Brent Wright

[text] Interesting Artist Fact: In 1986, Keith Haring opened the Pop Shop, a retail store in New York’s Soho neighborhood, to sell merchandise. The store offered shirts, posters, magnets, and buttons with his artwork on them.

[image] A Michigan woman is drawing admirers for a piece of American flag art that she created using 7,700 pennies. Kayla Dominique of Cement City says she needed to install a fireproof barrier wall behind her wood stove – and somehow got the idea that a wall full of pennies might work.

[text] Interesting Artist Fact: Before becoming synonymous with brilliance, Vincent van Gogh had a rough time. During one of his emotional lows, he reportedly tried to eat yellow paint because he thought the color symbolized happiness. Thankfully, he stuck to canvas afterward.

[text] Interesting Artist Fact: Artists used to paint with egg yolk. Powdered pigments were mixed with egg yolk and water or vinegar to improve the paint’s adherence. The technique went out of fashion around 600 years ago when oil paint was invented.

[text] Interesting Artist Fact: Rembrandt's early works are signed RHL (Rembrandus Hermanni Leydensis). He later switched to RHL-van-Rijn. Eventually, he signed his name simply as 'Rembrandt' for the majority of his career.

[text] Interesting Artist Fact: As a young boy, Pierre-Auguste Renoir took singing lessons with the local church choirmaster. He had a great talent for singing but due to his family's financial situation, was forced to quit.

[text] Interesting Artist Fact: The Mona Lisa was acquired by the French King Francis I after the death of Da Vinci in 1519. It is rumored that the king had offered to buy the painting but Leonardo had politely turned him down.

[text] Interesting Artist Fact: Norman Rockwell hadn’t even turned 16 when he received his first paid commission: a set of four Christmas cards, requested by a neighbor. After that little milestone, the artist would tackle his first major assignment in 1912.

[text] Interesting Artist Fact: Once Albrecht Dürer had established his own reputation as an independent master, he soon developed a network of communication with Europe’s other prominent artists.

[text] Interesting Artist Fact: Janet Sobel's journey began with an unexpected challenge from her own son. When Sobel criticized her son's artwork, he handed her a brush and challenged her to do better. Sobel accepted and discovered a hidden talent for abstract expressionism.

[text] Interesting Artist Fact: Permission is required to paint an Aboriginal dreaming. Artists need permission to paint a particular story: Where ancient and important stories are concerned, and particularly those containing secret or sacred information, an artist must have permission

[text] Interesting Artist Fact: Wheein from the musical group Mamamoo once got her Mom’s Latin name tattooed on her…and had the spelling corrected. Originally, she got “Soppy” tattooed in different colors on her index finger. It wasn’t long until it was fixed to “Sophy!”

[text] Interesting Artist Fact: Auguste Rodin failed to get into the École des Beaux-Arts school in Paris three times. Instead he attended the Petite École with its focus on decorative arts.

[text] Interesting Artist Fact: Murakami is considered the founder of the Superflat movement, a postmodern art movement that blends traditional Japanese aesthetics with contemporary pop culture imagery.

[text] Interesting Artist Fact: On June 18, 2006, Gustav Klimt’s Adele Bloch-Bauer I sold for $135 million, making it the highest priced painting in the world. Less than five months later, Jackson Pollock’s No. 5, 1948 fetched $140 million.

[text] Interesting Artist Fact: Joan Mir's parents originally wanted him to have a career in finance, so, after spending three years at business school, he secured a job as an accounting clerk.

[text] Interesting Artist Fact: In 1964, a Swedish art gallery displayed 4 paintings by unknown artist Pierre Brassau. Every single art critic praised the 'avant-garde work-except one, who said, 'only an ape could have done this"'...and he was right.

[text] Interesting Art Fact: Henri Matisse planned to be a lawyer. He attended law school, passed his exams in 1888, and worked as a law clerk until he came down with a severe case of appendicitis in 1889. While he was recovering, his mother gifted him art supplies for entertainment.

[text] Art Fact: Max Ernst was particularly drawn to birds; in fact, he claimed to have been born from an eagle's egg that his mother had placed in a nest. From 1930 a bird alter ego named Loplop appeared in his work, a kind of "supreme bird" with which he identified himself.

[text] Interesting Artist Fact: Piet Mondrian has experimented with his name almost as much as his artistic style. Like his forms, Mondrian reduced his name from Pieter Cornelius Mondriaan to Mondrian, distancing himself from his Dutch roots.

[text] Interesting Artist Fact: Glassblowers work with extremely heated glass, which can reach temperatures of above 2,000°F. It's the same temperature as lava from a volcano.

[text] Interesting Artist Fact: Andy Warhol had to record his spendings for the IRS as he was having some financial issues, but this led to a minutely-detailed account of his life which he recorded daily in phone calls.

[text] Interesting Artist Fact: Rembrandt's Portrait of Jacob de Gheyn Ill has been stolen 4 times. The 9x12 inch painting has been nicknamed "the takeaway. Rembrandt" as its small size has led to its numerous thefts.

[text] Interesting Artist Fact: As a child, William Morris was an avid reader. He read poetry, literature, history and science. He would lend books to his friends and family members. He continued to love reading as an adult and valued education greatly.

[image] Interesting Artist Fact: In 2020, a metro train in the Netherlands failed to stop at the end of the line in Rotterdam and crashed through the safety barrier at the elevated station.

[text] He worked for several years for the prominent sculptor Albert Ernest Carrier-Belleuse where he learnt skills necessary for running a large studio. It was not until Rodin was 40 that he received his first major commission – The Gates of Hell.

[text] Interesting Artist Fact: The term ‘drawing in space’ was first used in reference to Alexander Calder in the French newspaper Paris-Midi. This came after one of his first solo exhibitions in 1929, in which Calder showcased his wire sculptures.

[text] Birds and their ability to hover and mediate between heaven and earth were a recurring motif for Ernst in his creative process.

[text] Interesting Artist Fact: The word “art” is derived from the Latin word “ars,” which means “art, talent, or craft.” The word first appears in manuscripts from the 13th century.

[text] Interesting Artist Fact: In 1949, Glamour Magazine commissioned Andy Warhol to illustrate shoes, and in the 50s, Israel Miller asked Warhol to work as a shoe designer for his company. Warhol’s love for shoes and feet continued throughout his life.

[text] Interesting Artist Fact: Bob Ross once appeared on The Simpsons. In the episode "Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo", Bob Ross makes a cameo appearance as one of Homer Simpson's friends.

[text] Interesting Artist Fact: Marc Chagall spent six years living in New York City. He never learned English, saying, “It took me thirty years to learn bad French, why should I try to learn English?”

[text] Interesting Artist Fact: Edvard Munch owned several pistols and often used them to shoot targets, and on one occasion took a bullet in the finger; a 1905 note states that he shot a cigarette out of the mouth of fellow painter Ludwig Karsten.

[text] Interesting Artist Fact: Roy Lichtenstein was included in a group exhibition at Ten-Thirty Gallery in Cleveland, which is where he met his first wife Isabel Wilson, who was working as a gallery assistant there. They were wed in 1949 and divorced in 1967.

[text] This $150 gig helped set up a steady job as a staff artist and eventual art director for Boys' Life magazine, where he’d begin working before the year was out.

[text] Although still occasionally referred to as "Mondriaan," the artist officially dropped the second "a" from his name in 1911, rendering it a very appropriate anagram; "I Paint Modern."

[text] Interesting Artist Fact: In 1908, driven by financial necessity, Georgia O’Keeffe stopped painting and went to work as a commercial artist back in Chicago, designing lace and embroidery. Over the next decade, she traveled and worked as an art teacher in Virginia,

[text] Interesting Artist Fact: Kerala murals, one of the world’s finest art frescos that date 3500 years back were 100% eco-friendly.

[image] Interesting Artist Fact: Field of Art: Ohio farmer Wilbur Meyer created a large crop art mural in his soybean fields for the 20th anniversary of 9/11, displaying messages like "God Bless America" and "Never Forget" to honor first responders and victims.

[image] We all love a good old-fashioned, late-race plate race battle. Jeff Burton denied Dale Jarrett a record-tying third straight win at Daytona International Speedway as Burton conquered the track for the first time by 0.149 seconds over Jarrett in the #Pepsi400 on July 1, 2000.

[text] Interesting Artist Fact: Bokashi, is the technique of producing colour gradients by carefully dipping the corner of a brush into water to achieve saturated and dilute colours. Utagawa Hiroshige was highly skilled at using this effect to produce beautiful skylines.

[image] Beco do Batman street art & graffiti in Vila Madalena This artwork painted by Fernanda Luz and Wagner Loud represents the cover of a comic dating from 1939 featuring Batman and The Blue Beetle.

[text] Interesting Artist Fact: Working mainly on the motif, Paul Cézanne drew with a succession of strokes and disjointed lines, describing the landscape and objects geometrically and following the aerial perspective.

[text] Interesting Artist Fact: Born in 1541, under the name Doménikos Theotokópoulos, he received the nickname El Greco (Meaning “The Greek” in Spanish) only later in life. His paintings were signed in his birth name in Greek letters.

[text] Interesting Artist Fact: Francisco Goya was appointed as the First Court Painter in 1790, which is the highest position available to an artist at the Madrid court with a salary of 50,000 reales and an allowance of 500 ducats.

[text] Interesting Artist Fact: In Steve McCurry's most iconic photograph "Afghan Girl", he shows his technical style by using low light and shadows to get the purest colors, and a great, dark appearance.

[text] In total, 3,400 audiotapes were produced, leading up until a few days before his death.

[text] Interesting Artist Fact: It was the Dada artist Marcel Duchamp who coined the now ubiquitous term “mobiles” to refer to Alexander Calder’s kinetic, abstract sculptures. The artist Jean (Hans) Arp would subsequently term Calder’s static sculptures “stabiles.”

[text] Interesting Artist Fact: Vincent Van Gogh worked as a librarian at some point in his life. It’s said that the cantankerous artist would sit in a corner wearing his top hat and laboriously translate the Bible into four languages: Dutch, German, English, and French.

[text] Interesting Artist Fact: Some of Bob Ross’s bird friends that appeared on the show included Hoot the Owl, Mr. Jay the Bluejay, Kathy and Richard the Robins, and Midnight and Daniel the Crows.