Media
Studio Interior with Flowers on Bench
Joseph O’Sickey believed “The subject doesn’t matter… what the artist brings to it is the important thing.” While O’Sickey’s still-life and landscape paintings may be conventional in terms of subject matter, he brings to them a joyous celebration of color and life.
In 1968, O’Sickey and his beloved wife Algesa moved to Twin Lakes, OH, just outside of Kent. The home had a lush walled garden which served as inspiration for many of O’Sickey’s works. This lively painting of his studio features a rich interior setting with large windows that look out onto the garden, making it difficult to determine where the indoor studio ends and the exterior garden begins. O’Sickey uses deep purple, bright teal, and fresh green to paint the flowers and plants decorating the tables in his workspace. Just next to them is a delicate blue chair with a mandolin resting against its back. A patterned orange, peach, blue, and purple rug covers the studio floor, adding to the busyness of the scene. O’Sickey employs rapid but assured brushstrokes to render each object, creating a pulsating rhythm that permeates every inch of the canvas.
Do you have a favorite space in your home where you go to work or relax? How is that space decorated? How do you feel when you’re there?
With a career spanning nearly eight decades, O’Sickey left an indelible mark on the arts in Northeast Ohio and was even granted the title “the dean of painting in Northeast Ohio” by Cleveland Plain Dealer arts writer Steven Litt. After displaying an early interest in art as a child, O’Sickey went on to study with renowned Cleveland artists Paul Travis, Carl Gaertner, and Victor Schreckengost at the Cleveland School of Art (now Cleveland Institute of Art). During the 1960s he won multiple “best painting” awards in the May Show, the Cleveland Museum of Art’s annual exhibition of work by Cleveland artists, which ran from 1919-1993. O’Sickey also created a legacy as an influential studio art professor with a 25-year tenure at Kent State University and a brief term at Ohio State University where he met a lifelong friend—Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein. Although O’Sickey managed to secure representation at prominent galleries in New York City, he decided to stay in the Cleveland area, living and working there his entire life.
For further insight on Joseph O’Sickey:
Virtual Family Days: Bookmaking Bonanza
Try your hand at making simple books and book-related objects. This month we have bookmaking tutorials plus some options for turning out artful bookmarks.
Get Art: Why make your own sketchbook?
Before we get to making, we might tackle the big question of the month.
Project 1: Make an Accordion Book
What do you need? Paper
Try this? Fold your paper in even sections. That’s it. This is a simple book to make.
Collection Connection:
Animal Locomotion, Plate 335, 1887. Gift of John Coplans 1979.12 d
Muybridge was a photographer who explore motion by creating a series of compositions from photographs taken in a burst, a bit like the feature on smartphones. Accordion books are a great tool to show a series of scenes. Try making your action packed story with your accordion book.
Project 2: Portfolio stitch
Handbound books can be simple portfolio stitch.
What do you need? Paper, a need, thread
Try this? This project is easy to do.
Collection Connection:
Andy Warhol is best known for his large-scale screenprints, but he worked in many media. Photography and filmmaking were also important tools for Warhol. This small comb bound album houses 20 Polaroids. This instant form of photography is as immediate and exciting now as it was during Warhol’s time. If you have an instant film camera, small handmade books are perfect for albums, as you can custom measure them. If not, consider drawing pictures to fill your album.
Project 3: Make a Bound Sketchbook
An old folder, some paper, a scrap of fabric, and yarn can be turned into a book in a breeze. This PDF offers step by step instructions.
Books can be made simply with tools you have around the house. Fold a few sheets of paper in half. Cut a folder to the same size to serve as the cover. Poke holes with a needle or toothpicks. Sew the book together, starting with the center hole. You might need to watch the video a couple times or refer to the diagram online. After you tie off the yarn, your book is finished. But, gluing on fabric to the cover makes a nice extra touch. After that, your book is done.
What do you need? Paper, yarn or string, a folder, a glue stick, a needle, and fabric
Try this? Once your book is done, you can choose to draw what you want. You can turn the book into a journal of your life, a chance to practice your drawing skills, or a place for your secrets. How will you use your book?
Collection Connection:
Drawing in sketchbooks is an important way aritsts work through ideas. Keeping a sketchbook with you at all times gives you the tools to draw whenever you see something interesting.
Artists, like William Sommer, often draw all the time. Like most things, practice is essential to perfect your craft. Sommer’s drawing shows his own son engaged with a sketchbook.
- If you use your book to draw everyday scenes, what moments would you capture?
- Sommers often used bright and pastel colors. How would you describe his colors and brushstrokes?
- If Sommers is drawing his son, what is his son sketching?
Beautiful Bookmarks
Beauty is it’s own reward, and art doesn’t have to be anything. However, sometimes making useful art feels good.
Bookmarks can be made from simple craft materials. Using a lovely bookmark can make the art of reading feel more special.
What do you need? There are infinite ways to make bookmarks.
- Bubblewrap embroidered with raffia
- Fabric or contact paper corners
- Scraps of file folders decorated with contact paper
- Strips of old artworks
Try this?
What are other ways you can turn supplies into lovely bookmarks?
Collections Connection:
Sam Gillam’s A Fog in the Hollow, 1974 features layers of color screenprinted onto paper. You can create a similar textured composition with bubble wrap as an easy project. It would also make a wonderful bookmark. Explore last month’s projects for possible sources for bookmark making inspiration.
Make a Zine
Need a quick way to creatively get out your stay-at-home stresses? A new style of sending a message to a friend? A fun approach for adults and kids alike to make a mini-story? Try making a zine!
Zines, short for magazines, are self-published, easy-to-make projects that have zero-to-no stipulations. Zines used to be created as a way for science fiction fans to add onto their favorite narratives, often through cutting and pasting paper together to form a small book or issue. Now, zines can be found as more formal, published material, often produced by a master printer.
What do you need? Using one piece of standard size paper, make an 8-page zine and get started with your own narrative!
8.5×11 inch paper
Scissors
Try This:
Ready?
Hot dog fold
Open up fold
Now, hamburger fold
Open fold, and turn paper
Fold bottom half up to the hamburger fold’s crease
Fold top half to meet bottom half at hamburger fold
Open up folds
(Can you see the 8 pages?)
Turn paper, and hamburger fold, again!
Use scissors to cut along this center crease to the center point
(This cut will allow the paper to fold into a zine)
Open paper
Hot dog fold, but prop it up like a tent
Push the two tent ends into the center
Fold together 3 of the 4 flaps
Take that last flap, and fold into the rest of the flaps
(This is your back cover)
Be sure to crease all the seams well!
Behold- a tiny, baby zine!
Bring out all the goods!
Using stickers, stamps, tape or objects to glue in, can help
to alleviate the pressure to draw or write
Collection Connection:
While the collection doesn’t include zines, we have many works that feature layering of images, a common practice for zine artists. Patrick Nagatani’s The Evening News, Native American Pueblo Dwelling, New Mexico, 1990 is a composition created from many different sources.
Patrick Nagatani (Chicago, 1945 – October 27, 2017, Albuquerque). The Evening News, Native American Pueblo Dwelling, New Mexico, 1990. Gift of George Stephanopoulos 2007.122
Explore the image:
- What are some aspects of the colors you notice?
- Photographers can use tools to make the image seem seamless. Do you see edges around the figures? When artists do this, it reminds the viewer that this scene is not “real.”
- What are some of the parts of the composition? What is in the background? What is in the foreground? Are there any parts of the scene that surprise you?
Try This Invitation: Make a Book about You
With all your bookmaking knowledge, what next? Here’s an invitation to put your book to use.
Collection Connection:
Lola Isroff was a self-trained artist, who liked to sketch buildings and rooms. Here, she shows a cozy living room. Imagine being in this setting. Describe how it would feel to be in this room. Think of your each of your senses as you picture being in the space.
Why make so many different books?
Creativity is a learned skill. Every time to try something new you’re improving your creativity muscles. Explore one artist who could help you think about creativity.
Family Days are made possible by PNC with additional support from The Kathy Moses Salem Philanthropic Fund of the Akron Community Foundation, The R.C. Musson and Katharine M. Musson Charitable Foundation, and the Robert O. and Annamae Orr Family Foundation.
MuseumGames: Word Find
Locate the given words in the grid, running in one of eight possible directions horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. There may be an unused word or a message hidden another way to discover related to the puzzle.
Assemblage
Creative
Podcast
Woodcut
Painting
Sculpture
Screenprint
Studio
Akron
LeWitt
Photograph
Printmaking
Sokol
Studio
Gallery
Gleistman
Stanczak
Novotny
Drawing
Abstract
Thomas
Garden
Untitled
MuseumGames are made possible by PNC with additional support from Acme Fresh Market, the Kathy Moses Salem Philanthropic Fund of the Akron Community Foundation, The R.C. Musson and Katharine M. Musson Charitable Foundation, the Robert O. and Annamae Orr Family Foundation, and the Charles E. and Mabel M. Ritchie Foundation
ARTstrology: Libra
September 23 – October 22
Lovely Libra, you are a master tightrope walker, just like Yinka Shonibare’s dapper gentleman. You create balance everywhere you go, and can find harmony in things that might seem like opposites. But be careful! Libras have a tendency to overthink and take too much advice. Listen to your instincts, and you’ll be able to find your footing just fine.
Libra 23 septiembre – 22 octubre
Linda Libra, eres un maestro de la cuerda floja, justo como este atildado caballero. Creas el equilibrio donde quiera que vayas, y puedes encontrar la harmonía en cosas que parecen ser opuestas. ¡Pero, ten cuidado! Los libras tienden a pensar demasiado y a tomar demasiados consejos. Escucha tus instintos, y podrás encontrar perfectamente tu base.
MuseumGames are made possible by PNC with additional support from Acme Fresh Market, the Kathy Moses Salem Philanthropic Fund of the Akron Community Foundation, The R.C. Musson and Katharine M. Musson Charitable Foundation, the Robert O. and Annamae Orr Family Foundation, and the Charles E. and Mabel M. Ritchie Foundation.
Crépuscule : An Ode to Dusk
This painting by French artist Gaston La Touche is an ode to dusk (“crépuscule” in French) and its subtle beauty of color and light. Fallen leaves gather in lines to create a dancing pattern across the reflective surface of a pond as a still quiet envelops the surrounding woods.
La Touche displayed an early interest in art and began drawing classes at the age of ten. He spent much of his youth observing French artworks from the 17th and 18th centuries in the picture galleries of palaces in his hometown of Saint-Cloud and nearby Versailles. These experiences informed his later choices of subject matter, as many of his paintings include courtly figures, regal residences, and romantic settings such as the one seen here. This image of a fountain and pond in the dwindling light of sunset likely depicts a scene in the royal gardens of Versailles, one of the artist’s favorite subjects. In his own words: “I only have one Master, the Park of Versailles.”
What mood does this painting communicate? Do you think the artist completed this work outdoors and on location, or in a studio?
Although La Touche may not be well-known to contemporary audiences, he was a prominent member of French painting circles during the second half of the nineteenth century. Renowned artists Félix Bracquemond and Édouard Manet served as mentors to a young La Touche. Later, the painter frequented the same Paris cafés as many influential figures in the Impressionist movement, such as Émile Zola and Edgar Degas. While his work features some Impressionist characteristics, La Touche’s paintings differ in subject matter and brushwork.
Read MoreTo Uncertainty
Honoré Guilbeau had early aspirations as a dancer, but soon after enrolling in classes at the Art Institute of Chicago, she shifted her focus to printmaking. Her thoughts were never far from dancing however, and she often featured dancers and theater scenes in her works.
In this print, the three dancers and their movements appear somewhat enigmatic. Their forms seem to emerge from the same core, yet they have separate upper bodies. Or, the figures could all represent the same dancer at different moments in time as she sweeps through her choreography. As a dancer herself, Guilbeau may have been intrigued by the challenge of depicting the movement of dance in the static visual medium of printmaking. The title of the work offers no additional clarity and indeed points to uncertainty itself. Is To Uncertainty an ode to a particular emotion Guilbeau felt at the time? Is it the title of a dance or performance she participated in or saw? Or, is it a comment on the image itself, for which no certain explanation is readily apparent?
What do you think these figures and their movements represent? What do you think that visual artists might gain by participating in other types of art, like dance or theater?
Guilbeau moved to Cleveland in the 1930s where she found work through the Works Progress Administration (WPA) art project, serving as a set and costume designer with the Cleveland Theater for Youth and continuing her work as a printmaker. Guilbeau made this print as part of a series depicting dancers for the WPA art project. Many of her other prints were also included in the “Print-a-Month” series, a subscription service through the Print Makers Club of Cleveland that sent a monthly etching, lithograph, or woodcut to its members. The Akron Art Museum counts a number of these “Print-a-Month” works among its collection, not only from Guilbeau but from other leading Cleveland-area artists as well.
In 1939, Guilbeau and her family moved to a farm in Peninsula, OH, a small town situated between Akron and Clevleand in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Guilbeau transformed their barn into an art school for children and helped form the Peninsula Players theater group, for which she also danced, designed sets, and made costumes. From the 1940s on, Guilbeau dedicated her time to numerous activities in the arts and literature. She taught at the Akron Art Institute (now the Akron Art Museum) for several years and later worked as a book illustrator, producing drawings for A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court as well as a series of children’s books with Cleveland author Ethel Collier. Guilbeau was also instrumental in establishing the Peninsula Library, where her pebble mosaic Mural of Transportation in the Valley can still be found on the exterior wall just next to the library’s front door.
Read MoreRelief Podcast: Episode 8: Play
This weekly podcast brings listeners joy and comfort for these uncertain times.
The Akron Art Museum’s staff shares insights from their own lives combined with conversations about the collection and interviews with regional artists and musicians.
Join us every Tuesday.
Play
This week the topic is Play. Seema and Gina discuss how to stay playful during times of stress and how artists use play in their work.
Deep Dive with Reggie: “New York,” Helen Levitt
Reggie talks about how photographer Helen Levitt captured play in her work and how she invites play in her viewers.
Additional works from the “New York” series
Shop Talk with Alexandria Couch
Couch is an artist living and working in Akron, Ohio. She is currently in her last semester of her undergraduate degree at the University of Akron. Couch utilizes a variety of media in each of her works, including printmaking, painting, drawing, collage, and textiles.
Instagram: @cosmocouch
Only at Home Inside Your Head in Akron Art Museum’s Art Library Collection: https://www.akronlibrary.org/locations/main-library/culture-av-division/akron-art-library/alexandria-couch-only-at-home-inside-your-head
ArtsNow- https://artsnow.org
Downtown Akron Partnership- https://www.downtownakron.com
Relief Podcast Music
Jordan King is a multi-instrumentalist based in Kent, Ohio. Through his music project, Swell Tides, he has worked with Akron Recording Company and Electric Company Records. His work has been featured in the Devil Strip, Cleveland Scene, Akron Recording Company’s Where the Hell is Akron, OH? Vol. 2. Find Swell Tides on Bandcamp and Spotify, and stay in tune with upcoming shows on Instagram @swelltides
Relief Podcast is made possible with support from the Ohio Arts Council.
AAM Mad Libs
You can play AAM mad libs with your friends or by yourself. Here’s how
to play: Creatively fill in the list on the next page with whatever words you
like, then transfer your list to the blanks in the story. Finally, read the story
from start to finish and enjoy your silly creation! Be sure not to peek at the
story until you’ve chosen all of the words to complete it.
Helpful Reminders!
Adjective: Describes things or people
Examples: crazy, short, annoying, messy, fluffy, brave
Noun: Person, place, or thing
Examples: cell phone, spider, home, father
Action Verb: An action
Examples: run, kick, hunt, jump, swim
Verb Ending in “ing”: An action in the present
Examples: running, kicking, hunting, jumping, swimming
Past Tense Action Verb: An action that happened in the past
Examples: ran, kicked, hunted, jumped, swam
Exclamation/Interjection: Expresses a strong emotion
Examples: Oww!, Wow!, Yay!, Yikes!
MuseumGames are made possible by PNC with additional support from Acme Fresh Market, the Kathy Moses Salem Philanthropic Fund of the Akron Community Foundation, The R.C. Musson and Katharine M. Musson Charitable Foundation, the Robert O. and Annamae Orr Family Foundation, and the Charles E. and Mabel M. Ritchie Foundation
Landscape with Yellow Clouds
A longtime favorite across Northeast Ohio, William Sommer absorbed ideas from Cubism and other modern European art movements, adapting them to his distinctly Midwestern subject matter of farm scenes, landscapes, and portraits.
Sommer painted this landscape shortly after he visited New York City for the groundbreaking Armory Show of modern art in 1913. It was there that he saw innovative works by artists like Paul Cézanne and Vincent van Gogh. He was especially enthralled by the work of French painter Henri Matisse, whose bold and unnatural use of color shocked critics so much that they called Matisse and his colleagues “fauves” (French for “wild beasts”). This untamed use of color can be seen in the pastel blues, pinks, yellows, and greens of Sommer’s cheerful Landscape with Yellow Clouds.
Have you ever seen a sky or landscape with the colors that Sommer used for his painting? Why do you think these colors were so shocking to audiences back in the early 1900s?
Sommer spent most of his life in Northeast Ohio and was known as a leader of the “Cleveland School,” a group of Cleveland-based artists who were active during the first half of the twentieth century. As part of this scene, Sommer co-founded the Kokoon Arts Club in 1911 as an independent group designed to promote modernist art in Northeast Ohio, and to offer more creative freedom to practicing artists. Sommer’s work can also be found in the many murals he painted for buildings throughout the area, including the Cleveland Public Library, Cleveland Public Auditorium, and the main office of the Akron Board of Education.
Read MoreFamily Day: Dog Days of Summer
Summer is coming to an end. It’s a time to relish freedom, enjoy family, and spend a few more minutes in the outdoors. This month’s projects celebrate the end of the holidays.
Project 1: Lanterns, Lanterns, Lanterns
With Summer holidays coming to an end, its the perfect time to catch a few evenings as a family (and maybe a few fireflies). Lanterns can make these evenings even more magical.
What do you need? The PDF below offers three versions of lantern projects. Ideally, you’ll need a form, a translucent paper, and glue or tape.
Try this? Lanterns are easy to make. Start by creating your form. An oatmeal container works great or you can also hot glue popsicle sticks together. Even a few bent pipe cleaners can work. Adorn your form with translucent materials, like tissue paper or cellophane. A careful adult could place a tea light in the lantern, but a battery-operated light is best.
Collection Connections:
You can think of your lanterns as colorful sculptures. One particular sculpture can serve as inspiration. Lucky Bellevue’s Happy is made from pipe cleaners, as well as trays and brackets.
- What do you think the name means?
- How do you think the artist made the sculpture?
- How many pipe cleaners did he use?
- What is the title of your lantern sculpture?
Glass is a particularly good inspiration for lantern making too. Art glass can feel magical with its colorful translucency. Some artists, like Paul Stankard, employ glass to create fascinatingly realistic works. Many glass artists, like Stanislav Libensky, use glass in an abstract manner. Explore the glass objects in the collection as inspiration for your lanterns.
Project 2: Animal Collages
This summer, many of us spent more time at home, perhaps surrounded by pets, watching fantastical animals, or reading about out of this world creatures.
While drawing is one way to depict creatures, collage or sculpture can expand your creativity.
What do you need? Scissors, glue, paper, and/or cardboard.
Try this? Cut shapes from paper and/or cardboard. Challenge yourself to create an abstracted figure from these pieces. Glue your shapes onto a background. You can add a few details with marker at the end.
Collection Collection:
Explore Bull Connor’s Dog by Don Drumm.
- How would you describe the attitude of Akron artist Don Drumm’s dog? Despite being abstract, most people can describe the dog’s attitude.
- In what ways is this sculpture similar to a live dog?
- How is it different?
- What are some of the shapes you see in the sculpture?
Printmakers are particularly good at simplifying real life to create appealing compositions. Cyrk by Hubert Hilscher, for example, shows an animal. While it is not a photograph, most viewers would say this is a lion. Explore the ways the artist uses simple shapes to create the animal. How would you describe the animal’s attitude? Explore the other works by Hilscher in the collection. Which animal is your favorite?
Project 3: Sculpture
School is upon us, and with it, the requirements to follow the rules. Art is a chance to make your own rules. Challenge yourself to turn regular household materials into a sculpture. Make something you find beautiful.
What do you need? Pick just one media, like a plastic folder.
Try this? Use your imagination to manipulate it to create a 3-D form. Or, put together only two forms, like paper straws and pipe cleaners. As you work, think about how your sculpture looks from all angles. Pick up your sculpture so you look at the forms from a different angle.
Collection Connections:
Yayoi Kusama’s Arm Chair is made from simple materials like canvas, shoes, and an armchair. With the lack of coloration, the eye can’t help but get lost in the forms.
Explore the collection online for other sculptures. Notice how many sculptures veer towards abstraction and away from realism. What forms do you notice? What are some words you’d use to describe the surface of the sculptures?
Project 4: Break the Rules with Color
Another way to break the rules is to expand the concept of painting. You may think paintbrushes are only one way to paint. Explore what other tools from your kit can be used to apply paint. The surface you paint on can be transformed with foil or tissue paper. Or you can make a translucent masterpiece by painting on the clear vinyl.
What do you need? Compile as many non-paintbrush tools as you can. Add paper, watercolors, and water. You can also compile as many non-paper surfaces to paint on. Add brushes, watercolors, and water.
Try this? Painting without a brush can help you explore abstract painting. You can get a better feel for pattern and texture.
Collection Collections:
2009.30.6
Abstract painting is one of the strengths of the museum’s collection. Charles Cough’s Muniment, for example, offers the viewer form and color. Explore the work. Imagine applying the brushstrokes. Try to picture laying on the paint. Compare this work with the other Cough painting in the museum’s collection, July Thirteenth (70). Which painting appeals to you more? With such wide variety of abstract paintings, finding your favorites is important.
Hui-Chu Ying, (Taipei, Taiwan, 1956 – ). Invitation, 2002-203. Purchased with funds from Akron Art Museum Docents in memory of Betty Blair
2005.13
Layering color is also common in contemporary prints. Local Akron printmaker Hui-Chu Ying often layers colors. Her works include layers of color interspersed with realistic elements. You can rework your abstract bubblewrap print, for example, employing collaged realistic elements.
Collection Connections
Artist La Wilson broke many of the commonly accepted art world rules. She was largely self-trained. Rather than carving from wood or stone, her sculptures were usually assembled from found objects. Learn more:
Many of us have been home more often, passing the time differently than other summer holidays. Be inspired by La Wilson to commemorate your summer.
Get Art: Why does some art not look like anything?
Many of these projects encouraged you to create compositions you enjoy but don’t represent something you see in real life. Think about why some artists make work that is non-representational.
These projects employ supplies collected in the museum’s Creativity Care Kits. These kits are freely available, while supplies last, at the museum. Free tickets required to enter the museum.
Family Days are made possible by PNC with additional support from The Kathy Moses Salem Philanthropic Fund of the Akron Community Foundation, The R.C. Musson and Katharine M. Musson Charitable Foundation, and the Robert O. and Annamae Orr Family Foundation.