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National Pet Day: Isoda Koryūsai

Friday, April 11, 2025 | Karl Cole

National Pet Day is an unofficial holiday celebrated on April 11. It was founded 2005/2006 by animal advocate and pet and family lifestyle expert Colleen Paige. The day is dedicated to all types of pe ...

Curator's Corner

Gem of the Month: Shirō Kasamatsu

Monday, October 28, 2024 | Karl Cole

Ukiyo-e was a woodblock print aesthetic that was popular from the late 1600s to the mid 1800s. The genre developed a visual vocabulary that documented the entertainments of Japanese urban centers, par ...

Curator's Corner

Happy New Year 2023: Totoya Hokkei

Tuesday, January 3, 2023 | Karl Cole

Mekari Shinji at the Mekari Shrine in Japan is an annual ritual of cutting wakame seaweed—symbolizing wealth and good fortune—from the ocean at low tide on New Year’s day of the old ...

Curator's Corner

Ghosts for Halloween

Monday, October 31, 2022 | Karl Cole

Ghosts, a big part of Halloween, are elements of mystery and curiosity in many cultures. There are great differences in the ways ghosts are perceived around the world, from abject terror to sympa ...

Curator's Corner

Gems of the Month: Aizuri-e

Monday, October 24, 2022 | Karl Cole

This month, I’m celebrating aizuri-e, or “blue prints,” from Japan’s ukiyo-e style that flourished during the Edo Period (ca. 1615–1868). The color Prussian blue was intr ...

Curator's Corner

Romance Awareness Month: Suzuki Harunobu, Etruria, Safavid

Monday, August 16, 2021 | Karl Cole

I was not aware of the association of romance with the month of August, but I think it’s refreshing. On one website that explains national month days, it said that “February isn’t th ...

Curator's Corner

Kimono Patterns and Ukiyo-e Prints

Monday, April 26, 2021 | Karl Cole

The Worcester Art Museum is hosting a fascinating exhibit tying kimono design and its importance in the ukiyo-e print aesthetic. Ukiyo-e, meaning “images of the floating (i.e. transient physical ...

Curator's Corner

National Garden Month 2021

Tuesday, April 20, 2021 | Karl Cole

It's National Garden Month and National Landscape Architecture Month. But I’ll deal with the landscape gardening later. I just want to show gorgeous art that may be slightly different than what ...

Curator's Corner

Kittens and Bunnies

Monday, November 16, 2020 | Karl Cole

It’s been a crazy year with this awful pandemic going on, and an equally crazy last two weeks with this nutty election. I think we all need some kittens and bunnies to recoup our mental health. ...

Curator's Corner

Mail Art

Monday, May 18, 2020 | Karl Cole

SchoolArts magazine is currently inviting all art teachers to enter Pushing the Envelope: A Mail Art Gallery Show. The theme of the online exhibit is Quaranteaching in a Pandemic. Art educators are in ...

Curator's Corner

Fuji (Wisteria) Matsuri: Utagawa Hiroshige

Monday, April 27, 2020 | Karl Cole

In Japan, April 21 to May 6 is the time of the Fuji Matsuri, or “Wisteria Festival.” During the festival, traditional music and dance are performed at the Kameido Tenjin shrine on the outs ...

Curator's Corner

Daylight Saving Time Gone: Dusk in Art

Monday, November 4, 2019 | Karl Cole

Daylight Saving Time ended this past weekend. Everyone is moaning about leaving work when it’s dark. I’m here to prove that there is beauty in the early onset of darkness…with ...

Curator's Corner

Chrysanthemum Day and Festival

Monday, September 9, 2019 | Karl Cole

I’ve shown this print on this blog before, but only in passing with other works concerning vacations. I’ve never gone into depth about a holiday that I think should be adapted around the w ...

Curator's Corner

Cool Off with Cool Colors: Asano Takeji

Monday, July 15, 2019 | Karl Cole

July can be moderately hot in Massachusetts, but I understand some regions of the world are having the hottest July ever recorded (probably due to climate change). So, if it’s hot by you, just s ...

Curator's Corner

Let It Snow in Ukiyo-e Prints

Monday, February 25, 2019 | Karl Cole

We have had several snowfalls in the past couple of weeks. On Presidents’ Day I found myself staring at a snow-laden tree across the street and thinking, that looks like a Japanese woodcut of a ...

Curator's Corner

Surimono Time for the New Year

Wednesday, January 2, 2019 | Karl Cole

I did it before and I’m doing it again: surimono to celebrate the New Year. In the West, we don’t really make little works of fine art to celebrate the New Year. In Japan, the surimono&mda ...

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National Pet Day: Isoda Koryūsai

Gem of the Month: Shirō Kasamatsu

Happy New Year 2023: Totoya Hokkei

Ghosts for Halloween

Gems of the Month: Aizuri-e

Romance Awareness Month: Suzuki Harunobu, Etruria, Safavid

Kimono Patterns and Ukiyo-e Prints

National Garden Month 2021

Kittens and Bunnies

Mail Art

Fuji (Wisteria) Matsuri: Utagawa Hiroshige

Daylight Saving Time Gone: Dusk in Art

Chrysanthemum Day and Festival

Cool Off with Cool Colors: Asano Takeji

Let It Snow in Ukiyo-e Prints

Surimono Time for the New Year

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