Lately everyone has been sharing creative projects to do at home. Usually they are cute like putting a teddy bear in your front window. But how about a quirky project? Photograph all the doorknobs in your residence. Ever pay attention…
Can a photo captured with a 2-megapixel camera from 2002 still be popular today? Well, of course it can—if the subject matter works. Photos taken in the early 00s are in a weird in-between time The early digital photography years…
People are setting teddy bears in their front window, so people can walk around on a #teddybearhunt making your neighborhood friendlier. Here’s our little purple bear. Put a bear in your window. More teddy bears people have put in their…
Looking for a completely different way to make a drawing? How about making your drawing directly on public art? (video) Let’s start with one of the most famous public artworks in Chicago. The Picasso. This hefty icon stands 50-feet tall,…
When I bought my first digital camera in 2001, I never realized how good the specs were. I just bought it based on reviews people gave at the time. The Canon PowerShot S110 could go down to a ƒ/2.8 with…
It is my greatest desire that some video game midi music play in the background while this is displayed. Are there other examples of 16th century Switzerland textiles with bitmap art? I’m googling: Switzerland 16th century textile Google is not…
What is the toilet paper like from various art museums? In 2018, I wrote a draft about making art with toilet paper. I never published it, because, well, this is a weird project. Now that toilet paper has surfaced as…
The selections for “Popular topics” in Google Arts and Culture is quite curious Paul Gauguin — 372 items Oil paint — 5,870 items Shark Bay — 8 items Wassily Kandinsky — 39 items Renaissance — 12,200 items Post-Impressionism — 2,620…
Google Photos is a lot of fun. Upload all your photos, and Google will use artificial intelligence to identify what’s in your photos. Since everyone has been talking about toilet paper for the past week, I searched for the in-demand…
What is time? Shortly before his death, Albert Einstein wrote: “The distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.” What is the context of this quote? I accidentally came across a discussion about this quote…
What better thing to do when a pandemic virus is spreading than to go to a public place to vote? Despite COVID-19, I voted today! Everyone politely stood six feet apart in the line. With rubber gloves on my hands,…
Do you use a knife to spread the jelly on your sandwich? The jelly slides off the knife. The jelly in your jar is left with deep trenches. The serrated blade from the knife makes an awful texture sound when…
My three-year-old daughter made a dance floor with our Picasso magnet tiles. Then she took all her Little People figures; and put them onto the dance floor. I love her creativity. “But wait!” I warned, “they are not practicing social…
Need a moment to quiet your busy life and meditate on your mortality? Meditate on some skulls. Do you love skulls? Then you’ll love the El Greco exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago. Do you find skulls creepy? You’ll…
There’s a lot of talk about whether the media is overhyping coronavirus (COVID-19). I was wondering how many people I know will be infected and possibly die from COVID-19, so I did the math. People who will die from COVID-19…
Ever notice the ID number in a tweet’s URL? Take a look at the URL structure for a tweet. Here’s a tweet I made today: https://twitter.com/spudart/status/1237129038994575360 Every tweet is assigned a unique ID number. Over time, this ID number increases…
Is this trash or transformation? This discarded packaging took on the form of a bird mid-flight. An unintentional sculpture, crafted by the city itself. Discover the story behind this urban origami.
Origami scattered about on the bathroom floor at work. Overflowing from the wastebasket little unintentional creations lie strewn about. Crumbled paper towels lying on the floor look just like origami creations. What if someone actually folded a bunch of paper…
Here are 28 of my favorite artworks displayed in February 2020 from the Art Tab Chrome extension. Every time you open a new browser tab, you get a different work of art from the Art Institute of Chicago’s collection. Tribune…
A funny tweet from my friend Marco: How often do people say these phrases? Let’s do a Google search for each phrase, and mark down the number of results. “Everybody said it couldn’t be done.” » 18,300 results “Nobody thought…
Possibly our last accumulating snow of the season, Chicago was freshly covered in a light blanket of snow. Wonderful white canvases became available once again across the city. This morning I made sure to walk above ground to enjoy the…
When scrolling through Spotify, many remixes of songs aren’t all that great. I’m sorry, but in many cases I like the original more. Remixes often tend to be flat, lacking depth. But that’s because I’m listening to the remixes in…
I love how the art museums have collections of loosely-drawn sketches. Makes me wish they would collect sketchbooks from artists today. I know, I know. You have to be “historically significant” to become part of their collection. The sketch featured…
Just in case you were wondering, if you tried to make an emoji really big in Outlook, the maximum size is 466 point. If you set the emoji at 467 point, it will disappear. Almost like it explodes from being…
A couple weeks ago I started a project where on my lunch break, I go the Art Institute of Chicago, stand in front of an artwork, and sketch it. I set out with this project to help improve my drawing…
One of my favorite children’s books to read to my kids is “Snow” by Uri Shulevitz. The architecture in this book is a jumble of buildings. Shulevitz’s delightful depiction of the architecture complements the playfulness of the storyline. Whenever I…
Another Guardian Lion‽ A pair of famous lions guard the entrance to the Art Institute of Chicago. Inside the museum resides another guardian lion. This unknown distant cousin comes from Cambodia. It currently sits guard at the entrance to one…
Empty lots are fascinating. The natural growth that naturally occurs in the desolate, unattended land. Plants sprouting up, giving life. The fence sign declares no trespassing. Don’t even think about stepping foot onto this land. However, someone ignored this warning,…
While walking to the train in the light snow/rain, an empty lot with lots of rocks and plants always grabs my attention. This lot reminds me of the empty lot next to my apartment of 13 years. I have the…
Sometimes you just gotta start making stuff. Last year, when it was a state’s birthday, I would give that state a happy birthday by leaving a sticky note on their flag pole. I would research state flag for that particular…
“Pancake Robot” by Parry Gripp is such a fun song to memorize the lyrics. Anytime you have pancakes, you can bust out some lyrics from this song. Like this little verse: The pancake robot is coming to townHe’s mixing up…
