Disney-Britton

Todays verse for me is a good reminder that God is always working in our lives. We sometimes take a blessing as turn of good luck. We need to look deeper and know through our Savior all things are made possible and good!

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By Disney-Britton "Spirit of Cain" by Thomas Henderson, collection of Evansville Museum of Arts On June 18, I led our monthly A&O MEETUP , and this time we headed to Evansville, IN. The Meetup included stops at Temple Adath de Isreal , St. Marys Catholic Church and First Presbyterian Church as well as a tour of the Evansville Museum of Arts, History, and Science . Two highlights of the museum's collection (both below) were, "Spirit of Cain" (above) by Chris Thomas of Henderson, KY (inspired by Genesis 4:9-12 ) and "David Dances Before the Ark of the Covenant" (below) by Jan De Bray (17c). We capped off the one-day Meetup with an evening of jazz at the W.C. Handy Blues & Barbecue Festival with participants coming from as far away as Chicago.

THE ADVERTISER | HERALD SUN "Only woman bleed" (2008) By Adam Cullen AUSTRALIA - The visual arts industry is appalled by a proposal to apply a classification scheme to artworks exhibited in galleries across the nation. In 2008, the inclusion of [Adam] Cullen's "Only Woman Bleed" in the Blake Prize for Religious Art prompted one judging panel member to quit and another label his work "really offensive". Throughout his career Cullen, who in 2000 won the Archibald Prize for his portrait of actor David Wenham, has courted controversy with his works having been described as "crude" and "puerile" by detractors. The 200-page report, released late last week by the Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee, says the defence of "artistic merit" is not enough to allow some controversial works of art to be exhibited, particularly when it comes to those that depict children. [ link ]

ARTDAILY Claude Mellan, The veil of Saint Veronica, engraving, 1649. DENMARK - As part of its Masterpieces on Paper series, the Rijksmuseum presents the exhibition The Secret of Lines. This minor exhibition features 18 masterfully crafted 16th - and 17th-century prints and drawings from the Rijksmuseum collection, which demonstrate the incredible artistic versatility of lines.  [ link ]

THE LOS ANGELES TIMES | Blog By Christopher Knight Ardabil Carpet, one of the two greatest Persian rugs ever woven CALIFORNIA - Now's your chance: The breathtaking Ardabil Carpet, an incomparable 16th-century masterpiece that ranks among the greatest works in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's permanent collection, is on view at the museum through Labor Day. It's the centerpiece to " Gifts of the Sultan: The Arts of Giving at the Islamic Court ," one of LACMA's big summer shows. This is just the fifth time the carpet has been displayed since its 1965 museum debut. [ link ]

CHINA DAILY The Monastery-Museum of Choijin Lama is a storehouse of jaw-dropping papier, mache masks and elegant bronze sculptures. Photos by Chitralekha Basu / China Daily CHINA - At the heart of Ulan Bator is an art-lover's paradise waiting to be discovered. If you stood in front of Sukhbaatar Batbold's now cellophane-wrapped statue in Ulan Bator's central square and drew a circle with a 1-kilometer radius, you would be at the hub of a never-ending exhibition. A slice of the vibrant contemporary art scene in Ulan Bator could be sampled at the Mongolian National Modern Art Gallery in the Culture Palace and the Union of Mongolian Artists' Art Center across the road from National Academic Drama theatre. A slew of art galleries in and around Baruun Selbe Street exhibit and sell images done in oil, watercolor and felt. [ link ]

NEWS 8 WTNH By Tina Detelj CONNECTICUT - Police in Colchester are looking for the crook that stole more than two-dozen color prints of religious figures and icons from a church. Police say the stolen items were pretty pricey, totaling more than $750. The religious icons were similar to a painting seen in the front entrance of St. Andrew's in Colchester. Religious images mounted on wooden plaques. "They're all from different saints. St. Augustine, or St. Francis," said Helene Soucy-Williams from the St. Andrew Church. [ link ]

CHRISTIES UNITED KINGDOM - William Robinson, Christie's International Specialist Head of Islamic Art and Carpets, finds two rare Islamic carpets in portraits from Cowdray Park. Added as decoration and to underline the sitter’s wealth by the artist at the time of painting, these now provide a hugely valuable source of information for the history of carpet making. Contemporary Islamic miniatures did not aim for pictorial accuracy, so European pictures that include accurately represented carpets are absolutely vital to today’s understanding and chronology of carpets – known as tapetology. [ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By ERNEST BRITTON My Garage Door Cross Today's final photo is my "Garage Door Cross", but I may come back from time to time (If Tahlib permits?). I am grateful to Gerda Liebmann , a Christian and NJ artist who was the real inspiration for to do this 30-day project to find  My Daily Cross .  It's time to start your own project. Go to Gerda's blog for her Daily Cross rules. She's in her 3rd month, and is doing it for a year!

GLORIA TV Window of the Rosary Chapel in France VATICAN CITY - It has taken roughly 30 years for this exhibit to open, but now the grand opening is finally here. This Vatican room holds a collection of works from the French artist Henri Matisse. It's based on the sketches he drew to adorn the Rosary Chapel in St. Paul de Vence in France. [ link ]

THE ART NEWSPAPER "Electric Chair" (1967) By Andy Warhol FINLAND - In Finland’s medieval city Turku, this year’s European Capital of Culture, four pieces of Andy Warhol’s “Electric Chair” series (1971) have been hang up in an surprising location — the city’s Lutheran cathedral. The works, depicting the execution device from Sing Sing maximum security prison in upstate New York, are hanging in one of the church’s chapels. The display is part of a performance and art exhibition entitled “The Last Supper”, which runs until the end of July. “It might sound like an odd idea and actually the church officials disliked my suggestion at first,” said Perttu Ollila, who curated the show. “But Warhol’s religious side is not that well known by the general public and the empty electric chairs can be seen as an empty cross,” he added. Besides the four “Electric Chair” works, the show includes four works from Warhol’s “Last Supper” series. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Mark Oppenheimer Todd Parr, at his home in Berkeley, Calif., was commissioned by the PJ Library to write a book. MASSACHUSETTS - In 2004, Harold Grinspoon, a local real estate mogul, heard a story on National Public Radio about the Imagination Library , founded by the singer Dolly Parton to give free books to children in her native rural Tennessee. The PJ Library, a program of his Harold Grinspoon Foundation, made its debut in December 2005, sending 200 books with Jewish content to interested families, primarily those with young Jewish children. Initially, the books were sent to children in western Massachusetts. The program has grown every month since, and in July the PJ Library will mail 76,000 books to children in every state and across Canada. [ link ]

NBC San Diego Willie Mays may be forever enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame, but as the new face of Encinitas’ “Save the Ocean” campaign, he didn’t last long. An unknown artist recently spray-painted the baseball legend’s face on the same Encinitas wall that once hosted the Surfing Madonna , a popular mosaic that attracted controversy when a Leucadia man mysteriously placed it on public property in April. The Surfing Madonna read “Save the Ocean” in vertical blue tiles, and Mays carried the same message — “’Say Hey’ve the Ocean,” a play-on-words of May’s nickname, “The Say Hey Kid” — before a city worker painted over it Monday morning. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Associated Press VATICAN CITY - The Vatican is leaping into the world of new media with the introduction this week of a news information portal that Pope Benedict XVI himself may put online with a click. Vatican officials said on Saturday that Pope Benedict had been following the development of the portal, which will for the first time aggregate information from the Vatican’s various print, online, radio and television media in a one-stop shop for news about the Holy See. The portal, http://www.news.va/ , is to be introduced on Wednesday, the 60th anniversary of Pope Benedict’s ordination as a priest and a feast day in the church. [link]

DAWN.COM By Staff PAKISTAN - The students of National University of Modern Languages (Numl) displayed their artworks at an exhibition on the campus. Jointly organised by students and the faculty, over a dozen participants displayed almost 250 items of their artworks in different categories such as regional art and craft, miniature paintings and calligraphic works, oil painting, graphic designing, printmaking and flower arrangements. “The aim of this exhibition during summer course is to provide students a chance to showcase their artistic talents,” said student affair committee member, Shazia Rose. The participants showcased their works representing Pakistani culture, Muslim art and modern art. [ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By ERNEST BRITTON Stone Path Cross This is from a short path of stones in my backyard. I started to straighten them out but then I saw the cross in the alignment. After that, I decided to leave it as is. NJ artist, Gerda Liebmann  inspired me to start this 30-day project. You can follow  My Daily Cross project online or better yet, create your own. Go to Gerda's blog for her Daily Cross rules. She's doing it for a year!

4Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard, “Jesus is making and baptizing more disciples than John” 2—although it was not Jesus himself but his disciples who baptized— 3he left Judea and started back to Galilee. 4But he had to go through Samaria. 5So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. 7A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8(His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 9The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) 10Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the w...

THE HINDU Intricate and ornate: A 47 feet by 11 feet Kalamkari painting. Photo: P.V. Sivakumar INDIA - This eighth century art continues to be popular even today. Once patronised by the Mughals, Kalamkari now has a niche market. The art of painting on cloth dates back to the Indus Valley Civilization and ancient Greece. Kalamkari, which means work done with a pen, a kalam, is an ancient art of India. There is archaeological evidence of this resist-dyed painting done in the eighth century. The Mughals, especially during the time of Akbar, patronised this art in the Coromandel coast and the Golconda region. [ link ]

THE HOUSTON CHRONICLE | ICONIA By Menachem Weker Marc Chagall. Resurrection of Lazarus (1910). Courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. PENNSYLVANIA - Marc Chagall (1887-1985) included two peculiar elements in his painting of the risen Lazarus. According to Michael Taylor, Muriel and Philip Berman curator of modern art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where Chagall’s Lazarus is on exhibit in Paris Through the Window: Marc Chagall and His Circle , Chagall’s decision to render Lazarus in a Jewish context was absolutely intentional. “Chagall reminds the viewer that the tale concerns a Jew,” writes Taylor, who recently accepted the position of director of Dartmouth’s Hood Museum of Art, in his catalog essay. “A key transitional work, Resurrection of Lazarus anticipates the haunting series of Jewish cemetery paintings that the artist would begin later that decade.” [ link ]

ALLVOICES By Catspirit BOSNIA - Today [6/24] is the thirtieth anniversary of the first apparition to six youngsters in the Bosnian village of Medjugorje. While still not accepted as a true miracle by the Catholic Church, believers and pilgrims flock by the thousands this week to bear witness to what they believe is a thirty-year, ongoing miracle.  In 1981, the country of Yugoslavia held the small hamlet of Medjugorje. The country divided, the site of the alleged visitations by the Virgin Mary is in Bosnia-Hercegovina. The ongoing “miracle” has continued every day since June 24th, 1981. [ link ]

PAKISTAN OBSERVER PAKISTAN - The solo exhibition on Islamic art exploring Muslim heritage by Rana Riaz Ahmed concluded here Sunday at National Art gallery. The show portrayed a collection of 32 exquisite calligraphy paintings presenting a mosaic of technique, style and color to provide the art lovers with opportunity to enjoy the glimpses of the heritage of Muslim Ummah. The exhibition entitled “Dot to Design” featured beautiful calligraphy which serves as the art of writing which earned a unique status in the creative sphere. The artist also donated an exquisite piece of his calligraphic art to the National Art Gallery of Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA). Rana Riaz Ahmed is amongst those practitioners of calligraphic painting who are known for their distinct and convincing expression. Though, he has been in the sphere for quite some time but it was only in 1990s when he took it up serious and devoted himself to excel and introduce a technique “Pointillism” never viewed b...

IRAN BOOK NEWS AGENCY IRAN - Iranian researcher and university professor, Sadegh Rashidi has compiled "Methods of historiography in Islamic art". According to him the book is the first research work which seriously criticizes and studies the methods of Islamic art historiography. Firstly the book presented the historiography methods as 3 styles; descriptive, analytical and historical and then discusses the methods in the Islamic art. He underlined:" In fact the book holds a main question; what were the ups and downs of the Islamic art historiography, which was firstly presented by western historians and what kind of gaps and deficiencies existed in the process." He added:" I believe that knowing the Islamic art and its historiography requires knowing the Islamic culture and civilization. Thus due to the ignorance some western historians have studies the Islamic art with a positivism approach, on the other hand the book somehow evaluates the history of Islamic...

WALL STREET JOURNAL By Dennis Nishi CALIFORNIA - Fox Searchlight recently arranged an invitation-only screening in Los Angeles, Calif. for “The Tree of Life,” the fifth film by director Terrence Malick that is set for wide release on July 8. The story is set in Waco, Texas during the 1950s and Malick uses a tragic death in the central O’Brien family to frame an exploration of grace and nature. The studio also invited a multi-denominational panel of religious leaders and writers to offer their theological insights about the film and its director. [ link ] Prior to July 8, the film be viewed in the following select cities , including Indianapolis, New York City and Oklahoma City ( All Movies )

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By ERNEST BRITTON Glass block Cross NJ artist, Gerda Liebmann  inspired me to start this 30-day project. You can follow  My Daily Cross project online or better yet, create your own. Go to Gerda's blog for her Daily Cross rules. She's doing it for a year!

THE INDEPENDENT By Adrian Hamilton Reliquary pendant from the Holy Thorn (c.1340) Treasures of Heaven , British Museum, London WC1 (020 7323 8181) to 9 October ENGLAND - To hold an exhibition of sacred Roman Catholic relics in a country with quite so secular and Protestant a history as Britain's was always going to be a delicate affair. Which poses the question for any museum: do you present them as art objects, things of beauty and fascination in their own right, or do you display them as spiritual vessels helping us to understand and feel what the thousands who once pressed to view them believed? "I think it's fair to say that in America the display veered towards the artistic side," says the British Museum's curator, James Robinson. "Here we're trying to be more balanced in both directions – art and devotion." That may owe something to the personality of the British Museum's director, Neil MacGregor, a Roman Catholic with a long-held int...

CNN By Anthony Umrani Hindu temple with corresponding dieties MARYLAND - On a cool spring evening just outside Washington, a steady stream of worshipers arrive at Sri Siva Vishnu Temple for prayers. People are dressed in a mixture of colorful Indian attire and customary Western clothing. In this residential Maryland neighborhood about 12 miles from downtown, the temple stands out with a striking white exterior adorned with statues depicting Hindu gods. In India, a temple is typically dedicated to one particular god, but the Sri Siva Vishnu Temple has many gods to accommodate the diversity of Indian people in the area. "We have a wide variety of congregation and each one of them says, 'I want this god' or 'I want that god,' " said S. Krishnamurthy, one of the founder/trustees of the temple. [ link to video ]

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD By Joyce Morgan Temple Grotto in the Mogao Caves of China CHINA - The main reason to visit the oasis [Gansu Province of Dunhuang] is to see the nearby painted Buddhist caves. The Mogao Caves, or Caves of the Thousand Buddhas, are a network of sacred grottoes hand-carved into a cliff face about 15 kilometres outside Dunhuang. They contain the world's greatest gallery of Buddhist art. Set in a river valley, the caves, with their precious artwork, are today protected by metal doors. Nearly 500 caves remain, created between the 4th and 14th centuries, each different in size and decoration. Some are tiny meditation cells, just big enough for a lone monk. Others have high ceilings and were able to hold a couple of hundred worshippers. [ link ]

AOA NEWS By Ernest Britton INDIANA - Founded by Free Methodists, LYNhouse offers a summer arts program that links art & faith to inspire under priviledged youth in Indianapolis. The LYN House ministry is a multi-age summer youth program called, "Express Yourself." During this program, the students are being challenged to learn about their "God-given strengths and talents" by creating a group mosaic which will retell significant events of their lives. An Open House for the general public will be held on July 11 entitled, " Capturing Inno-sense " which will also include a short performance piece.

THE MIAMI HERALD By Jeff Ayers Long Gone. Alafair Burke. Harper. 368 pages. $24.99 FLORIDA - Alafair Burke delivers her best book to date with her first stand-alone thriller, Long Gone . In it, Alice Humphrey has landed her dream job: running a Manhattan art gallery. Drew Campbell, who hired her, says the artist of the new photography displays wants to stay out of the spotlight. Though the pieces offend her, Humphrey agrees. Everything is going well until she arrives at the gallery one morning and finds Campbell’s body. The art is gone. The day before, a religious group had protested the photo images. Did the leader of that group have something to do with his murder? [ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By ERNEST BRITTON Mat Cross This one might be a bit abstract but I am see the cross in this floormat outside a neighbors home. NJ artist, Gerda Liebmann  inspired me to start this 30-day project. You can follow  My Daily Cross project online or better yet, create your own. Go to Gerda's blog for her Daily Cross rules. She's doing it for a year!

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By ERNEST BRITTON Sewer Drain Cross I was inspired by Gerda Liebmann 's comment, "my heart sees the cross everywhere." This sewer cross has multiple meanings, and thanks to Gerda I can feel its power in new ways. You can follow  My Daily Cross project online or better yet, create your own. Go to Gerda's blog for her Daily Cross rules. She's doing it for a year!

AOA NEWS By Tahlib AOA PICK OF WEEK: Controversial artist, Enrique Chagoya's gift of a painting about Jesus as Love to a Colorado evangelical church is among the most talked about religious art stories of the week. Today, you can " comment online " about it ( Sunday only ). Americans are also talking about: Are recent auctions of Hindu and Islamic artworks a sign of the return of interest in religious art? ( Comment online ) Is the future for Christian art to be on eBay? ( Comment online ) Should the city council in Encinitas, CA have forced the "Surfing Madonna" artist to remove the city's most popular mosaic? ( Comment online ) Below are the week's best in religious art news. The stories are grouped by the five largest faith traditions, with an additional category for "other".

BLOOMBERG By Pratish Narayanan "Untitled (Kali)" by Tyeb Mehta UNITED KINGDOM - A painting of a Hindu goddess sold for more than three times its estimate at a $4 million online auction by a Mumbai-based company as demand for Indian artworks is boosted by the country’s growing number of billionaires. The green goddess picture fetched $1.3 million, beating a top estimate of $402,300. Rival collectors pushed 53 percent of the lots above high estimates, with 72 percent of the items finding buyers, the Saffronart auction house said on June 21. [ link ] *Also read story in  Indian Art News

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By ERNEST BRITTON China Cabinet Cross You can see me in the reflection of this image. It's from an oak china cabinet that's for sale, and sits in my garage. It's the first time I saw in it something of value. NJ artist, Gerda Liebmann  inspired me to start this 30-day project. You can follow  My Daily Cross project online or better yet, create your own. Go to Gerda's blog for her Daily Cross rules.

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Nicholas Conferssore and Michael Barbaro NEW YORK---Lawmakers voted late Friday to legalize same-sex marriage, making New York the largest state where gay and lesbian couples will be able to wed and giving the national gay-rights movement new momentum from the state where it was born. Just five states currently permit same-sex marriage : Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont, as well as the District of Columbia. same-sex couples could begin marrying in New York by late July. [ link ]

THE LONDON EVENING STANDARD By Brian Sewell Pied noir: reliquary of St Blaise, a 4th century Armenian bishop, c.1260 UNITED KINGDOM - By 1387, or then about, driven by unquestioning belief that the bodily remains of the righteous were lively conduits of the spiritual power that they exercised in Heaven, pilgrims turned to them for the forgiveness of sins and the curing of ills, and were prepared to suffer the physical and often even mortal hazards of journeys on ship, horseback and foot that might take many months to complete. The  British Museum's summer exhibition, " Treasures of Heaven ," is an astonishing accumulation of these things, beautifully displayed, the soaring dome of the Reading Room seeming suitably ecclesiastical. [ link ]

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE By Dina Kraft Tim Hursley, courtesy of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem ISRAEL - A tawny sandstone sculpture of Nimrod, an ancient Hebrew warrior and hunter figure with a razor-straight back and proud stare, sits at the intersection between modern Israeli art and native art from Africa and the South Pacific at the recently renovated Israel Museum. The 1939 sculpture by Israeli artist Yitzhak Danzinger is an example of the kind of cultural and aesthetic contextual links that James Synder, the Israel Museum director, hopes to evoke in the reopening of the museum following a $100 million facelift he calls a "renewal." [ link ]

HUFFINGTON POST By Eliza Fisher California couple sells their chair CALIFORNIA - There's a new object to add to the list of oddities offered on eBay--a chair with the face of Jesus. Lou Balducci of Mission Viejo noticed the image on an old rocking chair in February, reports NBC. He had been planning on throwing the chair away, but instead sent pictures to local news outlets and began showing it to family and friends. Now, after about four months of enjoying the sacred image, he has decided to part ways with it. Balducci and his wife have listed the chair on eBay, at a starting price of $25,000. The hefty price was suggested by an eBay expert, reports NBC. [ link ]  

BLOOMBERG NEWS By Farah Nayeri UNITED KINGDOM - John Studzinski, senior managing director of Blackstone Group LP (BX) and a cultural philanthropist, is sponsoring the British Museum’s new show on the art of the Christian relic. The exhibition, which features elaborate containers for sacred human remains from 1000 to 1500 A.D., runs through Oct. 9. Highlights include reliquaries said to contain pieces of the Crown of Thorns and the Virgin Mary’s breast milk. “So much of philanthropy is being part of a tribe,” he said. “People do want to be a part of the tribe: They have to decide what tribe they want to be a part of.” [ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By ERNEST BRITTON Saturn Cross Who says a cross has to be perfectly horizontal and vertical? This shot of my car emblem (Saturn) was inspired by a church I saw in Evansville, IN whose cross on the church facade was wrapped around it in a similar fashion. I didn't visit but I would like to one day. NJ artist, Gerda Liebmann  inspired me to start this 30-day project. You can follow  My Daily Cross project online or better yet, create your own. Go to Gerda's blog for her Daily Cross rules.

SACRAMENTO BEE By Associated Press For updates, " click here " CALIFORNIA - Crews have removed the popular but illegal Surfing Madonna mosaic from the wall of a railroad bridge underpass near San Diego. The San Diego Union-Tribune reports the removal began at 9 p.m. Wednesday and was completed about two hours later. Patterson says the piece was not damaged when it was taken down. [The artist, Mark] Patterson says he will now focus on finding a permanent home for the Madonna. [ link ]

PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE By Mary Thomas Ms. Aylon's "Self-Portrait: The Unmentionable." PENNSYLVANIA - After considerable thought, Ms. Aylon came to the realization that it was not God's voice that was exclusionary, misogynistic, militaristic -- but man's interpretation over time of that voice. She saved the religion. But she challenged the patriarchy that she believes sullies it. The work that both carried out and represents that save -- simultaneously action and metaphor -- is at The Andy Warhol Museum through Sunday [6/26], part of a 2011 exhibition series in which contemporary artists explore texts of the world's great religions. "The Word of God: Helene Aylon's The Liberation of G-d and The Unmentionable," like the artist herself, has soft insistence fueled by a fire within. But the exhibition's more significant achievement is to reacquaint visitors with Ms. Aylon and is best understood within the context of her life's work. [ l...

FINANCIAL TIMES By Mure Dickie Illustration for “Buddha” vol.3 from Osamu Tezuka Manga Complete Works, 1983, BB Kent paper, watercolor, 38.1 x 27cm. Credit: Tezuka Productions JAPAN - Mounting an exhibition that matches some of Japan’s most precious Buddhist sculpture with the work of a comic book artist might sound like an exercise in going from the sublime to the ridiculous. Not so. Though Buddha: The Story in Manga and Art , which runs until Sunday at the Tokyo National Museum, is certainly an unusual cross-genre exercise, it offers some intriguing parallels between the work of late artist and author Osamu Tezuka and more classical Buddhist iconographers. Nor would many Japanese see anything silly or sacrilegious in this unprecedented exercise in putting manga, as comics are known here, on a level with sacred art. Thanks in no small part to the work of Tezuka – who died in 1989 but is still revered as the “god of manga” – comics and animation are now almost  universal...

NEW YORK OBSERVER By Maika Pollack Ritual Card; Northwestern Yunnan Province, China NEW YORK - Chances are you haven’t heard of the Naxi (pronounced NAH-shee), a group of 300,000 people living on the east end of the Himalayas at the boarder of Sichuan, Tibet and Burma. Their religion is a hybrid resulting from this crossroads: Dongba blends Buddhism, Tibetan Bon, Taoism, Confucianism, Mongolian shamanism and local cults. At age 19 Theodore Roosevelt’s grandson, wrote what remains the sole academic dissertation on Naxi art in Western scholarship. He went on to amass the most significant group of Naxi artifacts outside of China. His holdings, mainly those acquired on a 1939 trip through China’s Northwest Yunnan Province, make up this first-ever exhibition of the material. [ link ]

AOA NEWS "Finding Home#89 Vashti (Fereshteh)" by Sonja Benjamin NEW YORK - On Monday, June 27 at 7pm, The Jewish Art Salon hosts an evening discussion entitled "Jewish Diversity in Art" centering around the works of artist Sonja Benjamin. Benjamin's work is currently on exhibit at The Laurie M. Tisch Gallery at the Jewish Community Center. The event is free. Benjamin's work presents the multi-dimensional identities of Jewish people and she will be part of the panel discussion. Other panel members will include Matthew Baigell, Professor Emeritus of Art History at Rutgers, and author and editor of over 20 books on American and Russian art; and filmmaker Lacey Schwartz. The panel will be moderated by Yona Verwer, president of the Jewish Art Salon. [ link ]

HINDU BLOG HINDU SAINTS generally wear saffron colored clothes. Today saffron color is associated with holy men of other religions too. White is another preferred color by Hindu saints. The choice of saffron robes by Hindu saints has a deep symbolism associated with it. Saffron symbolically represents Agni or fire. Agni is light. A saint ushers in the light of knowledge and leads a person from darkness into light.Another quality of Agni is that it accepts anything and transforms it. A saint similarly accepts everything and purifies and absorbs it. The saint leaves out all that is bad and gives out pure knowledge. [ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By ERNEST BRITTON  Horse Cross #23 The small horse farm down the street has a beautiful fence surrounding it. It is sturdy, smooth and unyeilding. The perfect cross reminder. NJ artist, Gerda Liebmann  inspired me to start this 30-day project. You can follow  My Daily Cross project online or better yet, create your own. Go to Gerda's blog for her Daily Cross rules.

UNITED METHODIST REPORT By Joey Butler MISSOURI - Most pastors would be upset if they looked up from their sermon notes to find most of the congregants texting on their phones. For the Rev. Mike Schreiner of Morning Star Church in O’Fallon, Mo., that’s just part of weekly worship ( http://twitter.com/mscwired ). Schreiner invites churchgoers to text him questions during his sermons, be it clarification of a point he made or some other topic. [ link ]

GUARDIAN By Tania Branigan " Zodiac Heads " By Ai Weiwei, On display in NYC through July 15 CHINA - Chinese police have released detained artist Ai Weiwei on bail after he confessed to tax evasion and because he suffers from a chronic disease, according to the state-run news agency. Beijing police said they released him on bail "because of his good attitude in confessing his crimes" and because he has a chronic illness, Xinhua news agency reported. No mention was made of his whereabouts. Ai's detention on 3 April sparked an international outcry. He vanished after he was detained by police at Beijing airport. [ link ] 'Life is never guaranteed to be safe' ~ AI WEIWEI (March 2010)

AOA NEWS NEW YORK - "The Art of Matrimony: Thirty Splendid Marriage Contracts" at The Jewish Museum in Manhattan is closing on June 26. Thirty ketubbot from the world-renowned collection of The Library of The Jewish Theological Seminary, dating from the twelfth through the twenty-first centuries and reflecting the geographical diversity of Jewish settlement, are featured in this exhibition. Found in the homes of married Jews, whether wealthy or poor, scholar or layman, in the West or in the East, ketubbot provide a wealth of information concerning the artistic creativity, cultural interactions and social history of the Jewish communities in which they were created. [ link ]

ARTDAILY Rock Crystal Islamic Artifact GERMANY - The discovery of this intricately crafted rock crystal ewer recently caused a sensation on the British art market. The priceless ewer now forms part of the group of loans from the de Unger family that will be on view for many years in the Museum of Islamic Art in the Pergamon Museum . It will be unveiled to the public for the first time on 24 June 2011. Rock crystal items were sold as valuable objects to European buyers very early on. Once in Europe, the objects were often used as reliquaries, with the result that many of them became church treasures during the Middle Ages. Only seven ewers of such spectacular quality are known to exist in the world today.  [ link ]

GUARDIAN By Dalya Alberge Saint Augustine by Caravaggio UNITED KINGDOM - He altered the course of Western art with a completely new approach to light and form, yet barely 50 works created by Caravaggio during his 38 years have survived. Now scholars claim that one more, a previously unknown painting, has been discovered in a private collection in Britain. The oil on canvas depiction of Saint Augustine, an expressive, mature work dated to around 1600 – when he was 28 – is to appear in print for the first time in a book on Caravaggio produced by Yale University Press[ link ]

WBAY ABC News By Jeff Alexander WISCONSIN - The Marian shrine north of Green Bay is now attracting thousands of visitors every week. As the only confirmed apparition site in the United States, word is traveling fast. Later this month, the shrine will be in the national spotlight as part of a five-part ABC News investigation entitled "Primetime Nightline: Beyond Belief." "Nightline" co-anchor Bill Weir explores miracle mysteries from around world. This episode airs June 29 at 9 P.M. [ link ]

THE INDEPENDENT‎ By Tom Peck AP Sun Worshippers at Stonehenge UNITED KINGDOM - Last week it was race-goers at Ascot. Now it's been kicking off among the latter-day druids at Stonehenge On the longest day of the year yesterday in Wiltshire, the sun rose above a green horizon and kissed the ancient monument of Stonehenge. But while the arc of the sky has not changed over the past five millennia, the gathering that greets the summer solstice each year has become something very different from its earliest incarnation. [ link ]

NORTH INDIA TIMES By Neha Shelley INDIA - Hindus have expressed concern at the continuing deterioration of temple murals/inscriptions/carvings in Tamil Nadu and adjoining areas. Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that both India and Tamil Nadu governments should urgently come up with a joint project to preserve these priceless masterpieces of religious art for coming generations.  Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, pointed out that these pieces of religious art, some dating back to 7th century CE in the Pallava period, were parts of our rich heritage, provide valuable insights into our past, and should be passed on to our children and grand-children intact. [ link ]

THE DAILY HINDU ALABAMA - The famous Birmingham Museum of Art (BMA) in the USA is presenting various Hindu deities in an exhibition 'Faces of India' through October 2. The exhibit reportedly includes 23 sculptures in bronze and stone from the second through 18th centuries, including a 16th century image of Shiva Nataraja, dancing Ganesha, Narasimha, etc. Related events include a yoga program, classical Indian music, lecture on sacred arts and spiritual rituals of India, classical Indian films, dance and music from India, etc. [ link ]

SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE By Jonathon Horn AP Photo CALIFORNIA - The Surfing Madonna mosaic will be removed from the train bridge on Encinitas Boulevard “as soon as possible,” and the artist will pay for it, and more. Under the agreement, [Mark] Patterson will pay for the piece to be taken down. He will also reimburse the city the $2,125 it paid for Los Angeles-based Sculpture Conservation Studio to study removal techniques, and pay a $500 administrative fine to Encinitas. In a report also released Tuesday, the studio estimates it would cost $5,750 to remove the mosaic intact. A removal date and time was not publicly released. [ link ]

ALPHA and OMEGA PRIZE By ERNEST BRITTON Work Cabinet Cross Even a work cabinet filled with office supplies can be a reminder of the Cross, as in this office photo from yesterday. NJ artist, Gerda Liebmann  inspired me to start this 30-day project. You can follow  My Daily Cross project online or better yet, create your own. Go to Gerda's blog for her Daily Cross rules. She's doing it for a year!

MUSLIM MATTERS "Say (O Muhammad (peace be upon him)): He is Allah, (the) One." Quraan 112:1. By Samee Panda. WELCOME to the another edition of MuslimMatters.org’s regular Islamic Art feature. If you want to see your work on MM, then either email us your images to art[@]muslimmatters[.]org or submit them to our Flickr group. [ link ]

EXAMINER (Boulder Christianity) By Steve Rees "Resurrection" (c. 2011) By Enrique Chagoya COLORADO - Stanford University professor and artist Enrique Chagoya and lead vocalist Kim Walker-Smith of “Jesus Culture” fame offered their respective gifts this weekend to Resurrection Fellowship : A much anticipated painting of Jesus Christ from the San Francisco-based artist; and a worship song performed for the first time publicly by Walker-Smith, whose home base is also northern California. Both the painting and song were inspired in part by Senior Pastor Jonathan Wiggin's online sermon titled “ Jesus: Tougher Than Nails ” which describes facets Jesus Christ's life, death and resurrection. “If there's any single word that you could add to this picture that would be totally and entirely appropriate - in my opinion - it is the word love,” Wiggins said. “For me, the resurrection is a symbol of love,” Chagoya said. [ link ]

TEHRAN TIMES By Arts Desk Handwoven Carpet IRAN - TEHRAN – Three pages of the hand-woven Quranic carpet, the first of its kind in the world, is currently on display at the calligraphy exhibition by the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) member countries. Comprised of 76 two-sided leaves of 70x45 centimeters, the entire book took six years to accomplish, as was reported in a press release on Friday. The students of the Carpet Faculty of Tabriz Islamic Art University have woven the entire Holy Quran in the form of a book whose pages are small carpets. The verses of the Holy Quran are woven in silk and the other sections in wool. The entire Quranic carpet is currently kept at Tabriz Faculty of Fine Arts. [ link ]

THE WASHINGTON POST By Associated Press VATICAN CITY - The Vatican is lending iPods to pilgrims in a pilot program aimed at coupling ancient basilicas with modern technology to lower the noise level from tour guide chatter. From a tiny booth in the back of St. John in Lateran, the Vatican has been quietly asking tourists if they want to tour Rome’s oldest basilica with an iPod in hand loaded with an app to make accessing the place’s art, architecture and Christian history user friendly. The Vatican will formally unveil the experiment on Wednesday. Tourists from around the world were exploring the cavernous basilica with specially adapted iPods in hand Tuesday. There’s no charge, although users must leave a document as security. The experiment runs through December. [ link ]

INDIANAPOLIS STAR By Brian Payne INDIANAPOLIS - So what is a cultural entrepreneur? I believe it means someone who uses the arts and creativity to build community. I have always considered an "entrepreneur" as the artist of the business world. They are creative risk-takers who, if successful, create value for their community and often for society as a whole. A cultural entrepreneur's business is the community. Also, cultural entrepreneurs differ from others in the social or not-for-profit sectors by utilizing the arts and creative expression in building neighborhood connectedness and vitality. In this case, the arts are not the final product but the tool to engage neighbors and build a better quality of life. [ link ]

ISLAM ONLINE By Alia Raffia Ullah UNITED KINGDOM - The assumption made when referring to Islamic art is the uniqueness of the term. However, it is important to understand what the word “Islamic” means when modifying the noun art. In order to define an aesthetic tradition it is imperative to initially explain the internal creative purpose rather than the iconographic or external functional characteristics. The Arabic word “Islam” itself means submission to Allah. Islam teaches us that this life is a life of worship. Therefore, we can hypothesize that Islamic art was originally developed as a means of encouraging and adhering to the modes of worship permitted by Islam’s doctrines. [ link ]