feb 10 2025 - Been to Binz?

 

've learned about Dollarama and Dollar Tree, and also about thrift charity stores in Niagara.  Our own Grimsby Benevolent Fund is where Christmas grapevine wreaths can be found for under $5.00.  And kitchen things, too.   I hear the watercolour class participants regularly say they bought a watercolour item at Binz in Hamilton.  It is actually Krazy Binz, and it is a liquidation store.   This store has a story with a different twist.  None other than the CBC picked up a story on a find at the store that was unusual.  Here's the picture of it by the person who found it.  It looks like a door mat to me.   When Sonja Krawesky found it and turned it over, she discovered it was made of small, painted tiles held together by threads of wire.  In all, she found two of these, and took them home knowing they were art pieces.  The CBC article says there are 300 hours of labour in these sculptures by Sydney Blum in Nova Scotia.  And their value is in the thousands.   Our Hamilton finder got in contact with Sydney Blum, the artist was reunited with her art pieces.  The journey home is a story within a story.    Read the whole article here.  Look at this picture of the art as it would be displayed. Isn't that compelling!

Here's the little heart sculpture in the garden after yesterday's snow.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Jan 04 2025 - Lottery News in Art

 

I am looking for a good news calendar for 2025.  I find one, but the calendar is sold out, so I guess I am a bit tardy in my search. Instead, I happen upon weird things artists use to make art.  What made me wonder this is the strange tropical house plant made out of felt in the Globe and Mail.  What other materials do people use to make their sculptures?  Lauren Was and Adam Eckstrom's sculptures are made out of lottery tickets.  Dream Car made of $39,000 worth of lottery tickets to represent the retail cost of the new car in 2008, is a large-scale installation that ruminates on money spent on dreams and the risky behaviours that accompany these goals.  They also use afterworld money.  I find out that this is spirit money, a "a form of joss paper", (incense paper) an offering used in traditional Chinese ancestor worship. It is a burnt offering to the deceased so that they have money to spend in the afterlife.   The articles say the lottery tickets are discarded:  "We kept finding these lost lottery tickets littered all over the ground and we started picking them up thinking they were someone's lost wish; that they were this hope and dream that they had and then they tossed it away. We started thinking about what those dreams actually meant and what happens if you collected enough of those to make that dream into a reality." At the end of the article, it says:  More stories like this one.  I think one is enough for today.   Here's another one of my abstracts -  this is at the car wreckers yard.

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Nov 21 2024 - That duct-tape banana

 

Remember that banana?  Duct-taped to a wall.  It was in Miami at an art show a few years ago.  It isn't the same banana.  But it still is art. The first edition of the artwork debuted in 2019 at the Art Basel Miami Beach art fair, drawing a mix of opinions as to whether it was a joke or cheeky commentary on questionable standards among art collectors.  Another artist took the banana off the wall and ate it.  But that didn't stop it from being a lasting piece of art. What makes it a permanent art piece is its "certificate." So this week a person purchased the certificate of authenticity that gives them the authority to duct-tape a banana to a wall and call it Comedian by artist Maurizio Cattelan.   What makes this news? The piece was sold for $5.2 and the auction fees are $1 million.   Don't you think the auction fees are as much of a story as the banana art?  Supposedly the seller's commission at major auction houses is 15% plus shipping, insurance and then a marketing and cataloguing fee.   Other articles say that buyers premiums have increased to 25%. Stories like this ask us what we are to make of the art world?  The art world certainly makes headlines, so maybe that's all there is to it - it keeps people with a lot of money busy spending it, and a lot of people have good jobs selling it.

Here's the graffiti alley in St. Catharines.

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Feb 18 2024 - Stolen Children's Art on Fine Art America

 

My website points to the Fine Art America page that I have.  Fine Art America is probably the largest website platform for artists.   It is a print-on-demand art platform with all kinds of products available - not just prints on paper, metal and so on, but printing on fabric for t-shirts, mugs, tote bags, towels and jigsaw puzzles and so on. Today's Globe and Mail is a fraud lawsuit brought against a Quebec school teacher who has posted over a thousand images of his students' work on Fine Art America. The lawsuit is currently for $1.4 million.  The Globe is a little behind - the story has gained international attention and has already made news headlines in Australia, the U.K., and the United States.  I can't imagine the work effort involved - each item has to be uploaded, named, tagged, and so on.   While the artist page and portfolio is gone from Fine Art America, the remnants can be found in google searches.

What great images - a children's collective page would be a wonderful idea.  Too bad he was stealing rather than showcasing all this great talent.  You can see the Fine Art America images interspersed with the News story images.    Koi fish swimming in a circle return us to a more normal realm of images.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Jan 14 2024 - Art Trends 2024

 

What do you think of what news there is in the art world today? There are 45 art magazines and publications listed for us to follow in 2024.  What do you think about the Hi_Fructose name? What about Art and Cake or Hyperallergic?  My knowledge is extremely low in this area so I wonder what is in the scope of an art magazine.  I think maybe visual arts.  But art has a broad scope -  not just painting but  music, literature, and dance.   Everything expressive.    I focused on traditional art - like visual art - painting, sculpture, etc. and what I find is that predicting 2024 trends in art is big business - just like Pantone and Benjamin-Moore predicting 2024 colours.  One site says colourful art - vibrancy beyond boundaries will take "centre stage in 2024" with "palettes that evoke emotions and spark joy."  Doesn't that sound like the patter of the Benjamin-Moore and Pantone sites.   It suggests that it is all about selling.  Expanding your art collection.   With the internet anyone can investigate the latests trends, ideas, and fashions.  So there are trends from the point of view of the museum and art gallery curators and from the point of view of art patrons and investors.  There are days worth of reading in this area. Something caught my attention:  What is considered vintage and antique? "New collectors are increasingly drawn to vintage and antique pieces that boast compelling backstories and originality—and for many, the works of the 20th century perfectly satisfy this interest."   This picture from our trip to Cuba caught my attention - as our street light was causing reflections on the street from the rain.  The temperature is dropping, though, and the clouds are racing by and soon to bring more rain and then snow. So maybe the next picture from January 2014 is what is in store - that was the polar vortex year and this was ice in the greenhouse. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Oct 21 2023 - Optical Illusions

 

What do you think of optical illusions?  I've always enjoyed them.  The figure-ground shift images of of M.C. Esher's work has always been appealing.   TikTok creator Mia Yilin seems to have "discovered" optical illusion personality tests! The news media picks up these stories and repeats them - here's the newsmediaempire's coverage of this 'spot on' optical illusion that has exploded in popularity online to reveal what your reputation is and what your loved ones admire about your personality.  "This brainteaser was first shared on social media by the optical illusion specialist Mia Yilin, who has shocked users with her ability to read people’s personalities through her quirky psychological pictures." So I gave Google the test to find the sunflower seeds - that's the friendly personality and poor Google missed that one entirely and only found microscopic images of various things.  Not a sunflower seed in sight.   And how did that Daily Express article with a picture of Tom Hanks and a baby get associated with the two men vs sunflower seeds optical illusion? Another test of personality.

From the ridiculous to the sublime of Koi swimming.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Oct 17 2023 - Art vs Craft

 

Crafts vs art.  What is the difference? The definition seem to derive from art being painting/drawing and sculpture and craft is the other stuff.   So much confidence in these definitions: "Art and craft have always been closely linked and entwined. We often speak of ‘arts and crafts’ as one discipline or activity." "A craft or trade is traditionally a hobby or an occupation that requires skilled workers to produce an item. Crafts can include weaving, carving, pottery, embroidery, macrame, beading, sewing, quilting, and many other forms." "Crafting always results in a tangible output or item, for example, molding, carving, or sewing. Historically, craft was considered to be a lower form of creativity than arts such as painting or sculpture." Explanations go on to distinguish between the "High arts" and the rest are called the "low arts".  Then things got all mixed up:  Fine artists like Judy Chicago used crafts skills to make artwork that used ceramics, metalwork, and needlework. Chicago’s mixed-media installation artwork “The Dinner Table” is one of the best examples of the use of craft in fine art.  All this is very academic and seems very ernest.   I wondered about it because of all the Pinterest articles on how to paint abstracts using weird objects like window cleaners, pot scrubbers, or balloons.  Here are two examples - aren't they tantalizing.  What is the end result? Who would guess art would go down this path of do-it-yourself fun and games, making a mock of "high art".  And here's a wonderful railroad model.

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July 17 2023 - AI Generated Art

 

I read a blog post from Sebastian Michaels cautioning about AI Art.  He showed the images below that were generated by AI Art based on the single term “woman”.  I took those images and searched the Google image feature which looks for similar images.  And that got me to AI Art - the website selling AI Generated Art.  And there were more like the ones below.  All kinds of art.  Even an AI Art Generator for us to use.  Their proprietary AI algorithms have carefully selected and managed images by their team of art experts.   Will we all be intermixed on Fine Art America?  Real people works of art and AI generated art?  Will I say in my profile “I am a real person.”  How might I prove this?  How curious it seems. Here are the AI generated images below.

How did the AI software get to choosing this version/interpretation? It seems to me that there is a a gathering of collective intelligence.  If one is scanning all the literature or pictures and then creating from that wealth of infomation, then won’t a dominant view prevail?  I don’t know how artificial intelligence assembles the result.  I know this seems a strange interpretation of “woman.” Here’s a retrieval of images that match the AI-Generated one on the left.  Ever so similar - which is by a real artist and which isn’t?  So on we go to the picture of the day - a collage of images from the Design competition in the Lily Show.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

July 11 2022 - Sand Art Summer

 

Look at that picture from the CBC article on Jim Denevan's sand art in Tofino, B.C.  The artist creates these to be washed away, but preserves the art with various pictures - especially from a helicopter.  There will  be satellite images to capture it too.   The intention was for this one to be washed away on the weekend.  There's the news story rush before it happens and then silence.  I assume the tides came in on time.  His website bio says he is an artist, chef, and founder of Outstanding in the Field.  "His life and art are the subject of the recently released film Man in the Field (2021), wherein director Patrick Trefz charts Denevan’s experiences over a period of eight years, exploring themes of process, grief, and discovery. Denevan lives in Santa Cruz, California." At the other end of the scale is sand artist James Sun in Toronto who uses a needle and a spoon to create sand art in glass jars.  His website is Fallinginsand.com and he showcases his work with time-lapse photography  of the creation of the art.  You can see this at tiktok.com/@fallinginsand.

You don't get to Niagara-on-the-Lake without crossing over the Welland Canal.  The bridge was up when I got to the Carlton Street bridge. The wait is usually 10 - 20 minutes. It is a long enough wait that there's a sign that says turn engine off.   So I got out of the car and went over to the fence to watch this boat come through.  I  turned around the car and went to the Lakeshore Bridge.  That's because another boat was coming the other way into the lock and it was going to take another 15 or 20 minutes before the bridge came down again.  That was garden tour in Niagara-on-the-Lake day, and no time to contemplate the Great Lake tankers. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

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July 6 2022 - Water Slides On High

 

What is a slip 'n slide?  Maybe a water slide.  I've never been on a water slide.  They came on the scene after my childhood.   The old Guinness World Record for a water slide was 2,021 feet long.  How long is a mile? There's 5,280 feet in a mile.  So this is half a mile.  It is a similar to the distance from my house to Cole's Florist and Garden Centre.  That's a lot of water in a tube. The current record is 1,111 metres or 3,645 feet - in the rainforest in Malaysia.  Two people go together and it is somewhere between three minutes and four and a half minutes long,  given the various reports.  One article says that it is like coasting across twelve football fields.  And that article complained it is too long. It is a 70 meter slope.  Here's the overhead picture to give you the sense of it.  There are pictures of the open parts and it looks like there are places with 6 lanes.  Actually I was wondering about much simpler things - playground slides.  I was thinking of Millie, our dog, who goes down the little kid slide in the park.  It is cute.  I think of these slides as more "normal".  But that's not the case. The pictures of playground slides show strange  and unusual designs - they are the longest and the tallest, etc.  They are also called tube slides. The longest is located in London at  580 feet long. It doesn't look fun to me.  The picture makes it look creepy.   For for all these "thrill rides", there are articles about tragic accidents.  Those show up over and over.  But if we turn to the biggest and "best" playgrounds in the world, that's a more interesting story.  HERE's the article with pictures. They seem to be amazingly creative designs.

I have to check out the Royal Botanical Gardens soon to see how the water lilies are doing.  They dye the water black so with a little extra photoshop work, one has quite an interesting image.  Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca