I’m thinking about giving up tweeting for one week, and instead write out all my thoughts and reactions on my blog. So far this year, I’ve been having a lot of fun blogging more. In the past decade when I…
The Impressionist painters are known for their atmospheric treatment of scenes, loose brushwork that takes precedence over lines and contours. Yet in the midst of the Impressionism galleries in the Art Institute of Chicago stands a painting with strong lines…
I’m sorry everyone, I should be stuffing my Christmas cards into envelopes to get them mailed, but I’m writing a blog post instead! Soon I’ll publish a fun blog post about a wonderful (and relatively unknown) artist I discovered at…
I’m thinking about what the domain would be for my photo website. And then an idea struck me. What if someone made an app that looked JUST like Instagram. But all the photos came from RSS feeds from individual photographer…
I’ve come to appreciate the $1 bundle from @humble. This bundle “Get Crafty” has six books including, “Tiny World of Terrariums” At any given time, Humble usually always has around six book bundle deals going on. Every bundle has different…
Do you ever put the date in your filename on your computer? If so, what date format do you use? Take today, January 9, 2020. Here’s some ways you could date your file: “Jan 9, 2020” “1-9-2020” “9-Jan-2020” “09-01-2020” “2020-01-09”…
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…
Have you seen this tool that makes any phrase into the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles logo? GEEEEEEEE! Just type any words in, and MAGICALLY your words transform into the TMNT logo. It’s incredible. I love it love it love it.…
Maybe instead of making new year resolutions, we should make a list of the things that prevent us from getting things done. Remove the obstacles. Take your current resolutions, and transform them into a new list of “don’t do this,…
Sometimes when I go errand shopping at Target, I’ll photograph the contents of my bag at the self checkout. It’s fun seeing the collection of the stuff you regularly pick up. Fun to me anyways. I should photograph the inside…
Programs like deepart.io are so fascinating. You give the program a photograph and an artwork, and then it transforms the photograph to look like the style of the art. A photo from my parents wedding combined with Juan Gris’ “Portrait…
One of my favorite podcasts is Random Tape. The description reads, “A cabinet of auditory wonders for the 21st century.” An older description captures the podcast better, “Random Tape is a radio show that features bizarre voice messages, rants, poetry,…
I love you, Artforum. But I do have a little bit of a funny thing. It’s hilarious how this Artforum headline appears in all caps in Google News. All the other publishers use a standard title case or AP/Chicago/MLA style.…
Do you have any resolutions for this new year? I don’t really specifically set out to find new resolutions at the start of the year. I much rather just start new habits any time of the year. But in effort…
Do you keep a daily diary? I have a couple questions for you: Length: Do you keep it really short? Or do you write longer form? Medium: Where do you write it? In a physical notebook? Or maybe online in…
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…
What do you do with all the greeting cards you receive? Keep them in a pile and then eventually recycle them? Perhaps you keep a hand-selected group, storing them in a box. Or maybe you put the greeting cards on…
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,…
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…
I just love getting promo emails from Quark trying to convince me to move back to Quark’s design program. I used Quark XPress in the late 90s in college, and at my first two jobs, but Adobe InDesign came and…
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…
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?…
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…
My work locker is stuffed with candy. Actually, it’s overflowing with candy. I take breaks throughout the day, and stand by my locker snacking on all sorts of candy. It’s my attempt to eat less candy at my desk. Today,…
Every day my Chrome browser displays a different work of art. The Chrome extension Google Arts & Culture powers the selection of what art is shown from their collection. The artwork ranges from very well-known artists like Van Gogh and…
This week marks the palindrome week where every day is a palindrome. (Technically, it’s not the last time in our lifetime, this will happen again on 1/20/21) 9-10-19 • 91-0-199-11-19 • 91-1-199-12-19 • 91-2-199-13-19 • 91-3-199-14-19 • 91-4-199-15-19 • 91-5-199-16-19…
What would a flag pole look like with 50 flags all at the same height? Outside my window fly 50 state flags in a plaza. I love looking at these flags. On a very windy day, I’m thinking about making…
The etymology of the word “fascinating” comes from witchcraft. That explains why people say “fascinating” slowly, as though one is in a spell. I looked up “fascinating” because my three-year-old asked me what that word meant. I thought that “fascinating”…
Photographing with a kaleidoscope lens is so much fun. Recently I spent a work lunch shooting the feet of sculptures with a kaleidoscope lens. The whole time I spent focused on the kaleidoscope effect. My eyes and brain looked through…
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…
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 $26 on Amazon (and you’ll also get a whole array of other fun lenses).…
