Monsters in my head

Self-taught animator Bruce Bickford created an amazing world of images. Like many passionate outsider artists it also became his world. Check out his animation at www.monstorroad.com Art reflects our world- as scary as it can be, it is made better when we turn our visions and thoughts into creative actions like this- rather than the easier ways some choose to hurt themselves and others.

Also check out Bickford's Dupree's Paradise.

Hope Filled Designs for 9th Ward, New Orleans

Hope springs like a weed, pushing through the hurt and broken promises with the Make It Right Project in New Orleans. Check out the amazingly bold designs being built right now in New Orleans.

Of Ophans, Art, and Halos

Too bad art therapist have such a hard time finding funding in the US. They do so much good worldwide- we need their halos here too. Check out this video and then take a look at Halo Foundation's Website.

BAD ARTIST! GOOD ARTIST!

CHECK OUT THIS BLOG BY THE ARTIST: http://nicolasheller.wordpress.com/

Modest Mouse ruins my new hobby

Dang it. I just bought a fishing license and new reel. Now whenever I fish for trout I will be thinking of this provocative animation. It's for Modest Mouse's song King Rat and is a dark, graphic reminder of the injustice of illegal whaling practices still common in the world. This project was headed up by Keath Ledger before his death. Proceeds from the first month of sales of this song on itunes will go toward a non-profit fighting illegal whaling. Like all great art, its impact will go well beyond that. Steel yourself before watching, but do watch, and listen, and think.

Modern Masterpiece in the woods

This animation of Fallingwater, Frank L. Wrights masterpiece build on Bear Run Creek in Western PA, is wonderful. It does not however do it justice. What the animator could not put in is how much nature embraces the property. Visiting this building was a highlight of an otherwise personally awful summer. I was awe struck at how carefully Wright slotted this building into the landscape and how well the owners, the Kaufmanns, folded in nature on top of the site with new plantings. Today it looks like God created the house along with boulders and stream. That statement might have pleased the architect- who thought much of his abilities. Vanity aside, Wright has left us a monument to an alternate universe, one in which man lives WITH nature instead of against it. It is a vision of a future that we all should embrace and dedicate our lives to- begin by going to this "cathedral in the woods."

We cannot afford to do without the arts.

Check out this speaker on the importance of creativity and education. As our state supported schools and private schools struggle with budgets they should DOUBLE the funding for creative practices! We cannot spend our way out of a recession, we have to invent our way.

April 13th, 1927 - July 18, 2009

My mother, Elizabeth Shaw, died this past month. I have taken some time off from a lot of small things to process this profound event in my life.

I am inching back into the rush of everyday life and will begin again to celebrate here my passion for great humanist art.

Here is a website I just found and want to share.

Thanks for your continued interest in this funny little blog that, like me, so wants to make the world a better place.