Dumpster Diving

A person recently threw away 1,000,000 dollars on the streets of New York City - in the form of a 1970s Rufino Tamayo painting! The painting "Tres Personajes" was stolen in 1987 and just now reappeared. A woman walking around the streets of NYC saw the painting in a pile of junk. She quickly plucked it out of the rubbish. But this was four years ago. I guess it took her four years ago to realize she was sitting on a gold mine!

The painting originally belonged to a Houston couple before it was stolen. The painting will be returned to the original owner and sold at Sotheby's.

One man's trash is another man's treasure! I keep on telling myself that my habit of dumpster diving will eventually pay off. Probably not in the form of a million dollar masterpiece though...

Those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones

Venezuelan bully Hugo Chavez recently thought it would be a good idea to erect a sculpture honoring Che Guevara in Caracas, Venezuela. Yeah, that's all fine and dandy except the sculpture was made of glass! If there's anything that an old proverb will teach you is that those who live in glass houses and or next to glass sculptures shouldn't throw stones....or should they? As you guessed it the inevitable happened. The sculpture was destroyed by vandals within two weeks! Che Guevara is a pretty controversial fella I guess even in his old stomping ground...

tramp stamp

Saw this tat one day while using the internets. M.C. Escher would be so proud!

Eyebrow plucking

It seems that the Mona Lisa in her 500 years of existence has suffered the fate of many women - overzealous eyebrow plucking! Scientists have pondered her lack of eyebrows (and eyelashes for that matter) for years. Where did they go? Were they there in the first place? Well, a scientist may have solved this timeless conundrum.

Pascal Cotte, a French engineer and inventor, has recently scanned the Mona Lisa using his own high-definition camera producing a 240-million pixel image using 13 light spectrums, including ultra-violet and infrared. The resulting image magnifies her face up to 24 times. The image captured a single brushstroke of hair above her left brow. Success! He believes that Da Vinci did indeed paint on her eyebrows and eyelashes.

But what about their disappearing act? Well, they could've been removed by a shoddy cleaning job. Mona Lisa's eye was cleaned at one point and the eyebrows and lashes could have been taken off along with dirt and grime. Who knows. We may never know the mystery of the disappearing eyebrows and lashes....

Pokemons and Pollocks

I was watching the Colbert Report late one night and saw a funny little clip about an article from the Wall Street Journal. Apparently, one of the latest fads to hit the art world are child art collectors - kids that are like seven years old buying Warhols, Rembrandts, Pisarros! Little Dakota King, age 9, is one of a bustling group of child collectors. At that age, they should have Pokemon posters hanging on their walls, not The Return of the Prodigal Son. When I was seven years old a masterpiece to me was a coloring book drawing where all the color was still in the lines.

And where are these kids getting the money to buy such extravangances? Well, bar-mitzvahs, birthdays, and sometimes the tooth fairy! How would you like to have woken up as a kid and find a big fat stack of Benjamins stuffed under your pillow in the place of your freshly pulled molar?

Can you hear me now?

Performance artist, Stelios Arcadiou (known as Stelarc) has grown an ear on his arm in the name of art. The idea in of itself is pretty unique but I think it was done for shock value. There are people living their lives with physical deformities and birth defects. I don't think it is something to take lightly. All the time and energy that has gone into growing this ear could have been used for someone who really needed it - not for art's sake. And besides, I haven't heard his concept and purpose for doing such a thing. It's not like the extra ear can hear or anything.

When sharks attack!

Damien Hirst's infamous pickled animals are beginning to rot. Big surprise there. Afterall, they are corpses. It was just a matter of time before they decomposed. Although they are suspended in formaldehyde containers, I read where one of them sprung a leak! Hah. How would you like to clean up that mess?

Hirst caused a stir back in the day when he began passing dead animals off for art. I think it was a really neat idea. It relates to this idea of immortality. But, the general public thought it was the most atrocious thing ever to happen to the art world. I don't see what the big fuss is about. In it's day, it was new and fresh (well maybe not so literally fresh!)

Hirst is going to have to replace the animals like his famous shark because it is decomposing. But when should an artist have to repair or replace his or her artwork? Afterall, nothing is going to last. Conservers can only make it last a little longer. Then again the person who bought the work paid millions of dollars for it. Should a painter have to touch up a painting he painted fifty years ago? hmmmm....

Show me the Monet!

A couple of hooligans suckerpunched a Monet painting in the Musée d’Orsay this weekend. It was the "Le Pont d'Argenteuil." The painting is probably worth maybe a hundred million? I'm not sure what compels someone to do such a thing, but then again Tyler Durden said it best in Fight Club when he said "I felt like destroying something beautiful."

I've always wondered why people destroy priceless pieces of artwork. I came across a very interesting article on CNN.com a long time ago. It was basically saying that some people can develop a weird psychological urge to destroy precious artwork when viewing it. It's an actual psychological condition called the "David syndrome" named after the David. People will be filled with overwhelming emotions when viewing captivating artwork to the point where they experience panic attacks and aggression. It's happened to the David, the Mona Lisa, Michelangelo's Pieta, Rembrandt's Danaë, so on and so on.

Recovered Da Vinci

A painting of Da Vinci's was recently recovered by Scottish police after it was stolen four years ago from a castle in Scotland. The painting is "Madonna with the Yarnwinder." I've actually never even heard of or seen this painting before. It's kind of a strange idea? Not sure what that's all about. But what do I know. Some of the Virgin's anatomy looks a little off too. Da Vinci didn't draw or paint women very frequently. He wasn't that interested if you know what I mean. He preferred to exclusively draw male anatomy...for certain unspoken reasons, *wink wink*

Atleast this one was left in one piece..."The Madonna" and "The Scream" didn't fare to well...

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Well, this blog has been long overdue. I have a blog of sorts on my site but it is extremely hard to update and with no commenting because I don't know how to do it! I lack the technological know-how. I always really wanted to hear other peeps opinions too - not just mine. Basically, on this blog I will be giving my diatribe on all things art. Big things going on in the artsy-fartsy world and just little useless facts.

So hopefully I'll post here and there...and everywhere! 24/7 All day, everyday.
Stay tuned as I think of something to say!

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