Pressure Printing has two beautiful new framed color prints of paintings by Glenn Barr and Amy Crehore. Link

"I'm Learning to Share" has posted three nice galleries of old paperback covers on Flickr: 40s mysteries, 50s and 60s mysteries, and 60s and 70s scholastic book club covers.

Link

One of my favorite living photographers, Charles Gatewood, is best known for documenting the sexual underground, from extreme fetishists to modern primitives. In the 1970s though, Gatewood explored a very different kinky scene: Wall Street. Gatewood describes those documentary images, some of my absolute favorites from his body of work, as "formal and forbidding, providing a visual metaphor for a more secretive perversion, high finance." The Wall Street series, along with some of his incredibly provocative early photos of the sexual underground, will be shown at San Francisco's Robert Tat Gallery in an exhibition opening this Thursday, February 7, and running through March 29. For those unable to visit the gallery, Gatewood's work from this period can also be seen at the gallery's Web site and the artist's own site. Link to online gallery, Link to Gatewood's site (NSFW)

Today on Boing Boing tv: Bigfoot, Chupacabra, a chainsmoking bear -- they all show up in this interview with Adam "Ape Lad" Koford's grandpappy Aloysius Koford.

"Pappy" illustrates cryptozoological wonders from his hobo past with a sometimes-malfunctioning robotic hand. Don't miss the second segment in today's episode, in which "Pappy" and Adam head out into the wilderness to spot cryptid tracks in the dirt. What do Sasquatch footprints taste like? You don't wanna know.

Link to BBtv post with video and discussion. And hey, if you dig this, feel free to Digg this.

Related Boing Boing tv episodes:

Aloysius Koford, Mountain Man.

Ape Lad: The True Hollywood Story of Aloysius Koford

Ape Lad: Hobo Life

Laugh Out Loud Cats: The True History

Mole Men imagined by Ape Lad / Mole Crunk

John Hodgman's Mole Men / Cavalcade of Hobos

Laugh Out Loud Cats: new book by Adam Koford

Tim Biskup is reissuing his first ever vinyl figure, the Pollard, but this time it's cast in shiny chrome. Fancy! The Chrome Pollard is a limited edition of 40 and comes in a wooden box with a signed and numbered serigraphed lid. It'll be available on Friday, 2/8, at noon, for 300 smackers.
Link

Previously on BBtv:
• David meets artist Tim Biskup (video) Link
• Boing Boing hoodie by GAMA-GO with Tim Biskup art Link

UK artist Jodie Carey creates dark, sweet sculptures that, she says, "offer beauty but at the same time confront us with the ugliness of life." Above left, "Untitled Monument," a cake of bones sculpted from plaster, steel, wire, and sugarpaste icing. Above right, "Femur," a bone and flower plaque entirely made from icing. Link (via Morbid Anatomy)

In December, graffiti writers AUGER and REVOK modified a billboard advertising the wonderful Takashi Murakami exhibit at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art. Two days later, the billboard was removed. The LA Weekly now reports that Murakami himself saw online photos of the graffitied billboard and thought it to be "so wonderful, he had to have it for his collection," according to his representatives. So apparently he had it taken down and shipped to his studio in Japan. Link to LA Weekly, Link to LA MOCA's Murakami page

honda
nathan sawaya
henry lim
eric harshbarger
album covers
theorists
nyc
guitars
phone
galvanic skin response detector
dice generator
lego's run
white stripes

Link, Web Zen Home and Archives, Store (Thanks Frank!)

Link, shot by Sean Bonner. I post this not to express a political position -- rather, because it's an interesting example of brevity and simplicity in design.

In the early 1900s, Baptist pastor Clarence Larkin (1850-1924) created large wall charts to help teach the Bible. He called these charts "Prophetic Truth." The topics range from "The Seven Thousand Years of Human History" to "The Failure of Man" to "The (Spiritual) Underworld," seen above. Link (Thanks, Mike Love!)

I have a painting in "A Cabinet of Natural Curiosities," a group show that opens Friday February 8th at Roq La Rue gallery in Seattle.

It's called "Synthetic Swan" and measures 24" x 16". It's cel vinyl on masonite, and is framed. Price: $1200. Contact gallery owner Kirsten if you want more information.

Roq la Rue is pleased to present a huge group show entitled “A Cabinet Of Natural Curiosities”. We asked our artists to create works relating to animals. The mysterious links we have with animals are integral part of our psychological make up. As humans we treasure them, fetishize them, turn them into symbols, anthropomorphize them, and at the same time inflict terrible cruelty upon them. We allow horrific injustices in slaughterhouses to occur and decimate their habitats, yet offer our children stuffed animals for comfort and have whole stores devoted to pampering your pet. The way we relate to the other creatures living on the planet relates directly to the way we view ourselves. This show, while leaning more towards the fanciful rather than the political, offers up a wunderkammer like display of creatures, while addressing many of the issues raised above.

Artists include: Femke Hiemstra, Travis Louie, Brian Despain, Amy Sol, Lisa Petrucci, Chris Ryniak, Chet Zar, Kozydan, Junko Mizumo, Liz McGrath, Kukula, Laura Plansker, Mark Frauenfelder, Christian Vanminnen, Mark Gleason, Nathan Ota, Catalina Estrada, Sarah Joncas, Kamala Dolphin-Kingsley, John Brophy, Anthony Pontius, Jeremy Bennet, Jim Woodring, Heiko Muller, Javier S. Ortega

Link to gallery | Link to more photos of painting

This curious hand-carved wooden table from the 1950s is up for auction on eBay right now. Starting bid is US$350.
Link (Thanks, Michael-Anne Rauback!)

Photographer and blogger Raul Gutierrez says, "Square America has posted an online show titled African-American Portraits & Snapshots, a collection of 160 photographs taken between 1900 to 1975 (several home movies are also included)."

Link (be patient, the site is designed simply and not optimized well, and takes a while to load).

Below, one of the "beautifully abstract" home movies included in Square America's online gallery -- which may end up being a book someday. I sure hope so.

Coop has been photographing his huge collection of Japanese toy monsters. The Flickr set is a joy to behold.

The Bandai Ultra Kaiju served as a gateway drug, leading me into a full-on Japanese toy addiction that I wrestled with for years. Although I found far more rare and priceless treasures before I managed to shake the addiction, (or replace it with other obsessions, you be the judge) these humble sofubi are still among my favorites.

Link

Evoke is an art project that paints the face of the gothic cathedral York Minster with light in response to the voices of the audience who watch it. It's a sweet blend of the psychedelic and the gothic. Link (via IO9)

New Zealand's Catherine David Designs sells these "cowhide rugs" made by cutting vintage carpets into the shape of a cowhide. They also do sheepskins. Link (via Cribcandy)

Ward says:

Just Between Us..., a booklet for girls about menstration; published by Beltix Corporation, copyright 1950, 1955, 1961.

To me, it's amazing that the editors of this little booklet allowed the spokesgirl to have freaky swirly eyes -- usually a sign of craziness or dizziness! This is either a stroke of genius or incredibly inappropriate -- I'm not too sure.

Link

Early Visual Media Archeology is an incredible site filled with examples and history of vintage visual media: photography, early film, TV, conjuring arts, magic lanterns, pre-cinema projected animations, peepshows, and other fantastic optical experiences of yesteryear. Seen here is a stereo autochrome, c. 1912, by Paul Sano. Link (via Morbid Anatomy)

BibliOdyssey has a post about exquisite examples of ornamental typography from the 18th century. These letters-as-art "are elaborated with scrolls and flourishes and then inhabited by satyrs, mermaids, Medusa heads, birds, cats, dogs, snakes, and other creatures." Stunning.
Link

The Guardian has a silly article about George Bush's favorite painting, a 1916 cowboy scene by WHD Koerner. The painting hangs in his office, and he tells people that it's a "beautiful painting of a horseman determinedly charging up what appears to be a steep and rough trail. This is us."

The painting first appeared in the Saturday Evening Post in 1916 "to illustrate a story about a horse thief, and captioned as a picture of his flight from the law. Only later did it illustrate a story about Methodism."

The paper showed the painting to four people: a professor of gender studies, a psychoanalyst, a military historian, and a "psychotherapist and ex-Labour spin doctor," and asked them to analyze the President based on the painting and his story about it.

Derek Draper, psychotherapist and ex-Labour spin doctor: "Most revealing, though, is the simple fact that a healthy mind would look at this image and not be certain what it depicted. Bush, though, as he once told Senator Joe Biden, doesn't "do nuance". Instead he invariably replaces "not-knowing" with prejudiced certainty. A foolish psychological mindset when it comes to art or life; a catastrophic one in politics."

It's interesting that these analysts are taking Bush to task for inventing a story about the painting, instead of having ambiguous feelings about it. As the article states, it has been used at least twice to illustrate two very different stories. What's wrong with coming up with your own interpretation of what a painting means? This is probably the first time in my life that I'm on the President's side. (Also, it's a wonderful painting.) Go, Bush! Link (Thanks, Jane!)

Inside Terrorism: The X-Ray Project is an art exhibition of X-rays and CT-scans from Jerusalem hospitals depicting civilian injuries from terrorist attacks. The full text accompanying the piece shown here reads, "I was in college then, riding the bus to campus. When he exploded, his watch blasted into my neck. Some of the shrapnel tore through my cartoid artery, which carries blood to my brain." The following is from artist Diane Covert's statement about the project:

The idea for Inside Terrorism began to coalesce in my mind in 2002 as a personal response to terrorism and to my discomfort with the way terrorism has been justified in some circles. This is a documentary of survivors of terrorism. Much like photographer Mathew Brady documented the Civil War, people in emergency rooms today are documenting the effects of terrorism. The exhibit is another form of "straight" photography - that is photographs made with an unaltered spectrum of light. With that technology, we are able to look inside terrorism.

Link (Thanks, Mark Pescovitz!)

The Pointless Museum has a complete scan of The Usborne Book of the Future: A Trip in Time to the Year 2000 and Beyond (1979), by Kenneth Gatland and David Jefferis.

A Boing Boing reader says: "The Usborne Book of the Future was a beautifully optimistic look at the future, from the 1970s. See the robots, machines and cities of the future, and then travel to the stars." Link

In this video clip, the Improv Everywhere group brings 207 apparently normal people into Grand Central Station, whereupon they all freeze, at exactly the same instant, for five minutes, standing stock still, as though they were caught in some kind of time-loop. Around them, the Grand Central crowd looks on in wonderment, trying to figure out what's going on -- a little scared, but delighted too. When the frozen hundreds all begin to move again at the same instant, the crowd gives them a standing ovation.

We got great reactions from the folks who encountered us. Strangers started talking to each other, trying to figure out what was going on. With wireless microphones hidden in our shirts, a few agents and I struck up conversations with folks. I convinced one guy to grab a cell phone from a frozen woman's hand. He did it, laughing uncontrollably as he gently put it back in her hand. My favorite reaction was from a female cop who witnessed the whole thing from behind her NYPD recruitment booth:

Me: Do you know what that was?
Cop: I have no idea! That is the craziest shit I've ever seen in my life, AND I'M A COP!
Me: Ha. Yeah, it was weird.
Cop: You wanna sign up to be in the NYPD?
Me: No thanks.

Link (via Kottke)

Mark Allen from Machine Project says,

This Saturday from 8-10pm at Machine Project in Los Angeles we have a new performance by Brody Condon (the same artist who staged a medieval battle inside the gallery in 2004). This time 10 performers outfitted in medieval/space/fantasy armor re-create Bruce Nauman’s 1973 work “Tony Sinking into the Floor, Face Up and Face Down”. Performed in slow motion and combined with movements based on computer game death animations, this piece is accompanied by a high volume binaural beats reputed to induce out of body experiences.

Link to the event page with photos, video and more information. Other projects by Brody Condon include his series of "self-playing" modifications of Northern European Late Medieval religious paintings of 15th century using the Unreal game engine, which can be seen on his website.

We Make Money Not Art has a post up about DIY tractors in rural Poland, photographed by Łukasz Skąpski. Żak Gallery in Berlin is currently showing prints of Skąpski's photos, and there's video of interviews with the farmer-tinkerers circulating somewhere, too. Snip:

In the '60s Poland it was almost impossible to acquire a tractor in Poland. Agricultural machines produced by the country were available mainly for state-owned enterprises. For private farmers these tractors were too expensive and they weren't even robust or efficient enough for the mountain region. Out of necessity they constructed their own machines using spare parts and bits and pieces from whatever machines they could find. Including decommissioned army vehicles and pre-WWI German machines.

Link.

Todd says: "Isabella Rossellini has made a series of short films in which she dresses up like insects (always the males, for some reason) and acts out bug sex. You'll find a quartet of stills at the link." Link

Over at MAKE, Phil Torrone blogs:

This is interesting - it seems that a group of artists have celebrated 1-31-07 in their own way and have created a series of political themed LED art sculptures and (you guessed it) placed them all over Boston. Pictured here, Bush & Bin Laden... Click on through to see more images and if you're in Boston the locations are listed to go on an art tour. Get there before the robots do.

Link (thanks, James P of GRL, who denies any connection to the event)

The Periodic Table Printmaking Project is an international collaboration where 96 artists produced 118 prints, each representing one element. They used a variety of techniques: woodcut, linocut, monotype, etching, lithograph, silkscreen, or a combination. The idea is to "promote both science and the arts." Etsy interviewed AzureGrackle, the organizer of the project. From the interview:

How did this project originate?
It came from an afternoon last March when I spread all my prints out on the floor of my apartment and thought "Gee, they look like the periodic table." I was chatting with my friend/coproduction artist Nathan Cannon of Procyonidae and he dared me to see if I could do it for real. So we set up the basic guidelines and sent out a call for artists. I posted it on Etsy and the BarenForum.org (a group for printmakers, primarily woodcut artists), and it spread from there...

What was the intention behind this project?
The original intention was just to see what would happen. Now I hope to get it published as a coffee table book, datebook, calendar, poster, deck of flash cards, and also shown in a gallery. So many people have told me they wished they had something like this when they were in high school chemistry class. This visual interpretation makes it easier to remember information about the elements, gives you a story or a tidbit or fact to hang onto. I know far more about a lot elements now than I did a year ago or in 10th grade.

Link to Periodic Table Printmaking Project, Link to Etsy interview (Thanks, Paul Saffo!)

The Sierra Club's Orli Cotel pointed me to the Elephant Art & Conservation Project that showcases and sells paintings made by the animals. Apparently, elephants in Asia are no longer needed by the declining logging industry so these domesticated beasts are "out of work." Artists Komar & Melamid, who had previously taught elephants to paint, founded the Conservation Project to help the Asian elephants. (Why not--some elephants play music.) The Asian Elephant Art & Conservation project's mission is to "promote and distribute the work of elephant artists to raise funds for elephant conservation." Orli interviewed the project's director, David Ferris, for Sierra Club Radio.
Link to Sierra Club Radio episode, Link to Asian Elephant Art & Conservation Project