Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Civil War Art Revival

 
 Nowadays, the Civil War is still on the minds of Americans. Movies and museums are being made to commemorate the historic event in history. Even though the civil war was a dark time in American History; it still is something that helped shape the United States to be what it is. Artwork depicting the Civil War is not always accurate because many battles scenes had hundreds of corpses on the battleground. Artists were worried about how their artwork would be received with the gory battle scenes. According to many museum curators: “The Civil War and American Art” revisits the history of American painting and asks why art historians have often overlooked the impact of the Civil War on American artists. Many contemporary artists are now recreating scenes from this time capsuled war. This is a growing trend for recreations and it will continue to grow.

http://www.artnews.com/2013/05/15/the-civil-war-in-art-then-andnow/

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Artwork about Angry Birds















 Lee Walton is an artist, that made artwork that was inspired by the popular mobile game Angry Birds. He create his charcoal sketches while playing the game. He connects his iPad to a projector to begin his sketching of the blocks in the scenery. As he continues playing the game he erases the blocks that were destroyed. As each level ends he boldly outlines what is left after the blocks are collapsed. His work was inspired by his daughter's obsession with the game. The artist was quoted saying, "[it] was a weird combination of leisure and work". Walton will continue doing more works like this in the future.
   
http://www.artnews.com/2013/05/07/lee-walton-angry-birds-drawings/

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Giants Take Over Rockefeller Center

 
 In the course of three days Rockefeller Center Plaza was taken over by a fleet of giants. These giant pieces of art were created by a Swedish artist named Ugo Rondinone. Ugo has not been to New York since 2007 when he built another art exhibit. The exhibit is called, "Human Nature" and is part of the re-installation of the Rockefeller Center Show which is the return of public art there. These 'giants' are truly gigantic weighing roughly thirty thousand pounds each and stand up to twenty feet high. Ugo's goal of the exhibit is to have people feel awed in the presence of giant rocks in the era of technology.

http://www.artnews.com/2013/04/25/rondinone-gentle-giants-rockefeller-center/

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Pakistani Artist


 Shahzia Sikander is an artist from Pakistan with a unique style. She creates animations that utilize traditional Indian and Persian miniature painting styles. The style is not used by many people in the world. Sikander uses this style from small drawings to room-scale painting installations and to animated videos. Ian Berry the director of the Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery supports her by saying, "Shahzia mixes history, personal feelings and experiences, and very contemporary art making-firing on all cylinders at the same time-in her masterfully crafted works". Her artwork is now world-wide and people are recognizing the traditional artwork. The Pakistani culture is very proud of her work and hopes that others will embrace it like she has.

http://www.artnews.com/2013/04/15/shahzia-sikander-maximalist-miniatures/

Art Domes are the New Thing!!!



There are new trends in the Art museum world nowadays. More and more domes are being created around the world; that display art for free! The latest dome called VW Dome 2 was created by MoMA PS1 was built by Rockaway beach in New York. The dome is very near where super-storm Sandy hit last fall. The Dome is part of the Rockaway Rescue Alliance; whose goal is to bring relief to the region. Besides offering art, the Dome will offer different classes and instruction of art, dance, and other activities. The Dome isn't purely an art exhibit the director says. His goal is, "...literally that it should be in service to the community".

http://www.artnews.com/2013/04/11/moma-ps1-vm-dome-2-in-rockaway-beach/


Monday, April 8, 2013

ART BURGER!






In 1962, Claes Oldenburg created the art exhibit called Floor Burger. People in 1967 picketed against the burger display saying, "Don't Burger Up Our Gallery" but there were people supporting the exhibit by parading with nine-foot-high ketchup bottles. Nowadays, the burger is very popular at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, it will be on display April 14th. The burger was sewn together by the artist's wife and it is stuffed with foam and cardboard cartoons. Sherry Phillips the conservator at the museum, has been tasked with restoring this masterpiece. Phillips said that surprisingly the 'Floor Burger' is in great condition. Over the years people have tried laying on the art exhibit like a beanbag and people have tried stealing the pickle on top. Hopefully, the 'Floor Burger' will continue to be a masterpiece for generations.

http://www.artnews.com/2013/04/08/restoring-oldenburg-burge/

Monday, April 1, 2013

Interesting Art News

 
This week the world renowned artist Art Fearing created a new art exhibit.  It is an exhibit called "Hong Kong for Life". The admission cost of entering the exhibit is $15, and there is a bonus to the exhibit which is an actual buffet where people can eat all they want. Art was quoted saying, "Hong Kong Buffet is the best place to eat anywhere, I go there to eat four plates at minimum." The exhibit is an exact replica of the original Hong Kong Buffet in Sturgeon Bay. Art spent roughly sixty-nine hours meticulously constructing the restaurant from raw earth materials. Luckily, Art has hunting and gathering skills obtained from WHAP to gain the materials to build the exhibit. The exhibit will be up by next month right next to the Original Hong Kong Buffet.

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

'Seducting Speed' at Art Museum



The Porsche is considered to be an awesome example of German engineering. The car is aerodynamic, lightweight, and undoubtedly sexy. At the North Carolina Museum of Art, there will be twenty Porsche's on display this fall. According to the museum's director Lawrence Wheeler, the Porsche is an extraordinary example of product design. The exhibit is the first U.S. art-museum auto show to focus on a single brand. The focus of the exhibit is to celebrate the esthetic design of the Porsche over the years. There is a special exhibition fee for 'Porsche by Design' which is eighteen dollars. There is an anticipation for over 100,000 visitors to the museum.



http://www.artnews.com/2013/03/14/porsche-show-at-north-carolina-museum/

Monday, March 18, 2013

Wood Gone Wild







Lowery Stokes Sims, the curator at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, has always been fascinated with woodworking. She said wood is the ultimate material for an artist's direct approach to a material. Sims spent hours researching how to work with wood for a new exhibit. She found that wood was very easily transformable in the hands of artists. On March 19th, a new exhibit will be on view in the museum called "Against the Grain: Wood in Contemporary, Art, Craft and Design." One of the coolest projects in the exhibit is a smooth seated chair with random wood fragments. Ian Spence and Cairn Young used computer-aided technology to create the fragments for the chair. The artists' inspiration was the chaos of nature.  

http://www.artnews.com/2013/03/11/board-expression-going-wild-with-wood/

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Strange happenings at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts


 Back in 1954 the very first museum curator of modern art the Minneapolis Institute of Arts disappeared after boarding a train for Washington, DC. He was never seen again. Barton Kestle was his name. When he was at the museum he spent many long hours working late in the night in a office near the front entrance. When they were doing construction after his disappearance they mistakenly sealed off his office from the outside world. Recently people found the office by mistake and didn't change the vintage office and created a new exhibit. This kind of discovery is extremely lucky and gives people a view into the world from fifty years ago.

 http://www.artnews.com/2013/02/28/mark-dion-curator-office-in-minneapolis/

Monday, February 25, 2013

Artist molds face with Chocolate

 

The opening of the New Museum's "NYC 1993" showed portraits of artists. Janine Antoni sculpted fourteen portraits out of chocolate and soap. The portraits are part of the exhibit called Lick and Lather. The artist has problems with people smelling the soap too closely and biting or licking the chocolate. Antoni was worried about the strength of the soap and chocolate. She crafted the chocolate  portraits with the longest shelf life up to 100 years. There is large amounts of wax compared to the fat. The artist wanted to make sure that the chocolate was not completely fake. Chocolate has been used by artists for the last fifty years and hopefully Gibraltar artists will use chocolate.

http://www.artnews.com/2013/02/21/chocolate-self-portraits-by-janine-antoni-and-dieter-rot/

Monday, February 18, 2013

1st Women to qualify for NASCAR Pole Position

 Watch this video
Danica Patrick has made history this past weekend. She became the first woman to win the 1st spot in any race in the top-division of NASCAR. The pole position will be at the Daytona 500; the first race of the year which is also considered the biggest race. She set the pace with a blistering lap time of 196 miles per hour. This is Patrick's first full year in the top-division of NASCAR. In her previous ten starts, she qualified no better than 23rd overall. Danica Patrick had raced in the open-wheel IndyCar series where she won a race. All of the other racers are taking Patrick serious this year. If the start of this season is an indicator, NASCAR should be ready for Danica Patrick.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/17/sport/daytona-500-qualifying/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Northeast Recovers after Record Blizzard

 People attempt to push a stuck vehicle in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston on Saturday.
Punxsutawney Phil was wrong with his early spring prediction this year. A deadly storm raced across the Northeastern part of the United States this weekend. In some areas they received over forty inches of snow in only two days! Power has been out in most of the storm affected areas since Friday and power crews are working their hardest to restore it. The power has been out due to hurricane-force winds and thick/heavy snow. Cars are buried under the mess thanks to gigantic snow drifts. Nine people have died to snow-related accidents. In some coastal areas there actually has been flooding. The temperatures are supposed to reach the forties which could result in roofs caving in. Many schools and businesses will be closed on Monday to dig out from the storm.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/10/us/weather/index.html?hpt=hp_inthenews

Saturday, February 2, 2013

2013 Pro Football Hall of Fame Announced

Six players and one head coach were picked for the 2013 hall of fame class. The selection committee   met on Saturday to discuss who made the cut. Jonathon Ogden was the Baltimore Raven's first ever draft pick. He was a bookend tackle that made six all-pro teams and the pro bowl team eleven out of his twelve seasons. Warren Sapp is second all-time in sacks for a defensive tackle with 96.5. Sapp was the 1999 defensive player of the year and helped anchor the Oakland Raiders and Tampa Bay Buccaneers defenses. Curley Culp is another defensive tackle making the hall of fame this year. He made the pro bowl six times in his career. Dave Robinson was a linebacker on Vince Lombardi's teams who amassed twenty-seven interceptions total. Cris Carter made the hall with over 10,000 receiving yards and 130 total touchdowns in his career. Larry Allen was a dominant offensive lineman on the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys. Bill Parcells is the only non-player inducted this year. He is the first coach to bring four different teams to the playoffs in NFL history. This years class is quite exceptional;there will be many more talented players inducted in the upcoming years.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/02/us/nfl-hall-of-fame/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Snowmobiler dies week after X-games crash

A photo of Caleb Moore's performance in the Snowmobile Freestyle Final during X Games Aspen 2013.
 Caleb Moore was performing in the freestyle snowmobile event during the Winter X Games in Aspen, Colorado. He was making one of his last jumps; by trying to perform a backflip but the snowmobile did not rotate the entire way. Without the rotation the front skis dug into the landing slope which brought the four hundred fifty pound snowmobile down on Moore. The sled slammed into his head and chest area. Moore actually walked away from the accident and went to the hospital to be treated. There was bleeding around his heart and Moore also had some brain complications. He was a four time Winter X Games medalist, who at the age of twenty five had a bright future. His younger brother Colten Moore was injured in a separate crush which resulted in a separated pelvis. The X Game officials will review safety and regulations during their events. Caleb Moore's death was the first one in eighteen years of the X Games.


http://xgames.espn.go.com/article/8901435/caleb-moore-died-snowmobile-accident-winter-x-games

Monday, January 21, 2013

Super Bowl XLVII

This years Super Bowl will be renamed the Harbaugh Bowl, because the two head coaches are Jim Harbaugh (San Francisco 49ers) and John Harbaugh (Baltimore Ravens). This will mark the first time siblings have faced in any major United States professional sports championship. The road to the Super Bowl on February 3rd in New Orleans was tough. The Ravens beat the Denver Broncos in double overtime in the divisional round, then they beat the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship game. Beating the Patriots was significant because they lost to them last year in the same game. The 49ers beat the Green Bay Packers behind the play of their quarterback who rushed for an NFL record by a quarterback and then in the NFC championship game they rallied from a 17 to 0 deficit and won. The match-up in the Super Bowl will be interesting because the teams are evenly matched. Which Harbaugh brother do you want to win?

http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/20/us/nfl-playoffs/index.html?hpt=hp_t4

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Same-Sex Protests in France

 Tens of thousands march in Paris on January 13 to denounce government plans to legalize same-sex marriage and adoption.
There are thousands of people in France protesting the French president's idea of legalizing same-sex marriage. The protests occurred mainly near the Eiffel tower, and the protesters waved flags, posters, and balloons. The newly elected President's campaign focused on improving gay and lesbian rights; he is starting the process that he promised. If the President's plan passes it would mark a giant step for  gays and lesbians across the world. The plan will now go the National Assembly and Senate, then it will be voted on either in February or March. The Roman Catholic Church and conservatives are main opponents to the bill. Whatever happens in France involving this vote, could change the rest of the world's opinion on Gay and Lesbian rights.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/13/world/europe/france-marriage-rights-protest/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Monday, January 7, 2013

Cat Tries to Break Into Prison?

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/130106101030-brazil-cat-jailbreak-story-body.jpg
Typically people try to smuggle things into prison to break out. They usually have humans bring supplies into the prison. Well in a prison in Brazil, someone tried smuggling a cat into a prison. The black and white cat had two saws, drills, and a phone taped to its body. These items would help a prisoner attempt an escape. The problem is law enforcement do not know where the cat came from or where it was going. Guards noticed the cat trying to enter the Arapiraca prison on December thirty first and they detained the cat. All two hundred and fifty inmates are suspects because they do not know who the cat was for. The cat is currently in animal control and in safe condition.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/06/world/americas/brazil-jailbreak-cat/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

New Year's Eve Shooting

 New Year's eve is supposed to be a time of celebration and jubilee across the world. In Sacramento, California however, there was a fatal shooting. During a New Year's Eve fireworks show there was a heated argument at a sports bar that left two people dead and three people injured. The suspect is currently in the hospital and they haven't released his name. The shooting took place in Old Sacramento where 40,000 people were watching fireworks at 9 p.m. Police canceled the fireworks show that was scheduled at midnight.  The gunman allegedly argued with a armed security guard and then proceeded to fire upon several bystanders using two handguns.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/01/us/california-new-years-eve-shooting/index.html?hpt=hp_t2