Good Morning and Welcome to MOT-Morning Open Thread
All week I kept running across stories about art, so I decided to take that as a sign for the topic today - thus the ingenious title. Sadly, I didn't bookmark the stories I'd seen although most of them I could remember and found with the help of google and my browsing history. In the searching process I uncovered a few more that I decided to include.
Among our vast readership (heh) I hope that each of you find something that appeals to your taste.
Topless Bea Arthur painting fetches $1.9 million at auction
Christie's auction on Wednesday, featuring post-war and contemporary art brought in a record breaking $495 million. Nestled in among the works of noted artists such as Jackson Pollock, Roy Lichtenstein and Jean-Michel Basquiat, was a painting by John Currin depicting a topless Bea Arthur.
Arthur, who died in 2009 and was best known as "Maude" in the long running television sitcom "The Golden Girls", did not pose for the painting. The painting is an interpretation of the artist, John Currin who is known for his sexually provocative paintings, some of which depict famous women in various states of undress.
A more revealing image of the painting can be viewed at this link.
Theo Jansen is a Dutch artist who has become well known today for his large mechanisms built from PVC that are able to move on their own - the Strandbeests.
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"Over time, these skeletons have become increasingly better at surviving the elements such as storms and water, and eventually I want to put these animals out in herds on the beaches, so they will live their own lives."
"The walls between art and engineering exist only in our minds."
Nothing can quite compare to nature's works of art, even if it comes with a little assistance from humans.
Enjoy these 11 unbelievable Places that are hard to believe really exist.
The photo at right is the Sagano Bamboo Forest is located in Arashiyama, a district on the west outskirts of Kyoto, Japan. The railing on the sides of the road is made out of old, dry and fallen pieces of the bamboo.
The wind makes a wonderful sound as it blows against the bamboo and has been voted as one of the ”one hundred must-be-preserved sounds of Japan” by the Japanese government.
Winning Images of Children's Eyes on Earth Photography Contest
Last September, kids all over the world were invited to enter their pictures in the Children's Eyes on Earth photo contest to help raise awareness of environmental issues while giving budding artists a chance to share their visions with the world. The contest which was limited to photographers 17 and younger, asked entrants to portray challenges to the environment in a way that inspires their elders to take action.
The contest was created by IDEA (International Dialogue for Environmental Action) along with the photographer and National Geographic photographer and humanitarian Reza. Six photographs were chosen from over 4,000 entries from over 90 countries.
The 14 winning, runner's up and special mention photographs at the link are a must see. They left me speechless.
Impressive Artwork Made Out of Denim by Ian Berry
Ian Berry is a British born artist currently based in Sweden, who creates artwork solely from denim. Using old jeans, jackets, and other denim clothing, Berry creates monochromatic portraits, urbanscapes and other unique works. Berry even adopted the name Denium, the Japanese phonetic spelling of denim, to further emphasize his obsession with blue jeans.
To produce the works of art, Berry would cut pieces of denim into precise shapes before painstakingly gluing them all together. To achieve different looks, he sometimes uses bleach, either with a stencil and spray, or experiments with different color jeans.
Move Over Cinderella and Snow White - Here Comes Helen Keller and Jane Goodall
In celebration of her daughter, Emma's 5th birthday, Austin, Texas photographer, Jaime C. Moore decided to mark the day with dress up photos of Emma. Jaime decided to eschew the traditional Sunday best or princess themed clothing and instead the two chose several actual female heroines for the shoot - Coco Chanel, Jane Goodall, Susan B. Anthony, Amelia Earhart, and Helen Keller, all incredible women.
“I wanted her to know the value of these amazing women who had gone against everything so she can now have everything. It started me thinking about all the REAL women for my daughter to know about and look up too, REAL women who without ever meeting Emma have changed her life for the better.”
Art from old books
A trending practice is to use old books to make an art statement, sculptures and even furniture. It can be almost cringe worthy when you are a dedicated reader and book lover.
Here is another site with good photos: The Bittersweet Art of Cutting Up Books.
For me, a lifetime reader, nothing can beat this site: Bookshelf Porn
Got you on that one, didn't I?
A couple of links to some street art to wrap things up:
Street Art in Lodz, Poland:
Over the last few years, the Polish city of Lodz, is slowly transforming into a permanent exhibition of street art in public spaces. It started in 2009, when Urban Forms Foundation was formed. The foundation proposed a plan to the city council to saturate the cityscape with creative murals that would improve the current image of Lodz giving it a truly artistic and original value. The basic idea is to create large paintings directly on the facades of buildings in the city center by prominent artists from around the world. With the support of Mayor Hanna Zdanowska and the Ambassador of Spain in Poland, the foundation roped in the finest street artists including Aryz, M-City, Remed, Chazme, Sepe, SatOne, Etam Crew, and Kenor. There are already 21 murals scattered around the city that can all be viewed in a few hours of walking and exploring.
Romanian artist takes his art on the street:
Romanian artist Vasile Muresan, known as Murivale, thinks art belongs on the street. The white-bearded painter can often be seen sitting on the colorful canvases that he displays in the street, while he is followed by the street dogs who are his companions and also inspire his work.
The 56-year-old from Bistrita — the Transylvanian town associated with the legend of Count Dracula — has been painting with passion since he was a teen, producing vivid works of Monaco, the streets of Paris, the hurly burly of the Romanian capital and huge, colorful, more abstract canvases.
His five dogs even sleep on his vibrant canvases laid out in the streets in a rundown area of the Romanian capital. He also posts some on walls for passers-by to see.
Murivale sees the notion of a real dog lying on a painted dog as summing up what he is trying to say — life and art as one.