Monday, February 25, 2008
Color explosion
Pica+Pixel reminds us of the Sony Bravia ad, which remains impressive. If you've never seen it before, make sure to check it out! If you have seen it, I'd be surprised if you can resist watching it again! Everybody loves exploding paint.


By Grace Dobush | Cool Web sites | Videos
2/25/2008 4:11:19 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #  Comments [0] 
 Sunday, February 24, 2008
Best animated shorts
The winner's already been announced, I know, but I just stumbled across a blog that has links up to sites where you can watch all of the Oscar-nominated animated shorts. Click here!


By Grace Dobush | News | Videos
2/24/2008 9:43:25 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #  Comments [1] 
 Friday, February 22, 2008
Thinking of building a website?
I know a lot of you blog readers are Web-savvy types, but if you're thinking of building a website to promote your work, check out this excerpt from our March 2008 article "Top of the Web." We outline seven things you need to think about before you start uploading.

For example:

Take a field trip. Spend some time online and make notes about what sites you like and what sites you don't. Make sure to note what it is you like about each site. Do you like the color palette of a particular site? The way the navigation is structured on another? Does it annoy you how long it takes a certain site to load? All this information will help your Web designer create a design you love.

Click here to read the article!


By Grace Dobush | Cool Web sites | News | Advice | Tips
2/22/2008 10:47:48 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #  Comments [4] 
 Thursday, February 21, 2008
Win an Artist's Calendar!

For anybody who got on the 2008 bandwagon late, I just came across a stash of limited-edition calendars created by The Artist's Magazine, Watercolor Artist and The Pastel Journal!

I'm seeing them for the first time—these puppies aren't available for sale anywhere. Each month features a beautiful, full-color piece chosen by the magazines' editors, and the birthdays of notable artists are marked.

Let's have a little contest. If you want to get one of these beautiful calendars mailed right to your door, post a comment (of less than 100 words) on the following prompt:

What's your favorite month to paint and why?

Post your answer by next Thursday (February 28), and I'll pick the best (or most interesting or most thought-provoking or funniest) three responses and get in touch with the winners by e-mail to arrange shipment!


By Grace Dobush | News
2/21/2008 10:25:40 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #  Comments [5] 
 Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Fun fine-art parodies
You know we love the Simpsons here at The Artist's Magazine, so I had to share the Van Gogh goes Springfield portrait at right.

Visit Limpfish to see more funny and irreverent images from the same artist, including Marge as the Girl with the Pearl Earring

(You can see the original 1889 self-portrait here.)


By Grace Dobush | Cool Web sites | Random Thoughts
2/20/2008 10:21:55 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #  Comments [2] 
 Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Galleries I'd love to see
Three good reasons to travel to New York in the next month:

Honey Space: As The New York Times describes it, "Approximately 800 square feet, ground floor, no windows, no heat, no drain pipe under the sink (slop bucket required), constant traffic noise, fine coating of black gunk on everything." A no-frills free-for-all.
Ongoing.
148 11th Ave. (Chelsea)

Be Kind Rewind: Director Michel Gondry's teamed up with Deitch Projects to recreate the video store from his latest movie in a gallery.
Through March 22.
18 Wooster St. (Soho)

Chris Ware: "Drawings for New York Periodicals" at Adam Baumgold Gallery displays the master cartoonist's recent illustrations for The New Yorker and The New York Times.
Through March 15.
74 E. 79th St. (Upper East Side)


By Grace Dobush | Exhibits | Shows and Events
2/19/2008 1:22:40 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #  Comments [0] 
 Friday, February 15, 2008
How I spent my Friday afternoon

Put my boxmaking and bookbinding skills to work for a crafty demonstration for the other magazine I work on. Great end to the week. I hope your long weekend is a creative one!


By Grace Dobush | Projects | Random Thoughts
2/15/2008 4:49:01 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #  Comments [0] 
 Thursday, February 14, 2008
Time flies when you're having fun
I just realized this morning that I've been working here at The Artist's Magazines for just over six months. But I feel like a week must have gone by every time I blinked. I'm not one to celebrate semianniversaries, but I felt like I should mark it in some way. So here are some of my favorite blog posts from the last six months!

My very first post

A surprising argument against creativity

My report on selling at Pittsburgh's Handmade Arcade

The Thanksgiving video made by me and our art director, Dan

Bad jokes about Shibboleth at the Tate Modern

My "investigative" report on airport art shows

Good times. Here's to six more months! ;)

By Grace Dobush | Random Thoughts
2/14/2008 3:11:54 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #  Comments [0] 
 Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Artists in love
Just in time for Valentine's Day, the Smithsonian presents "A Thousand Kisses: Love Letters from the Archives of American Art," a collection of ephemera revealing the love lives of of painters, sculptors and illustrators from the mid-19th century to the late 20th.

As the Smithsonian's Eye Level blog notes:

One of the most heartbreaking is from Lee Krasner to her husband, Jackson Pollock, written in the summer of 1956 when she was in Paris and he was on Long Island. "It would be wonderful to get a note from you ... The painting hear [sic] is unbelievably bad (How are you Jackson?)." A few weeks later, Pollock was killed in a car crash while Krasner was still in Paris.

The striking portrait of the two from 1946 is on display as an oversized wall image. Also in the collection, notes and drawings from Paul Bransom, Frida Kahlo, Joan Mitchell and Franz Kline.

"A Thousand Kisses" is on display through May 30 at the Lawrence A. Fleischman Gallery in Washington, DC.

Image credit: Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner, ca. 1946. Photograph by Ronald Stein. Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner papers, ca. 1905-1984. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.


By Grace Dobush | Exhibits | Notable Artists
2/13/2008 1:19:44 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #  Comments [2] 
 Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Quick links
The States: Frank Chimero reconceives the 50 states of the union as physical objects.

Polaroid does the slow fade out: The iconic technology is being abandoned, The Washington Post reports. Production of the film will cease by next year.

365 special days: You tell Fernando Luis Lara what happened on your special day, and he draws it.


By Grace Dobush | Cool Web sites | News
2/12/2008 12:36:26 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #  Comments [0] 
 Monday, February 11, 2008
Update your bookmarks!
For your quick reference, here are the new URLs of some of the most popular segments of our site. Old bookmarks will probably redirect you to the new pages, but it's best to get there directly!

Art Clinic: http://www.artistsnetwork.com/artclinic/

The Artist's Magazine Blog: http://artistsblog.artistsnetwork.com/

Watercolor Artist blog: http://watercolorblog.artistsnetwork.com/

Pastel Journal blog: http://pastelblog.artistsnetwork.com/

Pastel Pointers blog: http://pastelpointersblog.artistsnetwork.com/

Artists Network forum: http://forum.artistsnetwork.com/

Annual art competition: http://www.artistsnetwork.com/annualcompetition


By Grace Dobush | Cool Web sites | News
2/11/2008 10:42:45 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #  Comments [0] 
 Friday, February 08, 2008
Hacking the SAM
A trio has created its own audio tour for Seattle Art Museum, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports. The alternative guide includes the sound of crashing pottery in the ceramics room and describes a neon sculpture as an upright tanning bed. I would love to take this tour.

By Grace Dobush | News | Random Thoughts
2/8/2008 2:32:28 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #  Comments [0] 
 Wednesday, February 06, 2008
More Splendid over 60 work

Skatekey (watercolor, 12x16) by Jon Rader Jarvis

We've received awesome e-mails and letters about our Splendid over 60 article from the March issue, in which we profiled 21 artists, ranging in age from 60 to 88. I love that people are getting inspired by these tireless artists. I know they inspired me!

If you just can't get enough of them, we've got more work from all the artists in a gallery right here, like the work above by Jon Rader Jarvis.


By Grace Dobush | News | Notable Artists
2/6/2008 5:06:40 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #  Comments [2] 
We're live!
The all-new ArtistsNetwork.com is live! I spent countless hours helping get this relaunch ready, so you can imagine my relief to finally see it come to fruition.

If you need a leg up in navigating the site, check out the handy how-to I wrote. I think you'll find the new home of The Artist's Magazine, The Pastel Journal and Watercolor Artist worlds better than the old site. I don't have anything else to add aside from hip-hip-hooray!

Oh, and your old bookmark to this blog will redirect you to the new site, but it doesn't hurt to add the new address! It's http://artistsblog.artistsnetwork.com/.

By Grace Dobush | Cool Web sites | News
2/6/2008 4:59:33 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #  Comments [0] 
 Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Spray it, don't say it 2
In the January issue of The Artist's Magazine, The Artist's Life section included a roundup of graffiti books and a review of Graffiti TV. If you can't get enough of the stylized lettering and clandestine art, check out Catch Me If You Can, a glossy magazine packed to the brim with panoramic photos of bus-sized pieces—plus a pull-out poster!

The magazine's editor, Kenneth D. Ashley, saw the "Spray it, don't say it" article in his wife's copy of The Artist's Magazine and sent me a copy because, he says, "I feel that many do not realize the beauty that can come from graffiti." There's a lot of beautiful, bizarre, edgy and intuitive work in here.

[An aside—I wondered what kinds of businesses would advertise in a magazine about graffiti, a pastime that generally infuriates business owners. I now know the answer: places that sell markers and paint!]

By Grace Dobush | Cool Web sites | Random Thoughts
2/5/2008 1:21:06 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #  Comments [0] 
 Monday, February 04, 2008
A huge sneak peek
There's a good reason why I've not been posting much lately. It's not because I'm getting the cold that everyone in the office has or because of magazine deadlines or anything like that. The real cause of my slacking is that The Artist's Magazine is getting a new website!

We've been in the thick of a redesign for the last few weeks, and we are now making the new site public to a very select audience (like you, dear blog readers).

Want to see the new home of The Artist's Magazine, The Pastel Journal and Watercolor Artist, like, right now? Here's what you should do. Click here to visit the new site and poke around, and then click here to take a survey and tell us what you think!


By Grace Dobush | Cool Web sites | News
2/4/2008 10:14:25 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #  Comments [0] 
 Thursday, January 31, 2008
Papercuts

Danish artist Peter Callesen creates incredible works out of single sheets of white paper. The small works are impressive; the large works are improbable.


By Grace Dobush | Cool Web sites
1/31/2008 11:48:54 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #  Comments [0] 
 Tuesday, January 29, 2008
What did you buy today?
I've been a fan of Kate Bingaman-Burt's for quite a while (since before she added the -Burt!). Back when I was in college, I interviewed her for a zine I did on consumerism (its second issue is still unrealized) and she keeps popping up on my radar. Bingaman-Burt's site, Obsessive Consumption, has changed multiple times since my college days, and it's still interesting to dig around in.

I especially love her blog, where she draws and posts her daily purchases. Earlier projects included taking pictures of all purchases, drawing receipts and drawing credit card bills. (You can also buy the design professor's drawings compiled in zine form at her Etsy store.)


By Grace Dobush | Cool Web sites | Notable Artists
1/29/2008 5:09:20 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #  Comments [0] 
 Monday, January 28, 2008
Milford Zornes celebrates centennial
The renowned California painter, whom we wrote about in our January issue, turned 100 over the weekend and had a birthday bash at the Pasadena Art Museum. These photos from Tom Fong came our way:

DSCN0086.JPG

Milford Zornes and Henry Fukuhara

DSCN0065.JPG

Some creative birthday cakes

DSCN0073.JPG

Zornes at work

DSCN0093.JPG

The finished product


By Grace Dobush | Notable Artists | Shows and Events
1/28/2008 4:58:31 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #  Comments [0] 
 Friday, January 25, 2008