A Happy Hake New Year

They don't celebrate New Year's Eve
the way they used to !

Here's
Otto Hake's
take on the subject

with beautiful, flapper fairy-nymphs
being chased around the party
by thick-necked satyr-artists.


and here's a self portrait
of the dapper gentleman himself.
(bearing a strong resemblance
to his contemporary,
the original Captain Georg Von Trapp)



BTW -- this is not a Palette and Chisel party,
but it was thrown by the 1920 version
of "The Chicago Artists Coalition"
which was trying to raise money
to buy/build an artist studio district.

Unfortunately,
the only thing these parties produced
was a good time,
and maybe a few hangovers.

But five months later,
the same motivation
would bear fruit
when the P&C artists
purchased
1012 N. Dearborn.
(whose basement Otto Hake
would eventually adorn with murals)


Here's the newspaper story from the morning after:


ARTISTS HAD A BIG TIME AT BALL; MADE ONLY $827

Chicago artist's drams of the speedy establishment of a local "art colony" in which they could work and live after their evictions from the Lambert Tree studio building, have been followed by a rude awakening. Instead of the $60,000 with which they expected to finance the art colony project they find they have exactly $822.76.
The discovery was made at the final meeting of the committee which had charge of the artists ball given at the Coliseum on New Year's Eve. The committee resorted that the gross receipts are only $6,937.39 and the expenditures were $5,200.54 leaving a balance of $827.76,leaving a balance of $827.76. Out of this a war tax still has to be paid.

And A Castle Arose Before Us

This is still
how I think of 1012 N. Dearborn ----

as a fantasy castle
where dreams come true.

Fortunately for all of us,
it's been a reality
ever since 1921

when this painting in the scrap book
celebrated the amazing event.

And it is amazing.

It's one-of-a-kind
in Chicago
if not the world


The artist
is Glen C. Sheffer (1881-1948)
who was Vice-President at the time
(he would be promoted the following year)





and here's what he
is currently
famous for:






I guess he specialized
in amazing events.



But he also did
th Impressionist painting
that's been the specialty of the Palette and Chisel ever since.


Here he is in a newspaper account
of the Palette and Chisel show from 1919





Here's a landscape from 1925
that reminds me
of the Turtle show we just had



and he did studio nudes
(presumably from
our third floor studio)












and here's my favorite.

I wonder what happened to this painting.

A Cold Day in Chicago

Just froze my butt off
coming back from the
Sunday sculpture workshop

... and then discovered
this cartoon by Frank Holme
used to illustrate
the textbook
he made for his art school.

Many things have changed
in Chicago
over the past 100 years........




but not the weather.

New Members: 2008

Here's a list of the members who joined in 2008.


Hopefully,
it will eventually include
pictures of all their work
and links to their websites



Kelly Muldoon
Brion Johnson
Frank Fitzgerald
Gerald Kelly
Truong Chinh
Doina Wecsler
John Zylstra
Siarhei Murauyou
Jim Grigg
Margaret Corboy
Hiromi Sogo
Debra Henrichs





Michael Ireland




Yan Obodyanik











Jeff Allen







Andrew Passamani









Linell Beaumont
( His website )






Nanette Garcia
( Her website )






Kevin Hunter
( His website )














Daniel Coonfield




Anne H. Crawford (Her website )







Errol Jacobson









Cathy Priest
(Her website )









Stephanie Weidner



Janet Gerske

Budget: 2009

I've posted the 2009 P&C Budget
because:

1. Members are supposed to vote on it tomorrow

2. Copies of it were not included in the mailing that solicited members' proxy ballots for approval (in a mailing that was postmarked only 6 days before the Dec. 16th meeting.)

3. It is has a serious problem: of the $33,282 collected from the dues for the Building Fund, only $8,446 will be available to go there -- everything else has been allocated towards the operational expenses included in this budget.

I also have some other questions,
like,
*does the $5,000 increase in model fees
mean that the models will be given the hourly raise
that some have asked for ?

*what is the $8,400 "Service Charge"?

******


and..

you might have some questions, too.

But the problem is
the proxy votes to approve this budget
will have been received
before any discussion of it with the members
will ever take place.

********************

Note:

in response, the Treasurer has explained that:

1. Expenses include $18,000 in depreciation (which is not actually cash out the door)
2. "Service Charges" refer to the credit card discount
3. The model expenses were increased to account for more hours of open workshops

But, even after we subtract out the $18,000 in depreciation,
it still looks like operational expenses
will exceed operational income
by about $7,000
(while that difference in the budget for 2008
was less than $600)

How might one determine
whether our budget is balanced?
Was that question ever even asked ?
(so far, I've been given no answer for it)

But, I suppose
nobody cares about it besides myself
(and the office tells me that only ONE
of the 50 people who voted for approval
asked to see a copy of the budget before voting)

The Bird Man of the Palette and Chisel

I was looking through
the exhibitors
in the 1930
36th Annual P&C members' show,
and discovered
Stark Davis (1885-1950)

who painted birds
(specifically, parrots)
instead of
landscapes,
figures,
portraits,
and bowls of fruit.

Which makes him stand out
from the other members
of the P&C






He later moved to the west coast
where he worked
as an animation artist
for team Disney.

Can't you imagine
that above creature
soaring through Fantasia ?





I'm not sure he
would qualify as a naturalist



but he would definitely
qualify for Art Deco







and he's he first P&C member
I've seen
who has obviously
been looking
at Far Eastern painting.

Exhibit: New Paintings by ...

New Paintings by Stuart Fullerton, Jim Hajicek,
Kathleen Newman and Marci Oleskiewicz





Fullerton






Fullerton






Fullerton





Fullerton





Fullerton






Newman










Newman






Oleskiewicz







Hajicek






Hajicek






Hajicek






Hajicek

Sunday afternoon in the studio

That's Mary Qian on the left,
and Lenin Del Sol's work on the right





the woman with the blond
dreadlocks is Judy McCabe


...and these are just three of
the good painters who were
up painting on the third floor today.

I know that much of this website
is about our glorious past
from a century ago,
but I'm wondering
if their Sunday afternoon workshop
was really that much
better than ours.