Mystery Solved: It’s Nagel
June 26, 2008
Coop killing his devil. Click image to visit its source.
Paintblogger and pop-culture powerhouse Coop recently published his thoughts about a runaway image. He painted it, he sold it, and the durn thing grew legs and ran away to live its own life. (One never knows what’s going to take hold of the public’s attention.) Coop likens his experience to the nail salon poster phenomenon. You know, the ones with the white skin, black hair, sharp eyes, linear features? I’ve seen those my whole life and wondered where they first came from. Now, thanks to Coop and BoingBoing, I know. Those of you who, like me, were born after 1979, meet Patrick Nagel.
notabene. Sites linked to from this blog post may contain R-rated material.
All Faiths Beautiful
June 24, 2008
Recently on PostSecret I saw this video promoting the current exhibit at the American Visionary Art Museum:
Link to the All Faiths Beautiful Flickr set.
From a Washington Post review of the All Faiths Beautiful show:
Outsider artists are presumed to create out of some pure inner vision and not in response to any trends in the art world. Their creations tend to be idiosyncratic and sometimes inscrutable, and have a long-night-of-hallucination feel. …The creations seem driven by an instinct that lies somewhere between compulsion and belief. They express less a coherent faith than a desperate attempt to be seen and understood, even if the outreach ultimately fails. …The show is at its best when it showcases the more peculiar “faiths,” and then challenges you to connect.
One of the more challenging parts of All Faiths Beautiful is the portion of the show devoted to atheism. As to whether atheism can be considered a faith, that’s up for grabs. But one individual who has expressed a particularly poetic atheistic worldview is the late great Mr. George Carlin. In a 2004 interview with Terry Gross, Carlin explained that while he was not a religious man, he did find spiritual sustenance in the notion that everything in this universe is made up of atoms that were created in the heart of a star. If we are all made of the same material, he reasoned, then we are all one, and if that’s true, then what is there to be afraid of? I’ve included a video of Carlin explaining his views on religion below. (Caution: salty language and challenging notions.) Because all faiths ARE BEAUTIFUL in this here blog post.
Related: Sarah’s del.icio.us sites tagged religion.
“Picturing The Museum” Photography Exhibit
June 23, 2008
(Mommy, why did the lelephant take his clothes off?)
The above photo is from the new web-based exhibit Picturing The Museum from the American Museum of Natural History Research Library. This came to me via Morbid Anatomy.
Can I just say? Those men are cleaning an elephant skin. With no elephant inside. It makes my ontology ache.
Related: Sarah’s del.icio.us links tagged anatomy.
Photos from Smithsonian Archives on Flickr
June 19, 2008
[via BoingBoing] The Smithsonian Institution has just uploaded a boatload of scanned photographs to Flickr. The best part is that the images are under no known copyright restrictions, i.e. they are free for our fair use. (Wow, this is a long way away from selling your legacy to a cable tv channel. Good on you, Smith!)
I’m especially enjoying this set of portraits of scientists and inventors. Love those moustaches!
The image above is titled Uniformed Letter Carrier With Child in Mailbag. Here’s a short explanation:
This city letter carrier posed for a humorous photograph with a young boy in his mailbag. After parcel post service was introduced in 1913, at least two children were sent by the service. With stamps attached to their clothing, the children rode with railway and city carriers to their destination. The Postmaster General quickly issued a regulation forbidding the sending of children in the mail after hearing of those examples.
Someone tagged this photo “Stork?” Let’s hear it for crowdsourcing.
How I Spent Memorial Day Weekend
June 18, 2008
Inspired by Indexed. (Auxiliary thanks to GraphJam.)
In a nutshell, I’ve upped and moved myself from Norman to Oklahoma City to be with The Guy. It’s awesome.
Oh, and by the way, the NaBloPoMo theme for June is “Home.” (Not like I’m putting 30 posts on the web this month or anything. Pshaw! Who has that kind of time?)
Related: Sarah’s del.icio.us sites tagged visualization.
Puzzle Collages
June 17, 2008
Found on Flickr: Picazzle’s intricate jigsaw puzzle collages. They’re retro! They’re postmodern! They make my head hurt, in that good way.
Picazzle also links to jigsaw puzzle art by others on Flickr.
Art 365 Documentary Preview Online
June 16, 2008
As part of the year-long Art 365 process, filmmakers Melissa Scaramucci and Cacky Poarch produced a documentary film about the seven artists. You can see a 15-minute preview online at Google Video. If you’re new to Art 365, this is a great introduction.
The film premiered in its entirety at the Art 365 opening in Tulsa last month. There will also be a screening in Oklahoma City on July 3rd.
Click here to read more about Normal, OK, my series for Art 365.
Related: Sonarta also has footage of the Art 365 process. Part 1 is below; here are parts two, three, and four.
Legion Arts of Cedar Rapids, IA Needs You
June 16, 2008
Click here to support the Iowa Artists’ Relief Fund.
Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is currently underwater. One of the institutions affected by this tragedy is Legion Arts, who was kind enough to agree to host the Art 365 show this coming Fall. Right now nobody knows exactly if or how that will happen, but that’s not our most pressing concern.
Legion Arts has set up an emergency fund to help Iowa artists whose lives and work have been affected by the flooding. Please give if you can, especially you Oklahoma artists: Legion Arts is like our OVAC. We need the help of support systems like these to make our unique, talented, relevant voices heard.
The above photo, taken by CRArtist, is titled June 12, 2008 (2). It is part of this Flickr set titled Flood of 2008.
Related: The Simple Dollar lists seven things you can do right now to help flood victims.
Red Line Foundation Presents: Infectious T-Shirt Fashion Runway Show
June 12, 2008
Sagrado Corazon, t-shirt design for the Red Line Foundation, 2008.
Red Line Foundation Presents: Infectious T-Shirt Fashion Runway Show. The party will be at Angles, 2117 NW 39th St, OKC, 7 to 11 pm tonight, 06.13.2008.
The T-shirt fashion show will benefit the Red Line Foundation, who seeks to increase public education about HIV/AIDS in the Oklahoma City area.
Last Chance: Art 365 in Tulsa
June 11, 2008
Lawton Amarillo, acrylic, ink and collage on canvas, 2007.
This Thursday, Friday, and Saturday are the last days that the Art 365 show will be on display in Tulsa.
My project, Normal, OK, is showing at Liggett Studios, 308 S Kenosha Ave. Betsy Barnum’s introspective self-portraits and Live4This‘ candy-coated wonderment are also at Liggett. Better get there by June 14.
One venue was not enough to hold all of the Art 365 awesomeness. Ashley Griffith’s large-scale photographic grids, Joe Daun’s kinetic sculptures, and Liz Roth’s exhaustive United States landscape survey are showing at Alexandre Hogue Gallery, University of Tulsa, 2930 E. 5th St., Tulsa (M-F 8:30-4:30) through June 27.
After this month, the Art 365 works will be put away until October, when they go on display in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.