Free Republic

NEW YORK, - A group of New York urban artists are decorating city poles with satirical messages disguised as actual road signs. The urban artists, who call themselves TrustoCorp, told the New York Post their "goal is to populate our streets with satire and healthy doses of sarcasm." One of the signs, which features a hand firing a lightning bolt, reads: "Caution. God thinks you are stupid. Notice: Ignoring God is un-American." Some passersby said they do not find the satire humorous. "What's the point this person is trying to make?" asked Jessiva Lian, 37.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) - Patriot’s Point Development Authority heard a presentation that included the suggestion of erecting a male counterpart of the Statue of Liberty in the Charleston Harbor. At Tuesday’s monthly board meeting, Rodney Cook, of the National Monument Foundation suggested that a male version of Lady Liberty could house a museum about South Carolina’s role in the Civil War. The statue would be the same size as the one in New York City, and cost about $150 million. Most of that money would come from the private sector. Nick Tompkins, the spokesperson for Patriot’s Point wrote in an...

A judge in New York revealed today that artist Shepard Fairey is facing a criminal investigation in connection with his admitted misconduct in the ongoing legal case with the Associated Press, according to reports... A spokesman for the AP said in a statement issued this evening that the news organization has received a grand jury subpoena related to Fairey's misconduct during the case. A lawyer representing Fairey did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In October, the L.A. artist admitted that he knowingly submitted false images and deleted others during the case in an attempt to conceal the...

Met Visitor's Picasso Stumble is $65 Million Oops: ExpertBy CAITLIN MILLAT Updated 4:30 PM EST, Tue, Jan 26, 2010 This may be the most expensive stumble ever. A Metropolitan Museum of Art visitor who lost her balance and tore a hole in a Picasso work Monday slashed the painting's $130 million value in half, an expert told the New York Post. The 6-inch tear in Picasso's "The Actor" happened after a woman stumbled into the Met work, leaving it with a mark that could mean the painting could never be restored to its original condition, appraiser Gerard van Weyenbergh said....

Hope and Change disappearing from Indonesia? The bronze statue of "Little Barry" may have to go..."We've been discussing for the past two weeks what to do with the statue... whether to take it down, move it elsewhere or retain it. We're finding the best solution," Jakarta parks agency official Dwi Bintarto said."

We got art plus sound. It reminded me of the Light and Sound desert presentations of Egypt. Those of us on tour sat there on the sands, nighttime all around us, taking in the light sprays and sound reverberations in one of the most awesome art shows I’ve ever had the privilege of attending. Pyramids loomed in front of us. History spoke over time. And we were held captive.

<p>Two of the four leaders allegedly behind the al Qaeda plot to blow up a Northwest Airlines passenger jet over Detroit were released by the U.S. from the Guantanamo prison in November, 2007, ABC News is reporting, quoting American officials and citing Department of Defense documents.</p>

The Healing Arts The Restoring Power of Imagination by Cathy Malchiodi Cathy Malchiodi is an art therapist, visual artist, independent scholar, and author of 13 books on arts therapies, including The Art Therapy Sourcebook. See full bio Jihad Rehab: Can Art Therapy Cure Terrorism? The jihad in rehab: Is art a form of counterterrorism? Published on December 19, 2008 To some, the idea of art therapy as rehab in Riyadh sounds like a story that would headline The Onion. But art therapy is serious business at Saudi Arabia's experimental rehab center for former jihadists, some from the Guantanamo Bay detention...

Lavazza, the Italian espresso and coffee couture folks have gifted us with their interesting, Italian music-themed 2010 Lavazza Calendar. Shot by British photographer Miles Aldridge, it features an intriguing exhibition of haute espresso expressionism and models Bianca Balti, Georgia Frost, Lydia Hearst, Daisy Lowe, Alexandra Tomlinson, and Alek Alexeyeva.

SOUTHWEST ASIA, Dec. 30, 2009 – A civilian administrator working for the Air Force here transforms worn out computer parts into unique works of art. Miguel Rivera, with the 386th Expeditionary Communications Squadron in Southwest Asia, stands behind the sculptures he built from old hard drives and other computer parts Dec. 19, 2009. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Tony Tolley  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. When computer hard drives go bad, airmen from the 386th Expeditionary Communications Squadron here typically remove all of the pertinent data and send them to the local disposal unit for destruction. However,...

An otherwise fine Washington Post column about the attempted Christmas airplane bombing and the al-Qaida ties ended with this baffling passage: One of the top leaders of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is Said al-Shihri, 36, a Saudi national. He was captured in Pakistan in December 2001 and spent six years in the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, before being transferred to Saudi Arabia in November 2007. In Saudi Arabia, he entered a highly praised rehabilitation program that uses dialogue and art therapy to persuade former militants to renounce extremism. But after graduating, Shihri crossed the border into Yemen...

A performance by Kseniya Simonova on Ukraine’s Got Talent has become a viral hit on the internet, receiving more than 6 million views. We’ve scrounged up some background information on the 24-year-old artist and her performance…1. Kseniya Simonova wasn’t trained as an artist and hasn’t been practicing for very long, either. Her business was one of many to fall apart with the credit crunch, and she used her newfound time to begin drawing in sand. She started out drawing in the sand at the beach and had only been experimenting with the medium for about a year when she...

He paints six pictures a week and his last exhibition sold out in 14 minutes...Kieron Williamson kneels on the wooden bench in his small kitchen, takes a pastel from the box by his side and rubs it onto a piece of paper. 'Have you got a picture in your head of what you're going to do?' asks his mother, Michelle. 'Yep,' Kieron nods. 'A snow scene.' I ask: because it is winter at the moment? 'Yep.' Do you know how you want it to come out? 'Yep.' And does it come out how you want it? 'Sometimes it does.'

In what is being touted as 'jihadi rehab,' al Qaeda terrorists newly released from Guantanamo prison or caught on the streets of Iraq before their suicide bombs could explode are putting finger paints and crayons to paper in order to secure their freedom. The Saudi government, which is running the rehabilitation program on a former royal family retreat outside Riyadh, claims that some 700 former al Qaeda terrorists have been reprogrammed. The coloring, said program founder Dr. Awad Alyami to his terrorists-turned-art-students, gets "negative energy out on paper." "It's safe here," Alyami said. "It's on the paper, it's not outside."...

The married couple Allen and Patty Eckman are known for their fine and detailed sculptures made of acid free cast paper. Their art shows mostly sculptures of Indians, but it also includes nature, women, children and animals. The couple have created the sculptures since 1988 and are the only masters of their medium having Eckman Method of Cast Paper Sculpture as their own trademark.

Here is an interesting video report on seven-year-old British prodigy Kieron Williamson, a young painter being compared to Picasso. He only began painting at age six, but his work is already drawing the rarified comparisons, and people from all over the world are paying a thousand dollars to own a painting by him. As for his view on his paintings, Williamson said he has no favorite because "they are all good." . . . (VIDEO)

The facade of the I.M. Pei-designed National Gallery East Wing is now crumbling. Catesby Leigh reports in the Wall Street Journal that the building, constructed using an experimental curtain wall system that the architect described as "a technological breakthrough for the construction of masonry walls," has become unstable. The clean lines and solid geometrical forms of the building's design simply could not be interrupted with unsightly expansion joints. I.M. Pei quite simply was shackled to his own modern design, constrained to have large uninterrupted geometries of stone, a technological solution was an absolute necessity. The earlier Main Building, designed by...

The son of a prominent Pocono artist was arrested last night on charges of stealing approximately $20 million in paintings from the family-run art museum. Alfonso Frank Frazetta, 52, of Marshalls Creek was arrested by state police at Swiftwater and charged with burglary, theft by unlawful taking and criminal trespass. According to the police report, Frazetta, with the help of two men, including one operating a backhoe, broke through the museum door and took about 90 paintings on Wednesday afternoon. He loaded the paintings in his trailer and vehicle, but was apprehended before he could flee the scene. The museum...

Picture in a picture photos that will inspire those creative juices for your weekend shoot. You may just have to break down and get a Polaroid. Window to the Soul by Stephen Poff

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, Dec. 7, 2009 – A Task Force Protector soldier here is building unit pride and esprit de corps by using his artistic skills to decorate an office inside a refurbished shipping container. Army Sgt. Henry Harrell stands next to the artwork he painted on his brigade commander’s office door at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, Nov. 20, 2009. U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Garett Hernandez   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The many talents of Army Sgt. Henry Harrell, a counterinsurgency noncommissioned officer with Headquarters, Headquarters Company, 16th Military Police Brigade, are evident on the office door of...

These images may look like just pretty patterns, but they are visual representations of songs sung by whales and dolphins.

Most people think Billy Pappas is crazy.  And why wouldn’t they?  Who other than a crazy person would spend more than 8 years of his life drawing a single portrait? And of a celebrity, no less?  But that’s what Pappas did. Every day, seven Billy Pappashours a day, Pappas stood in front of an easel, arms steadied by slings and drew, with a razor sharp pencil, what he believes to be the most detailed, precise and life-like drawing ever created. His 14” × 17” work is based on Richard Avedon’s 1957 photograph of Marilyn Monroe. It’s not an iconic photo, but it might show Marilyn Monroe...

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art saw its investment portfolio lose nearly a quarter of its value during its 2008-09 fiscal year, which coincided with the worst worldwide financial debacle since the Great Depression. The $254.7-million pile of cash and investments shrank to $196 million, a 23% drop, according to figures in the audited financial statements that LACMA recently posted on its website. The most worrisome development for LACMA -- as for many nonprofits -- has been the recession's effect on fundraising. In 2007-08, it raked in gifts and pledges totaling $129.7 million, most of it for the museum's...

When the eggheads speak of tribalism in Iraq and Afghanistan, they're usually talking about the loyalties of the locals. But if anything in these countries is tribal, it's the U.S. military, with its array of heraldry and slogans. Some of the art painted on the blast walls here speaks of regional pride, but a lot of it declares, in words and images, that the people who work herein are the baddest dudes (and dudettes) around. Lots of Hellriders, Grim Reapers, Devil Gunners and whatnot. Even the finance and legal companies try to make themselves sound menacing.

To some (like the man from Communist China who created the thing) this may represent Obama the trailblazer ... To others a great representation of Obama as Satan.

A Seattle police officer was shot to death and another officer was wounded late Saturday night while conducting a traffic stop in the city's Central District neighborhood. The officer who died was a veteran of the department, and the woman who was wounded is a student officer in training, Assistant Chief Jim Pugel said

Yesterday, the White House announced that it was removing Alma Thomas’ plagiaristic piece “Watusi (Hard Edge)” from its walls. The White House announced that the painting was moved “because it didn’t fit the space right.” The Washington Post pointed out that posters at FreeRepublic.com had examined the similarity between “Watusi (Hard Edge)” and Henri Matisse’s “The Snail” (1953), ignoring the fact that Big Hollywood actually broke the story. The Washington Post covered for the White House, explaining, “Stephens’s explanation makes sense because it is inconceivable that the White House’s art experts would imagine Thomas’s painting was fraudulent or a copy...

A painting by the artist Alma W. Thomas, which had been selected to go on Michelle Obama's wall in her East Wing office, will no longer be mounted. "The reason why it was moved was because it didn't fit the space right," Semonti Stephens, the first lady's deputy press secretary, said of "Watusi (Hard Edge)," which had been borrowed from the Hirshhorn Museum. Stephens noted that the Obamas still "have a piece of [Thomas's] work in the residence. So they appreciate the artist's work." A Thomas artwork titled "Sky Light," also on loan from the Hirshhorn, hangs in the family's...

.SNIPARTnews has reported that the White House has quietly de-listed a painting by Alma W. Thomas that it chose last month, among some 45 pieces borrowed from several Washington museums, to decorate the private White House residence and the West and East Wings. Titled, “Watusi (Hard Edge)” from 1963, the work takes a Matisse collage and, as Holland Cotter wrote in The New York Times, praising the selection, “shifts the pieces around, cools the colors down, and adds a title that refers to a Chubby Checker song.” “But through copying Matisse,” Mr. Cotter added, “she began to work out a...

McNoughton's response to liberal criticisms of "One Nation Under God." Incredible painting. As you move your cursor over the various images, a brief description is revealed on the side panel.

Back when Norman Rockwell ruled Saturday evenings, Adobe wasn't even a gleam in some nerd's eye, but a new book shows that the painter was, nevertheless, a photoshop god. Very few Gizmodo readers were even born when Rockwell painted his last Saturday Evening Post cover, but we all know them. You hear that name and suddenly you can picture those overly detailed, cartoonishly dramatic but ultimately kinda corny depictions of American life. Well, Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera, written and compiled by Ron Schick, has given me immense newfound respect for the man, for the meticulous photography, the real people...

NEW YORK — Shepard Fairey's claim that he had the right to use a news photo to create his famous Barack Obama "HOPE" poster became a widely watched court case about fair use that now appears to have nearly collapsed. By Friday night, his attorneys – led by Anthony Falzone, executive director of the Fair Use Project at Stanford University – said they intend to withdraw from the case and said the artist had misled them by fabricating information and destroying other material. Fairey himself admitted that he didn't use The Associated Press photo of Obama seated next to...

"Shepard Fairey has now been forced to admit that he sued the AP under false pretenses by lying about which AP photograph he used to make the Hope and Progress posters," Kasi said. "Mr. Fairey has also now admitted to the AP that he fabricated and attempted to destroy other evidence in an effort to bolster his fair use case and cover up his previous lies and omissions." Kasi said the AP would continue to "vigorously pursue its countersuit alleging that Fairey willfully infringed the AP's copyright in the close-up photo of then-Sen. Obama."

A statement emerged tonight from AP concerning its long battle with artist Shepard Fairey over his use of an AP photo as the basic image for his famous Obama campaign poster. AP claims that Fairey's attorneys admit he tried to destroy some evidence, faking others and that his attorneys have sought to get off the case. Statement from Srinandan R. Kasi, VP and General Counsel, The Associated Press, follows. * Striking at the heart of his fair use case against the AP, Shepard Fairey has now been forced to admit that he sued the AP under false pretenses by lying...

Here is a quote from Mao, concerning art: "There is in fact no such thing as art for art's sake, art that stands above classes, art that is detached from or independent of politics. Proletarian literature and art are part of the whole proletarian revolutionary cause." Why does that sound familar? Oh yeah...A 39-year-old Los Angeles film producer is accusing the National Endowment for the Arts of initiating a "call to action" to artists to support President Obama's domestic agenda. The film producer, Patrick Courrielche, said he was one of roughly 75 artists, musicians, writers, poets and others on an...

A painting from 1617 appears to show a type of telescope thought not to have been built until much later. It's hard to find an invention more emblematic of the birth of modern science than the telescope. And yet surprisingly little is known about its early development. The inventor of the telescope remains unknown to this day. Now a study of the paintings of Jan Brueghel the Elder, a Flemish painter of the Baroque era who was working in Amsterdam at the beginning of the 17th century, is throwing some light on the early development of the telescope. It has...

A portrait of a young woman thought to be created by a 19th century German artist and sold two years ago for about $19,000 is now being attributed by art experts to Leonardo da Vinci and valued at more than $150 million. The unsigned chalk, ink and pencil drawing, known as "La Bella Principessa," was matched to Leonardo via a technique more suited to a crime lab than an art studio — a fingerprint and palm print found on the 13 1/2-inch-by-10-inch work. Peter Paul Biro, a Montreal-based forensic art expert, said the print of an index or middle finger...

The controversial works are part of a wider exhibition of 60 pieces that are being shown for two weeks from Wednesday at the former Holy Trinity Church, now known as One Marylebone, in central London. The exhibition featuring 16 artists, called The Age of Marvellous, coincides with the Frieze Art Fair in nearby Regent's Park. Organisers say the exhibition is designed to “integrate areas of human knowledge that exist outside the boundaries of traditional art making”. Among the more controversial pieces on display in the historic church, which was built in 1825 by Sir John Soane, are two from Paul...

Art Market Fingerprint points to $19,000 portrait being revalued as £100m work by Leonardo da Vinci 12 October 2009   ATG correspondent SIMON HEWITT gains exclusive access to the evidence used to unveil what the world’s leading scholars say is the the first major Leonardo Da Vinci find for 100 years.   New scientific techniques have uncovered evidence that this picture is a previously unrecognised work by Leonardo da Vinci.  Is this 13 x 9in (33 x 24cm) portrait, in chalk, pen and ink on vellum, mounted on an oak board, a long-lost work by Leonardo da Vinci? That...

Bigger Version here.

Like his art? Let him know: larryart@insightbb.comThanks again Larry, keep up the great work!

Yesterday, the NYT ran a story about the White House acquiring art. It included a slide show of a dozen artworks. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/07/arts/design/07borrow.html?_r=1 This Freeper took a look and found one abstract work he admired:"Watusi (Hard Edge)," by Alma Thomas, a longtime Washington resident who is an African-American painter. Photo: Gift of Vincent Melzac/Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. As I admired it, I thought it reminiscent, even derivative of a favorite artwork of mine by Matisse. I recall seeing that one decades ago at the Tate Gallery in London. A giant collage (about ten feet tall) from late in Matisse's life,...

The Obamas’ taste in art is as broad as abstract canvases by Josef Albers, American Indian scenes by George Catlin and paintings by little-known figures like Alma Thomas, the African-American Expressionist painter. Works by those artists were among some 45 pieces that the first couple borrowed from several Washington museums to decorate their private White House residence and the West and East Wings, the White House press office announced on Tuesday.

If you believe, as Maurizio Seracini does, that Leonardo da Vinci’s greatest painting is hidden inside a wall in Florence’s city hall, then there are two essential techniques for finding it. As usual, Leonardo anticipated both of them. First, concentrate on scientific gadgetry. After spotting what seemed to be a clue to Leonardo’s painting left by another 16th-century artist, Dr. Seracini led an international team of scientists in mapping every millimeter of the wall and surrounding room with lasers, radar, ultraviolet light and infrared cameras. Once they identified the likely hiding place, they developed devices to detect the painting by...

Whoopi Goldberg offered a practical defense — that what Polanski did was not "rape-rape," a distinction she left imprecisely delineated. Which may leave you with the vague impression that this was one of those deals where you're in a bar, and the gal says to you she's in 10th grade, and you find out afterward she's only in seventh.

Even though Obama's popularity has been sliding significantly, Shepard Fairey, designer of the viral blue-and-red Manifest Hope poster, thinks it's the perfect time to release a slick and comprehensive anthology of celebratory Obama-related artworks: Art for Obama, which he co-edited with Evolutionary Media Group founder Jennifer Gross, comes out October 2. In addition to getting a look at the imagery, we spoke with Fairey about Obama's approval ratings, how political art reaches beyond politics, and his thoughts on the artistic deification of our leader.Watch the Slideshow Siegel: Tell us about the idea behind Art for Obama. Fairey: People undervalue...

Mothering God by Sandra Miesel    10/03/09     Like a sunbeam passing through a windowpane, the Eternal Light entered and exited His mother's body without harming the seal of her virginity. In fact, nearly all patristic and medieval authorities taught that her delivery of Jesus was as quick and miraculous as her conception of Him.   But if being born of a virgin points to Christ's divinity, developing in the womb of a woman and being fed by her breasts bear powerful witness to His humanity. Both before and after birth, in signs visible to others, the God-Man...

Last week, we learned of that possibly unethical connection between the White House and the NEA, a public agency instituted to support excellence in art by providing taxpayer funds via grants to all deserving artists. However, it's not supposed to be promoting the agenda of the current administration. The conference call included artists who had been involved with President Obama's 2008 election campaign and other NEA grant recipients and community stakeholders.

Long a subject of derision from conservatives, the National Endowment for the Arts ran into more trouble earlier this month when it was revealed NEA funding was granted to artists for creating works of art designed to promote President Obama and his domestic policy agenda. This was a clear case of the taxpayer-supported NEA stepping outside the ideals under which it was created. While some form of federal funding for the arts has occurred practically since our nation’s founding, the National Endowment was created by an act of Congress and signed by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965 as part of...

Rare Artwork by Mount Rushmore Creator For years, it sat as a paperweight in the home of Jeane Funkhouser. In fact, her daughter, Charlene Mitchell, remembers having to dust under it the entire time she was growing up. It turns out she was dusting under what may be worth millions of dollars. For several decades, the Victoria family has been in possession of an extremely rare Steuben Glass George Washington head created by artist Gutzon Borglum, the man behind the Mount Rushmore sculpture. Funkhouser, also an artist, was given the model as a gift from Borglum's son, Lincoln Borglum, in...