Art Photos mixed

"My soul is full of longing for the secret of the sea, and the heart of the great ocean sends a thrilling pulse through me."
— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow



Photo by Zoraya Tonel

Beyoncé loves imitating artwork, doesn’t she?
The singer posted the above photo to Instagram along with the caption:

Pablo Picasso museum, Paris

It’s a gorgeous shot of Bey, don’t you think? Take a look at some of Bey’s other ‘living art’ moments below.








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"Don't surrender your loneliness so quickly. Let it cut you more deep. Let it ferment and season you as few humans and even divine ingredients can. Something missing in my heart tonight has made my eyes so soft, my voice so tender, my need for God absolutely clear."
— Hafiz

“Every man, when he gets quiet, when he becomes desperately honest with himself, is capable of uttering profound truths. We all derive from the same source. there is no mystery about the origin of things. We are all part of creation, all kings, all poets, all musicians; we have only to open up, only to discover what is already there."
— Henry Miller

Photo: Albena Markova | Autumn Lake, Bulgaria

ObsidianPhotography.com first began in 2002 on the servers at the University of Oregon. The website has changed visually since its creation , but the goal has remained the same; to share and enjoy beautiful art as seen in the world around us. The name Obsidian Photography comes from the location the photographer was at on the first photo shoot for the website. This mountain was the South Sister, as seen from a common camp area about a day’s hike toward the summit. The South Sister is one of three conjoined mountains with an abundance of obsidian veins, near Sisters, Oregon.

Lisa Miller first began planning and going on photo shoots for ObsidianPhotography.com in 2001. On a very small budget, her gear consisted of a Canon AE-1 Pro, 50mm f1.4 and her choice of Fuji Reala, Provia or Velvia 50 films depending on budget and setting. Eventually adding on a Canon T-90, Canon T1i and other equipment. Though she still loves her film, digital is better for the environment and much more economical for artistic experimentation.


Fall Reflection, by Lisa Miller, 2014
Minto-Brown Island, Salem, Oregon

Gradient Trees, by Lisa Miller, 2014
Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge, Jefferson, Oregon



Autumn Colors At Minto-Brown Island, by Lisa Miller, 2013
Minto-Brown Island, Salem, Oregon

'Cache cache...'
by julie Rey (France)

Brazilian graffiti art is considered among the most significant strand[s] of a global urban art movement, and its diversity defies the increasing homogeneity of world graffiti." - Design Week

In March 2009, the Brazilian government passed law 706/07 making street art and graffiti legal if done with the consent of building owners. As progressive of a policy as this may sound, the legislation is actually a reflection of the evolving landscape in Brazilian street art, an emerging and divergent movement in the global street art landscape.

Rio de Janeiro has been particularly progressive in its policy towards street art, with its 1999 "Não pixe, grafite" (Don't Tag, Graffiti) project that brought together 35 graffiti artists to showcase diversity in local styles. But more unique is the evolution of a permission hierarchy, blurring the line between formal and informal. The new street art law merely reinforced these unique patterns of street art and legitimized an already flourishing form of artistic expression.

In Brazil, there is a distinction made between tagging, known as pichação, and grafite, a street art style distinctive to Brazil. This distinction also has a sociological bent -- as Rio street artist Smael Vagner describes, "the tagger wants to put his name on the wall, to be famous, and is a vandalist, but the [street] artist is interested in aesthetics and community."

According to Quito, an artist in Rio, street art is really an agreement between the population and the city. The movement began to flourish in Rio over the past 10 years, and it's currently having its "moment" with Rio artists going abroad to make their mark on foreign cities -- and graffiti artists from around the world are coming to the city to check out what's happening. Crews of graffiti teams sign their work and some artists even leave a contact email.

In Rio de Janeiro, street art is ubiquitous. It exists in all corners of the city, from the favelas to upper class neighborhoods, from residential to institutional. It is bold in scale and aesthetics and is anything but graffiti. The urban fabric of Rio de Janeiro also figures prominently in the evolving street art scene. The high walls, whether for security or to contain the topography, provide ample surfaces for painting. But rather than location dictating art, the relationship between owner and artist has a direct impact on where street art occurs.

Owners of buildings, both residential and commercial, sometimes invite artists for commissions, which is done to protect from tagging, as an aesthetic choice or as an economic choice -- painting a façade with art may be cheaper than another mode of beautification. In another case, street artists ask permission from the owner.



The idea of creating a community is one of the strongest undercurrents I observed in Rio's street art scene, whether through city-run initiatives, individual projects or local community groups. One strategy is for the city to permit large-scale graffiti on underutilized walls by limiting "paint-overs." The most prominent example is the half-mile stretch along the walls of the Jockey Club situated across from the Botanical Garden (Jardim Botânico).

According to Lu Olivero of the AEROSOuL CARIOCA project, Rio's street artists come to this wall to "make a name for themselves. It is, in my estimation, the largest collection of street art in the city, reserved for only the best. If Street Art had a professional league, the wall at Jardim Botânico would be the NBA."

Some large-scale community projects are initiated by artists, such as the well-known "Women Are Heroes," where French artist JR famously canvassed the Providencia favela in Rio de Janeiro with the eyes of women who had lost a loved one in violence with the police, or the colorful façade of the Santa Marta favela, an initiative of artists Jeroen Koolhaas and Dre Urhahn, in conjunction with the Let's Colour Project. More often however, street art occurs as patches of small-scale interventions and permanent organizations have cropped up to promote the movement and to create opportunities for employment.

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Place your bets



Puget Sounds on the Pacific Coast and West Point, Prout’s Neck

Gambling on the Super Bowl, which is now just days away, is a favoured American pastime. Bragging rights are always at stake; money often is too. American museum directors are not immune from the frenzy, though it is neither money nor, exclusively, the privilege of boasting that are on the table. In what has become something of an annual tradition, as the defending champion Seattle Seahawks take on the New England Patriots, the directors of the Seattle Art Museum (led by Kimerly Rorschach) and the Clark Art Institute (led by Michael Conforti) are upping the ante by putting art into betting pool. If Seattle wins, the Clark will loan Winslow Homer’s painting West Point, Prout’s Neck from 1900; if New England wins, it gets Albert Bierstadt’s picture Puget Sounds on the Pacific Coast from 1870, which is housed in Seattle. The winning museum agrees to lend its piece for three months and to pay all transportation expenses. May the best museum win.



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Glasgow’s Burrell Collection could have been London’s

Even Kenneth Clark couldn’t get the London County Council to accept the costs and strings attached to William Burrell’s gift




Burrell wanted his art displayed in a domestic setting, as at Hutton Castle, his home in the Scottish Borders
William Burrell first offered to leave his collection to London and only after it was declined did he decide to donate it to Glasgow, where he was born. In 1942, when the shipping tycoon was considering the future of his 8,000 works of art, Kenneth Clark, the director of the National Gallery, encouraged him to leave it to London. Papers relating to Burrell’s offer have now been declassified at the National Archives and there are other documents at the Tate Archive.

Clark sounded out the London County Council (a forerunner of today’s Greater London Authority), setting out Burrell’s conditions. His works of art should be displayed in a separate building, not in an existing museum. The collection should be shown “as it would be if in a private house”, with stained glass and tapestries scattered around, giving “as little of the semblance of a museum as possible”. Without explanation, he insisted that the location should be “in or near London and not further than 25 miles distant from Charing Cross”. He also insisted that it should be on the “north side of the River Thames”.

The collection was valued at the time at £1m. Burrell predicted that in 80 years time it would be worth £3m, a huge under-estimate as its present value is many hundreds of millions of pounds.

The county council was understandably concerned about the tax and long-term financial implications. Papers describe Burrell as “coquetting” with the council, which decided to consult the Treasury about the offer. The Treasury responded that works of art would be exempt from death duties, but not money bequeathed to support the collection. If money was given during Burrell’s lifetime it would only be exempt providing that he lived for a year after the donation. Burrell was 81 at the time.

The London County Council was worried that the financial donation or bequest would not be enough to support the collection, and it proposed providing a maximum of £10,000 a year for running costs, but no site or building. Clark did his best to encourage the council, but the idea collapsed during his talks with Charles Latham, the Labour leader of the council.

Clark reported back to Burrell on his meeting with Latham on 21 December 1943, saying that he had asked point-blank if the council wanted the collection: Latham “answered ‘No’; that in his view and in that of many members of his party even the £10,000 suggested for upkeep would be better spent in other ways.” Clark had warned Burrell just before the meeting that “like all municipal bodies, they are frightened that being associated with the arts in the public mind would lose them votes at an election”.

Burrell made an instant decision after London’s rebuff, offering Glasgow a Christmas surprise. He telephoned Tom Honeyman, the director of Glasgow Art Galleries, inviting him for a secret meeting at Hutton Castle, his Scottish home near Chirnside. Burrell told him that he was offering the collection and £450,000 to Glasgow. It was quickly accepted with gratitude.

Burrell died in 1958, aged 96. There were numerous complications in opening up the collection, which only went on display in a purpose-built home in Glasgow’s Pollok Park in 1983.



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Antiquities forgery makes for not-so-divine comedy at Sundance festival

“Don Verdean” is the story of a biblical archaeologist who decides, if you can’t find it, fake it



In “Don Verdean”, a biblical archaeologist and his Israeli accomplice admire a “Holy Grail” bought in a gift shop

A self-anointed biblical archaeologist has dreams of acquiring works from the Holy Land to turn his mega-church into a spiritual destination, but the caper fails in the film parody “Don Verdean”, directed by Jared Hess, which premiered at the recently ended Sundance Film Festival in Park City Utah.

Biblical archaeology has deep roots in the US, starting in the 19th-century with the search for sacred objects in the Middle East. The objects uncovered in those excavations are now held by prominent American universities, many of which began as religious schools, while major US museums hold works from similar digs.

And now, in this farcical film, evangelical mega-churches vying for members want those antiquities. The title character, Don Verdean (a bizarrely bearded and bewigged Sam Rockwell), promises a statue of the wife of Lot to the pastor of the Lazarus Fellowship, who miraculously survived a car accident with a prostitute who is now his wife. The blonde, Magdalene-esque consort declares that sacred objects in Israel should be in the US, “where they belong.” When a huge statue of Lot’s wife with male anatomy arrives in Utah, thanks to the Israeli intermediary Boaz, played by the Flight of the Conchords’ Jemaine Clement, the tone is set for the film’s ribald humour, although it does not always sustain the laughs.

The story, written by Hess and his wife Jerusha, who collaborated on the cult comedies “Napoleon Dynamite”, 2004, and “Nacho Libre”, 2006, depicts an art trade in which ancient objects tend to be smuggled and/or faked. When Verdean promises to bring back the head of Goliath—and is barred by Israeli police from digging near the place where scripture says that David felled the giant—the archaeologist Googles “gigantism in Israel”, and learns of Johnny Jerusalem, a famous Jewish wrestler of mammoth size, whose grave he pillages for a huge skull. The bone is then rusticated with a stone to show signs of impact.

Since art follows capital, in farce as well as fact, an emboldened Verdean approaches a Chinese buyer. The object in this case is the Holy Grail, a goblet that Verdean and his Israeli plotter find in a gift shop and then hide on a Native American reservation in the US.
This isn’t the Thomas Crowne Affair. The costuming is Walmart, rather than Valentino, which reminds us that art crooks don’t need to be artful—or influential. Critical response at Sundance, where it was not the only film addressing clerical corruption, was largely negative. “Don Verdean” is due for general release later this year.

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