Christmas Fun Facts
How much will we spend this year? And whats the best-selling Christmas song of all time? Find the answers below.
Tags: Fun
Dec. 4, 2011 |(0) Comments
Earlier this year, 14 American and British artists were presented with a challenge: Put down your medium of choice and create a work of art using only one tool.
That sounds simple enough, right? The result is an exhibit about work and tools, including everything from a traditional paintbrush to a dental drill. Its a show about giving creative people a particular constraint and seeing what happens.
The Tool at Hand was curated by the ever inventive Chipstone Foundation and goes on view at the Milwaukee Art Museum, 700 N. Art Museum Dr., on Thursday.
– Mary Louise Schumacher
Tags: Art
Travel isnt pretty. Travel during the holidays – when the crowds are at their thickest and the weather at its most potentially immobilizing – can get pretty ugly. Especially if those family get-togethers at the end of the journey turn into collisions.
This holiday travel season is shaping up to be all this and more. But still – flight delays and black-ice roads and whining kids and dwindling budgets and limp bean casserole be damned – nothing will stop us from doing it all over again.
I recently came across a newly coined term: obli-cations, defined as any trip taken primarily to be with family or friends for necessary reasons, such as holidays. Of course, its not really that simple, is it? There are deeper motivations compelling us to go home, or wherever, to be with relatives for the holidays.
Conditions for this holiday travel season offer even more potential for stress and mishap: Airlines have cut capacity by 3 percent overall, meaning planes will be more jam-packed. And departures are less frequent. Plus, fares have increased almost 10 percent over last years winter holiday season.
Flying has become increasingly less family-friendly in the past few years. Fewer amenities for kids, less patience for their needs, and courtesies once extended for free – such as early boarding for parents with small children – now carry a price tag. Fellow passengers are less tolerant of wailing children and peripatetic little ones. Malaysia Airlines decided this year to ban babies from first-class cabins of its Boeing 747 jets and next year in its new Airbus A380 super-jumbos because of passenger complaints of crying children in the expensive seats.
Although most families are driving to their holiday destinations, the percentage of travelers who will fly is expected to increase 10 percent, to 36 percent of all those traveling, according to a recent American Express survey. The survey also found that families are willing to spend more – an average of $200 more, or 43 percent, over last year – for this holiday trip, even cutting back on gift-buying to pay for it. Driving will be more expensive as well. Gas prices are up, and average hotel rates climbed 12 percent over the past year.
Whether its grudgingly or gleefully, however, travelers will find challenges both physical and emotional. The familiar flight-related abuses and buffetings are just the beginning.
There are those problems particular to traveling as a family – how to keep siblings from ripping each others hair out in the back seat, for instance – as well as the particular stresses that come with the overspending, overindulging, overworking and over-thinking of the holidays.
So weve gathered some advice from experts in travel, in parenting and in the stresses that holidays bring, hoping that some of it might prove helpful in your travels – not just for the holidays, but any time. Of course, you never know when some totally new type of hassle will present itself – for example, who ever thought you would have to stand in the aisle for seven hours because the other passenger in your row took up his seat and yours?
Family considerations
Tags: Traveling
A unique art show in Downtown Austin helped some of the city’s poorest residents improve their place in life.
Organized by local nonprofit Art from the Streets, the art show at the Trinity Center featured art created by the city’s poor and homeless. All pieces of art were for sale and the money raised at the event went straight to the artists themselves.
Larry Williams was eager to talk about his art pieces, but not-so-much about the past which led him to Art from the Streets.
I think the important thing now is what made me go upward,” Williams said. “Not just the artwork, but the idea of art.
Through his training with the nonprofit and art shows like Sunday’s, Williams was able to earn enough money to escape the streets and move into his own place.
“Got to the point where I was able to get a deposit, get an apartment, he said.
Prices for the works ranged anywhere from 20 dollars up to a few hundred dollars, with all of the prices chosen by the artists. Williams says the money is a big help, but the opportunity to stay creative when times are tough goes a long way too.
This is the economic stimulus program,” he said. “Its an inspirational stimulus program.
Organizers with Art from the Streets say they are always looking for volunteers. Check out ArtFromTheStreets.org for more information.
Tags: Art
What is art? What does art reveal about human nature? The trend these days is to approach such questions in the key of neuroscience.
“Neuroaesthetics” is a term that has been coined to refer to the project of studying art using the methods of neuroscience. It would be fair to say that neuroaesthetics has become a hot field. It is not unusual for leading scientists and distinguished theorists of art to collaborate on papers that find their way into top scientific journals.
Semir Zeki, a neuroscientist at University College London, likes to say that art is governed by the laws of the brain. It is brains, he says, that see art and it is brains that make art. Champions of the new brain-based approach to art sometimes think of themselves as fighting a battle with scholars in the humanities who may lack the courage (in the words of the art historian John Onians) to acknowledge the ways in which biology constrains cultural activity. Strikingly, it hasn’t been much of a battle. Students of culture, like so many of us, seem all too glad to join in the general enthusiasm for neural approaches to just about everything.
Tags: Art
Marc Fornes is an artists artist
His installation, located at the fifth consecutive Graffiti Gone Global, is located in an exhibition of urban contemporary art and design. Produced by Sushi samba, the brain child of owner and founder Shimon Bokovza, it works in connection with Art Basel Miami Beach.
Marc Fornes world class installation, entitled lsquo;Labrys Frisae draws the art lover into its byzantine labyrinthine design. What makes this art so much more than structure built into the space it occupies is its ability to be many things to as many people. The quality and unique character of the art lends itself to multi interpretation. Coral, ovaries, an extensive aorta, flowers and an lsquo;arty brain are some of the lsquo;labels offered by viewers.
As the artist says, This piece is such that it allows visitors to obtain a greater understanding of the installation through three entranceways leading them inside the piece. Viewers can observe the monumental structure from multiple unique perspectives creating a visually intriguing perspective.
Tags: Art
MIAMI BEACH — Would this year’s edition of Art Basel Miami Beach be a private spectacle or a public one? I wondered that as I headed off to the art world’s ritualistic week of gawking, power schmoozing and peacocking, which is now a decade strong.
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Art Basel 2011
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Getting there is half the fun, so the saying goes. Msnbc.coms travel team examines the issues of the day and, of course, the joy and hassle of traveling.
Tags: Traveling
~~lt;pgt;The Honolulu Star-Advertiser invites you to nominate people who have made a difference in Hawaii during the past year. They can be people who fought controversial battles in public or worked behind the scenes in any field — community service, education, politics, law, labor, medicine, science, business, sports, entertainment, the arts. All that matters is that they had a devotion to their cause and made a profound impact on Hawaii.lt;/pgt;
lt;pgt;To nominate someone, explain why you think the person should be honored. Deadline for nominations is Dec. 9.lt;/pgt;
~~
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Orlando artist Parker Sketch sees art as a puzzle. The unique challenge with each piece for him is to create a balance between all formal aspects of painting, while being aware of the visual language needed to communicate effectively. Sketch celebrates pop culture by using vibrant colors and a jumble of open-graphic touchstones, symbols, signs and icons that define and drive the world. When he paints pop culture icons, he researches them, because he wants to be true to the icon. Brain on Art exhibit opens with a reception and artist talk from 6 to 9 pm Friday at the Lake Eustis Museum of Art, 200-B E. Orange Ave. Admission is free to members, $5 for nonmembers. An adult class featuring Sketch and Susan Rosoff, former education curator for the Orlando Museum of Art, will explore his works from 1 to 3 pm Sunday. Members are $7 and nonmembers $10.
Tags: Art
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