Art by Georgia Artist Howard Finster (1916-2001)

These are part of the Howard Finster Exhibit at the High Museum in Atlanta.  Talented or just a religious person looking for anything to write on to deliver his messages from God?  I don't know which.

High Museum Mlusic Warmup

While going through my vidoes naming, filing, and deleting I came across this. It is at the High Museum during a jazz band warming up for the evening. I don't remember making a post of it, so might as well get mileage out of it while it is on my mind.

Being High Again & Hi ANTICO!

Yesterday We went to the High Art Museum again. Today We went to see the works of two artists: Radcliffe Bailey: Memory as Medicine and John Marlin’s watercolors: A Medium for Modernism. Both were very good and very different from each other.

Radcliffe Bailey worked with paint and sculpture to bring out the his black heritage.



This scupture was there, except the head all these are piano keys. I lifted this off Google.

John Marlin was a well traveled and versed man who ran around with people like Georgia O’Keefe and her husband – something about their carefree lifestyle reminds me of the Great Gatsby that hardly noticed the people around them struggling for survival.



The above was there is named something like Sun and the Brooklyn Bridge. I lifted this also from Google.

In the visiting exhibits at the High Museum you are not allowed to take photos. The permanent exhibits you can, which I helped myself to. Here are some random samplings:










If you think there is one too many of me, then you will love the below art. Click on it and you will see hundreds of me. You will see the last thing a fly saw just before I swatted it.




There was an elderly dignified lady studying a painting by Nellie Mae Rowe. I couldn’t help myself. I walked up to her and said I went to visit Nellie Mae one time at her house in Vinnings. At first the lady looked perturbed that I jumped in her face but as she listened and she was amazed. I told her Nellie Mae lived in a shack by the railroad tracks in Vinnings, and a friend of mine, Sandy Hicks was ran over at that same RR crossing by Nellie's house. I told the lady she had little dolls and notes to God hanging in the trees in her yard and any other trash people threw from their cars she molded it into art and had it dangling all over in her yard. I told her Nellie Mae took me inside to show me her house. In it was a room that was a shrine to Martin Luther King. Another room was dedicated to Jesus, and framed pictures of John F. Kennedy were in just about every room. I told her Nellie Mae also has some dolls she made that was on display in a case, but I they are not there now. After I said all I could think of she looked at me very sincerely and thanked me for sharing that with her and said she had drove through Vinnings many times back in the early 70s and probably noticed that house and wished she had done as I did, dropped in pay a visit.

The below four folk-art pictures are by Nellie Mae Rowe:






And of course look out any window and see the magnificent Building Art by Atlanta:







After the High we went to ANTICO PIZZA on Hemphill, near Northside Drive. We had heard a lot of good things about ANTICO NOPOLENTANA Pizza, about how good it is. And it is good, it just about rolls off the crust as you lift it to take a bite. We read a lot of reviews about the restaurant and found out that it didn’t have much seating for dining in; they don’t sell alcoholic beverages but you are welcome to bring your own in, but you can’t bring your own soft drinks; the counter staff, order taker and cashier were always very rude…. which just wasn’t true; they were very nice and accommodating.

Remember we read it was very hard to get a seat during the lunch? We timed the arrival of our visit alightly after 2pm. There were several tables empty. By the way, the tables are long that several parties could sit at.

The place is very original, eccentric, and interesting. It also has good pizza. However, there are some non-francised pizza eateries within a short distance of our house that is just as good.

An Evening at the Art Museum

On the first Friday of the months during the nice- weather season is the downtown Marietta Art Walk. Arts and crafts are displayed and participating businesses lure you in their stores.

Also it is the day the Marietta Art Museum admission is free. That is when we go. Yesterday was the first Friday which means it was a great time to patronize the art museum; to show them support, so to speak.

The first floor has two big rooms full of paintings, photographs, and a few sculptures. Here is a sampling:






The Civil War section was on the Mezzanine. It has art and artifacts. It will be on display untll September the 11th. Here is a random sampling of what they had. The fuzzy pictures don't blame the artist, blame me and my camera, mostly the camera (passing the buck).




CSA Sgt Pepper?




General Stonewall Jackson


Kennesaw Mountain



Then I saw a door that had stairs. I walked up the short stairs and went into the first room on the left. Apparently it is a board of executives meeting room. The room has some nice art pieces in it and also take note of the huge wall size blue print drawing of the building. It had a date of something like 1908. I thought it was dedicated in 1903.





As you leave you see Gov Roy Barnes law office (below). Now, if that an't Southern Folk-art (like the Big Chicken) I don't know what is.

Salvador Dali & Naked Women

If you don't see the naked women look above to Dali's right and study the skull.

Several months ago when the Salvador Dali Exhibit came to the High Museum in Atlanta we went to see it and of course I made a post of our visit on this blog.

Then, you know what?

Visitors to my blog increased about 150 to 200 daily. And the number stayed about that number for a couple of months. First, of course, the increase made the number of visitors to my site look above normal. Then, after awhile, the number, was the new normal. Then after a couple of months, people stopped coming to visit the Dali site and my daily visitation rate dropped between 150 to 200 visits a day, as it was before. But now, the new number, which was the old number before Dali, was now below average.

I think this is what happened: The late Salvador Dali is a very well known surrealist painter. People are fascinated by his work and Dali knew how to draw a crowd. “Draw” a crowd – get it? (I told you that I got a million of ‘em!). The many Dali appreciators Googled the artist and was drawn to my blog. And then, they found there was nothing to me, and moved on. It took months for it to run it’s course in the art appreciation community.

You know what that means?

It means if you want to increase visits to your blog just mention the word Salvador Dali and fools will flock to you and build those numbers up. Of course, I have taste, I wouldn’t stoop to that. No sir, I wouldn’t mention Salvador Dali just to increase my numbers, not me!

Of course, you could probably just say “naked women” or “nude women” and get a large onslaught of visitors too, but as I mentioned, I am above that kind of false visitor magnetism.

Last week was the last week of the Salvador Dali exhibit in Atlanta. We went to see it the second time. That must have been Tuesday. Our car was totaled on Wednesday.




I wasn’t allowed to take pictures in the Dali Exhibit but in order to not disappoint you Dali fans directly above is a Dali mockery painting done by Will Elder for PAGEANT Magazine in the ‘60s.

Back at the High

Above: a visual art by the collaboration of artist Salvador Dali & photographer Phillippe Halsman. The name of it is VOLUPTATE MORS 1951. We bought a post card version at the High. Study the skull on the right. How many naked women do you count?



We visited the High Museum again yesterday. We went to see our friend Savvy's photo that was selected to be shown at the High Museum along with other art done by Kennesaw University art students.

Let me explain a couple of things in the video:

The opening scene is outside the High in their courtyard area. I noticed one young man trying standing on his head with a photographer on the ground to get an angle shot. It looked interesting so I whipped out my Flip camera. And being the mature 69 year old adult that I am I tried to not label the plumber's cleavage, but failed.

Incidentally, at that point we were standing at the end of a very long line. After a few minutes we figured out as members we had rights these commoners didn't have. There was another line, that was no line that said, "Members Only" which we quickly turned up our noses and went to the line that was no line.

The first art scene is Savvy's. It is a photograph of young people on a carnival ride. I doubt if I did it justice. Notice the balance, the thrilled facial expressions, and the blurness to show motion. Excellent Savvy!

The other shots are also art done by students at Kennesaw University, all good.

The final scene is all the participants gathered to hear the winners' names announced. Or at least I think that was what it was about. I didn't here a word said. As you can tell I am facinated by that multi-level room.

We also visited my old friend Nellie Mae Rowe's art and others, which I might or might not produce a video from.

Congratulations Savvy!

A photo by Savvy, our son Adam's friend, will be on display for a limited time at the High Art Museum in Atlanta.

Salvadore Dali (above), if he was alive, could claim the same fame.

Bits of the High Museum

At the High Museum in Atlanta if you bring your camera you are required to tell the High security personnel that you have it and then they will have you read what you can and cannot take pictures of and then have you sign that you understand what you just read. They give you a sticker to wear on your upper torso to prove you have camera permission.

Essentially on the paper you have to read you are told that you cannot take pictures of the visiting exhibits, such as the Dali exhibit, but it is OK to take pictures of the permanent exhibits, such as the Howard Finster exhibit. And you cannot use a flash.

Speaking of Howard Finster three of his works is on the video. It starts with an angel and ends with a bicycle with scripture written all over it. Howard Finster was a lay preacher who lived in north Georgia, just south of Chattanooga. There is a movie loosely about him: JUNEBUG.

Also on the video are a couple glimpses of a jazz band getting ready to play for the dining crowd. On the table you see the classic kind of Halloween mask. No Obama, Bush, or Spiderman masks were on any tables that I could see.

Generally, this video is just bits of the High Museum as we wandered around , and that is about it. Except a short ride on Peachtree after leaving the museum's parking deck.

Look UP, Look Down - It Is High

High Museum in Atlanta.
pictures by me

Houdon Kept His Head & Made Some More

Speaking of art, Friday, we went to the High Art Museum in Atlanta.

We have been several times before over the past two or three years checking out the Louvre Exhibit. The Louvre has been lending the High segments of it art collection for Atlanta to view. Each exhibit stays several months and then is replaced by another segment.

This time the treat was sculptures by Jean-Antoine Houdon (1741-1828). Remember the famous bust of Benjamin Franklin made by a sculpture while he was in France trying to get support for the Revolutionary War? That was done by Jean-Antoine Houdon.



They probably had 20, give or take, sculptures by Houdon. We learned quiet a bit about his art. He developed a technique of accentuating eye pupils and irises… and one full length sculpture of a nude woman we could see he was pretty good at accentuation asses too.

He seemed to have perfected the facial body language in his sculptures: Some radiate intelligence; some their sincere warm nature; one looked like it just said something very clever and witty and is looking at you waiting for you to “get it”; some show a wise understanding; and it goes on.

If the Mr. and Mrs. Potato kit had half as many emotional lips and eyes to stick in the potato, I wouldn’t have hesitated asking Santa for one.

Also how many sculptured portraits have you seen that show their teeth? Not many I bet. There is one bust of his wife with her mouth partly opened exposing nice natural not-so-straight teeth, she looked very real.



When you check in the High and tell them you are going to the Louvre Exhibit they lend you an electronic gadget with headphones attached. When you stand in front of an art piece there will be a number along with a brief description on a small sign. If you want to hear a more elaborate detail and background information key in the number provided.

Now, here is the drawback: what if you went to great pains writing, producing, and paid a speaker to give the talk for the gizmo and you copy the audio in hundreds of the gizmos and then somebody else decides to rearrange things? The solution, was probably just a typical management decision: Ignore the problem, maybe it will go away.

Several times the voice was describing the statue or bust in front of us, then it said look to your left to see how he did his wife, and the wife is plainly to your right, and visa versa on another duo set of busts. And once it said to proceed to the 3rd floor to see Houdon’s bust of Napoleon. We went up to the 3rd floor, but they had the Egyptian exhibit on loaned from the Louvre, which we had already seen. The security man told us all of Houdon’s sculptures are on the 2nd floor. So, Napoleon did not get looked upon by us.

As I mentioned, he did Benjamin Franklin’s while he was in Paris, and I assumed he did Thomas Jefferson’s about the same time.


He traveled to the United States and did George Washington’s bust between the time he was General of the Continental Army and the first President.

He rubbed elbows with the rich and famous of Paris and also the philosophers responsible for the French Revolution, such as Voltaire (top picture) I guess he was in a position well known to both sides, so when the working class revolted and took charge, his head was pretty safe sitting on top of his torso.

I could not take pictures of the visiting exhibit but I had a camera permit to photograph the art in the permanent exhibit, which most of these are. The others are sculptures that by Houdon that I did not actually take – but I did find and copy them with Google’s help.






We only spent about two hours at the High, and our parking bill was $8.00. Can you believe that? Outrageous!!

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Then we went to a barbecue restaurant we read about named Blues & BBQ on 5th near Spring Street. It was very hard finding a parking place. On one of our circles around a few one way blocks to go by the place again we got very near the Varsity on North Avenue and almost decided to go there instead, but on our next loop we found a parking lot, where I had to parallel park.

Also, I believe where the restaurant sits is about the same spot The Wits End* (*bring money) used to be over 30 years ago. Then, the street was a dead-end and you could see expressway traffic just through the trees. Now, there is a bridge going over the I75/I85 and onto the Georgia Tech campus. We went onto the campus, still looking for a place to turn around and saw a sign saying something about it was “Rush Week” – a lot of the “Joe College” type were standing around trying to look well dressed and suave. When we finally got inside the Blues & BBQ I saw a sign saying “Use Buzz Cards here” with a picture of a GT yellow jacket. That must we a meal card for students who pay for their meal tickets.

The place was covered with Tech students. One thing has changed – no orange caps “The Hell With GA” written on the top or bill. Used to freshmen at Tech had to wear those caps. They seemed to be all over the place on campus and at the restaurants nearby such as places like this and The Varsity.

Another thing that changed is while we were trying to park a Georgia Tech Orange and White trolley came by and not too long the same colors on a bus. Evidently Tech furnishes shuttle services to places off campus.

The lady in front of us was ordering for a whole office and numerous times she would say “center cut sandwich”. We finally broke her train of thought and keeping up with the money and change to ask her what center cuts was. She said it was the best, and was a 3 rib sandwich. I ordered the center cut. Anna ordered the regular chopped pork. Neither of us complained.

And that was our wild and crazy time in the big city Friday.