Turkeys
He was a Friend of Mine, Jack Owen, watercolor on paper. A demon cat for all you cat fanciers on the internet. Happy Thanksgiving! I don’t feel like working any more than you do, but if you’re bored, here are some turkeys from the Museum of Bad Art (MOBA). I’m proud (and relieved) to tell you …
The high price of being female
We call this Paleolithic relief The Venus of Laussel but we really have no idea what it is. Perhaps it’s the world’s first self-portrait by an artist. In the art world, it’s no big secret that there’s a high price to be paid for being a woman. The chart below was assembled before the recent $142.4 …
Freedom from want
Freedom from Want, Norman Rockwell, 1943 This Thanksgiving Day the average American will consume more than 4500 calories, accordingto the Calorie Control Council. I’m all for eating right, but I think the capacity of our nation to throw an annual bash is an unequivocally good thing. Thanksgiving is the most universal of American holidays—celebrated by …
Catacombs of Priscilla
The orans posture (hands up, pleading) is a common trope in religious art, but the audience implies a preacher. From the newly restored Catacombs of Priscilla. (All images from the Catacombes de Priscilla website.) Newly restored frescoes in the Catacombs of Priscilla have ignited a firestorm of speculation about whether the early church allowed women …
Beauty and the human brain
Polka Dot Shirt, mixed media on canvas, by Erich H. (Autism Services of WNY) A recent report suggests* a link between autism and synesthesia, a neurological condition in which stimulating one sensory or cognitive pathway triggers involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. The report is rudimentary in the extreme, being based on an online …