Art about Art, Cartoons about Cartoons, Plays about Plays...


Posted to the AlwaysLearning list, August 2006:

Japanese Cartoon
Strongbad answers the question "What would you look like as a Japanese cartoon and what would it be about?" This is art about art. These are cartoons about cartoons.
I added those last two sentences this morning to the page on art /arts

And after I wrote it I realized that last night when Holly and I got back from having seen Lady in the Water, I told Kirby and Marty "It's a fairy tale about fairy tales. It's a movie about movies."

I guess that idea was still in my head when I wrote "This is art about art. These are cartoons about cartoons."

So there are probably lots of other such things, like paintings about paintings (There's a Norman Rockwell of him doing a self-portrait, looking in a mirror. I should put that in my mirror art collection, now that I think of it.) /mirrors

There are songs about songs.

I can think of a few plays about plays, but I know them as movies of plays about plays.

It's a fun idea and I just love fun ideas that can turn into years- long scavenger hunts.

Sandra

Painting about Painting

"Triple Self-Portrait", by Norman Rockwell.
The link leads to more information and a larger image that can be manipulated and examined closely.

Whoa! Speaking of "LINK"!
T-shirt art from Teefury.com, August 25, 2014 (no longer there).
I wish they credited their artists every day.
This is by an artist in Spain who goes by "Naolito."


Click for more TMNT mashups

Pamela Barrier has a Pinterest collection of Vitruvian parodies.

Poetry about Poetry

Trees

Joyce Kilmer - 1886-1918

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the sweet earth's flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

Songs about Songs

This is not the greatest song in the world, this is a just a tribute. {"Tribute," Tenacious D)

I want to write a song... [by the guy who did the history of the world videos]

La dee da de dum, what's the name of that song [Sesame Street]

I'm not gonna write you a love song ["Love Song," Sara Bareilles]

"My gift is my song and this one's for you..." [Your Song, by Elton John and Bernie Taupin]

"This song is just Six Words Long..." [Weird Al]

"La la la la, la la la la,
Elmo's Song"
(predates "Elmo's World") [Sesame Street; composed by Tony Geiss]

Songs about Singing, or Singing about Singing, to fit this page's pattern.

Plays about Plays

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, by Tom Stoppard

Noises Off, by Michael Frayn

Death Trap, by Ira Levin

Both "Noises Off" and "Death Trap" were made into movies.
Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve star in both.
Movies about Movies

Bowfinger, written by Steve Martin, directed by Frank Oz

Singin' in the Rain, about the end of the silent movie era.

Last Action Hero, a movie about reality, movie-reality and "the real world"

Seven Psychopaths, a movie about writers struggling to write a movie

TV Shows about TV Shows

The Dick Van Dyke Show

The Mary Tyler Moore Show

Greg the Bunny

Studio 60

30 Rock

Korean Drama about Korean Dramas

The King of Dramas (also translated as "The Lord of Dramas" and "Drama King")

Posters about Posters


This Is Just Another Poster
by Louie ‘The Foot’ Gonzalez, 1976
Just Another Poster? Chicano Graphic Arts in California

Drawing about Drawing


"Drawing Hands,"
1948, M.C. Escher

Dance about Dance

Cartoons about Cartoons

"WITHIN" not about

Play within a play:

Hamlet

Book of Mormon

The King and I

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Sound of Music

Team America (puppet show within a puppet show)

Art Music History Movies