Devin Powers is an American artist renown for his abstract paintings and wood carvings. Devin Powers was born in Boston, Massachusetts in the year 1980.
Powers attended Brooklyn College in New York.
In this clip we catch up with James Kalm and attend Devin Powers’ first solo exhibition in New York City:
Below a link to the artist’s website. Many of his later works, the carved wood reliefs shown here:
Below we visit a show featuring Powers’ that took place in 2014 with James Kalm. Kalm visits two galleries before the gallery featuring Devin Powers’ work is shown which is at the 15:58 minute mark of the clip:
The work of Devin Powers reminds of abstract artist Mark Grotjahn and also some of the master Inuit carvers. The mixture of carved wood and color is awesome!
Ezra Jack Keats was a fantastic children’s book writer and illustrator. I remember reading what is probably his most famous book, The Snowy Day. This book won him the prestigious Caldecott award given for the best children’s book.
Ezra Jack Keats was born in Brooklyn, New York in the year 1916. His family was poor and his father often discouraged his son from wanting to be an artist. Just a few days before winning an award for the best artist at his high school, his father died.
His dad kept the local newspaper clippings of Ezra in his pocket, but never showed him any outward praise for his artistic talents. Keats developed his skills by many trips to the library and taking art classes in his public education.
After his dad died the artist took a job in the comic book industry rather than go to college. He painted background in comic scenes and also designed camouflage the U.S. Armed Forces.
After his service in the war the artist moved to Paris where he fine tuned his art skills. After returning to the States the artist began illustrating children’s books. Over his career Keats wrote and illustrated 22 books.
The book snowy day featured Peter, a young African- American boy and his adventures on a snowy day. In this clip below we hear from a member of the Ezra James Keats foundation and her thoughts on Mr. Keats. It was the first time a children’s book had a person of color act as the hero or main character:
Ezra Jack Keats passed away in 1983 at the age of 67.
Keats experimented in his children’s illustration art using many different and fun ways that a child might use to apply paint such as spattering paint with a toothbrush. The artist was also among the first to use collage in the genre.
The art of Ezra Jack Keats brings me back to the wonderful time when I myself was a kid. His clever design and multi media works are full of fun shapes and patterns that helped to make his stories so much fun to read. His work also reminds me of Disney artist Mary Blair. Both of these remarkable artists were among the first to feature children of color in their art and as a main character of their stories.
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We close with some examples of Keats’ work and the thoughts of a curator:
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