This is one of my favorites. It’s conceptually a brilliant performance art piece. It also appeals to the juvenile prankster part of my brain.
How do you stage an international art show with work from 100 different artists? If you’re Shea Hembrey, you invent all of the artists and artwork yourself — from large-scale outdoor installations to tiny paintings drawn with a single-haired brush. Watch this funny, mind-bending talk to see the explosion of creativity and diversity of skills a single artist is capable of.
“Bumber By Number” is an interactive and fully immersive Paint-by-Number art exhibit curated by Marlow Harris and JoDavid for the 2011 Bumbershoot Arts Festival.
The show features an interactive audience participatory paint-by-number homage to Edouard Manet’s “The Picnic” (“Le Dejeuner sur L’Herbe”) by artist Ryan Feddersen. In addition, bask in the glory of Victoria BC artist Bill Blair’s amazing life-size paint-by-number banners and guitars, and local Seattle artists create incredible canvases of altered vintage Paint-by-Numbers.
Ryan Feddersen has created a tableau complete with hand-cast wax crayons used to bring her murals to life.
Canadian artist Bill Blair creates Stories for Paint-by-Number and paints huge 9′x7′ foot Paint-by-Number backdrops.
Over 40 modern, contemporary, abstract and pop surrealist artists were given vintage completed Paint-by-Number paintings and asked to alter them in their own style.
Here is Janet Galore’s “Blue Boy”, prior to transformation.
Seattle artist Troy Gua chose two clowns he called “Father and Son”.
Pop culture cutie Lisa Petrucci adds her own personal style to this tiger painting.
Fantagraphics favorite Jim Woodring puts his own twist on this bucolic covered bridge scene:
• WHEN and WHERE?
Bumber By Number and other Visual Arts exhibits are open 11am – 8pm, 9/3 – 9/5, and the Location of the exhibit is the Seattle Center Pavilion (just east of Key Arena)
Free Visual Arts Preview, Thursday, September 1st, 3pm – 9pm, – Mayor’s Arts Awards are 4-6pm
• The dates and times of Bumbershoot Music & Arts Festival are 9/3 – 9/5, 11am – 11pm at Seattle Center.
This bathtub couch started as cast iron clawfoot bathtub and has been converted to a fashionable and comfortable sofa for the new millennium. Ruff House Art starts out with old cast iron bathtubs, which were found in nearly every home at the start of the 20th century, and were often thrown out when the house was remodeled, and converts them to groovy furniture
Dick and Jane’s Spot was created by artists Dick Elliot and Jane Orleman in Ellensburg, Washington. Dick Elliott died on November 19, 2008, but the dream lives on in downtown Ellensburg. Jane was kind enough to show us around recently and she continues to live her life creatively and artfully in this beautiful home.
I was also able to make a short video of the exterior of the home the last time I was here. Jane told me that she has made provisions after her passing to leave her amazing home to the Yakima Valley Historical Society.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Today’s post is about a boat named ‘Love Love‘
French artist Julien Berthier has designed a fully functional boat to look
as if it is sinking. The 21ft yacht was cut in half with a new keel
and motor added so it remains in the sinking position while being fully
functional. He describes it as “the permanent and mobile image of a
wrecked ship that has become a functional and safe leisure object.”
Berthier has taken the boat (or should I say half-a-boat) across the
English Channel to London and has toured it around Europe , getting plenty
of offers of assistance from unwitting good Samaritans, who would
presumably be either very annoyed or rather bemused by the contraption.
The designer and artist designed and built the floating installation in
2007. He named his creation Love Love.
A Tip-O-the-Hat to Ms Kelly Lyles for the heads-up on ‘Love Love’
Jeroen Koolhaas and Dre Urhahn, known as Haas & Hahn, saw potential in places that most Brazilians view as unsightly, undesirable and terrifying. Favelas like Vila Cruzeiro and Santa Marta drip with sewage and ring with gunshots and police sirens, but Haas & Hahn wanted to give local residents a source of pride. The Favela Painting Project started with a huge mural called ‘Boy Flying a Kite’ and expanded into covering nearly every surface in Santa Marta with cheerful shades of green, blue, pink and yellow.
Super fabulous painted lawn of artist Beth Thom of Austin, Texas. She has a website called http://www.polkadotlawn.com/. What a great way to deal with a dormant brown lawn in the heat of Texas.
Oh My God! was the first Art Car created by artist and filmmaker Harrod Blank. At the age of 16, Blank became embarrassed by the blandness of his all-white Volkswagen and painted a rooster on the driver’s door. He never stopped decorating the car, which ultimately served as the springboard to his career in building Art Cars and documenting the Art Car movement.
Unusual Life is based here in Seattle, and we’re excited because Harrod Blank is bringing “Oh My God!” all the way from the Art Car World Museum in Douglas AZ to Seattle for the Art Car Blow Out. The film “Automorphosis” will play Thursday June 17th at the Northwest Film Forum in Seattle at 7 and 9 pm where “Oh My God!” and other art cars will be parked outside. Then he will attend the Seattle Art Car Blow Out from the 18th -20th at the Fremont Fair and the film will show again on the 21st at the Central Cinema at 7 pm. The filmmaker and other art car artists will be in attendance.
So if you live anywhere near Seattle, please stop by. Unusual Life will be in the Mighty Mighty Elvismobile, so stop by and say Hello!
Shepard Fairey’s current show at the Deitch Projects will be the last exhibition at Jeffrey Deitch’s groundbeaking SoHo gallery. After a decade of presenting art here, the doors will close on May 29th. Deitch has been appointed the directorship of L.A’s MoCA. You should catch this show if you’re in NY before May 29th.
Shepard Fairey’s illustrious career is highlighted in this ambitious exhibition, a fitting New York finale for the Deitch Projects. An impressive body of work is shown here, prolific in intent, from the artist who’s iconic red, white, and blue Obama/Hope campaign has made Shepard Fairey a household name, and made his style a deliberate viral cultural brand upon the brain of society’s visual literacy. Pure genius!
The opening night of this event was an epic art mob scene. The lines to get in extended for blocks, stopping traffic on Wooster St. for hours. Artists, collectors, fans, and excited hipsters were out in force in the hot and humid night looking to catch a glimpse of the magic that was in the air. - JD
On April 29th, 2010, we at Unusual Life were thrilled to attend the gala opening of The Gay 90′s, the newest set of masterpieces by artist Mark Ryden. The show is at the Paul Kasmin Gallery in New York City. You can see the full show of 5 paintings, and 18 watercolors and drawing studies online at the Kasmin Gallery website, or in person at the gallery thru June 10th, 2010.
Guests attending the opening were asked to dress in the Olde Tyme theme. Mark’s friends and supporters showed up from all over the country, ready to congratulate him on yet another remarkable body of work. The crowd was thick with artists, creatives, and smiling admirers.
A short train ride from Barcelona takes you to Figueres and the fantastical Dali Theatre and Museum. Even lining up to get in, you know you’re in for an intriguing visit.
From Wikipedia : “The Dalí Theatre and Museum (Teatre-Museu Dalí in Catalan language), is a museum of the artist Salvador Dalí in his home town of Figueres, in Catalonia.
The heart of the museum was the building that housed the town’s theatre when Dalí was a child, and where one of the first public exhibitions of young Dalí’s art was shown. The old theater was bombed in the Spanish Civil War and remained in a state of ruin for decades until Dalí and the mayor of Figueres decided to rebuild it as a museum dedicated to the town’s most famous son in 1960. The museum also occupies buildings and courtyards adjacent to the old theater building.”
