I can't believe that came from your mouth!
Art
Northern Virginia Fine Arts Festival
May 19th
Reston is packed with artists today. I love to stroll around my hometown’s main street to look at artisans hawking their wares and fine pieces of art. It was a great day for it, and if you are in the NOVA area tomorrow you should stop and check it out. Home page of the festival is here. Reston Town Center homepage is here.
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Loading ...Alien Zombie Gut Eating Dinnerware
May 16th
Its a slow news day, so check out this bizarre plate. Its a seven-eyed alien, bolted to the table, eviscerated and watching you as you eat the contents of his plate-belly. I think the plate is a way for anorexic chicks that hate to throw up to stay thin.
Thanks to Table of Malcontents for the image!
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Happy Easter
Apr 8th
Its a cold Easter day today. But I hope everyone has a great easter. Here are a couple of items that crossed my desk today I thought I would share. First up is Sorbian Painted eggs.
And here is some bunny pain.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Soviet Dissident Murdered by Maniac
Mar 19th
A Hillsboro, Virginia resident, who was a famous Soviet dissident, was murdered in cold blood at a rest stop in New Jersey by Brian White (pictured). Mikhail Makarenko was jailed in the Soviet gulags for almost ten years because he secretly exhibited paintings by Russian artists- paintings that were not sanctioned by the Communist State. Whether he managed to defect or if he was exhiled remains unclear to me. But he was settled in Hillsboro, the beautiful rolling mountains of Northern Virginia, west of Washington DC. Many former Soviet spies and dissidents were settled in the region during and after the Cold War.
Mikhail was beaten to death with a rock by a madman and self-proclaimed prophet, who was angry because Mikhail did not want to buy his Christian Hip Hop CD.
From NBC4 here:
A Texas man faces murder charges for beating a Virginia man to death at a New Jersey Turnpike rest stop in Mount Laurel, N.J. Thursday’s attack occurred after the 75-year-old victim declined an offer to buy religious CDs from 26-year-old Brian White.
Michail Makarenko, a resident of Hillsboro in Loudoun County, Va., who was headed to New York, declined to buy a CD. White picked up a rock and started striking him in the head, then drove off toward New York City.
A witness followed White out of the rest stop and gave a description of his vehicle to authorities.
Makarenko had lived in the United States since 1979 after being exiled by the Soviet Union for dissident activities.
Brian White called himself “DJ Coldblooded.” And according to his myspace page, he was having visions from God and believed that he was a prophet. From his MySpace page here:
My real name is Brian Kuo Catrelle White and my Album which I believe will be part of The next century Bible is called the Book of Brian. The Book contains ? Chapters and in them is True Secrets straight from God. Aliens are among us, the secret scrolls is real, We have a secret city the Gov has made, and the cloning of men is now and real. God is very angry with us, and he will soon change his face. God is real, and you Presidents and so called Men of God should tell the people the Truth so that they will be saved. You all know what Aliens, Scrolls, and the Secret City I am talking about and you need to Free peoples minds so they can stop believing our God is not Merciful. The thing I can’t stand most is when God gives me a message for someone and the “worldly” person accepts it and even says thanks, the “christian” tries to test me and then give me their oppinion. I dont go around trying to ruin peoples life, I just obey God.
A great writeup on this is at Huff’s TrueCrimeBlog.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Nursery Update
Mar 5th
We have been working on the nursery all week. I know I had written earlier that I wanted to do a Pirate theme, ala Peter Pan and the Pirates. But that was before we found out that there simply aren’t any nursery bedding that was based on Peter Pan.
But my wife is a huge fan of Sea Turtles. We even went to a turtle farm in the Grand Caymans on our honeymoon. We found a great sea turtle nursery bedding set and decided to paint the nursery to match it. The quilt shows the colors and turtles below.
So after getting the chair rails in and painted, we painted the walls. It was a cornflower blue below the chair rail, a lime yellow above, with turquoise waves hand painted springing from the top of the chair rail.
We also replaced all of the outlet covers and the light switch cover.
We also found an adorable giant stuffed sea turtle at a local toy store in Arlington. We brought it home and plan on hanging it from the ceiling to provide a cool 3-D offset for the rest of the room.
Next we will hand-paint turtles on the walls, along with some scattered starfish to match the crib sheets and comforter. We also have some really cute wooden turtles that we plan on hanging on the walls as well. I will provide more photos as we near completion.
Now if we can just get our furniture delivered….
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Steven Spielberg Had Stolen Rockwell
Mar 3rd
I wrote about the Art Crime Team and its efforts to locate a stolen Rockwell painting of russian schoolchildren. They found it. It was hanging on Steven Spielberg’s wall. He either has to give it back to the rightful owner or pay the owner for what it is worth. Chalk up another recovery for the ACT.
Sweetness and Light has the details.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Picasso Pair Pinched
Feb 28th
It seems that two Picasso Paintings were lifted from the Paris apartment of Picasso’s grandaughter, Diana Widmaier Picasso. And the crime was pulled off by professionals. There was no sign of a break-in. Sounds like a job for the FBI Art Crime Team.
From Reuters here:
Two Picasso paintings valued at 50 million euros ($66 million) were stolen this week from the Paris home of the Spanish painter’s granddaughter, Diana Widmaier Picasso, police said on Wednesday.
The paintings, identified by police as “Maya a la poupee” (Maya with doll) a 1938 portrait of the artist’s daughter, and “Portrait de femme, Jacqueline” were stolen in the night of Monday to Tuesday from her home in the French capital.
Lombard said Widmaier Picasso and a friend had been in the building, a grand house in Paris’s smart seventh arrondissement, and the circumstances of the theft were still unclear, with no obvious signs of a break-in.
The pictures of the two paintings are below. If you want to get inside the mind of Picasso, see this previous post. And all of my Picasso posts.
Also blogging about this is the Esoteric Rabbit Blog here.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...FBI’s Art Crime Team
Jan 31st
Tax Dollars well spent. The FBI maintains a team of special agents and prosecutors that can be dispatched anywhere in the United States or around the world to help in the sleuthing and recovery of stolen masterpieces.
The FBI is already famous for its Ten Most Wanted list. But did you know it also maintains a Ten Most Wanted Art Crimes list? Right now on that list are rare paintings, such as DaVinci’s Madonna of the Yarnwinder and a very rare Stradivarius Violin.
The FBI has assisted with the recovery of Munch’s The Scream and rare artifacts looted from the museums of Baghdad.
The FBI established a rapid deployment Art Crime Team in 2004. The team is composed of twelve Special Agents, each responsible for addressing art and cultural property crime cases in an assigned geographic region. The Art Crime Team is coordinated through the FBI’s Art Theft Program, located at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C. Art Crime Team agents receive specialized training in art and cultural property investigations and assist in art related investigations worldwide in cooperation with foreign law enforcement officials and FBI Legal Attach offices. The U.S. Department of Justice has assigned three Special Trial Attorneys to the Art Crime Team for prosecutive support.
Since its inception, the Art Crime Team has recovered over 850 items of cultural property with a value exceeding $65 million.
The Art Crime Team has recently reopened a cold case file on the stolen painting by Norman Rockwell of the Russian Schoolroom.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Inside Picasso’s Mind
Jan 16th
Picasso allowed his canvas to be filmed as he was painting a bullfight composition. You can see the video here at Google or at Neatorama’s site here.
In 1955, Henri-Georges Clouzot filmed Picasso as he painted – the result is a time-lapse photography of the fantastic way Picasso created his artworks.
One advantage of viewing an embedded video is that you can use the slider bar to quickly view the video going backwards and forwards and it provides some amazing insight into Pablo Picasso’s methods and where he focused his attention.
At 1:58, above, it looks textured, dark, richly colored, and finished to me.
But no, ol’ Pablo doesn’t like the fact that you can see the bullfighter’s butt or that his legs go up in the air. At 2:05, above, he has changed the position of the matador’s legs and has gone completely cubist on the bull.
Finally, he significantly changes the feel of the entire composition by applying a lighter background. I can’t help but wonder after watching this several times whether or not Picasso was pleased with his final product?
Perhaps the video was truncated and there is more to this work? I tried searching online to find the completed work of art, but no luck.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Sir Paul Hides the Art, Changes the Locks
Dec 29th
The split between Sir Paul McCartney and his one-legged whore is heating up. Heather called the cops to report that Paul “stole” paintings by Picasso and Renoir from a shared property. The cops showed up and then left once they determined it was a civil matter.
From the AP here:
LONDON – Police were called to the country estate of former Beatle Paul McCartney after his estranged wife reported the theft of paintings including a Picasso and a Renoir from the lodge they once shared, police said Friday.
“We checked the premises, and spoke to Heather Mills (McCartney), and as a result it was found to be a civil matter between her and her husband,” Sussex Police spokesman Paddy Rea said. “There’s been no theft.”
Mills called police Thursday night after discovering that paintings valued at an estimated $19.5 million had gone missing, The Sun newspaper reported Friday.
The Sun, quoting an unidentified friend of Mills McCartney, said that McCartney had taken the paintings and reprogrammed the estate’s alarm codes, and informed her Thursday night by text message.
I like the touch that Paul texted Heather. I imagine the text read something like this: “No use hobbling over to the lodge luv. I took it all and changed the locks. Neaner Neaner.”
Paul is a prolific painter himself. I sincerely hope he has also moved to protect his own artwork from the clutches of this harpie.
In his “Band on the Run” album with Wings, Paul sang a song to Picasso to mark his death. The lyrics in part were:
The Grand Old Painter Died Last Night
His Paintings On The Wall
Before He Went He Bade Us Well
And Said Goodnight To Us All.
Drink To Me, Drink To My Health
You Know I Can’t Drink Any More
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...50 Greatest Cartoons
Dec 22nd
As judged by the animation industry in 1994. Cityrag has compiled this list and managed to find all of the cartoons online. So if its a slow day, click your favorites and enjoy! Thanks to BWE for the link.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Goya Painting Stolen en Route to Guggenheim
Nov 14th
Somehow a “professional art transporter” allowed a painting to disappear from his truck. He doesn’t know what happened to it and the FBI are looking for it. I have a feeling it is already on the wall of a private gallery in black market art trader’s house.
From the NYTimes:
A painting by Goya was stolen on its way from the collection of the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio to a major exhibition that opens on Friday at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the two institutions announced yesterday.
U.S.: The CaucusThe museums said in a statement that the 1778 painting, Children With a Cart, was stolen in the vicinity of Scranton, Pa., while in the care of a professional art transporter. Officials at both museums said the F.B.I. was investigating the case and had warned them that releasing additional information might jeopardize the inquiry.
The two museums said the painting would be virtually impossible to sell and therefore has no value on the open market. While art that belongs to major museums is easily identified as stolen, the statement seemed intended in part to discourage any attempt at a clandestine sale.
The painting was insured for only $1 million, the museums said.
So I wonder if the “professional art transporter” will ever be rehired? I say no.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Picasso Painting to Fetch 60 Million
Nov 7th
This painting from Picasso’s “blue” period is due to be sold at auction tomorrow. It is expected to go for about 60 Million bucks. Andrew Lloyd Weber’s foundation will take the cash and give it to his charities.
Who knew that Picasso could paint “normal” looking people? I hope no one throws an elbow through it.
From the AP here:
The painting, expected to fetch up to $60 million, was scheduled to be sold at Christie’s on Wednesday.
The painting of de Soto, who shared a studio with Pablo Picasso, is being sold by the Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber Art Foundation, a London-based charity.
The oil-on-canvas painting, signed and dated 1903, was described in a Christie’s catalog as capturing de Soto’s haunting face: “The elegantly dressed sitter appears to scrutinize the viewer with an intense gaze, his inner agitation suggested by the forceful brushstrokes and the cloud of smoke hovering above him.”
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Frank Weston Benson Painting Found at Goodwill
Oct 20th
Someone dropped off an old watercolor painting that was likely passed from family member to family member, but no one knew the actual value of the dusty old picture. It was a rare watercolor by Frank Weston Benson, whose other paintings are in musuems and art galleries all over the country.
Goodwill sold the painting for 165,000. I think it should have been sold for more.
From NBC4 here:
Painting Donated To Goodwill Fetches $165,000
Goodwill: Owner May Not Have Know Painting’s WorthPORTLAND, Ore. — A painting dropped off at a Goodwill store in Portland, Ore., by an anonymous donor sold for $165,002 Thursday during an auction on the organization’s Web site.
Bidding on the painting, a 1923 watercolor by the American impressionist Frank Weston Benson, started at $10 on Oct. 12. The bidding soared after the painting was authenticated by the owner of a Portland gallery.
“We get donations that have come through the generations of a family, and as it goes from one person to the next the true value may not be understood,” she said. “I’ve seen that many, many times.”
This is one of Benson’s most famous paintings, “Summer 1909″
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Picasso’s LeReve Ruined
Oct 17th
A Vegas Hotel Magnate ran his elbow through Picasso’s “The Dream.” Steve Wynn, responding to the accident, was very Urkel-like declaring, “Did I do that?!!”
He had just completed the deal to sell it for 139 Million bucks.
From the Vegas ReviewJournal here:
Pablo Picasso’s “dream” painting has turned into a $139 million nightmare for Steve Wynn.
In an accident witnessed by a group that included Barbara Walters and screenwriters Nora Ephron and Nicholas Pileggi, Wynn accidentally poked a hole in Picasso’s 74-year-old painting, “Le Reve,” French for “The Dream.”
The accident occurred as a gesturing Wynn, who suffers from retinitis pigmentosa, an eye disease that affects peripheral vision, struck the painting with his right elbow, leaving a hole the size of a silver dollar in the left forearm of Marie-Theresa Walter, Picasso’s 21-year-old mistress.
“Oh shit, look what I’ve done,” Wynn said, according to Ephron, who gave her account in a blog published on Monday.
Wynn plans to restore “Le Reve” and keep it.
Half-blind Art Dealers? Sheesh.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Had to Have the Mermaid
Sep 15th
My wife and I went to the Renfair again last weekend. I got the rest of the gear to complete my costume- a burgundy top to go with my green pants and pirate boots- and I actually was able to blend in with the rest of the renfair crowd.
But while doing some shopping, my wife stumbled upon a painting that we just had to get. Its a mermaid who rescued a drowning sailor and brought him back to her lair. Its by a local artist, and it was so cool we just had to get it.
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(1 votes, average: 6.00 out of 6) Loading ...Artists Paint Cats… What Do Dentists Do?
Aug 17th
My wife is a huge cat lover. We went out the other night for an ice cream and she became way too stressed over a stray feral smoky grey kitten for her to enjoy her frozen custard cone adequately. She kept chasing the tiny animal around while her cone was dripping in the hot summer night.
And she positively squeals at books about cats, and just loves the “Why Paint Cats” book in which owners who are artists color their cats to make them look like clowns, fish, snails and other odd creatures.
Yeah, it sounds cruel, but the cats seem to love it. (Or so the book author assures us.)
So what if you are not an artist and what to practice your trade on your cat? What would a dentist do to his cat? Why fit him with gold bling grillz, of course!
Dr. David Steele fitted his pet Persian Cat, Sebastian with gold crowns on its lower canines which were protruding from a bad underbite.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...What to Do About Dirty Cars
Jul 11th
Writing “Wash Me” is so yesterday! Check out these cool pics of what an artist does with a Dirty Windshield!
See the whole story and more great photos here at the AutoBlog.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Amazing 3D Sidewalk Art
Mar 10th
You gotta see these amazing artists work on sidewalks. Very neat stuff.
Thanks to Michelle Malkin for pointing me to this article. Click Here to see more of this art!
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...12 Year Old Art Critic? Or Vandal?
Mar 1st
A 12 year old kid defaces a work of art, valued at 1.5 million dollars with a 15 cent piece of chewing gum. When I first read this, I was initially angry that such a child would be so careless and negligent. But when i saw the painting, i realized that he may have been making a statement about the art itself.
From the AP here:
DETROIT – A 12-year-old visitor to the Detroit Institute of Arts stuck a wad of gum to a $1.5 million painting, leaving a stain the size of a quarter, officials say.
The boy was part of a school group from Holly that visited the museum on Friday, officials say. They say he took a piece of Wrigley’s Extra Polar Ice gum out of his mouth and stuck it on Helen Frankenthaler’s “The Bay,” an abstract painting from 1963.
The museum acquired the work in 1965 and says it is worth about $1.5 million.
Holly Academy director Julie Kildee said the boy had been suspended from the charter school and says his parents also have disciplined him.
“Even though we give very strict guidelines on proper behavior and we hold students to high standards, he is only 12 and I don’t think he understood the ramifications of what he did before it happened, but he certainly understands the severity of it now,” said Kildee.
I’m sorry, but this painting is not worth 1.5 million dollars. And if it was defaced, how would anyone really know? I think the child was only showing his criticism of the work.
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