A wonderful artist, longtime booster of Route 66, and all around good guy, Bob Waldmire died at 8:30 this morning.
posted by timsteil on Dec 16, 2009 - 8 comments

When not pressing the valves on his trumpet or the record button on his tape recorder, Armstrong’s fingers found other arts with which to occupy themselves. One of them was collage, which became a visual outlet for his improvisational genius. ... These little stories, illuminating and entertaining syntheses of Armstrong’s passions, now reside in the Louis Armstrong Archives at Queens College in Flushing, New York. [more inside]
posted by Joe Beese on Oct 28, 2009 - 11 comments

Lucian Freud Interview (YouTubes): 1; 2; 3; 4; 5
posted by Dumsnill on Oct 27, 2009 - 3 comments

Digital Artist's Handbook and FLOSS and Art
posted by yegga on Oct 26, 2009 - 9 comments

"The quest to undercut fashion’s standards of perfection, and to find beauty in the disdained, overlooked or overripe, runs throughout Mr. Penn’s career. In an otherwise pristine still life of food, he included a house fly, and in a 1959 close-up, he placed a beetle in a model’s ear." So long, Irving Penn.
posted by flapjax at midnite on Oct 7, 2009 - 20 comments

Oak twig carved from dissolved recording of the heartbeat of an unborn child and the last heartbeats of a loved one, bone dust from every bone in the body, ring finger bones coated in bullet lead from various American wars, glass eyes for wounded soldiers coated with trinitite produced during the first atomic explosion, WWI cavalry boots made from a melted record of Skeeter Davis' "The End Of The World".

San Antonio-based artist (he prefers "marterialist poet") Dario Robleto crafts exquisite objects using a physical lexicon that includes bone dust, analog audio recordings, war objects and remnants of extinction. By recontextualizing these items he hopes to reverse "historical amnesia" and to reengage the past by "seeking out and sympathizing with another era's hopes and losses through its people's stories and materials." Highly influenced by music, he considers his work sampling. As he says: "you don't have to make up anything; the world is magical on its own."
posted by nathancaswell on Sep 25, 2009 - 32 comments

Artist/Designer Ilisha Helfman makes clothes for her custom made paper dolls every week from the cover of the New York Times Magazine.
posted by ocherdraco on Sep 16, 2009 - 9 comments

Suheir Hammad, a Palestinian-American poet and activist now based in New York, writes about being a Muslim immigrant and also a woman challenging conventions. Spotted by Russell Simmons for Def Poetry Jam, she has performed pieces about love in the time of war, exoticising beauty, and a touching ode to her father, among many others. Suheir has just produced and released her first feature film Salt of This Sea, up for the Cannes Films Festival and possibly an Oscar, and recently performed in Ramallah for the 2009 Palestinian Festival of Literature.
posted by divabat on Jul 7, 2009 - 5 comments

Toast always reminds me of the global division of labor. A British artist inspired by Douglas Adams is attempting to make a toaster from scratch. Apparently this concept was also addressed before in an essay, "I, Pencil," by Leonard Read, a founder of a Libertarian think tank. Bottom line: Pencils and toasters are difficult for one person to make and using a microwave to smelt stuff for the toaster is apparently cheating.
posted by ShadePlant on Jun 25, 2009 - 40 comments

This is the first site on the web to show where real artists and designers work. Painters, musicians, photographers, illustrators. The site lets you see their environment in which they go about the creative process and will hopefully inspire yourselves. [more inside]
posted by Joe Beese on Jun 13, 2009 - 11 comments

Really interesting photography by Tokyo artist Daikichi Amano, who claims to be the reincarnation of Katsushika Hokusai.
posted by seabel on Jun 1, 2009 - 35 comments

Artist Momoyo Torimitsu: sculptor, performer, illustrator, installation artist. Not interested in being cute. (Discovered via The Rumpus.)
posted by serazin on May 6, 2009 - 10 comments

On August 7, 1979, under cover of darkness, artist Kit Williams took a jeweled, 18-karat gold pendant in the shape of hare and buried it near the monument to Catherine of Aragon in Ampthill Park near Bedford, England. Clues to its location were hidden the text and artwork of his book Masquerade. The armchair treasure hunt sparked a worldwide craze. The end was disappointing. But 30 years later, the quest is being commemorated with a new hunt in the Cotswolds. (previously) [more inside]
posted by Joe Beese on Apr 23, 2009 - 30 comments

Zhang Peng’s elaborate photographs have been called both "beautiful" and "disgusting". You can see some of them here and here.
posted by chiraena on Mar 22, 2009 - 39 comments

Dude-a-day: 365 Days of Dudes - October 2008 through October 2009.
posted by boo_radley on Mar 2, 2009 - 27 comments

If you got an email from a stranger who said they'd donate $200 to a charity of your choice if you would invite him and a friend over to your place for dinner, would you say yes? Toronto artist Franke James did, and now she now thinks it might be an interesting idea for fundraising.
posted by Staggering Jack on Feb 5, 2009 - 35 comments

Andrew Huang is an Artist/Director of Short Films, Commercials, and Music Videos. Doll Face is really intriguing. The Gloaming (featuring Randall Rickert) is freaky cool!
posted by P.o.B. on Jan 28, 2009 - 0 comments

Here's to Ray Dennis Steckler, the independent filmmaker who wrote, starred (as Cash Flagg) and directed influential films including The Thrill Killers, Rat Pfink a Boo Boo, and his masterpice The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies. A visionary artist whose influnce is clearly seen in contemporary cinema, Steckler was prolific (producing movies from 1963 until last year), economical (his films were self-produced, shot on 16mm film and later Hi-8 video), and brilliant (as clearly evidenced in this dance sequence from Creatures, "The First Monster Musical"). It hasn't been widely reported yet, but fans are mourning his passing. He died in his sleep yesterday, January 7th, aged 70. [more inside]
posted by Chinese Jet Pilot on Jan 8, 2009 - 26 comments

Wayne Martin Belger is an artist who creates pinhole cameras out of some unusual materials... like human skulls, for example.
posted by blaneyphoto on Jan 7, 2009 - 23 comments

CW Roelle makes drawings with wire. Watch him at work. A little more information. Do it yourself!
posted by moonmilk on Dec 8, 2008 - 2 comments

"No other country could have produced the Specials. Terry Hall grew up with Jamaican culture as well as English culture, that’s the only way The Specials could have happened. If you listen to American ska bands, they don’t sound authentic, it's like surf music with reggae mixed with it." Tricky talks about Englishness.
posted by parmanparman on Oct 24, 2008 - 84 comments

Was there anything he had never been asked? He paused for a few moments and answered, “Well, that I’m gay.” "Maurice Sendak’s 80th year — which ended with his birthday earlier this summer and is being celebrated on Monday night with a benefit at the 92nd Street Y — was a tough one. He has been gripped by grief since the death of his longtime partner; a recent triple-bypass has temporarily left him too weak to work or take long walks with his dog; and he is plagued by Norman Rockwell. Or, to be more accurate, he is plagued by the question that has repeatedly been asked about Norman Rockwell: was he a great artist or a mere illustrator?"
posted by Astro Zombie on Sep 12, 2008 - 48 comments

The artist without eyes
posted by konolia on Aug 30, 2008 - 12 comments

Artist Joseph Griffith, whose work draws from fantasy and mythology, has also turned his attention to one of America's most significant historical moments: "I painted this for the 225th anniversary of the Battle of Yorktown when George Washington and the Continentals traunched the British. The county would not dignify it with a response, however, George Washington's Mount Vernon estate kindly wrote me an e-mail saying they would 'pass it along to the staff'."
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing on Aug 20, 2008 - 51 comments

The king of comics - Jack Kirby
posted by vronsky on Aug 10, 2008 - 31 comments

There There Square: The desire to own and name land and the pleasures of seeing from a distance color this personal survey of the history of mapmaking in the New World. There There Square takes a close look at the gestures of travelers, mapmakers, and saboteurs that determine how we read - and live within - the lines that define the United States. Jacqueline Goss is a videomaker and new media artist whose work explores muted personal and historical narratives and negotiates the slides and snags one encounters while moving between written and spoken communication. She currently teaches in the Film and Electronic Arts Department at Bard College. Winner of the 2007 Alpert Award for Film/Video from the Herb Alpert Foundation
posted by Fizz on Aug 1, 2008 - 4 comments

"I've switched from building my own installations to painting ones I've found". NewArt Tv interviews artist Cindy Tower at one of her many makeshift studios in the industrial ruins of East St. Louis, where she's covertly creating paintings as part of her Workplace Series. "We need to find a way to sell more paintings so I can hire you full time", she tells her bodyguard, Edgar. Until then, most days she makes do with a dummy. [more inside]
posted by stagewhisper on Jun 19, 2008 - 9 comments

Overlooked or ignored for far too long by the medical establishment, twisty balloon dog anatomy and gummi bear anatomy are just two of the crucial areas that Moist Production's Jason Freeny is working to bring wider attention to. He's also to be commended for his tireless efforts in raising awareness of Disney character suicide and death by unexplainable circumstance. And there's free downloadable desktops, kids! [1 or 2 of the pages at Moist maybe NSFW] [more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite on May 29, 2008 - 7 comments

British artist Lucian Freud's painting of a rather... portly slumbering nude just set an art world record. Someone laid down a nice, fat 33.6 million dollars for it: the most money ever paid for any work by a living artist. [more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite on May 14, 2008 - 45 comments

Robert Rauschenberg (previously), painter, sculptor, perfomance artist, printmaker, photographer, theater designer, technologist, dead at 82. [more inside]
posted by krautland on May 13, 2008 - 59 comments

Some paintings by Abraham Brewster. (not this one) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Current work on this page.
posted by wittgenstein on Apr 3, 2008 - 11 comments

An Artist's view from her tent. Listen to the view. Yes, listen. Katie Paterson via mobile phone and underwater mike at a glacier lake in Iceland, captures underwater sounds of melting and cracking Jökulsárlón Glacier. Hear it piddling away. Call to listen what the seals are talking about, if they're nearby. [more inside]
posted by alicesshoe on Apr 2, 2008 - 9 comments

Papa Palmérino Sorgente, the Pope of Montréal [more inside]
posted by XMLicious on Feb 28, 2008 - 8 comments

Human artist or ape artist? Six paintings, six chances to show your expertise or just guess correctly. (Previously) Hint inside. [more inside]
posted by maudlin on Feb 9, 2008 - 71 comments

Domesticated by photographer Amy Stein explores the tension between settled and wild spaces.

Stranded is another collection of work dealing with the expectations of public and private space.

More self-explanatory: Women and Guns and Halloween in Harlem. She also has a fine blog.
posted by klangklangston on Feb 6, 2008 - 31 comments

Darko Maver: In 1999, An artist is killed in his prison cell in Podgorica.

Early works. Writings. Culminating exhibit. His arrest. His death. [more inside]
posted by klangklangston on Jan 17, 2008 - 13 comments

Letman : Job Wouters is a Dutch designer known for his two-color flyers, which emphasize manic color and hand-lettering. His sketchbooks (White, Gray, and Black) are full of fun letter design.
posted by klangklangston on Jan 16, 2008 - 7 comments

James Jean shows how he creates the painted cover for Fables. His blog is full of gorgeous figure studies and sketches that show influences from Lucian Freud and pop/manga design. His eponymous site also includes a broad cross-section of his works: Dive, Tigerlily, and his great recess series.
posted by klangklangston on Jan 14, 2008 - 14 comments

Pomme Chan makes rococo nouveau illustrations, with a felt-tip/vector art feel. Roughly 60 images to explore through navigation on the left.
posted by klangklangston on Jan 8, 2008 - 23 comments

artjob.ru is a Russian site worth exploring with some pretty awesome, eclectic galleries (some nsfw). Naoto Hattori, 134 paintings of surrealistic Mona Lisas transformed and more l Child Soldiers Dream Simply of Being Children ads for Amnesty International/photographs by Michael Lewis l Christian Lohfink's playfully mischievous and dark humor photographs l Elliott Erwitt's superb black and white photographs, many iconic l [more inside]
posted by nickyskye on Dec 23, 2007 - 17 comments

Wayne White's paintings [more inside]
posted by 1f2frfbf on Dec 20, 2007 - 19 comments

Norval Morrisseau died on Tuesday. Known also as Copper Thunderbird, the Picasso of the North, and the Father of the Woodland Indian school of Art, he was the first to record his culture's oral traditions in his paintings.
posted by meringue on Dec 6, 2007 - 15 comments

New York artist Rodney Allen Greenblat's new show starts tomorrow at BCB Art in Hudson, NY. His paintings and sculpture evokes Picasso and Calder while maintaining a whimsical charm.

But he's still best known for creating the floppy two dimensional characters and whimsical backgrounds of PaRappa the Rapper. Step on the gas, now turn to the left!
posted by rouftop on Nov 30, 2007 - 13 comments

Sandrine Pelletier. Coming from a background in illustrative line art, Pelletier also works extensively with thread. Many of her pieces explore a tension between traditionally feminine materials and aggressive, masculine subjects.
posted by klangklangston on Nov 19, 2007 - 8 comments

In honor of his 75th birthday, Michael Grbich tap danced across the Golden Gate Bridge followed by an entourage of confetti-tossing grandchildren, neighbors and a friend with an iPod boom box. He's also a local artist and survivor of the Oakland Hills Fire.
posted by The Light Fantastic on Nov 18, 2007 - 11 comments

Empty Cathedrals. Tenement closes. Glasgow artist Frank McNab documents the communal entrances sans nostalgia or sentimentality. Gets it just so damn right! His 'Thoughts' and 'Projects' need a little more work however.
posted by Wrick on Nov 17, 2007 - 11 comments

The Cardboard art of Chris Gilmour.
posted by Orb on Oct 24, 2007 - 12 comments

'Welcome to the wonderful world of Miroslav Sasek. This site is devoted to the life and works of the Czech artist, illustrator and author of the This is series of children's books.' From the equally wonderful I Like.
posted by Alec on Aug 19, 2007 - 8 comments

In the world of fantasy art, he is an icon. Some argue Arnold would never have become governor without him. Though his arrogance is second only to his skill, Frank Frazetta suffered for his art: for eight years an undiagnosed problem left him unable to create at all, while a series of strokes in his later years led to the artist having to learn to paint all over again, this time with his left hand. Since I was a girl, only this artist ever came close to inspiring me half so much as Frazetta did.
posted by misha on Aug 15, 2007 - 33 comments

When he's not writing for The Adventures of Chico and Guapo or MadTV, Colin Quashie is creating his own brand of political art (with some help from elementary school kids on that last one). He has even put together a free coloring book to help you sort out the civil rights movement. What does it all mean? He'll tell you.
posted by 1f2frfbf on Jul 3, 2007 - 2 comments