• Presidential portraits from the National Portrait Gallery

• The New Statesman on up-and-coming, outside-the-mainstream political artists (and Banksy, of course)

• Andy Thomas' paintings of presidents playing poker, divided by party: True Blues and Grand Ol' Gang

• Art Threat: Political art for social change: Lefty roundup of visual art

After all that, I started wondering: Is "conservative art" an oxymoron? (A blogger has opined on this question, as has a conservative columnist.) Add your two cents in the comments!

And now the March issue of The Artist's Magazine is finally in print! The artists over 60 project was practically all I worked on in my first two months here. The resulting "Splendid over 60" article turned out, well, splendidly, and that is one of the featured artists on the cover! Sandra Sallin is a California-based oil painter who does magnificent florals.

I have more stories to share about the artists over 60, but you'll have to check back next week for that. In the meantime, subscribers will get their copies of the March issue in the next week or two, and you'll be able to find it on newsstands on Feb. 5!

• Seeing things: A personal essay about experiencing museums from the Smithsonian.

• Making a Mark: Katherine Tyrrell on the elements of design—a great resource.

• You're Not My Father: A video piece that repeatedly recreates a scene from the TV show Full House (via AFC)

This week the curiosity hit harder than usual. Who does buy art at an airport hotel? And how in the world are they producing this art so cheaply to begin with? I have to admit, I entertained some fantasies of how this would be groundbreaking investigative journalism and I would win a blogging Pulitzer for freeing the poor artists shackled to their sofa-size paintings.

What I found at the airport-area hotel was a room full of shoddy canvases propped up on tables and chairs. There were a lot of families and middle-aged couples picking through the selection. By "selection" I mean vaguely impressionist images of Parisian-like streets, Italian-esque villas, cozy disproportionate cottages and completely bizarre abstract art.

It was quickly no longer a mystery as to how they sold art so cheaply. Exhibit A:

Most of the paintings looked like prints that had been touched up with acrylic gel medium or some random daubs of paint to give them some texture. The plasticky canvas was harshly stapled to half-inch-thick frames, and the images usually carried well over the edges. I spotted a few pictures that were available in both the sofa size and a smaller size. I think one was of a roly-poly French chef on a unicycle. He may have been juggling baguettes, but that might just be wishful thinking on my part. Another popular style was Kinkade-esque:

I had kind of been hoping to find shady-looking men in overcoats with pencil mustaches. But I guess I found just what was advertised: cheap art for undiscerning audiences. There was no promise made of high-quality originals. Just art big enough to put over your couch.

The Glasgow School of Art has put online the annotated sketchbooks of Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh from his 1891 tour of the continent. The content is searchable by keyword and location and includes interactive maps to follow his travels.

The French government has closed off the caverns entirely and to replace the air circulation system to try to save the drawings, estimated to be at least 15,000 years old. Historians believe hunter-gatherers drew the mineral-pigment paintings that include images of horses, bulls, birds and a rhinoceros.

The caves have been closed to the public since 1963, but wannabe spelunkers can explore a nearby replica of two of the Lascaux caves. Tourism ends up being a problem at a lot of attractions, both natural and art-based: Simply by being there, you're altering what you came to see.

The picture at right is from a cafe here in Cincinnati, The Coffee Shop on Madison, which has a stunning corner lined with Charley Harper prints.

Across town, there's an apartment building that must house a fairly busy artist: Every window of one first-floor unit is covered in portraits. They're not Renoirs, but who cares?

What about your town? Is it easy to stumble upon art in your neighborhood, or do you feel sometimes as if you're living in a creative desert? (If so, maybe it's time to go guerrilla...)

In the meantime, I have become totally fascinated with Harper's style and have become determined to have a print of his in my apartment by spring. (Luckily for me, a relative works at a gallery with a large Harper inventory and gets a 35 percent staff discount that I have absolutely no problem using.)