9 posts tagged “art”

Moleskine Popup Art

May 8, 2007
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Jim Woodring Moleskine

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Jim Woodring Moleskine 2

1 comment

Jim Woodring Moleskine 3

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I love my Moleskine. (Okay, Moleskines...I might have a problem.) But nothing inside my little sketchbooks look anything remotely like this. Cartoonist Jim Woodring created these popups "on the run with pocket tools." These are crazy cool. Jim's a blogger, by the way. Check him out here.

Via Drawn.

It's the Little Things

May 2, 2007
5 comments

What Are We Made Of

Sometimes a big idea is really just a fresh combination of little ones. Here's a mural from street artist Blu. Entitled What Are We Made Of, this gigantic 40-foot mural in Bologna is made up of hundreds of little people. According to Blu's site, this mural was completed in three days. Check out this detail (of the lower left section):

Detail

Now take one more look at the entire mural and appreciate it as a whole. Pretty wild.
You can learn more about Blu and his amazing art here.

Via Wooster Collective.

Art in My Camera

Apr 17, 2007

Museum Art

Street Art

1 comment

Downloaded both of these from my camera the other day. Top: a classic Dale Chihuly. Bottom: a decaying mural near the Jazz district in south Kansas City, artist unknown.

Needing to Unplug

Apr 15, 2007
2 comments

Couch Potato

Yesterday I unplugged myself from the Internet (curse you, my Twitter addiction) and took the family on a daytrip to a museum about an hour from home. We went to see a travelling exhibit on Impressionism. Ducks on ponds, ballet dancers, that sort of thing. What really blew me away, however, was this piece in a neighboring gallery, entitled Couch Potato. Note the mailboxes, keyboards, remote controls, video game joysticks, flashing video monitors, and working fax machine. Created in 1996, I was struck by how prophetic the piece was. After all, this kind of information overload is the exact reason I had decided to unplug and take the family to a museum. Yet the first thing I wanted to do was come back and blog about it.
Couch Potato was created by video art pioneer and central Fluxus member Nam June Paik. You can learn more about him here and here. He is credited for coining the phrases "information superhighway" and "the future is now." He was 64 when he created the above piece.
By the way, you can fax Couch Potato at 402-342-0091. The machine just spits each fax out at the base of the sculpture. Pretty cool.

(I was not allowed to take a photo, so I found this one online.)

Happy Easter Everyone

Apr 7, 2007
1 comment

The Butcher Bunny

Check out more of Mark Ryden's work here. And if you're in the Los Angeles area, be sure to catch his solo exhibit at the Michael Kohn Gallery (through April 28).

Insane, Genius, or Both?

Mar 30, 2007
4 comments

Smithsonian American Art Museum

It's been fairly well documented that there's a fine line between creativity and insanity. In a previous post, we saw that there can also be a fine line between art and garbage. Here's an artist that resides at the intersection of all four lines. Meet the Philadelphia Wireman. His (or her) intricate sculptures made from tightly wound wire, old ballpoint pens, straw wrappers, and other common trash items were found in a Philadelphia alley dumpster in 1982. There were 1,200 pieces in all. Today, these sculptures reside in important museums and art galleries (including the Smithsonian). There's no record of the artist. No known motivation. No back-story whatsoever. As a result, the pieces are all the more fascinating. Was the artist insane? A tormented slave to a compulsion? A wildly creative artist? Since we'll never know, it's all in the interpretation. I saw a Philadelphia Wireman exhibit years ago. The pieces are amazing. But are they art? One thing for sure, I haven't been able to forget them.

This Really Stinks

Mar 22, 2007
12 comments

Garbage

Meet Justin Gignac. Justin sells garbage. New York City garbage. Want some? You can get your very own box of garbage for a mere $50. According to Justin's slick and savvy web site, he's already sold more than 700 boxes to garbage lovers all over the world. That's a cool $35,000. Which, I should point out, is about $35,000 more than Vincent van Gogh made in his entire lifetime. I'm not judging, I'm just saying. This garbage project is art, after all. Justin graduated from art school and everything. He even signs and numbers each box. You see, Justin isn't just selling garbage, He's selling an idea. A story. Even a little romance. And, with a dash of marketing genius thrown in, he's laughing all the way to the bank. Van Gogh. on the other hand, just painted stars and stuff. Which is why he went out into a field and shot himself in the heart at age 37.

Via Core77.

Surreal Photography

Mar 17, 2007
2 comments

The Sower

This afternoon I went to see a traveling exhibit of photos (actually photogravures) created by Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison. Truly amazing. Using elaborate sets, and featuring Robert as a sort of everyman interacting with nature, the images are often haunting, sometimes whimsical, and almost always thought provoking. I was reminded of the silent films of Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton. Here's a man of optimism: doing his job, trying to hold everything together. Take a look at the collection here. Tree Stories is a personal favorite.

The Creative Process (Chris Ware Style)

Mar 3, 2007
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New Yorker (November 2006)

Chris Ware is an amazing comic artist. Perhaps you saw his covers (five in all) for the New Yorker this past November. I've just finished reading two more of his ACME Novelty Library books. Touching, funny, and sad. Complex, in both drawing style and story. He recently spoke at the University of Nebraska and talked a bit about his creative process. Take a listen here (skip to the middle if you're short on time).

Moleskine Popup Art

It's the Little Things

Art in My Camera

Needing to Unplug

Happy Easter Everyone

Insane, Genius, or Both?

This Really Stinks

Surreal Photography

The Creative Process (Chris Ware Style)

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