ARTstor and The National Gallery

ARTstor and The National Gallery, London have collaborated to share images of every painting in the museum’s permanent collection in the Digital Library.


The National Gallery houses one of the greatest collections of Western European painting in the world. Composed of more than 2,300 works dating from the 13th century to the early 20th centuries, the collection encompasses most major developments in Western painting. Highlights include Cézanne’s Bathers (Les Grandes Baigneuses), Piero della Francesca’s The Baptism of Christ, Rembrandt’s Self Portrait at the Age of 34, Holbein’s The Ambassadors, Uccello’s The Battle of San Romano, Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, Titian’s Bacchus and Ariadne, van Eyck’s The Arnolfini Portrait, and Velázquez’s Rokeby Venus.

Francesco Botticini | The Assumption of the Virgin | probably about 1475-6| The National Gallery, London | Photograph: ©The National Gallery, London

This collection includes works by masters such as Fra Angelico, Bellini, Botticelli, Bronzino, Courbet, Corot, Constable, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Degas, Delacroix, Duccio, Anthony van Dyck, Piero della Francesca, Caspar David Friedrich, Gainsborough, Gauguin, Ghirlandaio, Goya, Frans Hals, Hogarth, Ingres, Fra Filippo Lippi, Manet, Mantegna, Michelangelo, Monet, Pissarro, Poussin, Raphael, Renoir, Rubens, Seurat, Titian, Turner, Veronese, Leonardo da Vinci, and Vuillard.

Video: Creating an ARTstor User Account

You may remember our recent email announcement that Carmichael Library has acquired access to the ARTstor database. ARTstor is a nonprofit resource that provides a Digital Library of more than one million  images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and sciences along with an accessible suite of software tools for teaching and research.

Since subscribing to this great resource we've gotten a couple of questions related to logging in to the database and about creating a user account. Here's a video from the ARTstor team that may help:

You can find answers to some frequently asked questions at the ARTstor help site. Have more questions? Feel free to ask a librarian. Happy searching!

Video: Stone Carving, May 2011

In case you missed it on our Facebook page last week, here's another posting of our video of Professor Ted Metz's May 2011 Stone Carving class at work. This video was shot and edited by our student assistant for digital projects, Mike Price.



If you haven't seen our students' completed sculptures in the library be sure to stop in soon! We've got another summer art display (to be announced very soon) coming after this week.

Stone Carving Exhibit in the Library

"Convolution," by Katie Avant. Photo by Mike Price

Please don't miss a remarkable display of student artwork from Professor Ted Metz’s May 2011 sculpture class, Stone Carving (Art 471/571.)

The twenty pieces on display are cut from Colorado alabaster, shaped, and polished into fascinating forms and textures. This work will be displayed in the library main floor foyer through June 30.

The following is a list of participating artists:

Katie Avant
"Convolution"*
"Untitled"*

Danielle Banner
"I Wish my Boyfriend were Here"
"Lost at Sea"

Kirsten A. Bowman
"Connection"
"Movement"

Melissa Brobston
"Untitled"
"Untitled"

Sommer Fortner
"Jellyfish"
"Untitled"

Joyce Garrison
"In the memory of my Parents"
"Together Forever Amen"

Parker Hunt
"Untitled"

Joshua James
"Elementium"
"Once a Mountain, Now the Sea"

Jason Jeffcoat
"Untitled"

Hannah Ronan-Daniell
"Camelot"
"Constant Shallowness Leads to Evil"

Alexander Schmidt
"Untitled"
"Untitled"

* These works are no longer on display.

Thanks to our library student assistants Hannah Ronan-Daniell and Mike Price. Hannah helped with the coordination of our exhibit and created the labels for these fine works. Mike took photos of the exhibit, which you may view on our Flickr.

Thanks to our Circulation Manager, Gloria Beasley, who headed coordination and publicity efforts for this exhibit.

Student Book Art Exhibition and Reception, Jan. 20

Carmichael Library Presents

Journeys and Sequences: Photography books by Montevallo Art Students

Photo by Joel Bullock

Carmichael Library, in cooperation with the Department of Art, presents a display of photographic books made by University of Montevallo Art Students. The books were made by the students of Karen Graffeo who took part in Art Department Travel Abroad courses to Italy, Turkey and Greece. In addition, some of these works were produced by students enrolled in Photo I and Documentary Photography courses. The assigned projects required the student to take a journey, or to explore a cultural topic, as well as being required to do a visual sequence of photographs in response to the Carson McCullers story "A Tree, A Rock, A Cloud". The books were produced using the iPhoto software program.

The following students have books in this display: Heather Anderson, Maggie Blevins, Melissa Brobston, Leslie Carver, Rachel Crisson, Carolyn Fain, Lauren Franks, Rachel Grimes, Elizabeth Gross, Sky Johnson, Katherine Lincoln, Jameilia Little, Faza Malik, Elizabeth Minyard, Janessa Mobley, Stephanie Moceri, Oriana Padron, Michael Price, Hannah Ronan-Daniell, Alexander Schmidt, and Allison Vancleave

Please enjoy a reception on Thursday, January 20 at 1:00 p.m. in the library. Hot cider, treats, and books will warm your body and soul! Persons attending the reception will have a chance to look at these works and learn more about the processes used in their creation. The books will be on display in the library's Main Floor lobby through Friday, January 28.

Thanks to Karen Graffeo and her students for sharing their work with us! Also thanks to Gloria Beasley, Joel Bullock, and our library student assistants who helped with the set up of this exhibition.

Student Art Exhibition Through May 7

Don't miss our display of student art on the main floor of Carmichael Hall. Now in the library lobby you'll find paintings by the students of Prof. Misty Bennett's ART 429: Narrative Painting class. These pieces were produced in conjunction with our SLEDGEHAMMER: Recollections of E. B. Sledge program that took place last week.

As a part of the celebration of the life and career of Dr. Sledge, Bennett’s Narrative Painting class was given the assignment of creating paintings that tell a story about war for exhibition in Carmichael Library. Though Dr. Sledge famously fought in World War II, the assignment was open to any kind of war throughout history and any kind of personal experience the students may have with war that they wanted to explore in their work.

Participating students include Maggie Blevins, Leslie Carver, Allison Cleveland, Lindsay Dyess, Courtney Harper, Ian Heil, Anna Humphreys, Ryan Moody, Sarah Morriss, Oriana Padron, Jaimi Poole, Danielle Robinson, Austin Self, and Megan Scofield.

Congratulations to Megan Scofield for her winning diptych (located on the South Wall of the Main Floor.) Megan took Best of Show for her work, which deals with some of the iconic imagery of war propaganda. We in the library especially enjoyed her ominous portrayal of Uncle Sam in the above painting.

We also have the pieces produced by our student artists and poets for our recent Prints and Poems event. This year marks the fourth time we've hosted Prints and Poems, and we're thrilled to make it a part of our annual recognition of National Poetry Month. Prints and Poems is an on-going collaborative project between the Departments of English and Art at the University of Montevallo. In the 2009-2010 edition, students from Prof. Scott Stephens’s advanced printmaking class produced original prints that students from Prof. Jim Murphy’s creative writing class responded to. Here is a list of our poets and artists:

Print: untitled, a photo-etching/collage by West Finlayson - Poem: When Pigs Play Chess, by Danielle Robinson

Print: Untitled, an etching by Rachel Fowler - Poem: Playtime, by Teresa A. Whiting

Print: Artes in Allegretto, etching and chine collé by Tenisha Hicks - Poem: Glib, by Sarah Etheridge

Print: Iaido, relief printed etching by Sarah Morriss - Poem: Iaido, by Michael-Paul Smith

Print: “Eek!” Etching by Alana Palermo - Poem: The Lighthouse After Eek, by Matt Goethe

Print: untitled, an inkless embossing by Kyle Reed - Poem: Tangibility in Invisibility, by Charles Trey Stallworth

Print: Self-Portrait, an etching by Kelsey Roberts - Poem: Totems, an ekphrastic poem by Rosie Maguire

Print: untitled, an etching by Marie Smyly - Poem: Of What Remains, by Faiza Malik

Print: untitled, a photo-etching by Scott Stephens - Poem: Vessels, by Jim Murphy

You can see all of these works in the library through Friday, May 7^th. Also, check our Facebook and Flickr for more photos of these pieces.

Photos by Joel Bullock and Jason Cooper

Sledgehammer: Recollections of E.B. Sledge

The University of Montevallo and Carmichael Library wants to welcome everyone to a special event tonight at Parnell Memorial Library, 7:00 p.m.

E.B. Sledge was a University of Montevallo biology professor whose remarkable World War II memoir With the Old Breed has been acclaimed by such luminaries as Stephen Ambrose, Ken Burns, John Keegan, and Paul Fussell as the best war memoir ever written by an enlisted man. His book, an account of the battles in Peleliu and Okinawa, along with Robert Leckie’s Helmet for My Pillow, form the basis for the current HBO series The Pacific.

Please join us for a discussion on personal experience and its portrayal in life histories, formal histories, and community memory as evidenced in E. B. Sledge’s With the Old Breed and the book's use as a source today through the History Channel, Ken Burn’s The War and most recently HBO’s The Pacific.

The evening will include a performance by the University of Montevallo Chamber Singers and discussion moderated by Clark Hultquist (history professor) Ruth Truss (history professor), Jim Day (history professor) and Kouri Allen (UM graduate student) with special guest Henry Sledge (son of Dr. Sledge).

Misty Bennett's Narrative Painting class has a war-themed installation on the main floor of Carmichael Library. Please drop in before the end of the semester to see these beautiful student paintings!

Student Ceramics at the Library

We at Carmichael Library have had a long association with Montevallo's talented student and faculty artists so we're especially excited to present this latest display of student art. Now through Thursday you can see the work of Scott Meyer's student artists in the library foyer.

Students taking Dr. Meyer's advanced ceramics (ART325) class have not only expanded their skills on the pottery wheel, but have also taken a bold approach for students at their level. Writes Dr. Meyer, "It became evident that the group was capable of progressing along a single line of thought for the entire course. Therefore, the pieces displayed here attempt to move a single concept along as a progression from piece to piece." Meyer adds, "Most professional artists work in this fashion, but students at this level in their training typically do not gain the opportunity. This group of young artists is a rare exception."

Thanks to Scott Meyer and his students for allowing us to display their work here in the library. For those who can't come by and see this work we now have photos on our Facebook Fan Page.

Photo by Joel Bullock.

Recycled catalog cards = C-art-alog

Cartalog!

Ever wonder what to do with old movie ticket stubs or stock cards of any type? Look to the University of Iowa's digital cARTalog. There you will find wonderful examples of art made from old catalog cards and an inspiration for repurposing in this increasing paperless society.

Once on the site look for the gallery where you can see all the examples of this unusual art. Maybe you'll become a cartalogist!

Patsy Sears

A New Painting For Our Reading Area

On Friday, we hung Amy Feger's painting "Panorama at Ebenezer Swamp" in the reading area just to the left of the library's entrance. It's a beautiful depiction of a beautiful locale. Come check it out!

Memorial Day at the Anagama Kiln

I wanted to share a couple of thoughts from my trip to UM's anagama kiln today. I was there for over an hour in the mid-afternoon and had a chance to chat with Scott Meyer, a couple of our student artists, and some visiting artists from the faculty at UAB.

This weekend's action is the twelfth firing of the anagama kiln since its maiden blast back in the spring of 2002. Once again, I was impressed with the mammoth effort that it takes to keep Fat Bastard up and running. While I was there, I caught the four o'clock temperature reading, which registered just above 2,300 degrees Fahrenheit in two rear locations and 2,375 degrees in the front fire pit. No more than five or ten minutes passed between stoking and feeding the flame.

The artists participating in this May 2008 firing have started a photo pool, which you can check out here. There's not too much there at this point, as most of the people involved in the project have likely been too busy to post their shots, but we'll be adding the library's photos there. As always, you can view all of the pics we've taken on our Flickr.

Photos: Anagama Fire!

Anagama fire!
Originally uploaded by carmichaellibrary

This is the view from campus today as UM Professor of Art Scott Meyer, along with dozens of volunteers and area artists, celebrate the latest firing of Montevallo's own anagama kiln, also known as Fat Bastard.

The firing will continue through the holiday weekend and the unloading will take place on the 3rd of June. Visitors are welcome!

Check out a few more shots of today's events at our Flickr.

3rd Photo of "Self Portrait"

Self Portrait #2

Day of the Dead at Bare Hands Gallery

During Friday's presentation of Day of the Dead altars here at the library, Eric Vaccarella mentioned a piece in the Birmingham News about the Day of the Dead display at Bare Hands Gallery. This morning, I found a short video clip produced by the News on this popular exhibit and festival in the Magic City.



Bare Hands celebrated their fifth Day of the Dead last week establishing them as one of the first known major observances of this unique Mexican holiday in the Birmingham area. It just so happens that we've been celebrating here at Carmichael Library for six years now! :) Thanks to Dr. Vaccarella, Dr. Michelle Duran-McClure and all of our talented students for putting on another terrific event again this year.

Finally, those interested in the Day of the Dead tradition, and/or the local art scene won't want to miss this second video, produced by Bare Hands Gallery. It features local artists Tracy Martin and Wendy Jarvis, who talk about the history of Day of the Dead at BHG.

Now in Carmichael Lobby: Student Book Art

For the third time since 2005, Carmichael Library presents an exhibit of student book art. The projects currently on display in the library foyer are the result of two projects in Professor Patrick Mayton's popular Book Arts class: an origami book project, and a book alteration using books donated by the library.






Our two previous showings were during summer terms and this year's display marks the first time that visitors to the library can see these works in the heart of the academic year. If you've already seen these unique pieces be sure to check back often as the display will be updated throughout the coming weeks.

Joel Bullock took the terrific photos posted in this blog and you can see even more by heading over to our library Flickr page.

Anagama Gallery at Eclipse

I had the good fortune to be at Eclipse Coffee and Books last night for the opening of the Anagama Art gallery. The front half of Cheryl Patton's shop has been transformed into a showplace for original pieces by Montevallo students and faculty.

The festivities began at seven, and I arrived about an hour later to hear UM professor and anagama kiln founder Scott Meyer speak about his art and his work with Montevallo's gifted student artists.

The crowd was treated to a short documentary piece directed by UM's John Hoerner, followed by a Q&A session. Scott spoke of how the extreme heat in the kiln kicked off chemical reactions that can lead to radical differences in color and texture. On the improvisational nature of the process Meyer concluded that "every firing [of the kiln] is like jazz." I really liked that idea.

I hope you enjoy these scenes from the evening. We've posted a few more shots from the event on the library's Flickr.