I would go out and buy an iPhone tomorrow

if I thought this were really true.



This is the other app I'd get.

Things to do in Denison, IA

a walking tour of homes built around the turn of the [last] century

Everything

John Singer Sargent






thanks

Vikings vs Werewolves!

Two of my favorite beings, I don't know which side to pull for on this matchup:

Wolves of Odin

"I draw the chalk lines at crime scenes"

New favorite blog: Savage Chickens

get the wallpaper

Yellow Sticky Notes

hapanimation

meditating bunny studio

more Tennessee Ernie Ford

a small treasure trove

Blue Dog

more art







more videos

All the candidates in this election have been bought

On ebay, that is. Barack Obama fetched the highest price: $455.



You can watch all the candidates being drawn here.


When I first spotted Jason's videos on YouTube, I thought: damn, he's got a good eye. Well, no wonder. From his bio on ebay:

Born in 1976, Jason Baalman was raised in Houston Texas. The early years were spent in studios under the mentorship of many artists. His work was first exhibited at the age of 8 and received numerous awards in juried shows throughout Texas. At the age of 10 he turned professional and competed at this level for another year. Art became a hobby at this time and continued as a self instructed passion. In 1995 Jason moved to Los Angeles to attend The University of Southern California where he studied Biomedical Engineering and Neuroscience with a research emphasis in visual perception.

Wanted: corpses

and from the very adventurous and talented, perhaps a zombie or two.

No, not dead bodies this time.

If you're into collaborative creativity with a Surrealist bent, you should try an exquisite corpse, of one flavor or another. I've played many a game of the hand-drawn variety over the years, and a poetic one or two [hi, august!], so I was thrilled to discover recently [via those amazing guys from area 51] a collection of some really excellent corpses. You should take a couple hours out of your life to browse their archives.

Sadly, that group is no longer active, but a new one has sprung up, and they are looking for players [one of my sockpuppets has joined]. The rules are easy to follow, and if, like me, you're too cheap to go out and buy Photoshop, you can always download GIMP.



And just because I can, here's a different Exquisite Corpse.

Performance art, in 5 parts

There's something entrancing about watching an artist at work, one who is truly good at what they do. As much as I like art, I often enjoy watching the process even more than I do looking at the finished piece, and I surf YouTube for these videos with the same greedy zeal that others surf the web for porn.



I can't help myself.



Am I the only one who's thinking of electron clouds?



And wave propagation?



Probably.



JT is awfully free with the naphtha and possibly he likes the smell of turpentine a bit too much. My inner safety officer cringes here and there throughout the videos, especially at the lack of hearing and respiratory protection, but hey, I'm the one who earlier copped to liking the smell of creosote, deep drafts of it [you didn't hear me say that], so who am I to criticize? Do as I say, not as I do.

If you want to play too, Nick Carter can get you started.

the time is: five forty-six pm

the temperature is: one hundred five degrees

That's what the time-and-temperature announcement told me when I called. Hellish conditions notwithstanding, we went to Gallery Night anyway. Rode the air-conditioned trolley around parts of downtown and historic districts, dropped into some favorite art galleries [not all of them air-conditioned], and then ended the evening sitting in the park, drinking wine, soaking up the breeze, watching the far-off lightning, and listening to the Pensacola Youth Steel Orchestra.

Safety and Ethics

cowboydog blog





















The Ethics of Modern Things
free e-book [PDF]

Shorter [and more colorful] Austan Goolsbee

I had orginally planned to whine, at length, in a post titled Austan Goolsbee and the Dog Collar Buick, in repsonse to this article over at Slate: Michael Moore and the Beige Bomber. Fortunately, the blogging birdman stepped in and has saved me the trouble [and likely saved my sanity too] by posting a link to this says-it-all Tom Tomorrow cartoon. Thanks, Arch.

Life is short. Play with your food.

Tonight: Vegemite on toast.


I love faces. I love portraits. I could spend all day in galleries studying them. I like to draw them. I like to paint them. I like to watch other artists drawing and painting them. My latest unholy obsession is speed painting and speed drawing over at You Tube. Artists [and a few wankers] make time-lapse videos of themselves drawing or painting a subject, and set the videos to music.

My very favorite is Eclectic Asylum Art, followed closely by Monster by Mail.

Eclectic Asylum Art has finally started those long-awaited portrait drawing lessons. The first three are all lecture, no lab, but he's promised that these are the only ones like that. Links:
Lesson 1
Lesson 2a
Lesson 2b

Bonus: One of my favorite videos, the chocolate syrup drawing, won Third Place in the New Numa Contest.

15 minutes of fame, 30 years later

Remember this? The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat



What's the hapless ski jumper up to these days? Find out here.

They have art in Angola?

Angola, for as long as I've ever heard of it has always been a place of war and pestilence, a place where lives truly are nasty, brutish, and short. They have art there?

Why, yes they do. Why wouldn't they? All art is a revolt against man's fate. Just the other day I stumbled into these woods, In the company of wolves, vaguely expecting something Arctic, I think. Instead, what I got was a fascinating trip to one corner of Africa.

Art isn't the only subject of the blog, nor is it exclusively about Angola, but you might enjoy the trip anyway.


Tonight is a two-fer. Mustang Bobby reminds us Why We Need Theatre.

Life is short. Play with your food.

Speedpainting with Ketchup and French Fries



Speedpainting with Chocolate and Spoon



drawing lessons