April 19, 2024

How to start a new sketchbook; page one, the Frontispiece.

The first drawing of a new sketchbook can be as intimidating as that first brushstroke on a fresh white canvas. Yes, you’ve got to start somewhere but if you spoil the first page it sets a disappointing tone for the whole book. In my early years of sketching, I would just open a page and draw on any blank page, Helter Skelter like a maniac. Perhaps I was too intimidated by my skills to start at the first page.  But around 2006 I began creating a distinct first page.  And since then, I have created an interesting collection that signals …continue reading

TroysArt’s 10 great gift ideas for him!

: Lifestyle: Written by : 11-26-2023

2023 Christmas

At a birthday party last month at a club a few blocks from a friend’s home, I asked how we would carry all the gifts back at the end of the night. She asked what kind of gifts people would bring a sixty-year-old woman. To which I answered wine and Yankee Candles, of course.  At a certain point, people become impossible to buy for.  And gifts can become predictable or mundane. A grown-ass man just goes out and buys what he not only needs but wants. So what do you buy for the man who has everything? Guys don’t  wear …continue reading

CAUTION: Anatomical drawings and the line between art and pornography.

: TroysArt: Written by : 08-29-2023

These are wieners, and I recently shared a drawing on social media that caused a bit of a ruckus.  The sketch is explicit, and I awoke to a smorgasbord of texts, comments, adoration, and jeers.  The experience led me to consider the difference between acceptable and taboo content.  Supreme Court Justice Potter Steward famously wrote, regarding the obscenity case of Jacobellis v. Ohio, that pornography is hard to define, but “I know it when I see it.”  It’s a brilliant, concise, vague, and memorable statement.  And it allows for indefinite societal interpretation.  Unfortunately, the precise interpretation is left to us, and …continue reading

An art and camping story: a disturbing homage to Courbet’s Origin of the World.

: TroysArt: Written by : 08-27-2023

Origin of the World by Gustave Courbet, public domain.

This page contains language and images that some people may find offensive. This is an art and camping story: a disturbing homage to Courbet’s Origin of the World.   Martin Dies Jr. State Park is a 705-acre area on the northern edge of the Big Thicket, on the bank of the B.A. Steinhagen Reservoir, where the Angelina and Neches Rivers meet. Established in 1965, the forested park is home to loblolly, longleaf, and shortleaf pines, along with an abundance of water oak, red oak, sweet gum, and magnolias plus bald cypress trees in wetland areas. A couple years ago I …continue reading

TroysArt list of history’s 10 Most Shocking Paintings, and why.

: Artists: Written by : 08-07-2023

Torso Series (Victor Hugo), Warhol, public domain.

How can a painting shock the viewer? How can anyone be scandalized by a picture hanging on a gallery wall? The answers cannot be strictly based on nudity–artists have painted and sculpted nudes for thousands of years and, academically, every artist begins with a nude model. Art becomes controversial when it challenges the viewer’s expectations. Considering controversial art through the ages, I have composed the TroysArt list of history’s 10 most shocking paintings.   Olympia, 1863, by Edouard Manet One of the world’s best and most beloved paintings, Edouard Manet’s Olympia caused the biggest art scandal of the 19th Century. …continue reading

The STURDY Act, Betty Washington, and another American blue dress mystery.

: Furniture & Design: Written by : 03-26-2023

Portrait of Betty Washington Lewis, 1750, by John Wollaston the Younger, Mount Vernon Ladies Association, public domain.

One of the topics in a recent morning meeting was the implementation of the STURDY Act.  So what is this new law that no one has every heard of?  The Stop Tip-overs of Unstable Risky Dressers on Youth Act mandates new guidelines and restrictions on the furniture industry to prevent top heavy casegoods from killing people.  Colleagues sat aghast that Congress has nothing better on which to be working but to screw over our livelyhoods. “This must be a knee-jerk reaction to the death of George Washington’s sister,” I commented.  “She was killed while rooting around in a highboy for …continue reading

The League-Kempner Mansion in Galveston is endangered without its determined new savior

: Destinations: Written by : 11-10-2022

The League-Kempner House represents the last great house of the Broadway Castle District designed by Nicholas Clayton.

One of the most intriguing houses in Texas is, until recently, one of the most endangered.  The last of Galveston’s privately owned Gilded Age homes, the League-Kempner Mansion is in danger of loss without its determined new savior.  At 1710 Broadway, the home was built by Galveston aristocracy John Charles League and Nellie Ball in 1893.  It represents the last great house of the Broadway Castle District designed by Nicholas Clayton, architect of the Bishop’s Palace.  Following League’s death in 1916, matriarch of the Kempner family Eliza Seinsheimer Kempner acquired the home.  Eliza employed Houston architect to the oil barons …continue reading

So you were curious about my sketchbooks?

: TroysArt: Written by : 06-24-2022

Subject matter for my sketchbook is a hodgepodge.

So you were curious about my sketchbook?  And you’re thinking about starting your own?  Here is my encouragement for all skill levels, punctuated by drawings from the first six months of my 2022 sketchbook and a few quotes by some of our favorite artists.  (Disclaimer: Some artistic representations herewith represent the human anatomy.) Art history began on cave walls when early humans felt an innate urge to draw. No one knows exactly why prehistoric humans made art, but it was almost certainly as spiritual as it was a form of communication–but it could have been for fun too. For decades …continue reading

The historic Fanthorp Inn: Four Presidents and forty Spittoons

: Destinations: Written by : 05-19-2022

Hidden down a scenic road about 20 miles northeast of Washington-on-the-Brazos, the Fanthorp Inn captured my imagination the first time I set eyes upon it

How can a building exist in four different countries without ever being moved? Simple: the structure was part of Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the USA, the Confederate States of America, and back to the USA again.  Hidden down a scenic road in Grimes County, about 20 miles northeast of Washington-on-the-Brazos, the Fanthorp Inn captured my imagination the first time I set eyes upon it. So I found the occasion to step back in time for a TroysArt Travelogue. Joining me for the excursion into Texas history is my gal pal Stacey Abbott, the pert blonde owner of Spa 1107 …continue reading

I haven’t been everywhere. So why not a trip to Cleveland?

: Destinations: Written by : 11-09-2021

“The Angel of Death Victorious”—a life-sized guardian angel marking the grave of Francis Haserot in Lakeview Cemetery

Tennessee Williams infamously said, “America has only three cities: New York, San Francisco, and New Orleans. Everywhere else is Cleveland.”  I adore the quote, and I have used it before—after all, I do love New York, San Francisco, and New Orleans!  But I haven’t been everywhere.  So why not a trip to Cleveland?  And one must appreciate the randomness of a trip to Cleveland for my first flight since we were all locked down for Coronavirus. I knew nothing about Cleveland.  Who really does?  The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the theme song for the Drew Carey Show …continue reading