Out of This World! Space Exploration as Art

Science can also be beautiful wall art!

Happy Easter 2016! Χριστός ἀνέστη!

Best wishes to all for a happy, contemplative, and restful Easter!  This year's art of the Resurrection comes from Baroque Venetian painter Sebastiano Ricci and dates around 1715-16.  Currently it resides in the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London.  Click the image to enlarge for better detail.

Usually for holiday art postings I go for something from the Renaissance, but Ricci's vision has such a wonderful sense of color and composition.  Immortal angels and all-too-human soldiers alike are stunned by the sheer power of the figure of Christ risen in sublime glory.

For more Easter art (and related items), see the archives here.

From the Trenches of WWI to the Hundred Acre Wood

Did you know this about Ernest Howard Shepard, the man behind the charming original illustrations for Winnie the Pooh?

Happy Easter 2015! Christos Anesti!

Happy Easter, everybody!  This year's Easter art is a painting (c. 1511) that was only recently identified as a work by Titian, one of the artistic giants of the Italian Renaissance.

Nerd News: Trigger Warnings, Free Speech, and Academic Freedom

Oh, for Pete's sake.  Read this and this, which also gives us the quote of the day:

"Trigger warnings are presented as a gesture of empathy, but the irony is they lead only to more solipsism, an over-preoccupation with one’s own feelings—much to the detriment of society as a whole. Structuring public life around the most fragile personal sensitivities will only restrict all of our horizons. Engaging with ideas involves risk, and slapping warnings on them only undermines the principle of intellectual exploration. We cannot anticipate every potential trigger—the world, like the Internet, is too large and unwieldy. But even if we could, why would we want to? Bending the world to accommodate our personal frailties does not help us overcome them."

Speaking of triggers, how many warnings do you think this bit of classic Weird Al hilarity would now require? 

Trigger Happy.

A Matter of Perspective

Landmarks from different angles!

Happy Easter! Χριστὸς ἀνέστη!

Veteran readers of this blog know that every Easter Sunday I post a great master's artistic rendition of the Resurrection.  This year's art is a piece of the masterful Averoldi Polyptych by Titian.  Dated 1520-22, the polyptych resides in the church of Santi Nazaro e Celso in Brescia, Italy.

If you'd like a little artistic journey through the past, you can see my curated Easter art from 2010 (Fra Angelico), 2011 (Michelangelo), 2012 (Veronese), and 2013 (Michelangelo again).

PS: Cool factoid: This year everybody celebrates Easter on the same day - Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant.

Point A to Point B Never Looked So Good

Get an eyeful of Jug Cerovic's gorgeous subway maps for 12 major cities from Moscow to Mexico City!

Guerrilla Street Art: An Apologia

Kudos to Banksy and his brethren.

Magnificent Maps!

Cartography as lovely art.

Art History Nerd Fun: Identifying the Artist

This is hilarious.  The last one made me laugh out loud.

Quirky Asia Files: Baggage Claim Art in Japanese Airports

It's like conveyor belt sushi, only bigger, inedible, and, occasionally, Disgustingly Cute.

Fishing for Compliments: Gyotaku

So are you trying to tell me that an entire art form arose from guys' desire to document and brag about the fish they caught? LOVE THAT!

Letters From the Pacific Theater

As we observe Memorial Day, here's a bit of fascinating history in the form of beautiful correspondence sent by Corporal Jack Fogarty from the Army's 98th Evacuation Hospital in World War II.  More here.

Can Pinturicchio Paint with All the Colors of the Wind?

Is this 15th-century fresco the first Western artistic depiction of Native Americans?  Pinturrichio executed this in 1494, just two years after Columbus's epoch-shaking voyage to the New World.

Friday Fun: One Dad's Lunch Bag Art

As the artistic dad David LaFerriere explains on his Flickr page, 

Since May 2008 I have been drawing on my kids' sandwich bags with a Sharpie marker. Each drawing is done just after I make the sandwich. I take a picture and post to flickr. My kids don't see the drawing until it is lunchtime. The challenges are coming up with an idea and then drawing quickly and directly on the bag, every line counts.

Take a look at this amazing gallery!

Quirky Asia Files: Giant Rubber Ducky in Hong Kong

Rubber ducky, you're the one!

Say Cheese!: the 2013 Sony World Photography Awards

Take a look at the gorgeous photos chosen for the open-competition shortlist.  Want more?  Check out the professional shortlist.  Things like this makes me wonder what would have happened if I had chosen a different career path - I've always loved photography.  Yeah, yeah, I know, Asians, cameras, blah blah blah.

Sing It: "Rubber Ducky, You're the One!"

Say "G'day!" to this huge new visitor to Sydney Harbor.

Art Imitates Crop Circles

Art? Exercise? Both!