Artkive

Create a book with your kid's art, kinda cool.

20 pages for 25 bucks and it goes up from there.  not bad.

Artkive

Jeremy Couillard

give the work of jeremy couillard a look.

(more) lifelike 3D printed dolls

it's never been if this could happen....but when.

lots more pics here.

i'm sure there are dozens of companies trying to win the race to being the first to be able to make these cheaply.

Optimystic Arts

This artist: Optimystic Arts is the work and service of Gemma Bayly

Check the blog.

Water Light Graffiti

Water Light Graffiti by Antonin Fourneau, created in the Digitalarti Artlab from Digitalarti on Vimeo.

McCoy Space

Just a reminder to you to check in on McCoy Space now and again.  So great.

also: the wiki on the couple.

RIP Paolo Soleri

Sometimes called the Obi-Wan Kenobi of architecture, Paolo Soleri was one interesting dude.

wiki

arcosanti

gigantic city-structures of paolo soleri

Super Treehouse Toasting Extreme

A good friend sent a gift that arrived yesterday.  He referenced a Facebook post from several months ago on which my wife and I shared an exchange about wooden toys crossed with video games.

Jason Smith is a truly thoughtful filmmaker and maker/artist. His passion, (seemingly) first and foremost is to make (amazing) things for friends and family.  It was as big a surprise to him as anyone, after crafting one high-quality costume after another every year for Halloween, that his creation last year went viral.  His Aliens Power Loader baby costume was a mega-hit and showed up everywhere. I share that because he had no idea and certainly no aspirations the brief video would show up on every TV news show and website within days of posting... he simply made the costume because he thought it would be awesome, and passed the link around to a few friends.

These laser-cut Nintendo wood pieces are meant for a near-future new addition to my fam. The set was carefully crafted and naturally sealed to be safe for our little human to chew on.  My lady and I were completely blown away by the gesture.  I mean, he could have made a single controller and it would have been awesome.  But that's not the way of the Jason, he goes big or he does not go.  (Oh, there was also the time he made a featurette film out of the surprise action film birthday for his friend Steve.)  Thanks Jason.  AMAZING!  These will be treasured objects in our family for years to come.

Lego Jabba gets strangled

Lego decided to end Jabba's Palace but claims it isn't related to the recent criticisms from various groups claiming parallels between Islam and terrorism. 

Lots of takes on this online, here's one from the UK's Daily. Another from the Wall Street Journal.

This is a needed move by Lego, no matter the reason.  I'd take it a step further and release a beautifully peaceful Hagia Sophia set for the Lego architecture series, if that would be acceptable. 

Offensive toys aren't going away.  The recent cancellation of the Django Unchained toys is one example, and the more attention these kinds of toys get the more they will continue popping up.

Part of the reason this will keep happening is because whenever toys get cancelled like this they become relatively valuable, immediate cult items that collectors scramble for.  The attention is free marketing and the upside far outweighs the downside.  All that said, I don't think Lego had this in mind at all.  As everyone notices, Lego didn't even design the original thing, it was George Lucas and so why was there never any buzz about the film set being offensive? 

Deer Kalvin Wross Karl

For the month of March, Portland artists Gabriel Liston, Timothy Scott Dalbow and I played a sort of prank of our pal Calvin Ross Carl.  Over the past couple of years he has been railing on trendy art, especially anything with a deer in the mix.  So, we put together a few deer-themed pieces and placed them in the PDX Gallery Window, a space meant for experimentation and unrepresented artists. 

We were playing with the idea of a prank art show.  Gabriel's deer blind could have stood alone in the window and the whole thing might have been stronger for it.  TSD and I threw together some small works, mine was a actually colored by my 8 year old niece, and a stack of blank sheets were offered to gallery visitors.  For one of them I gave her instructions on how to color it so that it would resemble/reference work by CRC.  


The little experiment was mentioned in a blurb in Portland's Willamette Week, and our prank came off as overly meta and hence tedious.  I can see that perspective, but I also think one could view the tiny collection simply as a little love poem to a friend.  I generally don't want to rely on the statement for a show to feel the impact, or "get it," but we did offer this as a way to explicitly share the prank.

Statement

deer kalvin wross karl is the title of the pdx window project for the month of march, 2013. this is to be a surprise love letter from friends to portland artist calvin ross carl who has publicly declared a great disdain for what might be called "deer art" over the past few years. several artists contributed work for the window. 

along with the prankster nature of the gesture, the small collection also comments on the phenomenon of trendy subjects in the art world, local and otherwise. many have said irony died in the past decade but how does something like a deer painting transform from endearing to cheeky to ironic to self-aware to post-ironic to boring to uninteresting to angry-making? considering the speed at which the public consumes images does this ecology exist the moment a trend is recognized as a trend?  can a deer be the subject, these days, of a good art piece?  perhaps most importantly, what does CRC think?

Kachina Dolls

I've posted images of Kachina Dolls before. Here are a few from today's Easter visit to the Brooklyn Art Musem.

Kendama phenomenon

Happened across the kendama hashtag on Instagram last night. Was intrigued by what seems to be a cult following of kids/people who have for some reason embraced the kendama.  I actually didn't even know the name of that toy even though I played with and have known about them since early childhood. 

This inspired a look over at youtube to have a look-see at what's there.  And....wow..... TONS of kendama videos.

What's up with this? 

Takahiro Iwasaki

I saw Takahiro Iwasaki's work at a Chelsea Gallery, and I think I posted a few images here back then....so....just a followup here with some nice pics on Colossal including these tape cutouts that weren't in the gallery show I saw.

As cool as this is, it's the kind of thing that 5 year olds will be making soon on 3D printers.  Funny how we're going back in time when it comes to the, "my kid could do that," comment on art.  The trajectory, when you think long term, makes it seem all the more likely that our universe is the work of a child.

Backlog of links...

I've been racking up things to share here on Toaster and it's time to dump them in a single post:

TOYS: Theo Jenson's kinetic toy sculptures are available on Shapeways now, which is rad. I blogged about his toy before, as a set, but the fact that it lives in the world of 3D printing makes a lot of sense.

TOYS: Former ITP classmates Emily Webster and Mustafa Bağdatlı are putting these luminescent color-changing building modules into the world: Tangeez.

3D PRINTING: 3D printed super-hero business cards. Looks like a cool place to work.

3D PRINTING: I generally avoid thinking about copyright and design but this post on Tech Crunch is a reminder that with 3D printing will come a planet of legal issues. 

TOYLIKE ART: This show Totemism evokes toy-like art.

ART: Also, check out what is happening at Grand Central Station at the moment, Nick Cave's thing.  (Don't miss the video too, great footage.) (And, if you're still with me, consider the work of Charles Fréger and this collection of thoughts and images as related to the Nick Cave thing.)