Top Artist: ART meets reality t.v....really?

Wow, I am...speechless.

Sarah Jessica Parker has pitched a new idea for an art reality show to Bravo. You can see below for the whole astounding story. Despite coming from the woman who played SanDeE from one of my favorite Steve Martin art-themed movies L.A. Story, I am not sure how this will fly (although I will likely tune in just to witness it). Nevertheless, I don't think it can hold a candle to our locally-minted art game show, Art Show Down.

Be sure to check out some of Art Show Down's past episodes! They are beautifully designed and wonderfully hysterical. Highlights include Episode 1, with games such as "Auction Price is Right" and "Schmooze and Booze." In the latter, a contestant has to eat as much cheese and drink as much * correction * Tabasco-flavored seltzer as possible while simultaneously talking up and name dropping with a curator (pictured & linked above). Don't miss it!

From REUTERS: LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter):

Sarah Jessica Parker's art-competition reality show has found a home at Bravo.

The network has picked up "American Artist," a "Project Runway"-style series that takes on the art world.

Aspiring artists compete to produce various styles of artwork (painting, sculpting, etc.), which is then judged by a panel of experts. Parker's Pretty Matches production company is helping develop the project.

If ordered to series, the show would give Bravo another skill-driven reality show to its lineup, along with "Top Chef" and "Top Design."

- Mon Jul 21, 2008 1:28am EDT

Instant Art Critic

From Pixmaven, via Modern Art Journal....Voila! The Instant Art Critique Phrase Generator.

First, read the instructions below, then browse some of my results at the bottom, and then click the link HERE to test it out yourself.

Salvation is here!
Feeling inarticulate? Critically gauche? Or just verbally impotent?

We here at Pixmaven have developed The Instant Art Critique Phrase Generator so you need never again feel at a loss for pithy commentary or savvy "insights." With this device you can speak about Art with both authority and confidence. Use this marvellous tool to amaze and confound friends and colleagues. Don't miss this opportunity to menace and dumbfound professors and artists emeriti!

The instructions are simple-- type any five digit number in the field below, click 'Create,' and enjoy your ready-made Critical Response to the Art Product (or CRAP). Now you can produce CRAP critiques as easily and fluently as anyone in your MFA program!

Please use this product responsibly.

Here are some of my results:

With regard to the issue of content, the disjunctive perturbation of the spatial relationships brings within the realm of discourse the distinctive formal juxtapositions.

Although I am not a painter, I think that the internal dynamic of the negative space endangers the devious simplicity of the inherent overspecificity.

Recreated iconic photos...in legos

Here's something fun to peruse this week/weekend.

Inspired by my last post on iconic photos recreated by senior citizens, I present iconic photos redux -- this time done in legos, and quite well I might add -- in an amazing flickr set. You can click here or on the above image to browse other odes to Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, Eddie Adams, and Alfred Eisenstaedt. (You can also check out a behind-the-scenes setup shot showing how he made the above image right here.) Thanks to DK for pointing me to this!

ABOVE: An homage to Henri Cartier-Bresson's "Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare" by Balakov

Happy 4th, In Full Color

I hope everyone had a wonderful 4TH of JULY weekend! Bruce and I, DK, and JS walked to and through MIT to watch the fireworks explode over the Esplanade. It was a great view and a super show!

I share with you the above image from the Library of Congress's Flickr site, yes Flickr site. If you haven't yet checked it out, this site is refreshingly fun, open, and democratic (although I wish folks would only post informative notes on the images). The above transparency is by Charles Fenno Jacobs (1904-1975) of "School children, half of Polish and half of Italian descent, at a festival in May 1942, Southington, Conn."

Be sure to explore their 1930s and 40s color set in particular. These images are from the FSA and the OWI (Office of War Information) and range from 1939 to 1944 -- certainly an era that we aren't used to seeing in color. The best way is to click on the first - a Rosie the Riveter - and keep clicking to the right. Enjoy!