ArtPhotosDesk

Rafael Rodriguez grew up in institutions: Foster care, group homes, juvenile detention, Rikers Island, New York State Prison and as of 2007, the federal system. Here's a brief animation from The Marshall Project about how he met a mentor who he says saved his life through art. "Memo taught me how to draw from inside with emotion. I began to understand how oil painting mimics parts of life the same way a single brushstroke can throw an entire painting off," he says.

https://flip.it/J0W.MW

#Art #Prison #Incarceration #ArtTherapy #MarshallProject

Indonesia has been engulfed in political volatility since February 2024, when the outgoing president, Joko Widodo, changed electoral laws to allow his sons to hold office. Journalist Hung Duong says in that context, it felt auspicious that she had been interviewing Ade Darmawan and Timoteus Anggawan Kusno, two artists who are, "delving into Indonesian history to shine a light on the manipulation of memory and archives that’s happening before our eyes," she writes. Here's her story for Artforum on their work, and how "archival history can be twisted to present nostalgic images of the 'good old days' and foment reactionary narratives." [This story may be paywalled]

https://flip.it/6yvjBY

#Art #PoliticalArt #Politics #Indonesia

Research suggests that viewing pictures of nature can lower stress levels — so if you're feeling overwhelmed today for any reason, take a look at these prizewinning waterfall images from @Smithsonianmag, which show a sunset over Niagara Falls, a dramatic black-and-white shot of Skogafoss falls in Iceland, and a maple-leaf-sprinkled shot from Canada.

Link: https://flip.it/U7ASxE

#Photography #Photos #Travel #ElectionAnxiety #Stress #MentalHealth

Quasi, a giant sculpture of a hand with a human face, has loomed over the Wellington, New Zealand skyline for five years, but residents of the city are about to say 👋 to the divisive artwork. It will be removed from its current home on the roof of City Gallery this week, and taken to a new home. “This is either a great day for Wellington or a terrible day for Wellington and there’s not much view in between,” Ben McNulty, a Wellington city council member, told @AssociatedPress. Here's more.

https://flip.it/WtbkK8
#Art #Sculpture #NewZe
aland #Wellington #Culture

This year may be the year of Beetlejuice and Raygun, but Halloween dress-up designs have a long history, dating back to pre-Christian times. Atlas Obscura takes a look at the purpose of costumes through the centuries, including marking the changing of the seasons, showing off your wealth and status, and starting a scandalous affair, incognito.

https://flip.it/v4cSus

#Design #Costume #Fashion #Art #Halloween

Tomorrow's Halloween — meaning it's time to adjust that camera for night time, eerie lighting, and creepy characters. This collection has basic tips and ideas, shots and apps to try, and a bit of history and nostalgia too.

https://flipboard.com/@photographers/halloween-photography-special-hm74tcs3vtharb8f

#halloween #photography #photographytips

Political art is popping up in Washington, D.C. Last week, an unknown artist placed a replica of Nancy Pelosi's desk, topped with a basketball-sized emoji-like poop, along the National Mall. The plaque beneath reads: “This memorial honors the brave men and women who broke into the United States Capitol on January 6th, 2021 to loot, urinate and defecate throughout those hallowed halls in order to overturn an election." Now, it's been joined by a bronze statue of a tiki torch in Freedom Plaza, with the caption, “This monument pays tribute to President Donald Trump and the ‘very fine people’ he boldly stood to defend when they marched in Charlottesville, Virginia.” Here's more from CNN.

https://flip.it/Uuu6DI

#Art #PublicArt #USPolitics #USElection #WashingtonDC #DonaldTrump #CapitolRiot

Political art is popping up in Washington, D.C. Last week, an unknown artist placed a replica of Nancy Pelosi's desk, topped with a basketball-sized emoji-like poop, along the National Mall. The plaque beneath reads: “This memorial honors the brave men and women who broke into the United States Capitol on January 6th, 2021 to loot, urinate and defecate throughout those hallowed halls in order to overturn an election." Now, it's been joined with a bronze statue of a tiki torch in Freedom Plaza, with the caption, “This monument pays tribute to President Donald Trump and the ‘very fine people’ he boldly stood to defend when they marched in Charlottesville, Virginia.” Here's more from CNN.

https://flip.it/Uuu6DI

#Art #PublicArt #USPolitics #USElection #WashingtonDC #DonaldTrump #CapitolRiot

Forget the standard film or band poster! College students at the University of Chicago are able to display original art by artists such as Joan Miró, Takashi Murakami, and even Picasso on their walls. It's part of the Art to Live With lending program that began in 1958, went dormant in the 1980s due to lack of funding and was rebooted in 2017 — it's now run by the school's Smart Museum. Students who live in campus housing have about a week to look at the collection, and some camp overnight to make sure they get to borrow their favorite work. The museum's director, Vanja Malloy, says it's about giving students a more in-depth view of art and life. "It could be something you look at as you drink your morning coffee every day and you see it in a different way and maybe you notice things that you didn't before,” she told @npr. Here's more.

Link: https://flip.it/XD6GwT

#Art #FineArt #University #Culture #Chicago

Ed Sheeran has dozens of tattoos, some to commemorate career highlights, one because a radio station wanted him to get one on air, one because Saoirse Ronan deliberately misspelled the song title "Galway Girl" in a music video, and many that have no rationale whatsoever (a Heinz ketchup label... the word "PRINCE" written in the "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" font). Jill Mapes, a writer for Hearing Things, has found herself completely fascinated by the recreation of "Mother and Child," a lithograph by Henri Matisse that Sheeran has on his left forearm. The original is Matisse's take on a Virgin Mary/Jesus picture. The Sheeran version is somewhat saucier. Mapes writes about how her fixation on the tattoo led her to examine Matisse's most interesting period of work.

https://flip.it/i0AEpa

#EdSheeran #Art #Culture #Matisse #Lithography #Tattoos #TattoosOfTheFediverse

The Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Texas is full of 19th-century paintings of the American West, with typical representations of white male cowboys. So perhaps it's not surprising that a new exhibition there, "Cowboy," which aspired to “disrupt the homogenous ideal of the cowboy as a White, cisgender American male,” (per its release) proved controversial. The show opened on Sept. 28 and closed on Oct. 11, reopening with a label that warns of "mature content." “We received some feedback about the exhibition’s content and needed time to evaluate and get aligned on messaging for visitors,” the museum told the Fort Worth Report, which noted there was no nudity in any of the works. Here's more from @ArtNews.

https://flip.it/FCQY0v

#Texas #Cowboys #Art #Culture #Galleries #Museums

In 1971, architect Michael Reynolds built a house out of beer cans, inspired by Walter Cronkite on the news. "He was talking about what we call climate change and global warming now. I was seeing all these beer cans tossed away and I'm saying, 'why don't we build out of beer cans and not trees?'" he told @BBCNews. His work was exhibited at the Louvre and MoMA, but he was largely regarded as a kook. Still, he persevered with his net-zero homes, which he dubbed Earthships. Now, you can vacation or live in one in Taos, New Mexico, have one built for you anywhere in the world, or learn to build your own. "There is an art side to them — I've played with the bottles as stained glass, and there's the sculptural aspect. They are beautiful," says Reynolds. "What's really beautiful is they take care of people while taking care of the planet. There is not as much meaning in art as there is in a home."

https://flip.it/OEk9ht

#Art #Design #Architecture #Homes #Lifestyle #SustainableDesign #ClimateChange #Environment