89 episodes

Ever feel overwhelmed when you visit a museum? Discover a better way to connect with art! Join lifelong art lover and museum fan Karen Jackson as she shares what she sees and discovers while looking at a work of art for minutes instead of the usual 6-10 seconds. Each episode opens with a unique experience — a short, vivid description of a work from one of Washington DC's world-class museums. Then you’ll find out the history, mystery or controversy behind the work or the artist! Episodes are less than 15 minutes.

No jargon, just an easy-going, sometimes irreverent look at art and the very human stories behind it. The descriptions also provide blind or visually impaired listeners a way to enjoy art.

A Long Look Podcast Karen Jackson

    • Arts

Ever feel overwhelmed when you visit a museum? Discover a better way to connect with art! Join lifelong art lover and museum fan Karen Jackson as she shares what she sees and discovers while looking at a work of art for minutes instead of the usual 6-10 seconds. Each episode opens with a unique experience — a short, vivid description of a work from one of Washington DC's world-class museums. Then you’ll find out the history, mystery or controversy behind the work or the artist! Episodes are less than 15 minutes.

No jargon, just an easy-going, sometimes irreverent look at art and the very human stories behind it. The descriptions also provide blind or visually impaired listeners a way to enjoy art.

    Floating Clouds by Hisako Hibi

    Floating Clouds by Hisako Hibi

    In today’s episode we look at “Floating Clouds” by Hisako Hibi, one of more than 120,000 Japanese Americans incarcerated in prison camps on the West Coast during WWII. Paintings like this served as the only visual record of life in the camps as well as a way for prisoners to deal with the harsh conditions.

    We’ll find out how she and her family were able to build a new life after the war and how she persevered through her art and with the help of fellow immigrants. 

    SHOW NOTES 
    “A Long Look” themes are "Easy" by Ron Gelinas https://youtu.be/2QGe6skVzSs and “At the Cafe with You” by Onion All Stars https://pixabay.com/users/onion_all_stars-33331904/

    EPISODE MUSIC
    “Timeless One” by Solas Composer
    https://soundcloud.com/solas_composer/timeless-one

    “Eastern Thought” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
    Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
    http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
    https://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/music.html

    Artwork information
    Hisako Hibi https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/floating-clouds-119617

    Detention camp paintings
    https://janm.emuseum.com/groups/hisako-hibi-collection/results

    Hisako Hibi info
    https://americanart.si.edu/artist/hisako-hibi-33445

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hisako_Hibi

    https://americanart.si.edu/blog/japanese-american-artists-hibi

    https://www.becomingvisible.si.edu/stories/hisako-hibi

    https://womenshistory.si.edu/blog/hisako-hibis-work-artist-was-almost-lost

    Exhibition info
    Pictures of Belonging: Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi, and Miné Okubo


    Transcript available at https://alonglookpodcast.com/floating-clouds
     

    • 9 min
    Extended Ep: Happy Anniversary, Impressionism!

    Extended Ep: Happy Anniversary, Impressionism!

    Just in time for your Memorial Day travels, here’s an extended episode celebrating the anniversary of Impressionism! We take another look at three of the originals: Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, and Berthe Morisot. Her painting “The Mother and Sister of the Artist” is featured in the upcoming blockbuster “Paris 1874: The Impressionist Moment” opening Sept. 8 at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. Find out more on their site.

    SHOW NOTES
    Opening theme: "Easy" by Ron Gelinas https://youtu.be/2QGe6skVzSs

    Episode Music:
    OFFENBACH CAN-CAN by Light Symphony Orchestra; Offenbach
    https://archive.org/details/78_offenbach-can-can_light-symphony-orchestra-offenbach_gbia0309744b

    EPISODES 
    Monet--Grainstack
    Show notes and transcript
    https://alonglookpodcast.com/grainstack/

    Pissarro--Place du Carrousel
    Show notes and transcript
    https://alonglookpodcast.com/place-du-carrousel-by-camille-pissarro/

    Morisot--Mother and Sister of the Artist
    Show notes and transcript
    https://alonglookpodcast.com/the-mother-and-sister-of-the-artist-by-berthe-morisot/

    EXHIBITIONS
    “Paris 1874: The Impressionist Moment” National Gallery of Art (Sept 8-Jan. 19)
    https://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2024/paris-1874-impressionist-moment.html

    “Mary Cassatt at Work” Philadelphia Museum of Art (May 18-Sept. 8)
    https://press.philamuseum.org/mary-cassatt-at-work/

    “The Impressionist Revolution from Monet to Matisse” Dallas Museum of Art (thru Nov. 3)
    https://impressionistrevolution.dma.org/p/1

    SUGGESTED READING
    “Luncheon of the Boating Party” by Susan Vreeland
    https://bookshop.org/p/books/luncheon-of-the-boating-party-susan-vreeland/11716075?ean=9780143113522
    Transcript is available at https://alonglookpodcast.com/impressionism

    • 28 min
    The South Ledges, Appledore by Childe Hassam

    The South Ledges, Appledore by Childe Hassam

    It’s starting to get warm out so the seaside’s on my mind! In the latest episode we visit Appledore on the Isles of Shoals with American painter Childe Hassam. This group of islands off the coast of New Hampshire and Maine was a long-time vacation fave for this Boston artist. 

    We’ll find out how he fused the color and energy of artists like Claude Monet and Camille Pissaro with uniquely American settings like this stunning rocky New England shoreline. And the ruckus he and some of his fellow painters started to create a brand-new kind of American art!
    Transcript is available at https://alonglookpodcast.com/appledore
     

    • 11 min
    Man With the Cat by Cecilia Beaux

    Man With the Cat by Cecilia Beaux

    Henry Sturgis Drinker and Cecilia Beaux had a complicated history but that didn’t get in the way of Cecilia making him the subject of one of her best portraits.

    In today’s episode, we’ll find out how Henry was just one example of the lengths this renowned Gilded Age artist went to pursue her dream of an art career. And how her talent, hard work--and the help of a good friend--got her started.
     
    SHOW NOTES
    “A Long Look” themes are "Easy" by Ron Gelinas https://youtu.be/2QGe6skVzSs and “At the Cafe with You” by Onion All Stars https://pixabay.com/users/onion_all_stars-33331904/
     
    Episode music
    “Preludes, Op. 28 - No. 21 'Sunday'” by Frédéric Chopin
    Courtesy of the European Archive and musopen.org
    https://musopen.org/music/82-preludes-op-28/
     
    “Preludes, Op. 28 - No. 17 'Scene on the Place de Notre-Dame'” by Frédéric Chopin
    Performed by Ivan Ilic. Courtesy of musopen.org
    https://musopen.org/music/82-preludes-op-28/
     
    “String Quartet no. 12 in F major 'American', Op. 96” by Antonín Dvořák.
    Courtesy of the European Archive and musopen.org
    https://musopen.org/music/4887-string-quartet-no-12-in-f-major-american-op-96/
     
    Artwork information
    https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/man-cat-henry-sturgis-drinker-1635
     
    Les Dernier Jours d’Enfance
    https://www.pafa.org/museum/collection/item/les-derniers-jours-d-enfance
     
    Cecilia bio
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecilia_Beaux#cite_ref-16
     
    “Cecilia Beaux: A Modern Painter in the Gilded Age” by Alice A. Carter.
    https://archive.org/details/ceciliabeauxmode0000cart
     
    “Cecilia Beaux: American Figure Painter” by Sylvia Yount. 
    https://archive.org/details/ceciliabeauxamer00beau
     
    Henry Sturgis Drinker
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Sturgis_Drinker
     
    Transcript is available at https://alonglookpodcast.com/cecilia-beaux/

    • 10 min
    Confrontation by Hughie Lee-Smith

    Confrontation by Hughie Lee-Smith

    Putting ordinary people in odd, unsettling surroundings was the specialty of Hughie Lee-Smith. In today’s episode we look at his “Confrontation” from the Smithsonian American Art Museum. 

    We’’ll find out how an encounter with Italian Surrealism and a forbidden childhood carnival forged a visual language he used to depict universal feelings of loneliness, separation, and alienation in post-war America.

    SHOW NOTES

    “A Long Look” themes are "Easy" by Ron Gelinas https://youtu.be/2QGe6skVzSs and “At the Cafe with You” by Onion All Stars https://pixabay.com/users/onion_all_stars-33331904/

    Episode music:
    “Passing Fields” by Quantum Jazz
    Courtesy of Free music Archive (CC BY-SA) https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Quantum_Jazz/End_of_Line/05_-_Quantum_Jazz_-_Passing_Fields/

    “Ghost Carousel” by LAURENT BUCZEK
    Courtesy of Pixabay https://pixabay.com/music/build-up-scenes-ghost-carousel-155303/

    “Between Worlds” by Tobias Webster (CC-BY)
    http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/tobias_weber/56664

    "Shades of Spring" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
    https://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/music.html
    Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
    https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

    Artwork information 
    https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/confrontation-78130

    Artist information
    Biography
    Hughie Lee-Smith by Leslie King-Hammond and Aiden Faust. San Francisco: Pomegranate, 2010.

    Hughie Lee-Smith papers, c 1890-2007, bulk 1931-1999. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

    https://americanart.si.edu/artist/hughie-lee-smith-6317

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hughie_Lee-Smith

    https://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/04/nyregion/art-a-painter-finally-gets-his-due.html

    https://www.nytimes.com/1995/11/12/nyregion/art-review-a-painter-s-evolution-visual-and-political.html
    Transcript available at https://alonglookpodcast.com/confrontation

    • 12 min
    The Nativity by Petrus Christus

    The Nativity by Petrus Christus

    Merry Christmas! For this year’s holiday episode we're looking at this kind of unusual Nativity scene jammed packed with the detail those Northern European Renaissance artists just loved!

    We’ll find out how the birth of Christ went from early spring to late December, the story of the arch, and the mystery of the missing gold platter!

    SHOW NOTES

    “A Long Look” opening theme is "Easy" by Ron Gelinas https://youtu.be/2QGe6skVzSs and the closing music is “Bring a Torch Jeannette Isabella” performed by John Sayles
    http://www.jsayles.com/familypages/holidaymusic.htm
    Episode music:
    “Away in a Manger” and “Angels We Have Heard on High” performed by John Sayles 
    http://www.jsayles.com/familypages/holidaymusic.htm
    “Oh, Little Town of Bethlehem” and “Teller of the Tales” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
    Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
    http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
    Artwork information 
    https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.47.html
    “Early Netherlandish Painting” 
    https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/research/publications/pdfs/early-netherlandish-painting.pdf
    “Petrus Christus: Renaissance Master of Bruges” 
    https://www.metmuseum.org/art/metpublications/Petrus_Christus_Renaissance_Master_of_Bruges
    “Petrus Christus in Renaissance Bruges : An Interdisciplinary Approach”
    https://archive.org/details/petruschristusin0000unse/page/167/mode/1up
    How Dec. 25 became Christmas
    The Christmas Story in Art 
    https://www.history.com/news/why-is-christmas-celebrated-on-december-25
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2015/12/25/why-is-christmas-on-dec-25-a-brief-history-lesson-that-may-surprise-you/
    Transcript available at https://alonglookpodcast.com/?p=2865
     

    • 12 min

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