I downloaded Acrylic, the free graphics app from Microsoft (it's in BETA) - it's a vector based paiting program. It used to be a graphics app called Expression that apparently MS bought.

After I play with it ill write more about it.

download Acrylic here
long review here

This made me laugh. (it's made out of tampons) The bride, by Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos

Which made me think of The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even (aka The Large Glass), by Duchamp

I couldn't remeber the history from memory, so with some general recollection from history classes and with the help of google:

While on a visit to New York in 1915, Duchamp met Walter and Louise Arensberg, whom would become friends and patrons. (notoriously Duchamp and Walter Arsenberg later resigned from The Society of Independent Artists when Duchamp's Fountain, submitted anonomysly, is denied entry into an exhibition). He worked on the The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even on and off for 5 years traveling back and forth from Paris and New York. It was a delibretly left a "work in progress" and never meant to be finished, suggestibly because he had free studio space. He produced quite a few other notable works while in his New York studio (In Advance of the Broken Arm, The Fountain & Hat Rack to name a few).

There are many associated pieces and almost endless notations done by Duchamp on The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even most notably a scale model and a box of notes and papers by the name of the Green Box (including a photograph by Man Ray of the dust covered The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even)

Also, I read this recently, research by art historian Rhonda Roland Shearer indicates that Duchamp's supposedly 'found' objects may actually have been created by Duchamp. Exhaustive research of items like snow shovels and bottle racks in use at the time has failed to turn up any identical matches. The Fountain (urinal), upon close inspection, is non-functional. The artwork L.H.O.O.Q. which is supposedly a poster-copy of the Mona Lisa with a mustache drawn on it, turns out to be not the true Mona Lisa, but Duchamp's own slightly-different version that he modelled partly after himself. If Shearer's findings are correct then Duchamp was creating an even larger joke than he admitted.

Submarine sonar causes sea mammals to be disorientated and beach themselves.

"Navy subs routinely use sonar - the underwater version of radar - to navigate and to detect potential threats. But the powerful sounds harm whales and dolphins. In fact, some sonar systems can generate 235 decibels. In air, that's as loud as a Shuttle launch. Enough examples of that harm abound to suggest a better balance must be found between the military's need to use sonar and the need to protect marine life"

Source csmonitor

Fishing nets kill 1,000 marine mammals dailyAlmost 1,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises die daily in fishing nets and urgent changes are needed in trawling methods to save nine populations under immediate threat, conservation group WWF said on Thursday.

Source Reuters

Google tells me today that is Frank Lloyd Wright's birthday today.

"'Think simple' as my old master used to say. Meaning, reduce the whole of its parts into the simplest terms, getting back to first principles."
-Frank Lloyd Wright

Jack White looks like Michael Jackson.

I am blown away by his technique, it's awsome! In concept, his paintings are evocative of 19th century neoclassical/baroque paintings. It's no far jump to see his work as profound.

His paintings are (post)modern (heroic?) urban genre paitings, aesthetically elevated using technique borrowed from the neoclassical/baroque painters (17th - 19th centuries pioneered by the northern Italians).

I am sure there are other influences, but the western european styles of seems very obvious. The neoclassical/baroque paintings commissioned by the Church and State used an exaggerated Classicism to glorify the Church and State's agendas. Ultimately, these paintings were subversive through use of dramatic detail, vivid lighting and posing create a sense of awe and wonderment in the viewer while illustrating religious dogma.

I am impressed to see modern work using these dramatic painting techniques in such a positive and powerful way - his subjects are empowered and take on an almost supernatural charisma.

Source NPR
Source Kehinde Wiley's website
Current exhibition until June 11, 2005 and excellent review here