The Revolving Floor is a curated community of writers and artists, focused on finding creative ways to share diverse perspectives through creating content around shared topics. Every month, a new topic. Several times per week, a new post, each time by a different author. [via mefi projects]
posted by netbros on Aug 31, 2009 - 11 comments

There are few things a man needs in life: a sense of purpose and ambition, a clean bill of health, and a fully detailed hand-sewn puppet of himself. Puppet Artists, Marnie & Bill Winn, create soft sculpted puppets that range from real people (from their photographs), to celebrities, to storybook and fantasy characters. PA also makes similarly detailed sets of 4-inch-tall finger puppets. (via)
posted by netbros on Aug 11, 2009 - 19 comments

The Art & Life of Annie Truxell [via mefi projects]: Annie Truxell is a well known painter who has lived a long and fascinating life. Her adventures have been legendary, encompassing Greenwich Village in the 50s, London in the 60s and India in the 70s. She was friends with Franz Klein, Bill de Kooning, Truman Capote, Terry Southern, Mati Klarwein & many other wild & woolly people.
posted by The Whelk on Jul 12, 2009 - 11 comments

WATIM [We Are the Image Makers] is an online publication that promotes Australian artists, illustrators, designers and photographers. Issue 19 is out this month. There have been more than 150 artist contributors in their four years online. [some art nsfw]
posted by netbros on Apr 24, 2009 - 3 comments

New music service We Are Hunted aims to create charts of emerging music tracks. They aggregate the buzz from social networks, forums, music blogs, torrents, P2P networks and Twitter. In the artists section you can comment about what you're hearing.
posted by netbros on Apr 17, 2009 - 15 comments

Are times of recession good or bad for the contemporary art market and artists? "Affordable" is becoming a leitmotif: there are events, international fairs, as well as various galleries. Some collectors and artists are sharing survival tips and tricks; and there are plenty of special offers to be had: Josh Poehlein - screenshot collages, free ; Shepard Fairey - "Obey Eye" screen print, 18 x 24 inches, signed and numbered, at a random time on April 21st: $45.00 ; Michel Gondry - your portrait, signed: $19.95 (allow 6 to 8 weeks for delivery); 'Damien Hirst' - "For the love of Paris" postcard, 10.5 x 14.8 cm, signed and sent: € 1,80 ; Banksy - original, freely usable, high-quality jpg files: free.
posted by progosk on Apr 16, 2009 - 31 comments

"Ah, the mythical $100 home. We hear about these low-priced “opportunities” in down-on-their-luck cities like Detroit, Baltimore and Cleveland, but we never meet anyone who has taken the plunge. Understandable really, for if they were actually worth anything then they would cost real money, right? Who would do such a preposterous thing?" Amongst others, artists who have hope for the future and money to invest. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on Mar 12, 2009 - 35 comments

DeweyMusic makes browsing archive.org's Live Music Archive super easy.
posted by Korou on Feb 6, 2009 - 17 comments

The Selby Artists & c. at home and in their studios. Click through for more pictures.
posted by OmieWise on Jan 16, 2009 - 7 comments

The 25 best comics covers of 2008 - from Robot 6, the new home of the old blog@Newsarama team. [more inside]
posted by Artw on Jan 3, 2009 - 21 comments

When her Japanese-American husband was sent to internment camps in California and Wyoming, Estelle Peck Ishigo chose to accompany him. An art-school teacher fired for her interracial marriage, she documented the three-and-a-half-year ordeal in a short memoir and hundreds of sketches and paintings. [more inside]
posted by Knappster on Dec 30, 2008 - 6 comments

Daily Routines features how writers, artists, statesmen, and others go about their day. [more inside]
posted by Korou on Dec 9, 2008 - 12 comments

Watercolors and a strange little world (YouTube) via artist Nadia Moss.
posted by Brandon Blatcher on Dec 3, 2008 - 3 comments

A blog about Japanese photography seen from abroad. [more inside]
posted by chunking express on Nov 3, 2008 - 2 comments

Studio visits with artists Cynthia von Buhler, Joyce Pensato, and Ida Applebroog, all set to music.
posted by stagewhisper on Oct 12, 2008 - 5 comments

All-Art.org provides an extensive image library, essays and information on art history, organized by date and movement, up to the 20th century, including photography, design and classical music with audio samples. A small selection of the encyclopedic range offered: Erotica in Art l Paintings that changed the world l The Origins of Typography and Graphic design l Russian Silver Age l Japanese Prints l African l Posters l A Brief History of Western Literature l An illustrated dictionary of art and artists. [more inside]
posted by nickyskye on Oct 4, 2008 - 7 comments

Woosta is an interview driven website that is dedicated to the promotion of artists and their work. [mild nsfw] [more inside]
posted by netbros on Oct 4, 2008 - 2 comments

FairyTaleFilter: SurLaLune Fairy Tales features 49 annotated fairy tales, including their histories, similar tales across cultures, modern interpretations and over 1,500 illustrations, 1,600 folktales & fairy tales from around the world in more than 40 full-text eBooks. Fairy Tale timeline. l Women Children's Book Illustrators l The Evolution of the Illustrated Children's Book l Some really beautiful free graphics and clipart from Grandma's Graphics. [more inside]
posted by nickyskye on Oct 1, 2008 - 11 comments

"What would you say if I told you that I filled my entire living room with completely original works of art for less than $300?" Andrea Dickson from Wise Bread has found an unlikely -- though, the more you think about it, almost obvious -- place to find original art from new artists: Ebay. If you can filter through the crapload of "artistic nudes", there are plenty of gems, and usually at buyers' market prices. And, as Andrea's mother mused, when it comes to decorating the house, it beats buying mass-produced art from Costco, which is about as original as a Big Mac.
posted by chakalakasp on Oct 1, 2008 - 35 comments

60 Concert Posters From Ten Amazing Artists. Warning! All 60 images are on the one page so this page might take a while to load.
posted by Effigy2000 on Sep 28, 2008 - 30 comments

EC Comics great Jack Kamen (probably best known today as the father of inventor Dean Kamen) has died at 88. [more inside]
posted by kittens for breakfast on Aug 7, 2008 - 11 comments

Dino Valls (NSFW) (large format slide show of his work) is a self-taught Spanish artist who studied Italian and Flemish masters of the 16th and 17th centuries. Use of egg tempera and oil is one of his favorite painting techniques, requiring great mastery but affording rich color and tone. His works are beautiful, disturbing and surreal. [more inside]
posted by madamjujujive on Jul 20, 2008 - 61 comments

Since 1945, one of the great wineries of the world, Château Mouton Rothschild, has commissioned great painters, sculptors, and artists to illustrate their wine labels. [more inside]
posted by mattbucher on Jun 27, 2008 - 13 comments

Artist Tasha Tudor is dead at age 92. Born in 1915 to an inventor and a painter, Tasha has been a quirky fixture in the childrens' publishing world for more than half a century. She lived an anachronistic life in Vermont, raising goats and chickens, caring for the small herd of Welsh Corgis that appeared in many of her books, and maintaining a small arts-and-publishing business that sustained her and her family for years. When she died, she said, she wanted to return to the 1800s as a sea captain's wife. Here's hoping she's inhaling sea air now.
posted by verb on Jun 18, 2008 - 18 comments

Do Your Strip: A hopeful book and exhibition where 70 artists and illustrators invent a character, provide instructions on how to draw it, then create the first comic adventure. Exhibit-goers would then create additional stories with their favorite characters. All the characters, instructions, and first strips can be seen here [pdf]. [more inside]
posted by artifarce on Jun 4, 2008 - 5 comments

1 X Semana is kinda like a Spanish language version of Drawer Geeks (prev.). From the site: "We are a bunch of colleagues who every week propose a character, concept or idea to be drawn. In this Blog we share the results of our exercise." The site is relatively new, but so far, this result in the "Sea Monster" challenge is my favorite. Via.
posted by jonson on May 28, 2008 - 3 comments

Amazing Animations: Morphing, Graffiti, Mixed-Media, Sand (also from Ilana Yahav and Ferenc Cakó), Paint-on-film, Paint-on-glass, Pinscreen & The Greatest Stop-Motion Movie of All-Time. (Some reposting, but it's worth watching again. trust me.)
posted by FeldBum on May 20, 2008 - 6 comments

"And by magic, I mean me drinking a lot of coffee and not bathing for days while sitting in my PJ's and drawing comics until the wee hours of the morning." Gasp at comics creator Mike Allred's lovely home! Admire artist Stuart Immonen's tastfully furnished work area! And marvel at writer Mark Waid's piles and piles of comic crap! Click the [more inside] for more studio tours guided by your favorite funnybook creators! And Mark Millar, too! [more inside]
posted by Alvy Ampersand on Mar 8, 2008 - 11 comments

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

La Real Frida offers beautiful film footage of Frida Kahlo.* Beyond her own self-portraits, some of the most iconic images of Frida are portraits by her 10-year lover, photographer Nickolas Muray. [more inside]
posted by madamjujujive on Feb 25, 2008 - 26 comments

Create your own Pollock [Friday Flash Fun] and some decent art -related content , utilties and blogs as well on ArtReview.com
posted by psmealey on Feb 22, 2008 - 33 comments

Any fool can hire an architect to draw up a plan for a house, but it takes a truly inspired fool — which is to say, an artist — to start building and see where the earth and driftwood and shards of broken pottery take him. [Slideshow.] [more inside]
posted by dersins on Feb 5, 2008 - 19 comments

I was going to share the many amazing videos that StSanders has uploaded to youtube featuring guitar gods like Van Halen and Santana shredding, since they have inexplicably only received scant mention on mefi so far. But StSanders' account has been suspended all all videos have been removed! [more inside]
posted by billtron on Feb 5, 2008 - 38 comments

Toronto: Justice Denied. Mark Kingwell writes about Toronto. The article is a great read even if you've never stepped foot in the city.
posted by chunking express on Jan 10, 2008 - 34 comments

A site for artist Bas Jan Ader (wikipedia) who was last seen in 1975 when he took off in what would have been the smallest sailboat ever to cross the Atlantic. Site includes his most famous piece, I'm Too Sad to Tell You.
posted by dobbs on Dec 23, 2007 - 15 comments

The livejournal group ru_graphic has been showcasing great artists for years, such as soamo, desmonych, floksystar, malli-ly, olliwander, omie-yomie, zuza1, ya-ya, varka, solntsev-gleb, adul and names.
posted by Brandon Blatcher on Dec 19, 2007 - 12 comments

Meet St. George Absinthe Verte, "the first American-made absinthe on the market in almost a century." Since Absinthe was legalized earlier this year, various brewers have moved into the market--but is is really the same thujone-enhanced drink that drove many-an-artist to madness?
posted by dead_ on Dec 5, 2007 - 65 comments

Online nerds have known for years that webcomics are often much more daring and interesting than newspaper tripe like Beetle Bailey and Hagar the Horrible. An unknown kid from Fresno by the name S. Sakurai has brightened many of our days with his frequently brilliant work. His ongoing strip Muertitos is a Beetlejuice-esque afterlife gem, and Gorgeous Princess Creamy-Beamy is mostly about skewering anime cliches, aliens, lesbians, and junk food. I was hooked as soon as one of his alien characters described our land vehicles as being "powered by exploding dinosaurs." Highly recommended for any Bloom County/Calvin and Hobbes fans, particularly those who grew up playing 8-bit Nintendo and watching Sailor Moon.
posted by ELF Radio on Nov 1, 2007 - 53 comments

The 100 Artists Project is compiling two books of sketches from 100 people to be auctioned in support of two charities. Anyone can contribute artwork.
posted by studentbaker on Oct 19, 2007 - 1 comment

Lepus Animatus, Canis Latrans Animatus. More pictures of cartoon skeleton sculptures at Hyungkoo Lee's site. The drawings. An essay about the pieces at Lee's site. Previous cartoon skeleton thread with a busted link.(working link)
posted by OmieWise on Sep 25, 2007 - 6 comments

I just returned from the 2007 Venice Biennial Art Exhibition . It's considered one of the most important events in the art world, but frankly, I found it a bit boring - after all, things like this just don't do much for me - and I don't seem to be alone in that opinion. Although to be fair, the VB has a long history of criticism
posted by janetplanet on Jul 20, 2007 - 13 comments

Crazy 4 Cult is a new exhibit coming to Gallery 1988, the Los Angeles art gallery that hosts the annual (and always great) IAm8Bit exhibit. Just as IAm8Bit uses videogames of the 1980s as the theme for the artists, Crazy 4 Cult is using Cult movies. For fun, the exhbit poster features a huge number of movie references - can you catch them all? Via.
posted by jonson on Jul 16, 2007 - 12 comments

The Database of Mid-Victorian Wood-engraved Illustration (Centre for Editorial and Intertextual Research, Cardiff University) hosts well over eight hundred images from Victorian texts; you can browse the site by iconographic themes and features (tools, religion, etc.) or conduct more specific searches by author, publisher, and the like. For more overviews of Victorian book illustration, visit Bob Speel's nineteenth-century art website, which features a number of pages devoted to various topics in book illustration, and the Victorian Web. Illuminated Books features a small collection of digitized illustrated works, many of them Victorian; there's a larger collection at Children's Books Online. The Victorian novelist we most closely associate with book illustration is Charles Dickens, and David Perdue has brief biographical sketches of his various illustrators, with examples of their work. Famous illustrators with their own websites include Sir John Tenniel, Arthur Rackham, and Randolph Caldecott. (Main link via VICTORIA.)
posted by thomas j wise on Jun 29, 2007 - 14 comments

Born in Bohemia, Wenceslas (Vaclav) Hollar (wikipedia; illustrated chronology of his life; essay on Hollar) was one of the leading etchers and illustrators of the middle 17th Century, working primarily in England and Belgium. The University of Toronto has placed almost his entire works online, including more than 4,000 images and some complete illustrated books. Some favorites: the man himself; simple, powerful Illustrations of Genesis; The Pack of Knaves; Elephants and Flowers; Shells; Fitting out a Hull; and Muffs (sfw). Most images are zoomable, and you can create marked lists and compare images side by side.
posted by Rumple on Jun 17, 2007 - 8 comments

Get lost in the fabulous labyrinth of Coconino World, a mammoth French site with thousands of images from illustrators, graphic artists, and cartoonists ranging from the classics to the contemporary. Some personal favorites: the generous selection of graphics from Simplicissimus, the celebrated German satire magazine published weekly from 1896-1944. James Swinerton's Canyon Kiddies. George Herriman's Krazy Kat. -more-
posted by madamjujujive on Apr 15, 2007 - 9 comments

Patchbox is an easy & fun way to discover online visual artists you may not have otherwise known. Each artist submits only an 80 x 80 pixel thumbnail, and if you like what you see, a clickthrough takes you to their gallery/homepage. Found via.
posted by jonson on Dec 23, 2006 - 13 comments

Drawer Geeks is an illustration challenge founded by Greg Hardin. Alternate Fridays, a group of 25+ professional animators, illustrators, cartoonists, and designers riff on a given fictional character. This past week's theme was Santa Claus. Among archived themes, I particularly liked: Medusa and The Grim Reaper. (via diminished Responsibility)
posted by madamjujujive on Dec 17, 2006 - 34 comments

Shelley Jackson talks with Vito Acconci VA: "The way I thought of pieces like Following Piece was, there’s a city out there. I attend to this city. How do I key myself into this city. How do I tie myself into this city. I can pick out people in this city to follow."
posted by hard rain on Dec 13, 2006 - 2 comments

Buy Syd Barrett's stuff! The estate of Syd Barrett is going up for auction on Wednesday. Some interesting items include several A4 note binders with Syd's handwritten notes, a pair of handpainted speaker boxes and a Pollock-esque handpainted stool.
posted by melorama on Nov 28, 2006 - 21 comments

Did you know that some of the most famous paintings by Van Gogh, Gauguin, Degas, and Toulouse Lautrec were based on photographs? While some impressionists and post-impressionists publicly disparaged photography as mechanical, many others were using it as their secret weapon. The relationship between the two arts was complex and intertwined. (And turning the tables, check out this contemporary Russian woman who is recreating several famous paintings in staged photographs.)
posted by madamjujujive on Nov 12, 2006 - 27 comments