Recently in art Category

Unphotographable is an interesting website from artist Michael David Murphy in which he chronicles photographable moments that passed him by.

This work in progress, which artist Howard Hallis hopes to complete by the end of 2010, is a painting of well, everything that he can think of. You can check out some close-ups of this large piece at his website.

Worth the seven minutes...How if would be if a house was dreaming. [via freshome]

The conception of this project consistently derives from its underlying architecture - the theoretic conception and visual pattern of the Hamburg Kunsthalle. The Basic idea of narration was to dissolve and break through the strict architecture of O. M. Ungers "Galerie der Gegenwart". Resultant permeabilty of the solid facade uncovers different interpretations of conception, geometry and aesthetics expressed through graphics and movement. A situation of reflexivity evolves - describing the constitution and spacious perception of this location by means of the building itself. This was produced by Urbanscreen - Art Direction : Danier Rossa

555 KUBIK_ extended version from urbanscreen on Vimeo.

thebigmoney.com, presented by Slate, profiles the 11 most obscure Google doodles. Below is Tetris Google, which was on the search engine's web page this past June to celebrate the iconic game's 25th anniversary.

New York City cab driver Fabio Peralta has turned the back seat of his yellow cab into an art studio for his passengers, and has commissioned thousands of works. So far, he's collected 7,000 sketches, which he binds into glossy booklets and gives away for free; his last print run was for 2,000. .

Mad Men is back in August. (Teaser.) Can't freekin' wait!

Jon Hamm on the timeline, etc.:

The series jumps up to 1962. Was that weird to film?
Well, think about what you were doing fourteen months ago. Maybe you had different glasses, but it was pretty close. So it wasn't "OH MY GOD they have muttonchops and go to the disco."

From Basket of Kisses:

Mad Men is a serious exploration of how we became who we are. How the generation that grew up in the Great Depression, fought two consecutive wars and gave birth to the baby boom, also transitioned our society from its rural, localized roots, into a global economic and cultural force mighty enough to sustain and win the Cold War.

But it's also about how we went from simple to complicated, from contented citizens to ravenous acquirers. It's about how we learned to sell. And consume.

In this context, we meet Don Draper. We meet him in medias res, which is Latin for "in the midst of affairs," so that's both a literal and figurative phrase. Fairly quickly we find out that he's unfaithful yet strangely loyal. He's inspiring yet he doesn't always live up to his word. He's dazzlingly attractive yet prone to letting people down. He appears rock solid, yet is constantly reinventing himself. He portrays brilliant confidence, yet is deeply scared inside. He looks like an insider, yet identifies with those on the outside. He's constructed a veneer of high polish, yet possesses no real depth. He's admired, but not really known. He's foolish yet wise.

Yep. Like the U.S. of A. looking in the mirror.

Here is a tattoo of a Star Wars AT-AT walker with the legs of a Dali elephant. Pretty good execution.

A British man who couldn't even draw a stickman wakes from brain surgery after having a stroke as a talented artist.

This story reminds me of Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, who also discovered some hidden talents after suffering a stroke.

The Toronto-based street artist Posterchild has been turning unused flier boxes in his city into planters. He's done four so far, which you can check out on his blog. [via GOOD magazine]

The A.V. Club interviews Jorge Garcia, aka "Hurley" from Lost. The interview is pedestrian (not Garcia's fault), but one tidbit piqued my interest:

JG: ... I know they've been talking about trying to air the last episode of the final season as close to the same date all around the world. They're doing it for security reasons, in a way, to keep bootleggers and spoiler people from getting information out. But I think it'd be exciting to do it that way, because the whole world can experience the last season of this show that's been pretty special to me at the same time. That'd be fun, too.

AVC: Has that ever been done before in television before?

JG: I don't know. First of all, you have to get a show that has this much coverage around the world. Then you have to do it with enough time left so they can record our dialogue in whatever languages they need to do it in. That's what the main obstacle is, I think.

An interesting idea and a logistical nightmare. It would be a seminal moment for television, maybe one of the last. (If you haven't noticed, TV is poised for a complete paradigm shift, or something.)

Interview gripe: "Has that ever been done before in television before?" Really, not only did you repeat yourself, but you also assume "Hurley" is a television history expert? Maybe pose the question differently, like, "Have you ever heard of that being done before?" Subtle difference, but the former assumes Garcia to be an expert in global media. Or even, "Have you ever heard of that being done before before?"