Brenda Starr, Reporter: The Art of Dale Messick

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Brenda Starr, Reporter debuted in June of 1940 and was an immediate hit with young women and girls. Brenda Starr’s name came from a 1930’s debutante, Brenda Frazier, and her body, fashion sense, and persona mirrored leading Hollywood actress, Rita Hayworth, complete with matching long red hair and a curvaceous figure.

At its peak, Brenda Starr, Reporter was included in 250 newspapers and read by more than 60 million readers. When Starr and her long-time “Mystery Man” boyfriend, whose very survival depended on the serum found in the fictitious but famous black orchid, finally married after 36 years in 1976, President Gerald Ford sent a congratulatory telegram. [source]

Random squares from an exhibition @ The Society of Illustrators

February 9th, 2019

The Mighty Wurlitzer of Mesa

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The Mighty Wurlitzer is a theatre organ of gigantic proportions, consisting of a console that rises from beneath the stage *queue dramatic music* and is connected to a roomful of pipes, bells, and assorted drums.

The theatre organ dates back to the early 20th century. Created by Robert Hope-Jones, it was originally known as a “unit orchestra” and was picked up by the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company of New York for distribution. It was used to compose the score of most films during the golden age of silent movies. After silent movies fell out of favor with audiences, some organs remained in their original theaters, but many were given to churches, museums, and other venues. [source]

The Wurlitzer in question sits in an appropriately gigantic room, where hundreds of people sit and enjoy pizza pies in an abundance of choice, listening to above mentioned dramatic music, accompanied by a light show.

The only other time we came across a similar organ, was in Macy’s Philadelphia – another unexpected location for an instrument of this size, but the Wurli-pizza-light show combination, is a spectacle that must be seen to be believed.

Organ Stop Pizza

Mesa, AZ

February 1st, 2019

First Impressions || Prints @Mesa

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Every year, in a tradition established since 2010, Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum publishes a limited edition calendar featuring 12 original works on paper by emerging and contemporary artists.

Every five years the Museum organizes a retrospective exhibition that showcases all the prints that have been part of the Mesa Contemporary Arts Annual Print Calendar for the last five years.

First Impressions 2019 was the second retrospective. The works ranged from relief prints to screen prints as well as etchings to lithographs.

Farhana Shifa Ahmed (Chandler, Arizona)
Owls, Photopolymer etching

Brooke Molla (Tucson, Arizona)
Desert Collection
Spoon rubbed woodcut on old topography map

Gretchen Schermerhorn (Silver Spring, Maryland)
Ladies of the Potomac
Woodblock, digital and screen print

Brent Bond (Scottsdale, Arizona)
The Guarding of Eating
Photopolymer relief and letterpress

Charles Barth (Cedar Rapids, Iowa)
Ready for More, Collagraph

Darshana Patel (Scottsdale, Arizona)
Untitled, Aquatint

Brooke Molla (Tucson, Arizona)
Nature, Relief on Japanese paper

David Manje (Mesa, Arizona)
A Quién Veo
Photo polymer intaglio, chine-collé

Brent Bond (Scottsdale, Arizona)
Bar-ometer
Letterpress with multiblock linocut relief

Mark McDowell (Scottsdale, Arizona)
Untitled, Photopolymer relief with linocut

Marlys Kubicek (Phoenix, Arizona)
In My Humble Opinion
Three-color reduction linocut

Katherine Sheehan (Long Beach, California)
Trickster Coyote and El Segundo Blues
Seven color screen print

David Manje (Mesa, Arizona)
Sea Impecable Con Su Lengua [Be Impeccable with your Tongue]
Photo Polymer Intaglio

Mesa Contemporary Arts (MCA) Museum

Mesa, AZ

February 1st, 2019