Neighorhood in Califorina Links their Christmas lightshows

This time of year we get the ever escalating Christmas light decorations and shows. People go nuts decorating their homes with sometimes hundreds of thousands of lights and, with the advent (pun intended) of more powerful electronics, can find more and more creative ways to synch them to music. It can be fun for visitors passing thru and get your display on the news or social media, but might be a tad annoying for neighbors. One neighborhood in California overcame that problem and got really creative by synching the entire neighborhood to music. With a drone hovering above, we get to see the entire thing.  Once a year, right? Here it is as reported in the Huffington Post

Video - The Silent Monks and the Hallelujah Chorus

We artists appreciate creativity, especially when it gives a new view of things we already know and love. Here is a creative way of performing the Hallelujah Chorus. Its been around awhile, but if you've not seen it, its worth a look.

Lost art work found in Stuart Little movie

Next time your watching a movie at home or in the theater, take a moment  to check out the art in the set decoration. You may find something like like art researcher Gergely Barki did while watching a Stuart Little movie and see a lost masterpiece like Bereny's Sleeping Lady With A Back Vase in the background. Be watching!

New York's High Line Park - old into the new

My city New York is ever changing, ever re-purposing the old into the new. The new High Line Park on NYC's Lower East Side is one of those stellar re-purposings. An old elevated train line, that sat abandoned for years and turned itself into a wild elevated forest. Debate raged as to what to do with it and the end result is this wonderful park in the sky. It ends at the NY train yard around 38th st which will soon have skyscraper forest arising on a platform being built over it.It is becoming a very in place to be on and for restaurants and other institutions to be around.  The Whitney Museum, when it decided to move from its Upper East Side location and had to chode a new site for its new building, chose the lower end of the High-line instead of the South Street Seaport to place its new home  Check out the Washington Post's article on it.

Street Art - beautiful steps from around the world

Street art comes in all forms. Some is gang related to mark a territory. Its beautiful but with an unspoken message to other gangs to stay away. It could be an artist trying make his or her mark like Banksy. Some just seeing a wall with some features that beg for an artistic addition, like painting fire hydrants or, as in this case public stairs. One of my favorites is a video of subway stairs being painted to look like a piano and sensors implanted to make each step sound like the notes stepped on (like in the movie Big).
The Architecture and Design FB page posted a collection of pictures of painted stairs from around the world. Check them out. Art everywhere!

Artist spotlight - Hannah Rothstein Thanksgiving dishes for charity

This time of year is when we who have the talent and means to give make a special effort to do so. Artist Hannah Rothstein has created a series of images showing How Famous artists would plate Thanksgiving meal. 25 signed, limited edition prints available per image, $75 each. All prints 16" x 20", except the Sherman print, which is 16" x 16". %10 of profits will be donated to the SF-Marin Food Bank. For inquiries, write art@hrothstein.com.

Art of the NYC Subways - 30th anniversary of the Art &Design program

Being a resident of Northern NJ, I get into New York City a lot and ride the subways many times. Music abounds on the platforms as musicians try and raise their personal fortune and occasionally on the cars themselves between stop.
The visual arts abound on the NYC subway platforms. The 81st street stop for the Museum of Natural  look like representation of the museum with mosaics and bas relief sculptures of dinosaurs and insects and other things. The walkway tunnel between Times Square and the PA Bus Terminal have sculpture dioramas in the walls.
All this to say this is the 30th anniversary of the NYC Subway's Art and Design program. There are hundreds of various kinds of art works all thru the system and they have published a book called . New York’s Underground Art Museum: MTA Arts & Design with 300 pictures o various art installations in the subways. Mashable has posted an entry about this this along with 12 selections of whats there. Enjoy! And go art hunting on the subway!