautiful bookmarks in your collection? We'd love to see them!

26/07/2022

I swear I'm not ignoring you, I've devoted all my energy to not melting into a puddle.

24/07/2022

This week's is an oil painting from our dear friend Dori Miller! This work, Pulling Ether, creates a space for total self-expression and self love. Inspired by drag culture, an ethereal being transcends the canvas as an ensemble of colors and crystals.
Dori's work is truly inspired. You can find her work at dorimillerstudios.com

22/07/2022

When I went to Ecuador I saw many amazing things. The stain glass windows of the Basilica del Voto Nacional in Quito was absolutely breathtaking. Glass blowing and stain glass are still art styles being made today. Do you have a favorite type of glass?

19/07/2022

Have you ever seen a work of art and wondered what the artist was thinking? Or in this case what the patron really asked for? Perspective is always interesting. What do you think the patron was trying to say with this work?

16/07/2022

For we are doing something a little bit different. A new hidden self portrait of Vincent Van Gogh was recently found underneath another work of art, Head of a Peasant Woman (1885). When museum professionals at the National Galleries of Scotland x-rayed the painting they were shocked to discover a second painting on the back. Hidden under layers of glue and cardboard it is thought the second image may have been hidden before it was framed because it was considered the less finished of the two. The museum plans to work to see if the other image can be safely uncovered. For more information check out the article below. Artwork often holds untold stories about its creation an life. Some are a bit easier to discover than others. What colors do you think Van Gogh used in this new self portrait? If you could have a brand new piece of art by one of your favorite artists who would that be?

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-62135891

15/07/2022

For this I thought it would
be nice to highlight a type of art that we see everyday and often overlook. Anna got this amazing Strawberry Matcha Latte at 42 and Lawrence in North Carolina. She said it was truly a thing of beauty. Just because something is made to be eaten or in this case drunk, doesn't mean that it isn't a wonderful artwork.
What have been some of your favorite found eatable artworks?

15/07/2022

We are pleased it announce that all episodes from Season 1 are now available! You can listen on your platforms of choice. And if you have a moment, please also like, review, and recommend our podcast to your friends and loved ones!
Thank you for joining our journey of artful conversations!

11/07/2022

I'm a five. How are you feeling this Monday?

09/07/2022

Here are images from all the artworks that Mitchell and Ryan explored in this week's episode. "How to Read a Painting" is available now on all streaming platforms.

2. Winslow Homer, The Life Line, 1884, oil on canvas, 28 5/8 × 44 3/4 inches (72.7 × 113.7 cm). Philadelphia
3. Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Portrait of Emy, 1919, oil on canvas, 28 5/16 x 25 3/4 in. (71.9 x 65.4 cm). Raleigh,
4. Diego Velázquez, The Surrender at Breda, circa 1635, oil on canvas, 307.3 cm x 371.5 cm. Madrid
5. Francisco de Goya, The 3rd of May 1808 in Madrid, 1814, oil on canvas, 268 cm x 347 cm. Madrid @museoprado
6. Hans Holbein the Younger, The Ambassadors, 1533, oil on oak, 207 x 209.5 cm. London

08/07/2022

This I wanted to take a moment to appreciate an art form that often gets overlooked in our daily lives... floral arrangements. Here are some that I have found recently at work. They are truly amazing. What is the last time flowers took you by surprise?

08/07/2022

We have a very special bonus episode for you all this weekend! The It's Just Art team are joined by two wonderful guests who learn the basics of formal analysis.
"How to Read a Painting" is available from Saturday, July 9, on all streaming platforms!

04/07/2022