Tag: Art

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…

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…

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…

Sketching artwork in person at a museum is more of an experience than I imagined it to be. The enhanced observation, the nervousness. What to sketch? The decision on what to draw. With 5,267 items on display, what would be…

Last year I was able to walk on the base of the Picasso sculpture in the snow. Only at the end did I slip a little. (Blog post, video) This morning a fresh blanket of snow covered Chicago, including the…

Imagine drawing everything in the Museum of Modern Art. And then doing it again a second time. That’s what artist Jason Polan did. Unfortunately, Jason, a 37-year-old, passed away last week. Only last week did I discover his artwork (due…

Imagine every time you open a new Chrome tab, you get a new work of art. The Art Institute of Chicago’s Google extension, Art Tab, places a random image from their giant collection into every new Chrome browser tab. Very…

I’d like to stand outside an art museum with a xerox machine, offering pedestrians the opportunity to make their own xerox selfie. All day long, visitors look at art behind glass. Give these visitors a chance to have a memorable,…

I’m brainstorming ways of describing art museum guards.  Art museum security guard Art protector Gallery attendant Law enforcement Museum access control Museum patrol Museum protector Observer of visitors Parcel inspector Policy enforcer Preventer of suspicious actions Preventer of touching Proper…

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…

I have a long-standing goal of whenever I see a xerox machine in a public place, to scan my face. My wife and I did one on our honeymoon in France. The copy machine was tucked away in the back…

A few days ago I xeroxed my face on our copier at work. The scanning bed was left open, and was just begging for something fun to be done. I did one copy of my face, then I grabbed a…

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…

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…

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…

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.…

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…

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?…

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…

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).…

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…

Stand right in front of a Degas pastel drawing, and try photographing a 360-degree photograph with multiple-stitching. You get some fun results with how the application auto-stitches the exposures together. Normally, 360-degree panorama apps like this are meant to photograph…