Amy Goodwin

If you are a struggling artist you might find comfort or kinship at the
great blog Sellout
Where today the question is What's The Real Game

If you are interested in a discussion on abstraction vs realism
You can read one hereDamn the Renaissance! Open Thread

Collage Suit by Brian Bress

Because it is winter…
Some Andrew Goldsworthy snow sculptures

Olafur Eliasson talks about his work

"The trend in American journalism is to treat art and visual culture as a fussy little features area, the kind of thing that belongs in its own Sunday section so that it doesn't contaminate the rest of the paper. The only exception is when something gets sold. Money is something editors understand."
to read the whole text in ArtsJournal

state of the nation tonight

friendswithyou

I want a Pleo

Loretta Lux

Bats For Lashes

someone actually dyed their dog

I discovered a great blog to help me organize my cluttered life
the unclutterer

dork magazine

a cup of jo

wedding cupcakes and steak cake

dance shoes

sala shop

batman crossing

He was all over the web last week

to see the crazy

darkness

3d rooms

blanka

illuminated painting

Eva Lake
The Richter Scale

"An artist, on the other hand, works in relative solitude, often strives for the most context-less space possible (whitecube gallery or museum), and generally doesn't sit in the gallery with the work. Because of this, my astute friend thinks that artists can forget that their work is always in a context. And that it's important for the artist to figure out what context is really most appropriate."
http://www.imasellout.info/

estelle hanania

Ernie and Bert Mitt

I love this marshmallow

64colors.com

Does happiness breed blandness in art?

In a great article in The Chronicle Of Higher Education author Eric Wilson explores this idea.
He writes:
I for one am afraid that American culture's overemphasis on happiness at the expense of sadness might be dangerous, a wanton forgetting of an essential part of a full life. I further am concerned that to desire only happiness in a world undoubtedly tragic is to become inauthentic, to settle for unrealistic abstractions that ignore concrete situations. I am finally fearful of our society's efforts to expunge melancholia. Without the agitations of the soul, would all of our magnificently yearning towers topple? Would our heart-torn symphonies cease?…
My sense is that most of us have been duped by the American craze for happiness. We might think that we're leading a truly honest existence, when we're really just behaving as predictably and artificially as robots, falling easily into well-worn "happy" behaviors, into the conventions of contentment. Deceived, we miss out on the great interplay of the living cosmos, its luminous gloom, its terrible beauty.

the whole piece can be seen here
http://chronicle.com/temp/reprint.php?id=t5wqrs9hpxt70zjz3bv348pqg1hcxz0r

psstpassiton.com

I can't remember who was the Dean of the Yale School of Art when I attended.
Chip Benson came after I left. It'll come to me.
I know that the current Dean is Robert Storr. He had this to say recently while giving a talk at
University of Washington:

“I frankly don’t want somebody else’s skull with a bunch of diamonds on it,” he said. He’s tired of art that’s about the market, or about money, and he’s tired of Marxist-based 1980s critical theory.

“Critical theory has bred its own Frankenstein,” he explained. “There are so many artists that ironize, jam, play, and flip the system of art evaluation. … There’s also a lack of honesty [among artists]—and I see it among my students—about their engagement, their relationship, with the market and with marketing.”

Robert Storr chose Kim Jones for this summer’s Venice Biennale.

Storr views Jones’s work as a stalemate between vulnerability and aggression.
You can see more Kim Jones at
http://www.henryart.org/

All frankenstine all the time.

Public Art in the Shopping Mall
The Aventura Mall, 10 miles north of Miami Beach, is building a contemporary public art collection.
Jorge Pardo and Lawrence Weiner made unique installation and Julian Opie set-up his LED
walking man and woman.

to see and read more
http://www.artsjournal.com/aestheticgrounds/

How 3 graphic designers created D-Day on a shoe string budget

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRS9cpOMYv0

continued (21-30)
50 things I've learned in 50 years, a partial list in no particular order
by Eric Zorn

21. Fear of failure is a ticket to mediocrity. If you’re not failing from time to time, you’re not pushing yourself. And if you’re not pushing yourself, you’re coasting.

22. Anyone who judges you by the kind of car you drive or shoes you wear isn’t someone worth impressing.

23. Grudges are poison. The only antidote is to let them go.

24. If you’re in a conversation and you’re not asking questions, then it’s not a conversation, it’s a monologue.

25. In everyday life, most “talent” is simply hard work in disguise.

26. Great parents can have rotten kids and rotten parents can have great kids. But even though biology plays a huge role in destiny, that’s no excuse to give up or stop trying.

27. Four things that most people think are lame but really are a lot of fun: barn dancing, charades, volleyball and sing-alongs.

28. Two cheap, easy self-improvement projects: Develop a strong handshake and start smiling when you answer the phone.

29. When something that costs less than $200 breaks and it’s not under warranty and you can’t fix it yourself in half an hour, it’s almost certainly more cost-effective to throw it out.

30. Most folk remedies are nonsense, but zinc really does zap colds.

by
lawick muller

redbubble.com

fun

http://volksfaden.de/

the 11-20
50 things I've learned in 50 years, a partial list in no particular order
by Eric Zorn
Chicago Tribune

11. The Golden Rule is the greatest moral truth. If you don’t believe in it, at least try to fake it.

12. Keeping perspective is the greatest key to happiness. From a distance, even a bumpy road looks smooth.

13. You can’t win arguing with police officers or referees, but every so often you can fight City Hall.

14. It’s not “political correctness” that dictates that we try not to insult others’ beliefs and identities. It’s common decency.

15. It may not feel like it, but it’s good luck when you have people at home and at work who aren’t afraid to tell you when you’re wrong.

16. It’s 10 times easier to fall in love than to stay in love. And no matter what the sad songs say about romance, broken hearts do mend.

17. Don’t waste your breath proclaiming what’s really important to you. How you spend your time says it all.

18. Keeping an open mind is as big a challenge as you get older as keeping a consistent waistline.

19. It’s never a shame when you admit you don’t know something, and often a shame when you assume that you do.

20. Wounds heal faster under bandages than they do in the open air.

the first 10 of 50
50 things I've learned in 50 years, a partial list in no particular order
by Eric Zorn
Chicago Tribune

1. It’s better to sing off key than not to sing at all.

2. Promptness shows respect.

3. You can’t avoid offending people from time to time. When you don’t mean it, apologize. When you do mean it, accept the consequences.

4. The first person to use the expression “Get a life!” in any dispute is the loser.

5. The medium is not the message. Those who issue blanket condemnations of any form of communication—be it TV, tabloids, text messages or blogs—simply aren’t paying attention.

6. The most valuable thing to have is a good reputation, and it’s neither hard nor expensive to acquire one: Be fair. Be honest. Be trustworthy. Be generous. Respect others.

7. Prejudice and bigotry is hard-wired into us. You can’t overcome it until you acknowledge it.

8. Don’t be bothered when people don’t share your tastes in music, sports, literature, food and fashion. Be glad. You’d never get tickets to anything otherwise.

9. Cough syrup doesn’t work.

10. Empathy is the greatest virtue. From it, all virtues flow. Without it, all virtues are an act.