Posted by Nancy Tobin on Aug 13, 2009 in
Inspiration 
A highlight of our day was watching this singing group under a shade tree — Sweet Adeline…
Sadie and Lily in the garden of a darling tea house/cottage
What's this? Matthew on his Blackberry!?
Demonstrations run all through the day — here we watched glass artisans create a snowman — hot!
On our yearly camping trip to Michigan, we almost always make a stop at Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Mich., on our way home.
Greenfield Village, and the Henry Ford Museum next door, make up the nation’s largest indoor-outdoor history museum complex. Walking into the Village is a like walking into the past. There are nearly one hundred historical buildings; including the Wright brothers’ bicycle shop and home and Thomas Edison’s Menlo Park Laboratory. They’re all set up in a pretend town, with people dressed in period costumes, talking like they just stepped out of another century. For transportation, you can take a ride on the steam train, a Model T or a horse drawn carriage. You can even eat an authentic lunch at the Eagle Tavern, where they serve from an 1850′s menu. All in all — very cute!
After the Village, we strolled over to The Henry Ford Museum, which has some really great exhibits of American Industrial wonders! Along with a huge collection on all kinds of vehicles and engines there are some of our particular favorites:
- Buckminster Fuller’s prototype Dymaxion house.
- Thomas Edison’s alleged last breath in a sealed tube! (weird!)
- The bus on which Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, leading to the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
- … and not to be missed, the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile!
I'd like this in my bedroom
Sadie and Lily give scale to this humongous steam engine
You'd have to look pretty cool driving down the road in this beauty
It was fun, but at the end of the day, we had to get back on the long road home
Pennsylvania's long but pretty
Tags: Buckminster Fuller, Dearborn, Dymaxion house, Eagle Tavern, Greenfield Village, Henry Ford Museum, Mich, Michigan, Montgomery Bus Boycott, Oscar Meyer Weinermobile, Rosa Parks, Thomas Edison, Thomas Edison's Menlo Park Laboratory, Wright brothers'
Posted by Nancy Tobin on Aug 3, 2009 in
Inspiration,
Reviews 
"Go team!" I think "Julia" by Keith Haring looks like a cheerleader with a little skirt. My daughter Lily thinks it looks like a shower head. What do you think?
Along with the usual campfires, beach and family fun I had last week — when I was home for our annual camping trip with my family in Western Michigan — I took time out to see some of the unique treasures in the area.
Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park is a gem! A world-class collection of gardens and art that took my breath away. Here are a few pictures of the multitudes …
Here's another one, that I don't know the name of … I think "Junkyard Dogs" fits, though.
I'd like to take this piece (titled "Mad Mom" by Tom Otterness) home.
I stopped by the Mad Hatter's tea party for a "succulent" treat.
Lovely, lovely Dale Chihuly's chandelier makes me want to go home and paint!
A section of the huge glass lighting fixture/sculpture by Dale Chihuly.
One of three figures made of letter forms by Jaume Plensa.
This Alexander Liberman piece titled "Aria" is like a song.
Tags: art, Camping, Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, Grand Rapids, MI, sculpture, Western Michigan
Posted by Nancy Tobin on May 28, 2009 in
Inspiration,
Profiles
The colors and detail in Snow White Disney's first full length animated feature are still enough to make me sing!
For any of you who missed my last post; Lisa Pressman asked me to write about my top ten influences. You can see the entire list at her blog, Lisa Pressman Art Blog. I like the exercise so much I decided to explore each one of them as a separate post.
Number one on my list is Walt Disney. Here’s what I wrote about him in Lisa’s blog:
1. Walt Disney- Love him or hate him, it’s hard to deny his influence on our culture today. Saturday matinees at the local theater in Grand Rapids allowed me my first glimpses into the world of art. While the action was playing out in the foreground, I would find myself entranced by the captivating world created by the studio’s background artists.
I imagine that for many children like myself growing up, animated films are their main exposure to visual art. Though I always loved to paint and draw and make things, I never set foot into a real art museum until I was in college.
Eyvind Earle spins Disney Magic in his backgrounds for Sleeping Beauty
I admit that I am one that enjoys Disney stuff. (We’re easy to spot: say the word “Disney” and you either get eyes as big as Bambi’s or a shutter.) We’ve taken our lucky children to Disney theme parks many times in their short lives.
But, as much as I like all the trimmings, by far the biggest influence on my art has been the amazing backgrounds in his early films. I learned a lot about painting by looking at these lush environments, things that I may have learned from from the masters in museums, but didn’t. Disney is accessible.
Disney’s talented team of background painters would set a stage where anything could happen. A world that invites you to come in and create your own story.
It’s not that Disney created a world of fantasy for me, but that he planted the seeds, that I could create that kind of place for myself.
Biotic Fizz � Nancy Tobin
(I was delighted to come across a blog by Rob Richards called Animation Backgrounds. Rob has an amazing collection of background art, from Snow White to Lilo and Stitch. It’s cool to be able to separate the action of the figures from these rich scenes.)
Tags: Add new tag, Animation, Backgrounds, Disney, Grand Rapids Michigan, Lisa Pressman, Rob Richards
Posted by Nancy Tobin on May 25, 2009 in
Featured Articles,
Inspiration
Tomorrow I'll talk about influencer #1, Disney, see any similarities?
My friend Lisa Pressman invited me to do a guest post on her brand new art blog, aptly named Lisa Pressman Art Blog. She asked me to give her a list of my top ten influences. It was a little harder than I thought it would be, some were obvious choices, but some I had to dig a little deeper to find. Overall it was a great and enlightening exercises. Go check it out at Lisa’s place, and tell her I sent you!
I decided that I wanted to take each of those influences and expound on them. So for the weeks to come I’m going to be visiting the ghosts of my past. Hope you’ll join me!
Tags: Disney, Influences, Lisa Pressman, Top Ten List
Posted by Nancy Tobin on Jan 2, 2009 in
Daily Babble,
Inspiration 
It’s a holiday tradition; taking the train with the kids into Manhattan to see the Christmas windows at Macy’s.
For those of you that haven’t had the pleasure of partaking of this spectacle; it’s a block-long series of windows that follow a storyline or theme, complete with sound; animation; and some sort of participatory factor (like buttons to push).
In the eight years we’ve lived here, we’ve seen some pretty spectacular windows a few that I thought were particularly good were “Miracle on 34th Street” and “The Polar Express.”
This year’s windows I found a little strange. The theme was a behind-the-scenes look at how Christmas magic is made; apparently by large, colorful machines cranking out holiday cheer, run by kind-of scary looking gremlins and what looked like the “Fry Kids” from McDonaldland with motorcycle helmets. Although it may not have been the best they’ve done, it was colorful, animated and interactive! Perhaps a blessing that they weren’t too mesmerizing, considering the temperature was 19 degrees!
But what really made my jaw drop in awe was this window that we walked by on our way to lunch. I felt the trip was worth it after all.
Tags: Christmas windows, Fry Kids, Holidays, Macy's, McDonaldland, New York City
Posted by Nancy Tobin on Jan 1, 2009 in
Daily Babble,
Inspiration 
Peek II ©Nancy Tobin
Good bye to 2008.
What a roller-coaster ride it’s been! From the sinking economy to the election-elation.
Here’s to a fresh start. Make it a good one!
Tags: 2008, New Year
Posted by Nancy Tobin on Dec 28, 2008 in
Inspiration,
Ta Da! 
Sweetness Follows © Nancy Tobin
The holiday season is one of those times — like vacations — when I spend a lot of my time doing something that isn’t painting. I get antsy when I haven’t been in the studio for a while. The burning desire to create makes me anxious to get back to work.
As difficult as it is to sit still, I’m thankful for these periods of rumination. As many artists are, I tend to be hermit-like and could easily lock myself away in the studio. Being out in the world brings inspiration and opens my eyes to things I need to see.
Right now my head is swimming with ideas for the new year. When I get some quiet time to put the pieces together, I let you know what I have planned!
Tags: art, Holidays, Inspiration, painting
Posted by Nancy Tobin on Dec 7, 2008 in
Inspiration 
I’ve decided that I should include a semi-regular posting about the music that I love.
I have a different relationship with music from many people I know: I don’t listen to music on the radio, I rarely surf environments like iTunes and YouTube, and our house doesn’t even have a music playing device except for in my studio.
But oh, my studio! That’s where I have my beloved Bose-iPod-playing-device. There, I must have music. Music is one of my greatest inspirations. In fact, sometimes I feel like the music has inspired me and propelled my work so much, I’m practically stealing!
So here’s to the songs (or the albums rather, I really hate chopping up music that was so thoughtfully arranged) that are in my head and my studio these days:
Radiohead. OMG, where have you been all my life? Seriously, that’s how media-stunted I am, I never really heard this exquisite band until recently, when my brother Dave was visiting and introduced me. So for the past few months I’ve been listening to the two CDs I have: In Rainbows and more recently, The Bends. (I’m hoping Santa brings me another!)
In Rainbows is a weird and dreamy CD. It makes me feel like I’m being taken somewhere strange, wonderful, and maybe underwater (?)
I got The Bends later (not as painful as it sounds). I didn’t like it as much at first, but now it’s grown on me and I love it, too. It’s jam-packed with great songs; from the heartbreaking Fake Plastic Trees, to the dreamy (Nice Dream). I don’t think the whole thing comes together in one great-big-beautiful-chunk-of-sound the way that In Rainbows does, but I love it, too.
Check out this video that was done by jthelms on You Tube: All I Need. I found the similarities that this video has with my paintings very interesting! What you think? What songs are in your head these days?
Tags: Bose, In Rainbows, ipod, itunes, Music, Radiohead, The Bends, underwater, You Tube
Posted by Nancy Tobin on Dec 3, 2008 in
Inspiration 
My mother use to say that it was never to late to say “thank you”. Since I missed doing this on the big official Thanking Day, I decided to go ahead and give a few excerpts from my very, very long list of things that bring me gratitude:
- Sharing holidays with the people I love
- Having the world’s cutest squirrels living in our backyard (I know, I know, everybody thinks their squirrels are the cutest)
- Having too much food on Thanksgiving, when many people don’t have enough
- All the new people I’ve met from all over the world through my new blog and through my Etsy shop
- Feeling hopeful for my country, a feeling I hadn’t had in quite some time
- Having time to paint, even when the days get crazy busy
- Spending a rainy and cold Saturday making gift tags with my family – Quack?
Tags: gift tags, hope, squirrels, thank you
Posted by Nancy Tobin on Nov 18, 2008 in
Inspiration,
New In the Shop,
Ta Da! It was a wet & watery weekend. My beloved family and I took the train into New York on Saturday afternoon to go see a much anticipated Little Mermaid. It rained. No, I take that back. It poured. Not the whole time, mind you, just for the time it took us to walk from Nintendo World to the theater. Of course, the whole of New York was out, rushing to get to their respective theaters as well. All with pointy, dripping umbrellas.
We were happy to get to our show and felt right at home with Ariel under the water. Disney did its usual magic on each of us, and we were transformed into people who weren’t nearly as grumpy as we were a half-hour before.
Water is a theme for me in my work lately, too. Going back eight or nine years, you can spot the bubbles coming to the surface in my paintings. But I feel my work is going deeper and deeper into someplace deep underwater. Maybe I’m drawn to the quiet stillness.
Down Here I ©Tobin
This little 5 x 5 Inch painting titled Down Here I was posted just this morning on my Etsy Shop. I think this one looks more like a lake that an ocean or a sea. What do you think?
