Making art can be very time-consuming and expensive. And as any artist can tell you, one of the greatest challenges is finding the time and resources to do it every day.

David Hinnebusch is an L.A.-based artist who has come to terms with the fact that he needs some help with being consistently creative. He’s applied for a Kickstarter loan, which will help him accomplish his goal of making 100 paintings in 100 days. David has attempted this goal once before, but he didn’t get to 100 paintings because he ran out of paint and canvases.

This project is not only incredibly important to David, it’s also of major importance to the creative community at large. If other artists can see that David is able to make art every single day for 100 days, they’ll realize that it’s well within their grasp to be consistently creative too, and with consistent creativity comes a creative instinct. An artist has to be willing to create for the sake of creation, rather than for the sake of making a masterpiece, and that takes time, effort, and most importantly, routine. No great artist ever sat down and banged out their opus in one shot. It takes practice. Lots and lots of practice.

This blog post isn’t really about helping David fund raise; although, any donations to his campaign would be a wonderful byproduct. It’s more about the understanding that being creative is a lifestyle, and that it takes really hard work. There’s nobody telling you what to do, it has to come from within, and that’s what makes it so very difficult and so very admirable.

David Choe is a darling of the young, street-wise art scene. His dark, gritty compositions and filthy mouth have gained him some notoriety, enough so that a young business man asked him to do some art in his new Palo Alto office space.

Back in 2005,  then Facebook president Sean Parker took a shine to Choe and his work, and commissioned him to do some murals in the Facebook office space. Back then money was tight for the fledgling company, so Parker offered Choe the choice between cash and stock in the start-up. Choe picked the stock, and 7 years later he could very soon be worth upwards of $200 million.

David hasn’t made any statements regarding the windfall, but I just hope that the money doesn’t cause him to stop making art or start being boring. I’ve been a fan of David Choe for a little while now, mostly because that dude has a FILTHY mouth, but also because he is so incredibly free with his thoughts and opinions. He does and says whatever he wants, and I can’t help but wonder if having a whole lot to lose will change his life in ways he didn’t expect.

I can’t tell if I’m excited or scared that animated GIFs are the wave of the future….I suppose it doesn’t matter; they’re coming whether I like it or not.

Recently the New York Public Library transformed their extensive collection of stereographs into graphic interchange format files, aka GIFs. (Hyperallergic)

It’s really great that these lovely and historical images are now accessible to a wider audience than every before, but do the wiggling sepia colors make anyone else a bit queasy?

Sh*t various people say. This is a hilarious thing.

I just came across this one, made by Creative Time in NYC. It’s quite good, definitely LOL’d. But I feel that it’s lacking a couple of art-world zingers, which I have insight into because I’m an art world outsider / insider, not an insider / outside. Did you catch the nuance there?

If I had some fancy camera equipment, thick glasses, bangs, and a thin, bearded friend I would probably add a few lines to the script and call it “Scenes from the Art World” Here we go:

Art Professor #1: Tell me about your process.
Artist: Well, I begin by gessoing the canvas, and then I do a foundation sketch.
Art Professor #1: NO! Tell us about YOUR process!
Artist: Um, oh. Okay, I guess in essence it’s about identity. My work explores the allure of the “other”. Essentially, This work is a palimpsest. What i’m trying to isolate is the synecdoche of SELF.
Art Professor #2: Good, good. Very thought provoking. But we still need to see more of YOU in this piece. Are you familiar with the Malaysian performance piece at the last Whitney Triennial?
Art Professor #1: Yes, I agree with everything he just said. We need MORE. I’d take a page from Terence Koh’s book. He removes all traces of SELF from the composition, so all we really see is him. I think you should really rethink your thesis here.
Artist: *fills out job application to Starbucks*
FIN

Art aficionado #1: Did you hear that Bushwick is the new Chelsea?
LES (aka Lower East Side, Manhattan) Gallerist: No, No. The LES is the new Chelsea. Bushwick is the new Williamsburg, and Williamsburg is the New Portland, OR.
FIN

Gallery patron: This piece would look really good in my living room. My drapes are that same color!
Gallerist: Oh, we typically frown upon basing art acquisitions on what color the piece is.
Gallery patron: Um, okay, I still want to buy it.
Gallerist: Great! We don’t offer discounts to first time clients. Where shall I have it shipped? Can you email me your FedEx account number?
FIN

Art aficionado #1: I scored VIP passed to Basel. I can’t wait to break out my summer greys.
Art aficionado #2: Right?? I bought a new pair of vintage, non-prescription glasses with wood frames, just for the  Gagosian tent. It’s going to be very Ahn Duong meets Woody Allen.
FIN

High school student: Hello, I’m here on a class project. Can you tell me about this painting?
Gallerist: Sure! That’s an amazing piece. It would make a perfect addition to any art collection. That artist did his MFA at Yale, but never actually graduated from high school. His work is SO Juxtapoz.
High School Student: Okay, um, what’s Juxtapoz?
Gallerist: What? Oh, you’re not familiar? Okay, so do you have a place picked out for the piece? I could maybe talk to the artist about giving a discount, although he probably won’t do it considering he’s not making work anymore in favor of going back to school to become an astronomer.
High School Student: Can you just sign this so I can go?
Gallerist: Sure! Will you write down your email address so I can send you some images of the piece? You can take some time to think about it. Also, we do offer payment plans!
FIN

The economic terrain is rocky to say the least. From what I can remember, my grandmother always used to tell me that gold and silver were safe investments, but now experts are saying we can add art and wine to the list of places where you can invest money safely – hence the acronym SWAG: silver, wine, art, and gold.

The S&P is practically dragging itself about, a tenth of a point by a tenth of point, but art sales at Sotheby’s and Christie’s have seen growth upwards of 35%. An article written by Joe Roseman, the chap who coined the acronym SWAG, reports that, “…fine art as a whole has appreciated by 120% over the last decade.”

Obviously not all of us can walk into a Sotheby’s auction and drop a couple hundred thousand, but if we start to think about art as a safe way to expand our net worth it becomes very important to think about what your particular artistic tastes are, and any avid collector will tell you that the first rule of art collecting is to follow your gut. Art is a great investment because not only are you increasing your portfolio, but you’re acquiring something that you love and that, with proper care, will last forever. As the art world continues to expand and become more welcoming to novice collectors, it makes sense to start poking around to find out what you like. Maybe you could start out at a little site called TurningArt. Just a suggestion…

Leo Tolstoy. Not a morning person, clearly.

I love seeing what my favorite authors look like. I tend to conjure up mental images of them, and it’s fun to incorporate reality into my fantasy. This list of famous literary mustaches not only corresponds to my mental image of these great literary minds, but also kind of makes me want to read / reread every book these chaps ever wrote.

Obvious winner: Mark Twain / Samuel Clemens

Darkhorse: Nietche

But my favorite: Tolstoy. I love the idea of this solemn, beardy gent writing about the likes of Anna Karenin and Kitty. That book is like The Real Housewives of 19th century Russia, and I LOVED it. (…except for the ending that is; I don’t think I’m giving anything away when I say that the ending reflects how bummed out Leo looks in this picture.)

If we were to make a list of the greatest ‘staches of the visual arts, we’d obviously have to lead off with Dali, but close on his heels we’d have Henri Mattisse. That’s just off the top of my head. Who am I forgetting??

"Paloma is from Budapest. She’s studying Art History and would like to be a curator, one day."

I have it on very good authority that some dudes have been known to use their art collection and knowledge of art to woo that special someone, but if you’re a cultured dude and you’re still on the hunt for a cultured babe, look no further!

For your viewing pleasure: Babes at the Museum.

Lots of beautiful stuff can be found at the museum. And not all of it is technically “art.”

Archived Visualization by Kate Watson, NYU / Tisch ITP Class of 2012

I used to get anxious about our dependence on technology. I’d think about how much more comfortable writing an email or sending a text message was than picking up a phone or, God forbid, talking to someone in person. And I’d worry that we were distancing ourselves from one another by allowing ourselves to be constantly mediated by technology.

Recently, however, my fears were eased by this article in the Huffington Post written by Kevin Bleich, a member of the class of  2012 Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) at NYU/Tisch School of the Arts. He speaks of the opportunities currently being created, by his classmates and a multitude of other “creative technologist”, to increase and enhance the ways in which we as humans interact with the world, and with each other.  He writes “They have awakened to the potential, and they possess a fire that drives them to do something more, something important, something necessary, before we go too far off the cliff and lose our humanity forever.”

It is comforting to know that the smartest and most dynamic people in the world share my fears and are working to make sure technology doesn’t replace our consciousness, but rather enhances the way we experience and engage with the world around us. According to Bleich, 2012 is the year we will use technology for the good of humanity; and I, for one, am now excited for what comes next.

Clyfford Still J No 2, 1957

So this happened.

Some woman got drunk and tried to pee on a really valuable piece of artwork. Luckily, the stream missed it’s intended target and she only got as far as rubbing her booty all up on the painting. Needless the say, the art world is in a tizzy and the interwebs are rampant with reports of the crime.

Don’t get me wrong. I believe that art has an extraordinary spiritual and financial value. The destruction of any artwork is as abhorrent a behavior as they come. That said, I think that the prices of blue chip artwork have gotten way out of control, and the factors which those valuations are based on have very little to do with the aesthetic or historical value of the artwork itself.

The Clyfford Still painting in question is worth $30+ million. (Fun fact: broken into one dollar bills, that weighs 30 tons)

At a 4% interest rate, $30 million earns about $100k in one month.

The average yearly salary for a woman in the United States is roughly $20k.

This means that assuming Carmen Tisch earns a median salary (which I doubt she does judging by the throat tattoo and B.A.C.) in ONE YEAR she makes less than A THIRD of what the value of this painting earns in interest in one MONTH. Taking into consideration recent art auction records which report collectors routinely spending millions of dollars on artwork, it means that someone somewhere, has that kind of money or net worth, and they’re just sitting there making double her worth by doing nothing.

Was Carmen sitting at the bar doing the math while getting drunk enough to pull this ridiculous stunt? Probably not. I’m sure I’m reading into this too much, and that I’m projecting some of my own ideas and assumptions onto this situation, but it bears consideration that the estimated $10k cost of fixing the damage done by one butt could feed a family for weeks. Do I support what she did? Absolutely not! Do I understand why someone would do it in the name of sociopolitical confusion and frustration? Yeah. I kind of do.

Also, drink responsibly. And tip your waitress. Well.

Like Jackson Pollock, Frankenthaler chose to paint in the floor rather than on an easel.

The artist Helen Frankenthaler passed away on December 27th and the age of 83. She was a major contributor to the history of postwar American painting. Classified as “Color Field” her work is characterized by large areas of a more or less flat single color. The Color Field artists set themselves apart from the Abstract Expressionists by eliminating the emotional, mythic and religious content and by refraining from highly personal and gestural and painterly application.

In regards to being a woman in a male-dominated field, Frankenthaler had this to say, “”For me, being a ‘lady painter’ was never an issue. I don’t resent being a female painter. I don’t exploit it. I paint.”

Her New York Times obituary can be viewed here.