Upon first viewing one of Jackson Pollock’s paintings, many speculate that they, given sufficient canvas and paint, could easily produce similar works. Well, here’s your chance. Using your mouse, drag and click your way to artistic fame. It’s fun, and who knows? You might discover a latent artistic talent.

Oh, and the masterpiece above? Me. In about 30 seconds.

Canadian artist Jeff de Boer maintains a studio in Calgary, Alberta, Canada where he creates four distinct bodies of work: armor for cats and mice, armor for executives, exoforms, and space objects including rocket lamps. The image above shows one example of cat armor. See more of his work on his website.

My favorite illustrator, John Cox, came up with this illustration that echoes, I think, public sentiment. Many believe we are abandoning our nation’s manufacturing roots in favor of becoming a country that makes nothing and buys everything from abroad but likes to think we’ll be dominant in the development of technology (with any related manufacturing, of course, being outsourced offshore.) Whew! Long sentence!

I think we’re deluding ourselves. We could regain our dominance in manufacturer if we simply uncoupled ourselves from trade unions. Why can’t we compete in auto manufacturing, even against Japanese auto makers who manufacture cars right here in the U.S.A.? Because the Japanese car makers are exempt from our trade unions. Not a level playing field, is it. But what are we doing about it? Nothing.

Anyway, I thought John’s illustration was particularly poignant at this time of year when we’re concerned about unsafe toys from China. Fisher-Price, Mattel - many of this country’s major toy manufacturers - have outsourced the manufacturing of their toys to China, and quality and safety have suffered. Not too many years ago, Americans wouldn’t have accepted poor quality. But we’ve become “sheeple,” too lazy to control our own government. I hope we come to our senses.

This chalk drawing video is actually an advertisement by Sony BMG (Canada) for Alicia Keys’ latest CD album. Drawn by Victor Fraser in the heart of Downtown Toronto, it took about six hours to complete.

Hey, we haven’t had a contest in quite a while, so between now and Christmas, how about everyone drawing hand turkeys, email them to me, and I’ll post them. The usual valuable prizes will be awarded to the winners! And before you point it out to me, I shoulda coulda done this before Thanksgiving. So just think of it as a “holiday” turkey, okay?

For those of you who’ve forgotten how to draw a hand turkey, here’s an animated GIF from my old website to help jog your memories:

On the heals of cooling conspiracy theories surrounding the ubiquitous The Da Vinci Code comes an unfolding real-life mystery concerning a secret that may actually be hidden in Leonardo’s masterpiece, The Last Supper. If true, it would be a signature touch by the Renaissance genius.

Discovered by an Italian computer technician, it’s a piece of music that resembles a requiem. According to Giovanni Maria Pala, the hands of Jesus and the Apostles, and the loaves of bread in the picture, represent musical notes which together form a 40-second composition. He says he made the discovery after superimposing a musical staff - the five lines used in sheet music - over that portion of the painting. The composition emerges when the “notes” are read right to left, following Leonardo’s own technique.

Pala published his findings earlier this month in the book La Musica Celata (which translates to “The Hidden Music”) in which he claims to have discovered nothing less than a sacred hymn and text, along with mystic symbols, in da Vinci’s degraded masterpiece.

The findings, explained in a Discovery article that includes video footage, are sure to spark renewed controversy.

Along with Saturday’s Japanese tea ceremony for Dawn’s birthday, we visited San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum and checked another item off our lengthy list of things to do or see. But it was so much larger than we’d anticipated that we failed to allow enough time to see it all. No worries, though, we’ll return another day. If you appreciate art and antiquities, the museum is definitely worth a visit. Just be sure to allow ample time to see all three floors! And be aware that, while photography is permitted on the 2nd and 3rd floors, flash is not!

Not knowing what to expect and not wanting to lug the heavy gear unnecessarily, I’d left my Nikon at home. So we relied on our little pocket Canon and Dawn’s iPhone, both handheld and without flash (not allowed!.) Still, we got some decent images which I’ve posted in an album. Feel free to browse. And let me know what you think of the new viewing module.

Remember the ads that read, “Draw Me!” or “Are You an Artist?” They used to run in magazines and on matchbooks, enticing would-be artists into “auditioning” for an opportunity to receive an art course from an official sounding art school.

I remember them well, even drew the side profile of a woman’s head when I was about 10. I didn’t win, of course, but was offered the opportunity to “buy” their course because I “showed great promise as an artist.” Like the fellow in this well done short film, I believed my submission was a masterpiece. But I handled the rejection a little differently…

Completed in August of 2003, this short, comedic film was written and directed by Jeff Hopkins, a writer-director living in Los Angeles, whose previous works include writing “P1” an audience favorite at the Palm Springs Film Festival, and “Vacancy” a winner of the Kan Film Festival. It stars David Snell, a series regular on the Emmy-award winning crime-drama The Shield.

If you fly out of Sacramento International Airport, you may have noticed one of the more unusual art forms I’ve seen in some time, an aerial view of the Sacramento River woven into a carpet for the floor of the pedestrian bridge connecting the terminal to the parking garage. The image represents approximately fifty miles of the Sacramento River starting just outside of Colusa, California and ending about six miles south of Chico.

Although I’d noticed the carpet on occasion while hurrying across the bridge to catch a flight, I’d never taken (nor had) the time to study it. I recently made it a point and was amazed at the detail and scale of the project.

The artist, Seyed Alavi, received a Bachelor of Science degree from San Jose State University and a Masters of Fine Art from the San Francisco Art Institute. His public art projects are often engaged with the poetics of language and space and their power to shape reality and include site-specific installations for The New Museum of Contemporary Art and Franklin Furnace in New York City; The University Art Museum- Cal State Long Beach; The Museum of Santa Cruz County; The deSaisset Museum; The University Art Museum, Sonoma State; The University Art Museum, Cal State San Bernardino and San Francisco’s Capp Street Project.

Next time you fly into or out of SMF, take a few minutes to check out the large-scale art work right under your feet. You’ll be impressed.

Here’s a list you don’t see every day courtesy of deputydog by way of James. I’ve featured tattooed men (and ladies) before, but this goes waaaay beyond reason. And I should warn you that a couple of the videos aren’t for the squeamish. But that said, take a look at what some may call body art, others might call obsessive/compulsive and more than a few would call insanity. Here are three from the list to give you a preview…

I suppose this is not unlike some people, usually women, that can’t seem to get enough plastic surgery. We’ve all seen them on TV and most will agree they’re obsessive. This seems to me to fall into the same category. What do you think?

The California State Fair came and left with lower total (but greater daily) attendance than last year owing, officials point out, to a run that was six days shorter. In addition, it was hot - really hot - and the wonderful delta breezes we usually rely on to cool things down brought little relief.

Dawn and I go to the Fair at least a couple times every year to “take it all in,” but this year, because of the heat, we decided once was enough. We’d gone one weekday right after work and stayed until closing so we could enjoy the evening fireworks. We watched The Temptations perform, toured the exhibit halls, took in some of the livestock and finished on the midway. As has become our custom, we even rode the giant Ferris wheel. It was a lot of ground to cover in too little time and, with the heat, we were exhausted (I was drenched!); I think it was still pushing 90 degrees when we left!

One of the things we love but missed seeing this year was the judging of the 4-H kids with their livestock. Bidders pay top dollar at the after-fair auction for the hand-raised quasi-pets. We also missed the horse races, the herding dog demonstrations, the pig races (oh yeah, pig races!) and the corn husking competition (Dawn’s even entered a couple times over the years!) And no, I didn’t allow them to launch me 180 feet into the air with a giant rubber band this year. Good thing, too, because there was a mishap. A “rubber band” snapped and left the two riders stranded 80 feet in the air (thank goodness for the safety cable) and a bit shaken up!

We finally received word that Canon has repaired and shipped Dawn’s new pocket camera, but not in time for the Fair. So I took my Nikon and a “walk around” lens to try, in one visit, to capture at least some of the flavor of the event. I’ve posted 40 images… Enjoy!

A reminder: All the album images are clickable; once in the album, clicking on an image enlarges it, clicking again returns you to the regular sized image.

A unique art form perfected by Japanese artist Kazuo Akasaki who can spend as much as six months producing a single work. Each is completed entirely of fallen leaves. After being awarded the “Salon de Paris” at the 1986 Fine-arts Paris Exhibition of Japan, Akasaki continued perfecting his techniques and has written several instructional books on his art form and opened a school to teach his techniques. The works are truly exceptional.

To learn more about the artist and see more of his work, check out Japan Probe and this Flickr site.

“Part-time A/C repairman, Nick Webb rolls through the city’s underbelly, scratching it and making it belch.”

When I posted John Cox’s  Detective Frank Pound comic panel last month, I figured he might be branching out in a new direction. So when I saw this Nick Webb cover art, I at first thought he might be considering writing a pulp novel. But it occurs to me now that he’s simply demonstrating just how full his quiver of artistic skills really is. If I was developing a writing project right now, I’d be approaching John to illustrate it.  I might start out something like this:

“I polished off the last of the Old Crow, left the empty bottle on my desk and headed for Gilhooley’s Pub two floors below. Counting the last of the 43 stairs, I sensed movement in the shadows and turned just as the hulking figure lunged. The blow caught me off guard and my knees buckled. As he moved in again, I hit him low, bending him forward clutching his groin. A swift kick sent his teeth cascading like marbles falling on a sidewalk. I crushed his head like a soft cantaloupe and watched him drop to the floor like a bag of rotten potatoes. Probably one of Ficetti’s goons, I thought.

Wiping the trickle of blood from my swollen lower lip, I swung through the back door into Gilhooley’s. Dark and smoky, the familiar pungent smell of  cheap booze and cheap women filled my nostrils. I found a corner table away from the bar and motioned to Gilhooley for a bottle. Then I saw her…”

Yeah, I used to love Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer novels.

The Zoomquilt II art collaboration was created using Flash (free download if you don’t already have it) and defies description. It appears to be 88 layers “quilted” together to help form the continuing zoom effect, and then looped. I found myself saying “Wow!” several times. The subject is a little grotesque and it’s a little long but the art form is impressive. Sit back and give it a watch. I won’t spoil the ending…

Okay, this begs the question: Why? Why would someone decide to replicate currency using eggs? Was the job contracted first, or did the artist just get permission to build it somewhere and then head to the egg farm? We may never know, but this site has photos of the work in progress…