Waller-Yoblonsky Fine Art

Any Japanese Child can tell you about Izanagi and Izanami.  Unlike Christian or Jewish concepts, Izanagi and Izanami were central deities in the Japanese story of creation.  After heaven and earth separated out of chaos, they stood on a floating bridge in heaven and put their jeweled spear down into the ocean waters and created the Japanese archipelago. Taking a very long and complicated story, just like the Bible, I will make it short: Izanagi and Izanami had children.  The sun god was born from Izanagi's left eye and the moon god was born from his right eye, and the storm god was born out of his nose.  And of course, there were many islands as children too.  At one time, it was believed that Japan's royal family descended from this heavenly line of deities.  Having lived in Japan, Shinto is still a very active religion - " The Ways of the Gods ."  It is an ancient religion that has great respect for nature, spirits or energies that are within the...

The mysteries of World War II continue to live on.  Recently a most detailed watercolor-gouache painting appeared.  At first it was unknown, but research revealed a most amazing story.  The watercolor was signed by Prof. Kleinert '45.  But who was Kleinert, and what was the scene?  It was clear that it was a European scene, was it Germany or Italy, or some-other unknown spot. The research bared out that it was a scene from Klagenfurt, a city in Austria on the eastern shore of Lake Worthersee.  This city is the capital of the Austrian Province of Carinthia, also located close to the borders of Italy and Slovenia. The painting shows the "Landhous" the Palace of the Estates, now the State Parliament, where local representatives and the governor handle the business of the province.  The Landhous was built by Hans Freymann and Johann Anton Verda in 1574-1594 to replace the sovereign's previous moated castle.  Their design as pictured includes a hor...

Mention the name of Sol Wilson in the art world today and you’ll likely get a puzzled look. From the American mid-century, Wilson was one of the best-known artists. He was included in art books and exhibits, with great gallery representation. Today he is still celebrated in Provincetown and other locations along the upper north-east coast. Wilson was man’s artist. He painted the sea, wharves, fishermen and shore-men who worked the pier. These dark broody paintings with his navy-blue brush "sketch-technique" reflected his educational influences. His famous instructors, George Bellows and Robert Henri were instrumental in developing his style of Expressionist Realism. Wilson arrived in America at the age of fifteen from present day Lithuania. He had worked in his father’s lithography shop as a boy. Here in the states, Wilson attended art classes at Cooper Union, the National Academy, and the Ferrer School. This education enhanced his talent and provided the artisti...

1945 started a new beginning for New Mexico, on July 16th was the first test detonation of the atomic bomb, and the state served as stage for young artists that were returning home from World War II.  The New Mexico mountains  had always served as an inspiration and an artist mecca, now it would grow a new generation of artists.  Douglas Denniston arrived 1945, attracted to the Taos School of Painting and the Transcendentalist Art concepts preached by Raymond Jonson, the University of New Mexico Art Professor. It was there Denniston got the opportunity to interact with now famed artists and instructors Agnes Martin, Enrique Montenegro, and Adja Yunkers. All four of these artists influenced and launched Denniston’s historic and varied six decade career in American Modernism and Abstraction.  It was at the University of New Mexico that he shared exhibit space with noted artist Richard Diebenkorn. It was the 1951 Master Theses Show in the Fine Arts Building w...

Once a year most of the country springs forward and falls back with seasonal time-changes.  Clocks and time-pieces remind us of upcoming appointments and schedules.  Clocks can be functional or decorative, and in the case of Richard Birkett, clocks are functional sculpture. Birkett has been making his version of unique clocks for numerous years. Some are assemblages, in the case of Birkett he creates three-dimensional, sculptural clocks of found objects. This clock is filled with a plastic toy dinosaur, a cow, a palm tree, a saxophone and then a vintage hair dryer hose with wooden blocks and a wooden spool. All these elements are non-art objects, including the triangle shapes which are glued together, creating a structure that becomes sculptural and when painted it takes on a transformational shape. Upper Back Portion with Cow and Palm Trees, and Hair Dryer Hose The clock has a large metal circle on the front. This section of the clock is a music box, when wou...

Every once in a while three different stories collide, from three different locations, and it becomes a serendipitous event.  To create this story, a northern Virginia thrift store, a former ladies dress shop in Bozeman, Montana and a purse company founded in Jackson, Mississippi, all converged. Most of us have never lusted after a vintage woven basket purse.  Instead, it is not uncommon to see a Louis Vuitton handbag on New York's Fifth Avenue; a Kate Spade bag coming out of Neiman Marcus in Dallas; or at the worst case, a Coach clutch by Tapestry coming out of a store at the Tampa Premium Outlet Mall.    This hand crafted purse came out of a thrift store adventure in northern Virginia.  It started out by being an unknown basket purse.  It was handcrafted and upon further inspection, it looked like it was made for someone in Bozeman, Montana. The hand-painted street scene had storefronts with " MSU " and " Bobcats " written in the store windows.  ...

Throughout history, man's imagination has populated the world with monstrous creations:  Satyrs, Cynocephali, Harpies, Centaurs, and today we look at Dzunukwa. Shaughnessy was born into Kwakwaka'wakw royalty. His grandfather, Arthur Shaughnessy was the Chief of Kingcome Inlet, a principle fjord of the British Columbia coast.  He started his art carving apprentice under the coaching and mentoring of noted carvers, Kelvin Hunt and Jonathan Livingston at the Arts of the Raven Shop. Cedar is plentiful along the northern Pacific Coast, and an excellent carving wood as it splits easily. Throughout his upbringing, he listened to the stories and myths of his people and developed the skills to portray these recited myths into Kwakiutl art, as in the cedar mask below. Kwakwaka’wakw (Kwakiutl), British Columbia, c. 1978 Ceder, under Black and Red/Orange Pigment, Horse Hair  Alert Bay, Canadian Government Tag Shaughnessy understood that Kwakiutl mythology is bas...