Spooky Fun Fact Friday: Ouija Boards and Bed Sheet Ghosts

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was established to honor those who died in the Vietnam War. Jan Scruggs, a veteran of the conflict, spearheaded the creation of the memorial and after a nationwide design competition, Maya Lin's design was chosen. Her design was controversial for its minimalist and non-traditional approach, but ultimately it was built and has become an important place for reflection and healing. The work is simple yet profound. The polished black granite is reflective like a mirror. It forces visitors to confront their own image alongside the names of the fallen creating a sense of connection and shared humanity. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is one of the 250 artworks required for AP Art History. Learn about more of those works by listening to my AP Art History Cram Session playlist on Spotify. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. If you are thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It is online, flexible and convenient to meet your needs on your schedule. Visit BetterHelp.com/WhoARTed today and get 10% off your first month. Check out my other podcasts Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science Lab Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Max Beckmann was a German painter born on February 12, 1884. While he is often associated with the expressionist movement, he actually rejected that label. He was a part of the New Objectivity movement which shared some similarities with expressionists, but while the expressionists sought to portray their inner self for the world to see, the new objectivity movement was outward looking holding a mirror up to the world expressing the state of society as the artist saw it. In his painting The Night from 1918-1919, Beckmann shows the horrors of war and the devastation at home. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. If you are thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It is online, flexible and convenient to meet your needs on your schedule. Visit BetterHelp.com/WhoARTed today and get 10% off your first month. Check out my other podcasts Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science Lab Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The iconic image of "Rosie the Riveter" is often associated with female empowerment and the contributions of women to the war effort during World War II. However, the image we commonly associate with Rosie, the "We Can Do It!" poster, was not originally intended for that purpose. Created by J. Howard Miller in 1943 for Westinghouse Electric, it aimed to boost worker morale and reduce absenteeism in their factories. It wasn't until the 1980s that the poster gained popularity and became associated with Rosie the Riveter, thanks to its rediscovery and the feminist movement of the time. Another famous Rosie the Riveter image is Norman Rockwell's painting, which appeared on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post in 1943. This image, depicting a strong woman with a rivet gun and a lunch pail, was widely circulated and used in war bond drives, inspiring patriotism and encouraging women to join the workforce. Both the "We Can Do It!" poster and Rockwell's painting have become enduring symbols of female empowerment, resilience, and the contributions of women to society. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. If you are thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It is online, flexible and convenient to meet your needs on your schedule. Visit BetterHelp.com/WhoARTed today and get 10% off your first month. Check out my other podcasts Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science Lab Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hilma af Klint was a painter making abstract art years before men like Kandinsky and she was exploring automatic drawing long before the surrealists. She knew she was well ahead of her time, which is why she stipulated in her will, that many of her greatest works were not to be displayed until 20 years after her death. Related episodes: Hilma af Klint | What a Human Being Is Spirit Photography This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. If you are thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It is online, flexible and convenient to meet your needs on your schedule. Visit BetterHelp.com/WhoARTed today and get 10% off your first month. Check out my other podcasts Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science Lab Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Who ARTed began five years ago. My love of art began with the Impressionists and Post Impressionists, and I thought there would be no better topic to cover in my anniversary episode. We talked broadly about the movements then discussed five great works including Impression Sunrise by Claude Monet, The Cradle by Berthe Morisot, Paris Street Rainy Day by Gustave Caillebotte, The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh, and Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat. Related episodes: Claude Monet Berthe Morisot Gustave Caillebotte Vincent van Gogh Georges Seurat Mary Cassatt Edgar Degas Pierre Auguste Renoir This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. If you are thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It is online, flexible and convenient to meet your needs on your schedule. Visit BetterHelp.com/WhoARTed today and get 10% off your first month. Check out my other podcasts Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science Lab Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Ouija Board was patented in 1891 by Elijah Bond, and that is an odd and interesting story. Bond filed a patent for the "Ouija or Egyptian luck-board" but the patent office was initially hesitant to grant it. They considered the board's ability to answer questions to be unexplainable and potentially fraudulent. To convince the patent officer, Bond and Helen Peters (his sister-in-law) conducted a demonstration. They asked the board to spell out the patent officer's name, which it supposedly did correctly, even though they claimed not to know it. The demonstration worked! The patent officer, reportedly quite shaken by the experience, approved the patent. For a spooky fun bonus fact, learn why sheets became symbols of ghosts. Related episodes: Spirit Photography This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. If you are thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It is online, flexible and convenient to meet your needs on your schedule. Visit BetterHelp.com/WhoARTed today and get 10% off your first month. Check out my other podcasts  Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science Lab Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Maurizio Cattelan is an Italian artist known for his provocative and satirical sculptures and installations that challenge the norms of the art world. His works often spark controversy and public discourse, blurring the lines between high art and everyday objects. Some of his most recognized pieces include, "Strategies," his mock up of a magazine cover intended to help him land a spot on the actual magazine's cover, "Comedian," a banana duct-taped to a wall, which sold for $120,000, and "America," a fully functional solid gold toilet that was once stolen from Blenheim Palace. Cattelan's art is often seen as a commentary on consumerism, celebrity culture, and the value of art itself. My guest this week was Tim Bogatz, host of Art Ed Radio from The Art of Education University (where you can also see articles I have written). In this episode, we referenced work by other artists. Listen to these episodes to learn more: Marcel Duchamp | Fountain Meret Oppenheim | Object This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. If you are thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It is online, flexible and convenient to meet your needs on your schedule. Visit BetterHelp.com/WhoARTed today and get 10% off your first month. Check out my other podcasts Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science Lab Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Starting in 1917, the US Radium Corporation hired a bunch of young women to paint watch faces with radium based paints that would glow in the dark. For these young women, it seemed like a great job. They were paid about 3 times what the average working woman was getting at that time, they got to work with this cool new material that glowed like something from science fiction, and the job was relatively easy. They just had to lip, dip and paint. But that first part, the lip part turned out to be a major problem.  The women were using camel hair brushes to paint tiny details on watch faces and instrument dials. As any painter could tell you, after just a few brush strokes, the bristles start to splay requiring them to point their brush. The women working for the US Radium Corporation, and a few rival companies of that day were all told to use their mouths to point the brush. While they could have achieved similar results with water and rags, it was more efficient for the workers to simply put the brush in their mouth using their lips, teeth and tongues to get the bristles realigned. Listeners today would no doubt be horrified at the prospect of putting radioactive material into their mouths, but for the so called radium girls, it was part of the job and for many of them, it seemed like a fun perk. There are stories of the young women painting their teeth, or their nails with the radioactive paints. Of course, as the old saying goes, it’s all fun and games until someone’s jaw falls off. Unsurprisingly, it was the dentists who first noticed the health effects of radium ingestion. The radium girls developed a condition referred to as radium jaw or necrosis of the jaw which simply put means the cells in their jaws were dying from radiation poisoning and along with that teeth fell out and bones would become distorted due to tumors or even they might be left with holes in the jawbones.  This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. If you are thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It is online, flexible and convenient to meet your needs on your schedule. Visit BetterHelp.com/WhoARTed today and get 10% off your first month. Check out my other podcasts  Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science Lab Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Reggie Laurent is a contemporary artist based out of Atlanta. Laurent is a largely self-taught artist working in a variety of media and often on unexpected surfaces. He is known for his DNA series of paintings characterized by bold colors and elaborate patterns in abstract compositions. He says that the DNA series is largely similar to his childhood doodles and the creative expression that was always in him. While many artists inspire students with their stunning work, Laurent goes further by explaining his process and working with groups of students via Zoom. Find Reggie Laurent Online: https://www.laurentoriginals.com/  www.instagram/laurentoriginals https://woodpeckerscrafts.com/reginald-laurent-dna-collection/ This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. If you are thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It is online, flexible and convenient to meet your needs on your schedule. Visit BetterHelp.com/WhoARTed today and get 10% off your first month. Check out my new favorite history podcast, Calm History: Want to dive even deeper into history? Try the podcast Calm History You'll learn about famous explorers, leaders, inventions, civilizations and ancient wonders all narrated in a calm voice to help you relax or fall asleep. Find Calm History on your favorite podcast app: https://podfollow.com/calm-history Check out my other podcasts Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science Lab Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hieronymus Bosch was a 15th-century Dutch painter whose fantastical and often unsettling works continue to captivate viewers today. His most famous painting, "The Garden of Earthly Delights," is a triptych that depicts a complex narrative of creation, temptation, sin, and damnation. Bosch's unique visual vocabulary, drawn from religious iconography, folklore, alchemy, and contemporary social mores, challenged the established norms of religious art and introduced an element of ambiguity into his narratives. Bosch's exploration of human psychology and the darker aspects of human nature contributed to the subversive nature of his art, offering a more nuanced and unsettling view of the human condition. Despite the often disturbing imagery in his paintings, Bosch was a respected member of his community and a devout Catholic. The enduring power of his work lies in its masterful balance between the concrete and the ambiguous, inviting viewers to decipher the complex relationships and narratives within his paintings. Check out our sponsor Factor at www.FactorMeals.com/whoarted50 Enter the promo code whoarted50 to get 50% off your first box and 20% off your next month! Check out my other podcasts Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science Lab Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices