signs, signs

This sign is across the street from the 
Eddy Varekamp Gallery.  You can find reasonably
priced linocut and stencil prints at this
Amsterdam shop—a great gift or souvenir.

[To see more signs, go here.]

art in Venice

I love to visit Venice when the Biennale
is taking place.  Even if you don't attend the 
exhibition itself, you'll find random art
installations all around the city
—a good reminder to always look up.

[Linking back to Blue Monday
at Magical Mystery Teacher.]

Macro Monday

Here's a closeup of one of my fave
pieces of art (which also
showed up here with its partner).
I'd love to tell you who painted
this colorful dragonfly—but I can't.
All I do know is that it came
from England.

[To see more macro shots, go here.]

art-a-potties

These three French automated toilets from 1979 
are actually an art installation in Oslo.
It's called "Liberté" and there are sound systems
inside each one that play recordings of
speeches from WWII by Roosevelt, DeGaulle, 
and the Norwegian king Haakon.

(If you're confused, it might help a bit to know 
that one of the lesser-known goals of the 
French Revolution was supposedly to provide
public toilets for les citoyennes.)

[Linking back to Ruby Tuesday 
and Our World Tuesday.]

Weekend Reflections

The "prow" of the triangular Flatiron Building,
where Broadway and Fifth Avenue intersect
at 23rd Street, is devoted to (always interesting)
art installations.  Currently featured are
hand-cut sculptures of iconic Manhattan buildings—
the work of the artist Christina Lihan.

[To see more Weekend Reflections, visit James's meme.]

ABC Wednesday—T is for "tools of the trade"

. . . and also for "talented."  These tools belong
to my favorite young Hungarian artist,
Maté Orr, whom I've featured before.

This is what he was working on when
we visited his studio last September.

[To see more ABC posts, go here.]

Thursday Challenge—"red"

Spotted in Budapest last September—this
work, called "Still Life With (removable) Bacon,"
by the Hungarian artist Franyo Aatoth
(btw, Aatoth is his first name; in Hungary
names are said last first).

[To see more of the Thursday Photo Challenge, visit Dale's meme.]

Dancing Feet

A friend of mine was involved in a charity dance
performance, and at the end they rolled out a huge
canvas across the stage, put some blobs of paint on it,
and invited all the performers to dance across it.
Then they somehow "miniaturized" it and auctioned it
to raise some more money.  I think it was a brilliant idea.

And here's what the entire canvas
looks like (hanging in my friend's house).

[To see more Monday Mellow Yellows, visit Gemma's meme.
To see more Macro Monday, go here. And you can
find Mandarin Orange Monday at LoriK's meme.]

Shadow Shot Sunday

The current installation on the roof garden at the
Met is literally on the roof garden.  The work, by Pakistani
artist Imran Qureshi, represents his emotional response
to the senseless violence occurring in his country
—and around the world—in recent decades. 

The lush leaves worked into the blood-red
paint evoke the artist's hope for regeneration
and peace in the aftermath of manmade disasters.

[To see more Sunday shadows, go here.]

The Local Art Scene

There are still plenty of art galleries in Soho
(though there are probably more in
West Chelsea now), but they're kind of picky
about whose art they choose to show.
So plenty of artists sell their work on the street.
Some of it's pretty good and some it . . . well,
I'm no judge really.  But I hope they find some
customers among the many thousands of people
clogging Soho's streets on any given weekend.

[To see more Mellow Yellows, visit Gemma's meme.
For more Mandarin Orange, see Lori K's meme.]

Thursday Challenge—"art"

Give any kid a brush, some paint, and a blank
sheet of paper and they will create a work of art.
Most of us become self-conscious at some
point and decide we can't "draw"—but wouldn't it
be nice if we never lost our childlike creative abandon?

[To see more of the Thursday Photo Challenge, go here.]

The Weekend in Black and White

This is a closeup of one of the
mind-bogglingly intricate cut-paper
works of the talented artist Kako Ueda.
I swear, I don't know how she does this!

[To see more monochromes, go here.]

Mellow Yellow Monday

I was having dinner recently on the terrace
of a restaurant in Soho, near this fairly
new art installation. People never stopped
coming by and posing with it. You can see a
closeup and learn more about it here, in the Villager. 
To see more Mellow Yellow, go here.]

Mellow Yellow Monday

A talented friend—Bob Sievert—had a gallery
show last year.  I love his blasé nudes, but 
I especially liked his "mermaids," an
homage to our annual Coney Island Mermaid
Parade (which takes place next Saturday).


[To see more Mellow Yellow, go here.]

That's Our World

At the very front of the triangular Flatiron Building
is a space that's used for art installations.
This is "Hypergraphia: The Cup Drawings," by
Gwyneth Leach.  Glad I passed by while it was still up.


[To see more of our world, go here.]

Mellow Yellow Monday

This bright yellow truck, which was parked
in Soho on a recent Sunday, belongs to Marco,
 New York's most enterprising POP artist.


[To see more Mellow Yellow, go here.]

abc wednesday - H is for "hands"

Whenever I look at a piece of art—painting,

sculpture, photograph, whatever—if there

are hands in it, that's where my eye is drawn.

And when you take a LOT of photos, it's nice

sometimes to focus in for a change.

[See more "H" photos here at abc wednesday.]

Mellow Yellow Monday

This is the first mermaid crossing I've seen!

Actually, this sign is outside The Sirens' Song,

a unique art gallery out in Greenport, on the

north fork of Long Island.

[You can find more Mellow Yellow here.]

art in the garden

What a lovely way to spend a beautiful
summer Saturday. Although capturing
the roses with a camera wasn't exactly
unpleasant either!

soho art scene

In the top photo, I really love the Glenn Harrington

painting on the right. It's called "Sunday Supper."

He did the one on top too (but it looks like it's been sold).

As for the street art, I hope it speaks for itself,

because I have no info. So which do you prefer?