Ever come across a fun or interesting security guard at an art museum? Here’s my encounter with a security guard at the Art Institute of Chicago sharing her love of tiny details of paintings, encouraging visitors to get closer to the artworks. After spending about ten minutes with a post-impressionist painting, over to the right …
If you had to pick a pair of shoes that personifies you, what shoes would they be? Artist Vicky Tesmer created a series of fine watercolors depicting a variety of Chicagoans wearing their shoes. This exhibit, “Portrait of Chicago” is up in the Chicago Cultural Center until January 10, 2020. Rappers, students, surgeons, nurses, businessmen, …
Most times your five-year-old iPhone works just fine as a camera. Today, I stepped off my train, and I looked up, the sunset nearly knocked me over. Whoa! So intense! I grabbed my iPhone from my pocket and snapped a few pics. Even though my iPhone 5s is well over five years old, it still …
The painted-black boards at constructions sites are so stark. Flat black atop coarse wood grain. Giant panels of wood meant to separate construction working from pedestrian walking. The walls are painted in a flat black to give a simple backdrop, and a simple method of graffiti deference. If someone tags the wood panel with spray …
Andy Warhol. The art world darling. The Art Institute of Chicago is putting on a big Warhol show. Members get a special preview during October 17-19, 2019. Can’t get into the members preview of the Warhol show? Get a cool preview of the show OUTSIDE the museum. Just north of the Art Institute on Monroe …
The collection of 17th century Dutch and Flemish drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago is a nice display of work. Especially impressive is the large sign at the front of the exhibit. The Art Institute blew up a 6-inch by 10-inch drawing to be 10 feet tall. The resulting large signage is rather powerful. …
Capturing sharp details from drawings in an art museum Read More »
What is the utility of hanging a drawing on a wall? How often do people change their wall decorations? Do people today continue to buy images to hang on their walls? Should a drawing instead be viewed with one’s hands? Or referenced in a sketchbook. The Art Institute of Chicago has an exhibit of drawings, …
The Museum of Science and Industry is renaming the museum to be the “Kenneth C. Griffin Museum of Science and Industry” Sounds pretty silly right? Look at how long that name is. Plus, Chicagoans notoriously hate renaming buildings. The Chicago Tribune ran an article with selected Twitter reactions from Chicagoans. A typical Chicago response: Me? …
The ligatures in Kenneth C. Griffin Museum of Science and Industry Read More »
While photographing the feet of a sculpture of two naked men wrestling, at the Art Institute of Chicago, a guard stopped me. She asked what the clip was on my camera. I walked over to her, and showed her how the clip is a kaleidoscope lens for my iPhone. Holding my phone up, I showed …
Multiple toes: photographs of statue feet with kaleidoscope lens Read More »
Bring a cheap kaleidoscope lens with you to an art museum, and you’ll be guaranteed to have an ever-changing wonderful time. You can get one for $8 on Amazon (and you’ll also get a whole array of other fun lenses). The best artwork to view through a kaleidoscope lens is still life with fruit. Here …
While I was walking through the Art Institute of Chicago today, I was thinking about how this artwork is the artwork that I have the most immediate physical access to. I work two blocks north from this grand museum. If I wanted to look at just a painting, these are the paintings that are the …
