mixed media - 2008 - AFR

Låt den rätte komma in

In these crazy times of "twilight", this movie stays true to the vampire's roots. Old school vampire rules, coming of age story will keep you cheering for the poor underdog Oskar.

Watercolor paper, mixed media - 5.5" x 8.5" - 2008 - AFR

Madonna

The Sticky and Sweet Tour 2008 - The Minute Maid Park
Houston, Texas - Nov. 16/08

Michael A. Salter

Michael A. Salter - too much
6 November - 14 December 2008
Rice University Art Gallery
6100 Main Street
Houston, Texas 77005

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Michael Salter was born in Bristol, Connecticut in 1967. He received a BFA in sculpture and graphic design from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio in 1992, and an MFA in studio art from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 1994. Solo exhibitions include Visual Logistics, The University of Texas, Arlington (2006) and Situations Unknown, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston Salem, North Carolina (2004). In 2007, Salter created a 22-foot tall Styrobot for Robots: Evolution of a Cultural Icon, a group exhibition at the San Jose Museum of Art, California. Salter’s work appears in Tactile, High Touch Visuals (2007), and Dot Dot Dash! (2006), books published by Die Gestalten Verlag, Germany, and in Grab Magazine (Italy, 2006). Salter is an Associate Professor of Digital Arts at the University of Oregon, Eugene.

Moisés

Oil on masonite - 24" x 30" - Private Collection Houston, TX

This painting is sometimes referred to as "Nucleus of Creation". In a written description of this painting, Frida refers to it as "Moses", or "Birth of the Hero".

This masterpiece was commissioned by Don José Domingo Lavin. Kahlo had painted a portrait of Lavin's wife in 1942. Lavin asked Frida to read the Sigmund Freud book "Moses the Man and Monotheistic Religion" and then paint her interpretation of what she had read. This painting was done in the style of a miniature mural…perhaps to copy the works of her famous husband, muralist Diego Rivera. The central figure of the abandoned baby Moses closely resembles Diego, and wears, like Diego in other paintings, the third eye of wisdom on his forehead. The birth is beneath a life giving sun flanked by gods, heroes, common humanity, and the all-embracing hands of death. In the foreground a conch spurting fluid into a concave shell is, Frida said, a symbol of love. Fresh, leafy branches sprouting from dead tree trunks refer to the life/death cycle that appears in many of Frida's paintings.

In 1954, Raquel Tibol, the Mexican art critic, historian and author, interviewed Frida and asked her about this painting and it's relationship to Freud's book "Moses".

"I read the book only once" Frida remarked "and started the painting with my first impression. Later I read it again, and I must confess I found my work most inadequate and quite different from the interpretation Freud analyzes so marvelously in his [book] Moses. But now there's no way to change it…"

For this work Frida was awarded second prize at the annual art exhibition in the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico.

pencil and paper - 10"x10" - 2008 - AFR