Thursday, June 19, 2008

'Rembrandt Laughing" Portrait is Authentic

Everyone thought that the "Rembrandt Laughing" portrait was a 17th century Rembrandt knockoff and it was valued at just $3,100. The painting had been with an English family for more than 100 years and all this time, they thought it was a painting done by Rembrandt's students or an imitator.

And when someone bought the painting, surprising at $4.5 million instead of $3,100, everyone at the auction house probably thought the guy was dumb for spending so much money for an imitation. Well the joke is on us because when the painting was bought, the buyer had the painting cleaned and examined by experts. "Rembrandt Laughing" turns out the be an authentic self-portrait painted by Rembrandt himself and it's actually worth $30 million - $40 million!! The buyer actually bought it at a super bargained price! Plus a sale for Rembrandt's works is rare since they only come on the market once every few years. This mysterious guy who bought the painting obviously knew what he was doing!

The self-portrait was painted in 1628 when Rembradt was still in his early 20's. Apparently he painted that picture to experiment with a mirror and his own face to capture expressions.

The auction house claimed they failed to realize the authenticity of the painting due to poor photographs of it. Oh well, they just lost out on a lot of money.

Friday, June 13, 2008

Quarter Mile Drawing Snatched Record

Mexican artist Filemon Trevino entered the Guinness Book of Records with his quarter mile long pencil drawing as the world's largest drawing.

The artist spent 6,600 hours in a stuffy hot room and 800 pencils to complete the art. The drawing depicts the heart and circulatory system, with symbols including doves, geometric shapes and intertwined tubes.

The drawing began in July 2004 and completed in August 2005. But he could not enter into the world record until he can display the work somewhere and pay the $600 entry fee for the Guiness World Record. Finally the Regiomontana University agreed to display his work.

The record was not without sacrifice. The artist's obsession with this project led to him being hospitalized seven times for dehydration, heart and kidney problems and fainting. The artists says sometimes he forgets to drink water. He grew a beard and lost 35 pounds.

Friday, June 6, 2008

Catholic Group Protests Sexually Explicit Paintings

It's not surprising that a Roman Catholic group is protesting a NY student art exhibition - they're always protesting about something. This time they're angry that a Cooper Union school is displaying an exhibition which showcases a series of paintings by one of their students.

The paintings features religious symbols depicted in sexually explicit ways. For example, a man with his pants down and a crucifix in his rectum with a Latin caption that says "The day I became a Catholic." Another painting shows rosaries with a penis. Another shows a man with a halo and erection.

The Catholic group should be happy that a man of Catholic faith is so excited about his religion that he's getting an erection!

Cooper Union released a statement that they hold an annual exhibition displaying hundreds of student works without censorship. After all, what's art if it's censored? Art is expression and open to interpretation. What the Catholic group deemed as offensive, it might not seem that way to others.

These religious nut group needs to loosen up. I'm not trying to put down anyone's religion but these guys can put their time into better use than protesting art - like really helping people in need (a suggestion would be the people in China still suffering from the Sichuan earthquake)

I couldn't find the paintings in question on the web, so for anyone who's interested, the Cooper Union exhibit began May 27 and ends June 10.

Monday, June 2, 2008

Featured Seller of the Week: Felt Like Stitchin

I'm a fan of felt dolls and I'm seeing more and more sellers of felt products. But none of them are like our current featured seller Felt Like Stitchin. This seller has very unique felt products - like Elvis and Charlie Chaplin. And I absolutely LOVE Mr. Potato Head. Check out the store at FeltLikeStitchin.etsy.com