Featured Seller of the Week: Red Thread Plushies

You just can't say no to plushies. Red Thread Plushies' little animals and monsters are so adorable, you won't able to resist. Don't take my word for it, look at what they have below. Visit their store at redthreadplushies.etsy.com.

$15 Million Pittsburg Subway Station Tile

A Pittsburgh subway station that's about to be demolished decided to check into the value of a 60-foot-by-13-foot tile mural by Romare Bearden. Good thing they did because that mural is worth $15 million! The port authority didn't even think it was worth much. Now they're scratching their heads in what to do with the mural.

The mural entitled "Pittsburgh Recollections" was installed in 1984. Bearden was paid $90,000 for the work.

Now it is going to cost about $100,000 a year just to insure that mural. the Port Authority is now looking for art organizations or philanthropist to handle the cost of removing, restoring, relocating and maintaining the mural. If no one steps up, they will look for a museum or art group that are willing to either exhibit it or auction it off.

If You're Dying, You can be an Art Exhibition

Along with my recent posts of crazy extreme "art" that involves death, here's another one. But this one, finally, is more appropriate and tastefully done that we can actually dub this as art.

German artist Gregor Schneider is looking for people that are about to die and are willing to be a part of his exhibition. He wants to display people dying naturally or somebody who just passed away. The purpose of this is to display the beauty of death. Schneider is currently working with his doctor to look for possible participants.

Unlike the Yale student who induces abortion as "art" and French artist Adel Abdessemed's video exhibition of bashing animals' head with a sledgehammer, this death project can actually merit as art. What's the difference?

Gregor Schneider's project:

• Participants are aware of the project and will give consent before they participate
• Their deaths are natural death, they're not being brutally killed by the artist for the sake of art. Although there are extremes of this, like participants who are willing to be killed by the artist - well that's a whole different controversy all together that will not be discussed here.
• This art exhibition has a purpose. The artist wants to display the beauty of death. This isn't some random senseless act.

The other two so-called "art":

• Participants are NOT aware of the project, or did they give consent. (I am aware that they're fetuses and animals and they can't really give consent. But unless they're creatures who are aware and consciously agree to the project, it's simply not humane.)
• Participants were forcefully murdered, or lied about being murdered. This crosses the line of what's art and what's not. Now you're just playing with lives- you're not an artist at this point, you're a liar and a murderer.
• Those art exhibition has no real purpose. The Yale student claims the "purpose" of her project is to spark conversation about the woman body's functions- by faking stories about purposely getting pregnant just to induce abortion? That's just sick. If she's a real artist, she would think of more tasteful way to achieve her goal. And Abdessemed's animal killing has no purpose at all.

Adel Abdessemed's Don’t Trust Me Exhibition Cancelled

This actually happened a week ago but I'm just catching on to it now.

The San Francisco Art Institute cancelled an exhibition by French artist Adel Abdessemed. The exhibition is "Don't Trust Me" and it involves 6 looped videos of animals being hit in the head with a sledgehammer. The 6 animals being viciously killed are a sheep, pig, horse, goat, deer and ox.

Killing animals is NOT art! There is absolutely no purpose in senselessly killing animals and documenting it. Bashing an animal's head with a sledgehammer - not art and definitely not humane. Shame on SFAI for actually agreeing to display this brutal documentary. If it wasn't for the numerous threats and complaints to SFAI, they won't even cancel the exhibition.

I understand that art can be shocking at times, and if done tastefully, it can be educational and revealing. But cheap shocks like this is disgusting and it's nothing more than the "artist" trying to gain his 15 minutes of fame.

Abortion as Art?

A Yale University art student, Aliza Shvarts, claimed that she induced repeated abortions on herself and used the blood for her senior project. She said she used artificial insemination on herself as much as possible, while taking herbal drugs to induce miscarriages. Apparently, this "project" is supposed to be an art piece. She planned on displaying the project by showing a cube lined with plastic sheets with a blood and petroleum jelly mixture in between, and showing a video of herself having her miscarriage in her bath tub.

Yale issued a statement saying that they investigated this so-called project and found that it was all a hoax. Shvarts however still insists that everything is real. At this time, whether she really did it or not, no one really knows. Shvarts said that the goal is to attract conversations about woman body's functions. What? Is she saying she can't think of a more tasteful way to achieve her goal? And this is a Yale student, she's supposed to be "smart."

The topic of abortion itself is another subject. And you can bet that anti-abortion organizations are already voicing their disgust at this "art project." Hoax or not, should this kind of abortion be treated as art? What this girl does with her own body is her business, but if what she's doing is real - that means she is purposely creating life, just so she can destroy it... again and again. There are a lot of extreme art out there, but art that involves playing "God" and destroying lives draws the line. And if this was a hoax, then she's nothing more than a liar.

2,008 Naked People

Contemporary artist Spencer Tunick from Brooklyn, NY (my hometown!) gained fame for photographing lots of people in the nude - by lots, I mean thousands. Now he plans to pack a Vienna soccer stadium with 2,008 naked people for the Euro 2008 tournament. Austria took a liking to the idea. They are actually going to offer free travel expense to the first 2,008 people who wants to participate on May 11.

It would be a pretty easy way to get a free trip to Austria, but do I really want to be packed with 2,007 other naked people? Might be a little gross. Especially since Spencer Tunick sometimes poses people in positions where you might be smelling the other person's crotch or butt.

Here's some of his work:

Featured Seller of the Week: Meero Designs

Meero Design's stricking colors on her jewelry designs caught my eyes. I especially love her Fish Tail black bead earrings, very unique. Visit her shop at meero.etsy.com.

And for no Reason Whatsoever... Here are a Bunch of Bananas

Yes, lots of bananas on a wall. I'm not sure who the artist is but I find this amusing. There will be lots of smelly rotten bananas after a week or so.

Austrian Artist Mikl dies

Josef Mikl died of cancer at the age of 78. He was considered one of the most important Austrian artists of the "informal" style, whose abstract works went toward rehabilitating Nazi-ravaged Austria's visual art scene. Mikl's artwork spanned more than half a century. Mikl's abstract paintings and sculptures were different from the more strict artists during the Nazi eras.

His most famous work was the renovation of the "Redoutensaal," a huge hall of Vienna's Imperial Palace after a 1992 fire. This hall was where the first performance of Beethoven's 8th Symphony took place. When the hall reopened in 1997, it was docked in vibrant reds and yellows, depicting famous themes and figures of Austrian literature.