Every once in a while I like to remind myself that I do know a bit about art, despite the fact that many (ok, most) of the art history slide lectures I sat through caused me to…um…doze off. What can I say? It was dark, the room was warm, and my art history prof had such a deep, soothing voice.
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I have this strange sense of deja vu…
Meanwhile, in the technical labs of The Institute for Contemporary Panda Satire, we are working on several exciting developments, which we will alert you, our faithful readers in the next week or so. But we will FIRST alert those who have signed up for our mailing list (which you must admit, does not overtax your inbox!) So, if you want to be the first to know what there is to know, you best get over there and sign up to be on our newsletter list.
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We would be remiss if we didn’t congratulate Princess Pinky on her exciting win over a whole bunch of kinda important icons in the Smithsonian Smackdown this week. If you thought she had a good opinion of herself before this, wait till you see her pinky-self now! Hooboy. Good luck Mei Xiang. Your little princess is going places!
Be the Bear,
Bob T. Panda
Oh, I love it — The Diner with pandas!
I couldn’t resist. There will be a few more Hopper references to come. Can’t waste my MFA, now, can I?
I am learning so much about art! Thanks to the above comments I just googled Edward Hopper 🙂
I can’t wait for more – but I fear it may be a long wait before Inspector Panda leaves the diner!
I blush to admit that I am rather “northern hemisphere centric” and I forget that not all artists are famous world wide. I know there is much about South America, let alone Australia and New Zealand that I know nothing about. I do know that two of my all time favorite children’s author/illustrators are from Australia: Graeme Base and Shaun Tan (not to be confused with Tai Shan, who is a panda) They are brilliant both in their story ideas, which are wildly creative to say the least, but their illustrations are among the most outstanding I have ever seen.
Off to do more googling – but that’s after I clean the screen from the tea I just splattered reading that Shaun Tan is not Tai Shan who is a panda!!
Ha ha, sorry, bout that!
Brilliant! This is just so wonderful. 🙂 🙂 And thank you for the nice out when I’m busted reading a comic at work, “Comic? Why, I’m merely improving my knowledge of art history. “
We strive to serve. You are quite welcome.
Wonderful! The art history vibe is fabulous, but would you look at Mr Wu in his cute mini tench coat? And the tape on his ear……
I like to think that I have not wasted seven years in art school. Mr Wu does look adorable in his trench coat, doesn’t he?
Hmmm. A print of Hopper’s Early Sunday Morning was displayed in my father’s medical office my whole childhood. (Likely it reminded him of the neighborhood he grew up in)…but I don’t recall ever seeing a Panda in the picture!
Um… I believe Hopper did several versions of this painting. Obviously your father had a reproduction of the one with out pandas.
Come to think of it, one of my favorite paintings of all time is John Sloan’s “Chinese Restaurant”. Google it and you will see why 😉
I can see why! John Sloan did some absolutely marvelous paintings. I also love “McSorley’s Bar” which I got to see in a 100th anniversary show of the 1913 Armory show in NY last fall, at the NY Historical Society. (I also got to see the painting by Charles Hopkinson of his three daughters, which I did a copy of for our 98th anniversary of the Armory show two years earlier. I must say, I am a damn good art forger.)
It can be fun and educational to copy a painting. When I was in high school I made a copy of Chagall’s “I and My Village” in poster paint. I still find it a fascinating painting and I learned a lot by copying it.
You definitely do learn a lot by copying a painting. It is nowhere as easy as people think it would be. I really enjoy it a lot, and have done Sargent, Vermeer, Degas, Whistler, among others. I am about to do a copy of a Thomas W. Dewing, one of the American impressionists. I got to see the painting I am about to copy on a trip to NYC last year. One of my goals/bucket list items is to paint a copy in a museum from the actual painting, rather than a photograph. You can do this at the National Gallery in DC. I am investigating how to get on the “list”
I love Sloan’s Chinese Restaurant too, for obvious reasons. I don’t know why American restaurants are so persnickety about allowing animals (live ones, that is). A cat would vastly improve the ambience of most eateries. Jerry and I once ate in a little Scottish roadside restaurant that had seagulls wandering in and out. We sat by a window that overlooked the kitchen and saw seagulls in there too. I came down with a nasty infection afterward and spent two days in bed when we got back to Edinburgh, but I’m sure that was just a coincidence.
I’m sure it was just a coincidence. I love being in France and Italy and seeing dogs and cats enjoying the festive occasion of dining out. I hadn’t known that sloan painting before, but it’s a wonderful painting.
Years ago in NYC several of our favorite restaurants had cats. Then the city got strict about it, so no more. Too bad! They were organic rodent control too. We once ate in a place near Verona that had birds all over. If there were leftovers on the table, likes spaghetti, the crows would grab it.
When cats are outlawed, only outlaws will have cats.
LOL! Then I will always be an outlaw.
I’m shocked! (no, not really)
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