National Pet Day: Isoda Koryūsai
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 ...
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Curator's Corner
Artist Birthday: Minami Keiko
Keiko Minami was a sōsaku hanga (creative print) artist, a group of printmakers (primarily woodcut) who created the drawing, carved the woodblock, and printed the image, as opposed to the traditional ...
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Curator's Corner
Artist Birthday: Shimizu Seifu
The Chinese had a legend of the brave carp who swam against the current on the Yellow River to mate, and few were courageous enough to swim over the Dragon Gate waterfall. Those that did turned into d ...
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Curator's Corner
Artist Birthday: Shinsui Itō
As an artist associated with the shin hanga movement, Shinsui Itō incorporated Western elements of perspective and attention to sculptural form into his work. He also observed compositional aspects of ...
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Curator's Corner
Gem of the Month: Shirō Kasamatsu
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 ...
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Curator's Corner
Happy New Year 2023: Totoya Hokkei
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 ...
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Curator's Corner
Kimono Patterns and Ukiyo-e Prints
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 ...
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Curator's Corner
Women's (Art) History Month: Tomoe Yokoi, Anna Atkins, and Agnes Northrop
This week of Women’s Art History Month, we’ll look at a printmaker, a pioneer photographer, and one of the secrets to Tiffany’s success in stained glass. ...
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Curator's Corner
Chrysanthemum Day and Festival
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 ...
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Curator's Corner
Cool Off with Cool Colors: Asano Takeji
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 ...
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