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Google is hosting new web fonts for everyone.  Way to make the internet look better!  Now we don’t have to choose from those 5 old options anymore.

In her comment in her response to Long Day’s Journey: 8 Hours With Artist Marina Abramovic, starzshine taps into the value of art.

Try as I may I was unable to get him to understand the sadness I felt when looking into the depth of a Rothko, but it kept comming back to the Abramovic performance. He would go to the window… look, and then comment again on how pointless the whole thing was. Over, and over. I finally had to say, “I don’t care how you feel about it. The point is that you feel something. You keep looking, you keep talking about it. Isn’t that what art is about? To convey an emotion, to make you participate in an experience?” He didn’t know. All I could do was shake my head.

A really wonderful account and review of the experience of standing in line for “The Artist is Present”

Edward Winkleman ponders the question of whether a MFA is really necessary.

FYI this roundup is totally unfair to people working in video or performance.  The opening show is much too chaotic, crowded, and loud to experience those things. Jen Susman Jack Leamy Emily Dippo made viewers that correlate with walks around the city “to encourage wonder while experiencing the city” Kim Cook made water bottle backpacks and drawings of their (impractical) usage Ashley Harris

Thinking about money and how it can work in the art world is on a lot of people’s minds these days.  Elysa Lozano, an artist working as “Autonomous Organization”, has created a compendium of project spaces around the world, all talking about how and why they started and how their funding works. From her statement:

The motivations behind these initiatives are inextricably linked to the manner of funding them. What constitutes an acceptable way to get funding is as much a question of the integrity of the intention as it is a question of survival… It is also my hope that by publishing the anecdotes and experiences of the people who run these spaces that the creative ideas and strategies will become a resource to anyone currently running an independent project or thinking of starting one up.

Project Space Survival Strategies was produced in collaboration with Invisible Venue.  The project is ongoing, and accepts contributions from anyone running project spaces.  You can find the survey here.

I’m aware that this is a bit old, but I just watched this interview with Steve Lambert for Prix Ars Electronica and really loved how he spoke about the idea of a new form of activism.  There is something stale about the march and this paper in it’s positive message as opposed to a march’s (usually) negative message feels different and good. Steve Lambert on The New York Times Special Edition from Steve Lambert on Vimeo.

Pretty awesome.

This is exciting.  City Car Share is teaming up with Spride to develop a system that allows individual car owners to add their cars to the city car share fleet in their unused hours.  This is good in so many ways.  Non car owners get access to many more cars and locations, car owners get paid to help them with the costs of owning a car, yet have control over when they need the car, and life is better for everyone when less cars are owned.  (except car dealers).   People without cars are much more likely to take public transportation, even when the commute is longer and save greenhouse gases like crazy.  Case in point: I am writing this on the Dumbarton Express during my two hour commute to Palo Alto. Yet before this can go into effect, the law has to change so that insurance companies can allow this to happen.  Assemblyman Dave Jones, D-Sacramento has introduced a bill (AB 1871) that would amend state car insurance laws to allow personal vehicles to be used in car-sharing programs. Currently, auto insurers prohibit individual policyholders from renting out their personal vehicles.  Read more about this here or view the bill here. If you want this to happen, contact your legislators and let them know what you think: Assembly Senate Or sign this petition!

Karen Ryan: Cabinet Chair with Blanket, 2010 I loved this piece by Karen Ryan.  There is something so evocative, anthropomorphic, and nostalgic about old wooden furniture. Anne Toebbe, Vacuming the Dining Room, 2009 Pello Irazu, FR, 2008 Pello Irazu, Untitled, 2010 (left) and La Fabrica, Miami II, 2008 Yun Jeong Hong, Episteme, 2009 Jason Dunda, 2008-2010 Kirsten Kindler, stairwells salon, 2009 Cordy Ryman Abel Rodriguez, Untitled 1, 2009

Over the next bit o time, I’m going to post about some themes I saw popping up at Artropolis.  Most are NEXT heavy, except this post, which has three artists’ works found in Art Chicago.

Elizabeth Jaeger:  BFF, 2009  Throughout the weekend, three ladies would perform around this sculpture.  Wearing tights, jockstraps, black pumps, and nylons tied around them in odd ways, they would strike a pose and gaze off into nowhere for hours at a time.  Here’s a picture.

Mary Ellen Mark:  Heather and Kelsey Dietrick, 7 years old, Kelsey older by 66 minutes, 2002  from her book, Twins

Bill Durgin:  Nude and Still Life I

Chechu Alava painted almost exclusively staring young ladies in multiple: Sisters

Chechu Alava: The Romanovs

Alec Soth: Sandra and Indre, Milan, 2010

Langdon Graves, not exactly, 2008

PJ Smalley sent us this lovely picture as soon as he opened his package to prove his love.   Thanks PJ! If anyone’s interested, this t-shirt could be yours too.

Oh my. Oh oh my.  Incredible looking recipes, photos, and website design.  I will be trying some of these.

Exciting!  Another player on the subscription scene, St. Paul’s Springboard for the Arts and mnartists.org have teamed up for a hyper local version of this idea to support local art, artists and collectors.   Over the course of 3 months, collectors will receive 3 boxes containing (I think) three works each.  There are 9 artists who will be commissioned to make an edition of 50 and the cost for a share is $300.  It is pretty exciting to see that their network is so involved that they sold out in less than 12 hours!  And they are already taking reservations (for a $100 price) for the fall season.  Similar to Art in a Box, they will have local “Pick up Parties” at different art organizations, furthering the feeling of being part of a community. From their press release:

The goals of the CSA program are to support artists and to create a community of engaged local arts supporters.  CSA supports artists: in the creation of new work, to establish relationships with local collectors and patrons, and to participate in the launch of an exciting new model of art support and distribution.  CSA Share member benefits include multiple works of art from local emerging and mid-career artists at a fantastic value! Additionally, CSA Share members have the opportunity to develop relationships with the local artists and art community, discover new artists, explore a variety of disciplines and support artists’ careers and a vibrant community.

Watches have a long  history of having a little dial that indicates the moon phase.  But as many of us now refer to our cell phones for the time instead of a wristwatch, some people are rethinking the watch and what it’s focus could be. The Emotion Lab‘s prototype for a MoonWatch reminded me so much of Helena Keeffe‘s Moon Phase Lapel Pins (TPG11)  that I had to post them.  It appears that this is just a design project at this time, not an actual product. It would be really neat. Found via dvdp However, the Citizen Astrodea Moon Age Watch is actually in production and is limited to 300 pieces a year. It’s a serious astrological device. Real-time measurements makes it possible to tell sidereal time, current time, and position as well as the outline of the sun on the earth. Once mastered, you can know where and when the sun and moon will rise and set, in addition to a seemingly endless list of functions.

We’re very excited and honored to have been interviewed by Brian Andrews of Bad at Sports and to show up in Art Practical. Click Here to read the full interview The audio version of the interview will be released on Bad at Sports on this Sunday 4/25.

Urban Homesteading, making your own Mead, SoEx Hootenanny and more…. “Canning is the new knitting.”

Hello, useful.

I love the nature of this program: match up artists and technologists for 48 hrs and see what you get.  And it is great to hear that it worked to some degree.  I too, would love to see more of these programs.

One of the nice things about art is that it provides refuge from other people’s chaos, a place to think, quietly. –Tyler Green, Modern Art Notes via Twitter