File under "There Is Hope For Me": Presidential Candidate Ted Cruz's National Security Advisor is an Art Historian!

Breath a sigh of sweet relief, world. There is hope for a 30-something with a Bachelors Degree in Art History (with a concentration in Modern Art) like me! It looks like Republican presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz (I like to think of him as America's favorite Canadian) had found his advisor on national security and she is a doctor in Art History! Now if only I liked politics...

Senator Cruz (of Texas, if you don't know... Which I apparently didn't and had to look it up- I told you I don't like politics) has acquired the talent of Dr. Victoria Coates, a PhD (ahem, she is a doctor which is a real thing) in Art History (she is a "cultural historian" which sounds pretty fancy to me) and author of books like "David's Sling: A History of Democracy in Ten Works of Art" and co-authored "The Last Days of Pompeii: Decadence, Apocalypse, Resurrection". She comes to us via The University of Pennsylvania (by way of Trinity College in Hartford with a BA in Art History in 1990 and Williams College with an MA in Art History in 1992) with her concentration in Italian Renaissance in 1998.

She got her start in the glamorous world of politics from good old Donald Rumsfeld (Remember him? He was Secretary of Defense under President Gerald Ford from 1975-77 and President George W. Bush from 2001-06). Ms. Coates was the editor for Rumsfeld's book "Known and Unknown: A Memoir" in 2007, and from that moment forward, it was easy street for her. She became Governor Rick Perry's "national security expert" for a hot minute (5 months, I believe) though having no history in politics or even the military (She could have obtained a double major in Political Science while in college but she missed it "by one class credit"). She also had a brief stint as the curator of the Cleveland Museum of Art from 2010 to 2013 before she became Mr. Cruz's go-to-person on the security of our country.

I am at a complete loss for words to describe how I feel about this. On one hand: I am happy because there is something else out there to do in the world with a degree in Art History that doesn't involve 1) working in a super competitive field, 2) working with snot-nosed kids and 3) working with colleagues in a field that think they are better than the next historian... Three things that is keeping me from furthering my career in the arts. But, then I start to think how this woman could make not only us women look bad but also put those in the art community as the new laughing-stock of the academic world. I will forever hear from people questioning my decision on putting myself through college to get a "useless degree."

Now that I think of it, there is no hope for me. I hate politics. Pass. But, good luck Victoria... You are going to need it.

Del Paso Words on Walls project...

While driving back home from an interview in the Arden area, I decided to make a quick detour to check out some local artwork that is in the area. Every time I drive down Arden Way, I see this brick wall that has a mural painted on the side of the building. The murals are created in part with the City of Sacramento and the Del Paso Boulevard Partnership. These five (although, I have only seen 4 of them) huge site-specific pieces are scatted throughout Del Paso Blvd. Five local Sacramento poets created unique poems inspired by the Boulevard. The poems were then transformed into murals with the help of graphic designers.

The main objective of the 'Del Paso Words on Walls' project is to "provide poets with the opportunity to create temporary public art while helping to foster and reinforce the Del Paso Boulevard Partnership’s goal of becoming Sacramento’s premier design district."

Del Paso Boulevard Art Scene

"A painting sprouted legs on Del Paso. It popped in

to Mama Kim's for a bite to eat.“I like your scene,” the server said.

“Thanks!” said the painting: “River, light rail, sycamores, sun...”

Then the painting wanted to see the world. “Go ahead,” said the Boulevard:

“It's spring: All the stoplights have turned green!” 

So the painting caught light rail at Del Paso and Arden.

“Where to?” asked the driver. “Round trip,” the painting said."

Poem: Susan Kelly-DeWitt

Graphics: Benjamin Della Rosa 

In Scarcity, We Bare the Teeth

"In scarcity, we bare the teeth
selling them off one by one
appetites in search of the highest price
no longer able to smile at or chew
what it means to live the good life."

Poem: Tim Kahl

Graphics: William Leung

The Mud Dauber Wasp

"She speaks to me about the mud dauber wasp,
reciting all that she learned from Encyclopedia Britannica
1970, the way it flies across the patio,
moving bits of earth larger than one would
imagine. She watches it build a nest beneath the eaves,
a thing of beauty, shining in her eyes."

Poem: Danny Romero

Graphics: Laura Edmisten-Matranga

 

Boulevard, Del Paso

"You silver spark the sapphire-bouquet mind
You fire-forth weeds of stars from asphalt cracks
Opening art's tender heart, sparkling arks
See your bones rise those orange-iron, air paths"

Poem: Paco Marquez  

Graphics: Hans Bennewitz

Detroit can keep its art afterall...

Back in July of 2013, the city of Detroit filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy due to being in debt over $18 billion. With the city being desperate and strapped for cash, there were rumors that the art that was housed in the local museums (like those at the Detroit Institute of Arts) would soon be auctioned to make some money. The art of such world renowned artist like Van Gogh, Matisse, Whistler and Rivera was estimated to be worth millions, with the entire collection of the DIA is valued from hundreds of millions to upwards of $20 billion.

When Christie's auction house assessed the collection in December of 2013, it was discovered that the collection (based on the most important key pieces) was actually worth a maximum of $867 million. The total price tag covered the 2,800+ pieces (which is less than 5% of the institute’s total collection) that were all purchased using city funds according to Detroit’s emergency manager, Kevyn D. Orr. The city was cautioned by Gerald E. Rosen, a Federal judge who, along with others, believe that the "possibility of selling part of the city’s cultural heritage has enraged many" and believe that it would "be a betrayal and would hurt the chances of a Detroit revival."

Today, it was announced that many National and local philanthropic foundations have committed $330 million to help pay down Detroits debts thus saving the museum from having to sell off the art. Groups like Ford Foundation, the Kresge Foundation and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation have all helped by donating money.

More:
Fate of Detroit's Art Hangs in the Balance...

$7 Stolen Renoir has to be returned to museum...

The frame is what caught Martha Fuqua's, a former physical education teacher from Virginia, eyes when she found a small napkin sized painting at a flea market in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia in 2009. Despite the name plate at the bottom of the frame that said the words 'Renoir 1841-1919'. She stored the Pierre-Auguste Renoir painting garbage bag in her house for the next 2 1/2 years.

The 1879 painting titled 'Paysage Bords de Seine' (which is French for 'Landscape on the Banks of the Seine' was actually stolen from the Baltimore Museum of Art in November 16/17 1951. It wasn't until Fuqua's mother Marcia, who was an art teacher and an artist, told her to get the piece appraised in the Summer of 2012 (which the piece was estimated at $75,000 to $100,000) that got the attention of the BMA. The FBI seized the piece while legal proceedings were occurring. Fuqua believes that the painting should be returned to her because "she was unaware of it having been stolen or of it being genuine." The FBI claim that the piece is actually worth $22,000.

The judge ultimately ruled last week that the paintings ownership can not be claimed by Fuqua since the painting was stolen from the museum. The piece was originally the property of Saidie May, an art collector and one of the leading benefactors of the BMA. Her then husband Herbert bought the painting in 1926 while in Paris from the Bernheim-Jeune Gallery; May later loaned the piece to the museum in 1937. When May died in May of 1951, she bequeathed the collection to the museum and was stolen while being processed legally.