Saint Paul Online Arts

I find some really nice maritime items for my collection at art auctions.  I went to an art auction in Charleston last month and found a pair of candle powered navigation lights that were used on ships in the 19th century.  These types of candles were also used in lighthouse stairwells.

My collection also includes a maritime item that was made in 1891.  It is a chronometer and it still keeps great time.  It is very special because the broad arrow on it indicates that it was purchased by the British Navy and they are known to have only the best time pieces.  I found this piece of my collection at an art auction in New Hampshire.

I have another chronometer in my collection that I found at an art auction in Dallas.  It was sold to me in a wooden box from someone that had owned it for fifty years.  They had kept this maritime relic in a closet.  I plan to keep it on display.

I was at an art auction in Miami a couple of years ago and found a fantastic maritime item for my personal collection.  The compass that I won was over 100 years old and was made in Persia.  The compass face has all twelve signs of the zodiac engraved on it.  I thought that this was a great find.

My kids thought I was crazy when I drove to an art auction is Hartford and drove back with three hundred pounds of maritime Navy anchors.  I thought they’d look great in the yard.  I like to have art in my yard, in the beds I made around my trees.  No one wanted to help me unload them.

I found myself in a bidding war at an art auction in Mississippi over the original builder’s plate from the SS Contessa.  It is truly a unique and wonderful maritime item.  I have polished it and it gleams in the display case I bought for it.

Maritime items don’t seem to be in as much demand anymore.  A few years ago, my collection got easier to add to for some reason.  Art auctions everywhere I went started having really great things on the auction block.

The brass plaques from old ships have always been one of my favorite things to find up for sale at art auctions.  One of my favorite maritime plaques came from a ship that was used in WWII.  The ship that the plaque was on was called the Marechal Joffre and it was taken from the French in 1942.  The Maritime Commission renamed the ship USS Rochambeau.

I had a friend of mine that was going to attend an art auction in Anchorage a couple of years ago bid on a bell for me.  I had no idea how much the freight charge was going to end up being, but I wanted this maritime item in my collection.  It was magnificent.

There is going to be a really nice maritime item at an art auction I intend to attend this weekend.  Lighthouse items are of interest to me more and more lately.  I have found that there is going to be an antique brass oil lamp up for auction and I plan to win it.  The price will probably get up to fifteen hundred dollars, but I don’t care.  I need this maritime item in my collection.

Art poster auctions are very popular.  Owning great pieces of art has gotten easier.  A properly framed art poster can be as nice as owning an original painting and it is far less expensive.

I have found many different art styles in art poster auctions.  The most expensive art poster in the abstract style sold recently on eBay was a 1959 Picasso entitled Les Menines.  The poster sold for $560.00.

There was an original and authentic art poster auction recently in the art deco style that caught my eye.  The poster was from 1961 and was for Breakfast at Tiffany.  The poster sold for over three thousand dollars.

World’s Fair art poster auctions seem to do very well.  I saw an auction for the 1939 New York World’s Fair that sold for more than fifteen hundred dollars.  There was another art poster auction for the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair that went for just under fifteen hundred dollars.

In the Asian art poster auction market, there seems to be some really odd things.  I found a poster that depicted McDonald’s hamburgers invading Japan.  The poster got fourteen bids from six different people and it closed at four hundred fifty five dollars.

In the category of Impressionist art poster auctions, I found one for the 2006 Jazz Festival in New Orleans that sold for over four hundred dollars.  It was done by a Cajun artist named James Michalopulos and featured Fats Domino.  The colors in the poster were brilliant.

I found that the category of Modern art posters seems to get the most auction listings.  There is one art poster that keeps being re-listed because it just doesn’t sell.  The poster is from the Elvis movie Love Me Tender.  Apparently the owner of this poster has determined that it is worth one thousand dollars and will not take less than that.  He hasn’t sold it yet, but I wish him luck.

There were another Modern art poster auctions that really did well as far as I could tell.  They were Greyhound travel posters.  There were a couple of art poster auctions that sold recently.  They were both created in the 1950’s and both of the posters sold for around three hundred dollars each.

After researching so many art poster auctions, I have come to the conclusion that my parents and grandparents should have collected every piece of advertising they ever came across.  They would be worth a small fortune by now!

The Sante Fe Railroad as a subject is prominently sold in art poster auctions.  These must be highly collectable because they generate a lot of bids.  If the art poster auction is for an old original poster of the Sante Fe Railroad, it will fetch upwards of four hundred dollars.

I found an art poster auction that was listed by the artist himself.  He made a black ink drawing for the Pearl Jam concert in Rome in 1996.  This original drawing was what the poster was made from.

Pop art poster auctions cover a lot of different topics.  One of my favorites was a 7-up soda advertisement from 1970 that featured The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine.  The item did not sell, but it was fun to look at.

In the style of Realism, art poster auctions abound.  I found one that was an advertisement for United Airlines and depicted the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.  This poster sold for over one hundred fifty dollars.

The most interesting art poster auctions I found were for rock concerts.  I liked the one listed for at 1956 Rolling Stones concert and there was another one for a Grateful Dead concert in Hawaii.  They sold for a combined total of over seven thousand dollars.  The interest in these art poster auctions was overwhelming.

Advertising seems to be a big theme in the art poster auctions that I looked at.  I found advertisements for just about everything.  I liked the poster for Russian beer that was created in the late 1920’s.  It would look fantastic framed in my neighborhood bar.  The buyer of this particular poster bought it for $475.00.

Concert posters are fun to look through.  Art poster auctions feature a lot of posters for concerts.  I found one that was made by Jim Pollock for a Phish concert in 2000 in Hartford.  I liked it, but I am not a fan of Phish and the three hundred dollars that it went for seemed a little pricey to me.

Art auctions for sculptures are a great way to find new art for your home or office.  I like to peruse the online auction sites for nice sculptures.  I have found some very interesting items when I’ve looked.

There was a sculpture sold on eBay recently that was entitled Love.  The art auction for this sculpture went above the estimated value.  The piece was red and blue and made of polychrome aluminum.  The French artist’s name was Robert Indiana.  The art auction listed the item as six feet tall, six feet wide and three feet deep.

I liked a hall stand that was carved from wood that I found in an online art auction.  The carving depicted a playful bear climbing a fir tree.  There was a young bear cub carved into one of the branches.  The branches were there to serve as garment hooks and there was even a mirror on the piece in a carved oak leaf designed frame.

There was an exquisite sculpture by a Russian artist that was sold recently in an art auction.  The subject of the sculpture was a Bar Mitzvah boy and the medium was marble.  I think that marble statues seem so timeless and elegant.  It is an excellent medium for a sculpture.

The wife of artist Yitzhak Danziger signed a certificate for the brass sculpture her husband completed in 1969.  Danziger is an Israeli artist.  The piece looked very abstract to me.  It did not do very well in the art auction and sold for less than it’s estimated worth.

I found a lot of bronze sculptures in the online art auctions.  Most of them were of people, but the ones I liked best were abstract.  My absolute favorite was a Harry Bertoia bronze sculpture called Bush.  This piece is also known as a Brain or Coral.  The bidding for this piece of art in the art auction was started at thirty nine thousand dollars.  It didn’t get a bidder.

I saw little interest in the bronze sculpture art auctions for animal figures.  I’m not sure if the reasons they didn’t get bidders were because of subject matter or because of price.  Bronze is an expensive medium for an artist to work in and it takes a lot of training to be proficient.

I have a favorite glass sculptor.  His work goes for so much in online art auctions that I will probably never own a piece of his work.  Dale Chihuly is magnificent.  There are permanent installations of his tremendous work all over the world.

Crystal sculptures look more like paperweights to me.  Online art auctions for glass representations of animals and sea life are really neat.  My favorite art auction recently was for a hand blown glass jellyfish.  It was magical.

I liked another online art auction for optical crystal that had been turned into a work of art by artist Christopher Ries.  The piece was small and called Lotus.  It would look so pretty in a well lit display case.

I’m jealous of the buyer that gets to call this sculpture their own.  They won the piece in the art auction for just under a thousand dollars.  This artist uses blocks of pure, clear lead crystal cast from Schott Glass Technologies of Duryea, Pennsylvania.  It is truly amazing art.  His work is prominently displayed in numerous galleries and even in the Columbus airport in Columbus, Ohio.

Art auctions for drawings are categorized into antique, modern and contemporary.  Antique drawings are any drawings that were produced before 1900.  Modern drawings have to have been created between 1900 and 1949.  Contemporary drawings are drawings that were created from 1950 until the present.

There are a lot of contemporary drawings listed in art auctions that never get a bidder.  There are many reasons for this.  One of the main reasons is that the starting bid is set so high that it discourages interest.  There was an art auction for a drawing that was created in 2000 that depicted James Dean welcoming Elvis Presley into heaven.  The starting price for this art auction was twelve million dollars.  I am not surprised that it did not get a bidder.

I found another pen and ink drawing in an art auction that was listed for a lot more than it was worth.  The original listing started at $825,000.00 and when it didn’t sell, the artist lowered the price to $545,000.00.  He offers the copywrite to the design, which he thinks would translate well for prints, posters or greeting cards.

There was an art auction for a drawing that was purchased in 1971 London that did very well.  The seller of the drawing inherited it from his grandfather, who was the original owner.  He started the bidding at a reasonable $599.00 and the drawing ultimate sold in the art auction for over twelve thousand dollars.  He did a great job describing and picturing the drawing.

Antique drawings in art auctions can garner a lot of interest.  I saw a drawing of two men in the nude that was drawn in the 1800’s go for more than eleven thousand dollars.  This drawing was pen and ink and had a brown wash and traces of charcoal on lines of black pencil.

I was very taken with an antique drawing made by Sir Francis Grant in 1832.  The drawing in the art auction was of a woman and her daughter in Scotland.  The drawing was a signed original and sold for two thousand dollars.  I hope that it ends up framed and hanging in a collection of similar pieces.  It was really nice.

Another reason that art auctions for drawings don’t sell is that they are listed in the wrong categories.  I found several contemporary pieces that were listed in the antique category.  With so much competition in art auctions, it is important to make sure every detail is noticed.

Modern drawings are by far my favorite art auctions.  I wanted the stamped Degas I saw up for auction, but it was way out of my budget.  I’m sure that the person that ended up with the highest bid at the art auction will love and treasure it.

Well known artist’s drawings can fetch a lot of money in online art auctions.  If the title of the art auction contains the words original Picasso, for example, it is sure to go over two thousand dollars.  If the item is signed, it can go for much more.

I really liked a drawing I found in an art auction from an artist that I was unfamiliar with.  The artist was Patrick Caulfield and he titled his drawing Grapes.  He used colored pencils on black paper in the late 1980’s.  This drawing sold for the opening bid, $4,250.00.

Vintage photography gives us a glimpse into the past, and helps to allow people to gain some understanding of the world before us.  Unlike many of the collections that are considered the staples of art collection, vintage photographs are truly a unique exploration of the recent past, and many eras of the current civilization have come to contribute their share of what makes up vintage photography.  Though not the largest grouping of auctioned materials of artistic value, they are still valued for their recollections of past events, and even items relating to vintage modes of photography are included in the auctioning of these things.

Cameras and equipment, photographic books and photo postcards before 1940, and even Viewmaster reels are acceptable pieces of auctioning material.  All these things have contributed to the overall history on film, and even as the motion picture took on a predominant role in culture, the photograph has still been a staple of this system forming the basis for it all.  Much of what seems to have the most value are those photographs that come from eras predating this revolution in film, and even further back to those images captured years just after the invention of the camera.  Some are standards to which we have become accustomed to considering is merely part of our past, and we have to know that these things also have worth.

It is with this in mind that one can better grasp the innate worth of the photographs that might have caught their eye.

That there is an overwhelming number of pieces that represent this particular grouping of artwork seems false to believe, but this is happens to be on the rise as we get further into the new millennium, and realize the shedding of our culture’s skins time and again.  Grotesque artwork pulls us back into the human forms we have been born into, and truly seems to give us a reaffirming sense of who we are.  There are many artists, though part of other artistic movements, which have proven to fill the criteria for this grouping of concepts.

Grotesque art from the past ranges from varying degrees of mood and theme, but always seem to draw from those factors that are widely considered by most to be taboo or dark in nature, adhering to some of the most brutal and thought-provoking events in history.  All these things have come together to create a body of works that jump between particular eras, but seem interrelated in the subject matter that they portray, creating works that define the morbid attentions that we seem to take from our history as a whole.

Through the works of such famed artists as Picasso and Goya, the light within the darkness of our own human condition can be revealed to us, and these reflections of our culture are seeds to the future as the culture has evolved.  Many differing movements each seem to donate their own unique spin when considering these peculiar models of work, and the theme of horror and terror can be interpreted by my different people many differing ways, no matter whether today or some era further behind us.  For some cultures, it is a way to evacuate fear, and express it without harm to one’s emotional health.

Though morals may seem to be too constrictive today, there are still points where society converges on points that break past the emotional barriers that many people construct, and this art is very much a mirror for evoking an honest reaction at the reflection that stares back, a response that cannot be replicated any other way.  These images more than affect the rest of the present day world, as can be heard in many recent dimensions in music, and related themes can even be found in today’s popular attraction towards the horror films and novels which sell more than ever now.

It is when you consider the works of artists possessed by a certain vision, one that evokes pain as well as passion along with the other contradictions in life, and it is then that historic works like those of Hieronymus Bosch and even modern designs of H. R. Giger can be learned in equal measure of value.  Their predilections towards breaking the taboos enforced by their surroundings, has helped to guide us steps into the future of our own acceptance and appreciation for our world, and the layers of depth can be revealed when one takes the time to find those elements that appeal to the sense of artistic worth.

To take control of your knowledge of this kind of artwork can better equip you for finding the particular works that you would be most enthusiastic to own, and though most of the more famous works can only be bought as prints, there are still many artists today who practice a style that intrudes upon that thin layer on the surface that reveals the most visceral layers underneath that.  When looking for the right work to suit your tastes, a good deal respect must be given to those that attempt to translate their thoughts onto canvas, and you can come to better understand this category of art when approached with an open mind.

Today, some works by the artist Joe Coleman have more recently pushed the boundaries further back, and smashed a lot of preconceptions of artistic will.  His approach includes the use a single horse hair brush, and detailing so fine that many layers can be found after viewing the paintings and prints dozens of times over, creating a new perspective on it with each consecutive viewing of the work.  It is these layered degrees that artists strive for time and again to reveal insights into the nature of what it is to be human, and allow us to get in touch with sides of ourselves previously unknown or held back.

The ancient civilizations that have come before this present period of time have always left behind some truly unique pieces to others after them to gain some insight as to what that society may have been like.  We learn much from the artifacts collected by archeologists, and their attempts throughout the Mediterranean region of the world, where the peoples of Greece and Rome had originally found their home.  Though much of these items are priceless works that cannot be just bought and sold, there are versions of some famous works that can be much cheaper for the casual shopper to purchase.

Many pieces of the genuine article are sometimes found wherever the Greco-Roman styling of things has been prominently featured in architecture or artwork, and there are very many varieties that you might consider as being included in the category with statuary, such as ornately crafted vases and busts.  Some of these aspects are certainly more common than many other varieties of this kind of work, with replicas of all of these items is much more common then one may think before coming to understand the rarity of these things, and that genuine articles will be priceless artifacts in some cases.

With statuary of as historic a nature as the Greco-Roman period, and you consider the history behind some of the pieces, you will better understand somewhat the reminders that float through to us from history’s fingers.  Much of what know of their culture has been passed down for many thousands of years, and it is remarkable to see how the themes and subject matter has evolved as it relates to the centuries gone by, as all manner of time period has broken down into our own present day settings.  Greco Roman statues give us a literal model of how they perceived the world around them, and though similar and plausible for making comparisons against our own culture, those cultures from a distant past can be great reminders for us to look to for inspiration.

There are many very good examples of what you could call early American artwork that has survived to this day, and as time passes to create particular movements in style throughout the world, fundamental ideas change with a variation in locale and timeframe when it comes to the individual artists and their brilliant visions.  Each artist certainly contributing something to the overall picture of the world as it shapes and changes around them, it takes an artistic will strong enough to transcend any particular era to convey the feeling of the period in such a condensed format, and the various forms that this artwork can take is numerous.

Early American art runs the spectrum from Native American art to the modernist painters and artists we can see presently, and their artwork can all be summed up under the category of early American art, creating a totally unique perspective on the American landscape.  When you wish to see a museum-quality piece in your own living room, there can be multiple ways to acquire the ideal artwork you find, and not all of them have to cost an arm or a leg.  If you think that the buying experience has to be an expensive one, then you are sorely mistaken, but any museum piece can be considered priceless in some hands.

There is still much American artwork being produced that is quite relevant a reflection on the state of affairs as they stand throughout time, and no matter the period, there is certainly a way to find an example of what you are looking for whether the artist happens to be involved in a particular movement or otherwise at the time.  There are many various definitions that American art falls under depending upon when the work was made, though only after the nineteenth century did movements begin to be started in America, and it was then that artists like Jackson Pollack were given the freedom to express themselves.

This lead to the outgrowth of the Abstract Expressionist movement in art, came up out of the colliding of influences between Ashcan artwork and the modernists from Europe like the Cubists and abstract painters, and appeared in the years after World War II.  Within the mindset of this movement, the abandoning of formal composition gave way to arrangements that concentrated on space and color to represent the physical act of painting on the canvas, and created works based around instinct instead of representation of real objects.  These works would eventually affect the works of pop art that would come to prominence later in the century.

It is truly a wonderful thing when you consider how much we gain from our appreciation of art, what volumes it speaks about our own culture, and among cultures that make up the world besides our own.  It is highly fashionable to understand something of what art is, how it tries to reinterpret our own scope of the world on an artistic level, and yet reveals so much of the human nature behind its creation.  Today’s artistic minds are no different in the outgrowth of ideas onto a canvas’ surface, and some are possessed with similar qualities that those artworks considered classics have had in the past.

There is particularly unique insight coming from a lot of contemporary art, or so the label seems to include today’s works of art, with certain vagueness stemming from the lack of a dominant school of thought or ideology.  Most date contemporary art beginning towards the late 1960s, most artwork could be defined easily by particular details prior to this, and there were trends of these preferences even through to the 1980s.  After the Modernistic period of art was confirmed, much of the direction came to be rather disparate during periods of socio-political change, and many of the distinctions within art have been loosened dramatically.

With some critical opinions decrying the current of contemporary art to be devoid of “true beauty”, critic Donald Kuspit was known to say that art had left the studio and found its’ way into the street, and that may not be that much for the worse with the blurring of many lines presently.  Today, contemporary art seems to reflect those issues being faced by the world, and the emphasis on politics seems to have intensified of late.  The shift drawing away from an ideal of beauty and purity to a complete opposing force of inspiration from socially oriented art, and often crosses the bounds of proper medium.

Though that is where the argument stops and conjecture begins as critics and artists alike clash in opinion over where the line is particularly between the various categories of thought, and it has been pieces of every different art movement being reevaluated in a similar way, in order to find that place that crosses over between art, artist, and audience, and creates a means for all of them to share space in the comprehensive concept to the artwork.  Making the gaps in the points between art and life smaller and smaller, and creating new ways in which to comprehend the ways of the things we view around us.

Engaging mass culture with affecting the boundaries of perception through the means of the relevant issues shaping the world as we know it, and today there are many schools and studios of contemporary art that try to help shape the practice of contemporary art that will translate to the future, allowing us introspective glimpses into the artist’s thoughts.  Creating interconnectedness that defies and defines what laws and life may continue to restrict, to analyze, and further define itself as multiple entities within one completely distinct from the sum of its’ parts.

American Indian art encompasses many types of arts and crafts, from the more traditionally and / or stereotypically Native American art such as beadwork and pottery, to modern photography, fine paintings, sculptures and the like.

One of the most traditional and historically relevant branches of American Indian art is beadwork. Beadwork of the Native American peoples had and has practical as well as decorative; utilitarian as well as rich symbolic meaning.

Beadwork and making of the beads themselves is a very old craft. Stone, bone and shell beads (such as turquoise and semi-precious stones) are still made the same ancient way. Little affected by modern technology, the making of beads is still carried out in nearly the exact same way as peoples did thousands of years ago.

Sea shell bead pieces are among the most popular and well known pieces of regional trade importance for thousands of years. Nearly everyone has seen American Indian art pieces, from beaded necklaces to purses, belts and such.

For the last several decades modern beadwork has been replicated in oriental factories and very cheaply imported. This makes it a competing factor against the top quality beadwork done by American Indian craftspeople. The native American crafts people have lost several millions of dollars (just over an eight year period during the 1980s) to these fake native beads and beadwork pieces.

Historically, beads were carved from turtle shell, animal horn and deer hooves. These were often used for making rattling or tinkling pieces utilized in dance. Hunters often wore necklaces put together with animal portions, such as bear claws or wolf claws. These indicated a hunter’s prowess. Bones and seeds were often steamed to soften them for stringing and /or bending into various shapes.

As an example of beadwork used for a most practical purpose, the Iroqois League (Haudenosee) used white and purple wampum chains made of fresh-water clam shells to record sacred ceremonies, treaties and songs. This practice was used both before and after the coming of European settlers.

Many types of agreements were recorded with such beadwork chains. They were highly valued and cared for by their owners. European settlers mistook this care and reverence for wampum beads as a sign that the beads held monetary significance. As such, they mistakenly assumed that the word ‘wampum’ referred to money, when in actuality these important beads were much more like very important original documents.

To string beads, Native Americans used animal sinew that is split very fine with which to attach beads to clothing, though infrequently strong plant fibers such as hide thongs or nettle were used for these purposes.

Today, the Navajos as well as some pueblo people still make the ancient bead type called the heishii. This is by far the most popular and high quantity type of beadwork that is still made today as it was in ancient times. These necklaces are also referred to as story necklaces as they can be used to tell stories, with each bead representing a character.

Beads and beadwork are a very important part of archaeological explorations of pre-European history. Beads have survived thousands of years and tell many fascinating stories about times we weren’t around to witness. This is particularly true with respect to beadwork mad of sea shells. Ancient shell beads have been found thousands of miles from seas, which indicates various trade routes and contacts among different groups of people.

Today American Indian artists even create digital beadwork designs to help them make actual beadwork pieces. In this way complex designs and pieces can be tested on the screen before the project is begun. This has certainly added to the creative process for many beadwork artists.

Beadworking weaves through native history both in ancient times as well as in today’s modern computer technology. The most important aspect of beadwork, though, is not what can be sold or gained, but personal pieces that are only given among family and friends. The true meanings behind these pieces are personal associations tied to visions, important perspectives and other things that an individual wishes to be reminded of.