Author: Matt Maldre

My friend Lisa (a citygirl) is inheriting a pickup truck. If you have a pickup truck, what would you do with it? If i had a pickup truck I would carry around bricks and then stop at random places and…

Thanks to everyone on Facebook for recommending the printmaking demo (by Julian Cox at the Le Gallery Thorndale on August 7, 2011) We had a small, but highly interested crowd of three people (including myself), so we got to ask…

You can save the image of Jonathan Starks’ Starbucks card onto your phone and use it at Starbucks. He encourages it. Or if you are feeling like you are in a giving mood, you can put money on the card.…

Aboard NASA’s journey to Jupiter will be LEGO mini-statues of Jupiter, his wife Juno, and Galileo. Why? CNN reports, “LEGO is partnering with NASA to promote children’s interest in science, math, engineering and technology.” Are they going to offer these…

I like the nicknames they gave to the logos. The worm and the meatball. (from a New York Times article) The old school feel of the meatball is nice, but just speaking from a logo perspective, it’s a complete mess.…

I highly encourage you to leave a comment on sparx’s photo of a pink donut with no sprinkles. Here’s a highlight-worthy comment: maybe the donut has an anti-sprinkle deflector shield. I bet now that the donut is inside you, you…

A curly pier swirls off Montrose Harbor. Along the spiral is a wire fence; great to hang a swing. A spiral pier just begs you to walk all the way to the end. It also begs you to hang a…

The Amazon Kindle allows you to see which parts of a book have been highlighted the most by everyone reading it on a Kindle. Here’s the Bible verses that were had the most highlights for the ESV version. —————— 540…

Ever want to come up with a fun nickname for someone, but draw a blank? Now you have a surefire way of making a cool nickname. Use this simple formula: First syllable of the person’s last name + “town” For…

One of the most classic tv scenes ever. Balki Bartokomous and Larry Appleton make Bibbi-Babkas and sing a song. This video had me totally cracking up. The lyrics from Perfectstrangers.tv: When you rolling out the dough,Just make sure you roll…

When a tiny King Kong meets architectural history: A playful moment captured atop the iconic Wrigley Building.

Badges are cool. Like, actual badges you stitch on and stuff. But you know what’s cooler? Medallions. Wearing a medallions around is like being an Olympic superhero. They should make real-life medallions for the foursquare badges. And then you could…

Placing swings in unexpected places—parks, train stations, street signs—because everyone (even tiny wire people) deserves a moment to swing.

Can you yell at a Hall of Famer from the upper deck and have him wave back at you? How much info can you fit onto a scorecard? Do worms celebrate National Gummi Worm Appreciation Day? What does the world’s…

Somehow I ended up on Mat Kearney’s single, “Hey Mama.” I had to dig this particular photo of me out of my MySpace profile, so I’m not really sure why Mat Kearney’s people were trolling my MySpace profile for photos…

Radio Shack shoppers with a www.tellradioshack.com receipt can fill out a survey and get a $10 coupon for their next purchase of $40 or more from Radio Shack! The Radio Shack employees are the best. Just this past weekend I…

The suburban train line system in Chicago recently started a new policy of having a “Quiet Car” on every Metra train. These “Quiet Cars” have signage to indicate that you are on a “Quiet Car” and thus you are to…

My twin brother has not ridden a Chicago public transit train since 1996. Over IM I shared with him 11 things that have changed on the CTA since 1996: spudart: 1) They no longer take tokens 2) There is no…

Thanks to lokate’s discovery of Brownie Crunch, a new idea has been born. An idea that will revolutionize how you eat cereal–chocolate cereal. It’s so incredible, I can’t decide what to name it. Take all the chocolate cereals and combine…

For years I have been leaving plastic treasure chests around Chicago with a message inside that says “What is your treasure?” Only recently did I realize that the photos would have more impact if I shot the treasure chest with…

My Spudart logo bears a somewhat resemblance to the Chicago Bean, aka Cloudgate. I find pleasure in this because when I designed the Spudart logo in 1998, I wanted my logo to function like a potato where it has many…

Five strange things happened to me this morning. 1) Farmers Market Sign I lived across from the same old “Farmers Market” building for 8 years. It’s not really a Farmers Market, as it’s more a shack. A couple months ago…

It’s lots of fun shooting with a new lens, especially a funky fisheye lens (from the super-fun photojojo). Everything looks all fun and curvy, especially on the CTA train where you got lots of layering of things. The reflections in…

I was on a mission to eat a giant turkey leg. A great Chicago tradition at the Taste of Chicago. During this mission, I discovered that Chicagoans love to talk to a guy photographing a turkey leg on a tripod…

The Transformers Space Bridge must have opened up yesterday, because it dropped off the two most unlikely characters in Chicago. Bill Clinton and a 5-foot-tall bedbug. First it was kinda strange seeing a Bill Clinton talking about a bunch of…

My first words to people at work after seeing the midnight showing of Transformers 3, “I’m so glad that Chicago is not totally destroyed in real life.” My review of TF3 is broken up into several parts. The bad The…

Jamonit! That’s how to say cool. It comes from the song “Jam on it” by Newcleus: On June 22, 2011 I started the trend by making a bunch of tweets with #jamonit! FractalSphere: LOL that's hilarious! RT @spudart Can we…

There’s a great site that tells you what photos look just like yours. It’s gazopa.com. Tell it the URL of your photo, or upload your photo; and it will give you all the photos online that look like your photo.…

How much data do you use on your phone? I’m making this blog post to keep track of my data usage on my iPhone with AT&T. Seeing that this is a blog about art, maybe I should do something artistic…

I reached 12345 messages in my m***@spu***rt.org inbox. It looks kinda cool. Note, this is not my regular gmail. This inbox is for m***@spu***rt.org, hosted by google’s gmail. It’s my general email address I use to sign up for everything.…

I started a new pinboard of artwork I own. One of the first things I pinned on this board is a wonderful piece by Todd Webb (one of my top five favorite artists from 2010). Todd writes and draws one…