art

a woman made art out of books and then donated them anonymously all over Edinburgh. They are just lovely...Please check out the whole story by clicking here.

photo by chris scott from flicker.

today's art project: light box photo

i have been meaning to put this project together for years...literally. DONE!

corcoran and art: Chuck Close and Spencer Finch

(Spencer Finch art of Jet Stream, see below.)

We love the Corcoran. In DC we are really spoiled because most of the museums are free...so the ones where you have to pay get short shift. Since Brent works across the street from the Corcoran, we became members a few years ago. Then they sold our information to a credit card company, and I decided to cancel our membership.

But this is a story about the great show we saw there last week...well 2 shows really. The headline was a Chuck Close exhibit. I mentioned him a few weeks ago, because he is face-blind. What is interesting about him is that he ONLY paints faces. Isn't that crazy? Oh and he had a spinal aneurysm, and is in a wheelchair now. Read more about him here. His portraits are really life like and he uses all manner of mediums: oil, etchings, paper.
See a video of the show here:

Chuck Close Prints: Process and Collaboration from Corcoran Gallery of Art on Vimeo.

The other show we saw was by Spencer Finch, "My Business with the Cloud." His artwork mixed science with art and was really lovely. For example, in one piece he painted with watercolors the forecast of the Jet Stream over North America. It is just so enticing to look at.

NOW: Spencer Finch at the Corcoran from Corcoran Gallery of Art on Vimeo.

a dress a day

Can you imagine it: re:working one dress per day? Well, this is what Marissa is doing! She got laid off and decided to spend $365 and one year remaking dresses that she found in thrift shops. Some of her creations are perfect and some are not so perfect. I love that she is doing it!

Click here to see all of the dresses.

art: return to sender

Brent sent me a review of a book that looked super interesting, but it reminded me of a piece of artwork from Artomatic in 2008, when I participated.

Refused: Return to Sender by Tracy Lee tells the story of receiving all of her family pictures in the mail from her alcoholic parents. They disowned her over the mail.

The photo above explains the piece. Below it is an overview of the piece.

You had to take time to look at the art, and read the description in order to understand the magnitude of what you were seeing. It had such an effect on me.

That's what I love about art: it can make you think about things for along time to come.

candy corn cone

At work I came across a posting about a street artist who had painted orange cones to look like candy corn. HOW CUTE I thought...and then I saw one with my friend Amy! I was so excited. I loved it.

On the way home tonight our candy had been smashed in half. :( So I went and healed him. He was up right again. This is a picture of him by the artists, pre-injury. Click this link to see more of Diabetik's work. Enjoy.

ode to christoph niemann: going to bed

Christoph does these about once a month. I LOVE them. I hope you enjoy my attempt at imitation. To see something similar, go to Christoph's site at the New York Times.

art: 20x200, art for the Masses

I am in love with this website, www.20x200.com. The idea for the website is to sell great art that everyone can buy. They sell limited editions of works: 200 pieces which are 8.5 x 11(the size of a piece of paper) signed by the artist for $20, 20 pieces which are 17 x 22 for $200, and then 2 pieces that are large, so 30 x 40, for $2000.We have bought maybe 6 pieces from them.

You can go to the site and sign up to get their weekly email. Some weeks I am not interested in the pictures at all, sometimes I love the stuff. The catch is that the pictures that are really great go really fast.

I love the picture above, Untitled (Let's make better mistakes tomorrow), by Mike Monteiro. It hangs in our hallway.

Let me know if you pick up any work from the site.

fun art

Art by Erin Hanson
Click anywhere to see more!

maps of the mississippi

How cool is this map? I feel like it looks like art. You can see more of the maps by clicking this link.

More Information:
THE ALLUVIAL VALLEY OF THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI RIVER

Harold Fisk, 1944

Part of an otherwise technocratic report for the Army Corps of Engineers, Fisk’s maps of the historical traces of the Mississippi River are a wonderful surprise. Presented here are all fifteen maps, stretching from southern Illinois to southern Louisiana.

art: machines that almost fall over

Machines that Almost Fall Over from Michael Kontopoulos on Vimeo.

(K: the name of the artist sounds Greek to me!)

two months salary

Who can tell me what the average American woman expects the average American man to spend on her engagement ring? Two months salary. WOW. I guess I did not know that. An artist named Lee Gainer went out and computed the two month salary for a number of professions and then took pictures, which look like ads, of the diamond rings a man of said profession could afford.

I love art.

What a great idea. (Click here to see more pictures!)
What strikes me about the art is how similar all of the rings look. I can't really tell the difference between the "Cashier" rings versus the "Structural Engineer" rings. The only rings I can tell are noticeably bigger are the "A List Actor" rings. Honestly I like the simple rings more than the ornate ones...but who am I?

art in portland

I just re-found this little video I took in Portland at the art museum.

for my New York friends

I started getting this magazine, New York Magazine, a few months ago. They had an article that really spoke to Brent and I and well, I love a good magazine. The article was about grups. Click the sentence to read the article. Brent and I feel like we aspire to be grups.

Last week's issue was about saving being the new spending...who knew? Oh, we did. We have a budget now, and are taking our lunches everyday (thank you Brent).

The tips for my New Yorkers:

Go to Museums Only on Friday Nights because the museums are FREE!!!

MoMA: 4-8 pm
Bronx Museum of the Arts: FREE ALL DAY
Guggenheim: 5:45 to 7:45 pm
Morgan Library: 7-9 pm
American Folk Art Museum: 5:30 to 7:30 pm
New York Historical Society: 6-8 pm

You can click on the names of the museums to see what is on exhibit.