love wandering around the town
discovering artists’ work
left in unexpected places
a sudden inspiration
using what they found
—
“i don’t think there’s anything in this universe as powerful as the power of an artist to create.
by that logic, we are all artists, aren’t we?”
-malcolm fernandes
art from discarded loose parts – recycled phones and cords
—
“it’s not where you take things from – it’s where you take them to.”
-jean-luc godard
·
—
image credit: *telephone sheep by jean luc cornec, artists without borders
when you just can’t make it out to the store to get a card
you use what you have.
—
“always make sure your heart is bigger than your head.”
-tony oiler
i’m going to guess this is the car of an artist
i wonder what her/his vision is
for these beautiful pieces of wood.
a treasure trove.
—
“my work isn’t about form. it’s about seeing.
i’m excited about seeing things,
and i’m interested in the way i think other people see things.
-roy lichtenstein
walking in sugarbush woods
i ran across this tree man
just waiting for someone to find him.
“what art offers is space – a certain breathing room for the spirit.”
-john updike
Opera house performs first post-lockdown concert for an all-plant audience
Next week, Barcelona’s Liceu opera house will emerge from its lockdown-induced siesta by throwing a concert to a rather unusual audience. The attendees will not need masks or gloves, nor will they be required to follow physical distancing rules.
However, they might like to take along a nice comfy pot and some water to prevent their roots from drying out as a string quartet serenades them, fittingly, with Puccini’s Crisantemi (Chrysanthemums).
A total of 2,292 plants will occupy the venue’s seats and listen to the opera house’s first post-lockdown concert when it reopens next Monday. Non-vegetal music fans will also be able to enjoy the performance as it will be live-streamed.
According to the Liceu’s artistic director Víctor García de Gomar, the Concert for the Biocene, played the by Uceli quartet, is intended to help us ponder the current state of the human condition and how, in lockdown, we have become “an audience deprived of the possibility of being an audience”.
For Eugenio Ampudia, the conceptual artist behind the concert, the project will serve to reflect what has happened across Spain and around the world as the COVID-19 pandemic has forced people to retreat from shared public areas.
“At a time when an important part of humankind has shut itself up in enclosed spaces and been obliged to relinquish movement, nature has crept forward to occupy the spaces we have ceded,” said Ampudia.
After the concert, the plants will find themselves in a new home, with each one of them being donated to 2,292 health workers as thank you for their efforts over recent months.
—
“the first rule of opera is the first rule in life:
see to everything yourself.”
-nellie melba
—
photo and story credits: the optimist daily
when walking downtown
never forget
—
ann arbor, mi, usa
—
“art is chaos and harmony infused together.
it is the expression of your emotions.
a form of both activism and rebellion.
it is, as they say, all around us.”
― hamma tahir
the wizard house
the purple house with the sun
—
so many stories here
—
“every spirit makes its house,
and we can give a shrewd guess from the house to the inhabitant.”
-ralph waldo emerson
—
images: Ann Arbor, Michigan – Traverse City, Michigan
neighborhood totem created from perfectly balanced pieces of a cut-down tree
—
“art doesn’t transform. it just plain forms.”
-roy lichtenstein
In the municipal center of Newport Beach, California, sits a local oddity that is equal parts controversial, cuddly, adorable, and absurd.
The sculpture, dubbed “Bunnyhenge,” consists of 14 large white bunnies arranged in a circle, with two even larger 8-foot-tall bunnies found nearby. While these oversized stone bunnies sit stoically staring at each other with their colorful beady eyes, the town around them has become divided over their existence.
When it was first installed in 2013, the sculpture was initially very popular, especially with children (creepy as some others may find a circle of giant bunnies to be). But the public artwork also cost the city $221,000, or nearly $14,000 per bunny, which outraged many residents. One candidate for city council—who was later elected—even declared that “we need to blow up the bunnies!”
Despite the threats, the bunnies have made it nearly five years, and can still be found strangely and stoically gathered in the park by City Hall.
—
“read to your bunny often and your bunny will read to you.”
-rosemary wells, american author and illustrator of childrens’ books,
including the ‘max and ruby series’
—
credits: leira, atlas obscura
I didn't have my glasses on.... 