Entries Tagged 'Art' ↓

I’m as interested in correcting fake history as the next guy, and, sure, in her paintings, Martha Washington looks like she was never any other age than 70.

But in this image created by portraitist Michael Deas, above, oddly enough, the mother of our country looks like one in the endless parade of 24-year-old white trust fund chicks who overpopulate New York City.

This likeness, says the artist’s web site,

was based primarily on a computer generated age-regression image created by an Louisiana State University forensic anthropologist. Contrary to popular belief, Martha Washinton was not a dowdy matron, but a witty, astute, and ardent patriot who followed her husband into battle, even encamping with him during the bitter winter at Valley Forge. The portrait is the Nation’s first glimpse at what Martha Washington looked like prior to her marriage to her famous husband.

I’m gonna send ol’ Martha a query letter and some of my clips.

I’m not really clear on who’s the creator of this not-for-sale take on the classic child’s teddy bear, above. They’re prolific, though, as these sister creations make obvious. Hey: Which one’s your favorite: The cat that didn’t quite escape a fast-moving Oldsmobile, a tiger apparently having buyer’s remorse, or, again, the teddies that didn’t quite separate correctly in Mommy Teddy Bear’s womb?

[via Gizmodo]

Jackson Pollock. Full Fathom Five. 1947. Oil on canvas with nails, tacks, buttons, key, coins, cigarettes, matches, etc., 50 7/8 x 30 1/8″ (129.2 x 76.5 cm). Gift of Peggy Guggenheim.
From the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York City

I can’t remember the first time that I saw a picture by Jackson Pollock, right. Since I was born fewer than ten years after his death in 1956, his work seems like it was always around, if only, and mostly, as a representation of how debased “art” had become, that being an extension of what common folk accepted as modern society’s total insanity.

That said, I also can’t recall a time that I didn’t passionately love his paintings. I had to grow into Motherwell and Rothko, but Pollock always spoke to me, even when very young. Perhaps it was those wildly dripped lines which, even to a child, suggest rampant energy, and clearly convey that you are not looking at a pastural field. There seemed something bad about the work, as though the artist was misbehaving. The snob’s retort—”My kid could do that”—was meant as a putdown. But, as was often the case, those attempting to injure the artist’s reputation often found themselves unintentionally giving up mad props. “There was a reviewer a while back” Pollock once said, “who wrote that my pictures didn’t have any beginning or any end. He didn’t mean it as a compliment, but it was.” As always, they look, but do not see.

Burlington, VT freelance graphic designer Jess Bachman’s Wallstats.com: The Art of Information blog converts statistical facts about American culture into picturesque visualizations. This piece, above, makes comprehensible the quantity of suds gulped down each year by thirsty USA-ers—50 billion pints, more per capita than any nation on Earth. I mean, check out the size of that Boeing 747, in comparison. Hey, Sully: Try landing your plane on this.

Marvel Comics’ MarvelKids.com “Create Your Own Super Hero” site enables kids—and time-wasting adults—to both invent and name their own power-packed comic book character, virtually from scratch. Using the editor, one can select everything from noses to mouths, legs, feet, hairstyles, weapons, and more, then color those features in any range of tones. Ladies and gentlemen, meet my protector, and the girl of my dreams, above: Soul Fashion Victim. Aargh. Now, I dare you to mess with me.

People in hip-hop say that the streets don’t lie, and that if you want to know what’s really going on, you’ve gotta take it to the streets. Well, if true, that should make data visualist Ben Fry rap’s go-to guy. As he announces on his web site, he’s created, above, a map of

all of the streets in the lower 48 United States: an image of 26 million individual road segments. No other features (such as outlines or geographic features) have been added to this image, however they emerge as roads avoid mountains, and sparse areas convey low population. This began as an example I created for a student in the fall of 2006, and I just recently got a chance to document it properly.

Alaska and Hawaii were initially left out for simplicity’s sake…. Unfortunately, the two states don’t “work” because there aren’t enough roads to outline their shape, so I left them out permanently.

You have to blow up a section to really get it, though. Take a look at this enlargement of the Great Lakes area, for example, or this one for San Francisco. See what I mean? Talk about keepin’ it real.

[via VisualComplexity.com]

On his web site, Berlin-based artist Andreas Nicolas Fischer, like a German Tom Friedman, says he “works with data, sculpture and code.”

Indizes, above, made of poplar plywood, is a “data sculpture, visualizing the stock market indices S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial, and NASDAQ in the year 2008 from January to November.” The white poplar form, thus, traces the downward spiral of the market over the last year.

No word on price, but art always remains a great investment, even if stocks don’t. Get it for the fired hedge fund manager on your list.

[via BoingBoing]

Artist Steven Shearer’s 1997 sculpture, Activity Cell with Warlock Bass Guitar, above, from this past spring’s Double Album: Daniel Guzmán and Steven Shearer at New York City’s The New Museum makes me think of Lenny Kravitz whenever I look at it, for some reason.

As a person practicing Seventh-day Adventism, I don’t drink alcohol, never have, and would prefer that no one else did either, even recreationally. So, on MEDIA ASSASSIN, you won’t see me recommending fine wines or drinking paraphernalia. It’s a religious, health, and spiritual thing for me.

That said, I’m kind amazed by these “strange carafes,” that French artist Etienne Meneau crafts out of high-grade, shatter-resistant borosilicate glass. The No. 5, above and right, which looks like inverted caribou antlers as drawn by a Cubist, stands 25 1/2 inches high, holds one bottle of wine, and costs $2,800. Meneau’s only made 12—eight signed and four artist proofs.

Or, maybe your style is something a little less outrageous and angular, like, say, Meneau’s Petit Coeur (“Little Heart”), right, with its musical four-chambered heart, flipped-over valentine form. Just under 8 inches in height, holding 6.7 oz, it’s $1,900 in the same limited quantities.

Rich as they are as sculptural art, the question any sensible person will immediately have, particularly about No. 5, is, “How do you wash this?” Meneau anticipated the query.

Borosilicat glass is a very strong, chemically and thermically, the glass is thick (0.0788 in.) . You can wash the Decanter with very hot water. Rinse thoroughly, last rinsing with demineralized water…Let drain the decanter 2 or 3 hours upside down on a towel folded, propped up well in a corner.

Gorgeous, aren’t they? Bump special occasions: If I could afford one, I’d drink my cranberry juice from it every morning.