sacred bird » art

wonder if a jailhouse series is next

630 — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 21:15:51 +0000

you’d think the guy like thomas kinkade “painter of light” would be a pretty mellow guy. for sure, you either have one of his paintings in your home (supposedly 1 in 20 homes have some form of his art), in a hotel, or at the mall (my mall had a whole thomas kinkade store). the secret to how he manages to create such serene works of art is revealed – booze. kinkade was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving in monterey county, california last week. mind you, a DUI is as common as a botox injection these days but the paintings all make sense now.

[christian science monitor]

gnomes get in trouble

630 — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:16:54 +0000

gnomes are pretty funny looking characters to begin with so when i saw the photo of gnomes doing the hitler salute, i had to laugh. unfortunately for ottmar hörl, the artist who created them, not everyone thought they were as amusing.

the german police in nuremberg launched an investigation into the “art” last week after prosecutors saw a photo in the local paper of the gnomes displayed in an art gallery window. the use of the hitler salute and other nazi symbols violates german law that prevents the use of symbols from unconstitutional organizations. hörl, says his art is satire and explains “people everywhere in the world can be ideologically poisoned, just as Germans were by the Nazis.”

said erwin weigl, the owner of the art gallery, “I thought it was a nice, funny garden gnome that was lifting its right arm, waving, as all politicians do, like Obama. I didn’t even think the gnome was making a Hitler salute.”

and of course, with all the controversy, the saluting gnome is more popular than ever with orders coming in from all over the world. might not be long before you see it on your neighbor’s lawn.

photo courtsey of the time.com

the naked truth about the burka

180 — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 05:01:19 +0000

in a major policy speech, our favorite doll, nicolas sarkozy talked about how france needed to outlaw the burka. in his address to french parliament, he asserted that the burka is a sign of subservience and that it wouldn’t be welcome in french territory (forget the vaca in st. barth’s ladies) “we cannot accept to have in our country women who are prisoners behind netting, cut off from all social life, deprived of identity.” He also said that “the muslim religion must be respected as much as other religions.”

i don’t know enough about the burka as a garment to have a steadfast opinion, but i did see enough of the post 9/11 2001/2002 documentary views of afghanistan to know that the burka isn’t used for good in a religious fundamentalist-led world. i do think i know enough to say that one should tread lightly when making statements about the objectification of women particularly when pictures of your wife during her modeling days (like above) are widely available and were sold for some major benjamins (of course darling nicky would say it was art). i’m just saying.

photo courtesy of stuff nz. if you’re wondering i didn’t even go to bing for this.

all that without copy and paste…

180 — Tue, 26 May 2009 05:01:08 +0000

artist jorge colombo created the cover of the new yorker using an iphone application called “brushes”. we here at sacredbird think the gadget is pretty cool but know that some people think it’s a little too cool. one of the consistent complaints about the iphone is the ability to copy and paste things like urls and other content but it clearly didn’t seem to be a problem for colombo. he’s like the van gogh of high tech world.

with friends like that, you don’t need enemies

180 — Wed, 06 May 2009 04:14:23 +0000

remember in art appreciation class in 5th grade or so when you learned about the crazy but talented artist vincent van gogh? remember being fascinated about how he was so depressed he cut off his ear and walked the lopped-off ear down the street to a brothel and gave it to a hooker as kind of a present? well, a new book called “the pact of silence” says that the story is untrue and that the story was concocted to protect van gogh’s good friend, artist paul gaugin, the true perpetrator. according to the book, “on the evening of december 23, 1888 van gogh, seized by an attack of a metabolic disease, became very aggressive when gauguin said he was leaving him for good. the men had a heated argument near the brothel and vincent might have attacked his friend. gauguin, wanting to defend himself and wanting to get rid of ‘the madman’ drew his weapon and made a move towards van gogh and by that he cut off his left ear.”

ok, but if van gogh was gay, what was he doing hanging out near a brothel?

hitler in your home

630 — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 15:17:30 +0000

before he became a dictator and decided to take out millions of people, hitler gave it a go as an artist. 15 paintings and sketches believed to be his earlier works sold for $143k at a british auction house recently. although the works are signed a. hitler but cannot be 100% authenticated, the historical documents expert at the auction house which made the sale said “I don’t think they’re fakes”. one of the works includes a young man sitting on a bridge with the initials a.h., it’s believe to be a self portrait. the buyer, who paid $14,600, is planning to hang it at home or in his office.

breaking the mold

180 — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 18:40:09 +0000

what is it with female body parts this week? jamie mccartney, an artist in the united kingdom is 20 women away from meeting his goal of making 200 plaster casts of vaginas into a sculpture (the first 180 vaginas belong to women between the ages of 18 and 64). the art project called “design a vagina” will be unveiled at the fringe festival in brighton, england this may.

while she is known for putting her vagina on display, the woman pictured here did not participate in this project.

me, i’m just bored

630 — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 05:16:55 +0000

a new study shows doodling might help with help with recall. participants of the study were asked to listen to a record message about a party and record the names of the people mentioned. some were asked to doodle while listening to the message, some were not to. on average, those who doodled remembered 29% more of the information. the doodlers also got more of the names of the partygoers correct.

psychologist jackie andrade says that doodling is not necessarily a sign of boredom, “it’s a sign that it may be hard for them to concentrate without something visual.” she doesn’t believe the same to apply to texting (too distracting) or more eleborate art work (more effort).

photo courtsey of straymuffin

is that you diddy?

180 — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 05:01:16 +0000

they claim it is a 41,000 led art installation called multiverse by leo villareal at the national gallery of art in in washington, dc but i think it looks like the set from the notorious big/puff daddy video from ‘98. it also looks like united airlines terminal 1 at chicago’s ohare airport. you decide.

Notorious B.I.G. – New Music – More Music Videos

ex-’jasper’-ating!

180 — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 07:03:23 +0000

president obama may be in the white house but things for the ‘intellectual elites’ continue to get worse. brandeis university announced that it would be closing the world famous rose art gallery and selling off the world renowned art collection of over 6,000 pieces to cover increasing budget gaps caused by a faltering economy and investments with ponzi scheme artist bernard madoff. the collection includes works from art giants like robert rauschenberg, jasper johns, and roy lichtenstein, and is believed to be worth close to $400M.

when asked for his reaction to the planned sale, johns said “i find it astonishing. i’ve never heard anything like it.” the gallery’s director, michael rush, found about about the sale on monday and said “i was shocked. i’m still shocked. i feel horrible. it’s a sad time for art and for the art world.”

photo courtesy of cliff1066