Street Artist Ron English

Ron English can often be found sitting on a stoop on Main Street, sketching on cardboard or writing his thoughts on a sheaf of paper. For this post, I googled his name and came up with a great post about him. If you see him, say hi, and if you like what you see, buy a drawing.

I like his art quite a bit, but this is not the best example:
 

 

For Memorial Day: About the National Anthem

High School Student Art at Library

Some great art by local high school students on display currently in the Main Public Library lobby:
 

- Maddie Sabatelli, American Hipster

 

-Dan Riemen, A Grizzly's Chortle

This one is fantastic
 

-Jack Wirth, Big Book of Seek and Find

Why Beauty Matters

Beauty is assailed by two directions, by the cult of ugliness in the arts and by the cult of utility in everyday life. These two cults come together in the world of modern architecture -Roger Scrutton, in part 2 at 6:45

"Form follows function" - Louis Sullivan

This returns me to Oscar Wilde's remark that all art is useless. Put usefulness first and you lose it. Put beauty first and what you do will be useful forever. It turns out that nothing is more useful than the useless..

Part 2
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6

Sunday Inspiration

A blind painter:

The Documentary from John Bramblitt on Vimeo.

via Psychology Today

Urban Sketchers

This site Urban Sketchers is so inspirational to me. I hope to do more sketching this next year, so I'm going to stop by Suder's and buy a small watercolor packet.

..Urban Sketchers is...dedicated to raising the artistic, storytelling and educational value of location drawing, promoting its practice and connecting people around the world who draw on location where they live and travel...

This one by Rene Fijten showing a glowing City hall in Aachen reminded me that I wanted to make a post about how night lighting changes the city, especially at this time of year:

The posted sketches are very good. A couple I particularly noticed were Bill Dennis and Sharon Frost

Know Theater South Mural

I didn't even see this until this week. Probably been up for months. Just don't walk up Jackson Street much I guess.

Vine Street Print Party Saturday

Our neighbors, Mike and Maya, also known as Visualingual, have produced a print that represents the 1200 block of Vine Street. Sale of this print will benefit the Contact Center, which is located at 1225 Vine (closeup of this building shown above). This Saturday 6-9pm at MiCA 12/v, there is a reception/launch party for the print. I am very fond of this block and think the print is excellent. I will be there, hope to see you.

Face Fountain

Interactive public art in Chicago:

Born Again

Happy Halloween
 

J. Cobb's artwork on display at MiCa 12V now.

Some Chicago Pics

Torsos
 

I didn't even really like this sculpture, but the photos are ok:
torsos 2
 

Planetarium
 

Train arriving
 

Looking out the front of the El Train
 

Frank Gehry, self pleasuring himself:
 

Gehry more restrained
 

walking across the bridge
 

Michigan Avenue Skyline
 

Banking area
 

Chinatown
 

And a few of the suburb of Oak Park:
Business area buildings
 

Great building entry:
 

Kick ass corner building at street level
 

What City

I have a hundred photos I'd like to post from our trip this weekend, but until then, guess the city:
 

UPDATE, Yes...Chicago:

This has to be the most photographed modern sculpture in the world! When we were heading to Millenium Park, we were following huge crowds, all converging on this reflective bean:
 

whole bean 2 

The fact that we are all attracted to a huge mirror maybe says something about human nature?
 

Just Because It's a Theme Song

...Don't Mean it Ain't True... 

We just saw Tropic Thunder a few days ago, and then I happened upon this. To buy this painting, visit Greg Storer's website here.

A Culture of Cynics

'You know, I think it's harder to create something that's life-affirming than something that is cynical.'

I heard this quote yesterday at the end of a story on WVXU about a new play "Superior Donuts". The thought is probably not original, but struck me as not just kinda true, but deeply true and indicative of the modern era we inhabit. It kinda relates to the "ugly is more interesting" discussion we had here a few months ago.

Since our life on this earth is ultimately a tragic, unstructured, uncentered non-story, is it even a worthwhile effort to try to create human centered beauty in our everyday surroundings? When we do this, are we creating a lie?

I don't think so.

Wire Faces

 

[where: 1821 Race Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202]

Jim Steps on Kid

 

Jacob's Tin Man

Jacob's Sheet Metal Works:
 

[where: 1366 Hopple Street, Cincinnati, OH 45225] (Camp Washington)

Imagination Alley

More murals were being added to the pocket park in the 1300 block of Vine yesterday, and it was hot, like summer hot. Visualingual highlighted this park pretty good last month.

They were adding a mosaic to the ground: 

And boys will climb: 

[Where: 1317-1319 Vine Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202]

The Day of Small Things Photo Exhibition

A photo exhibit of local photographer Michael Wilson's work entitled The Day of Small Things opens this evening at the Weston Art Gallery. It is billed as a mid-career retrospective of the work of Michael Wilson.
The exhibit will include a number of portraits he has created over the years. He has photographed many musicians, including Lyle Lovett, B.B. King and local artists Over the Rhine. I have seen a lot of the portraits, but what I am really looking forward to is the other photos he chose for this exhibit. Be sure to check out the CityBeat article on the show, and make to the exhibit which runs April 10th through June 7th.

Cole Carothers

 

I love this painting, "6th Street Viaduct" by Cole Carothers.

That's all.