For the last few years Toronto has joined the likes of Tokyo, Madrid, Rome and Paris in offering a free and interactive experience of contemporary art through Nuit Blanche; an event that runs from sunset to sunrise. The event stays true to its name by illuminating the night with installations from hundreds of artists from around the city; all for free.
Posts Tagged ‘Art’
Free Fun At Nuit Blanche
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Poetry Time With Romi
The recession has been a creative outlet for artists and regular folks alike. Poetry seems to be a popular way for people to vent about their financial difficulties.
I found a lot of recession-themed poetry on the interwebs that you should definitely look at. In fact, it has inspired me to make my own Haiku. Here it is:
I don’t have money
So give me lots of free stuff
Screw you recession!
Post your own recession poetry as a comment below!
(p.s. if you’re in the mood to Downward Dog, I was just told about a FREE Yoga event this weekend in Toronto! Check it out y’all)
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Waste Not!
One person's trash is another person's...treasure?
Art imitates life; life imitates art.
This has become quite the cliché, but it stands true. Art has always been a commentary on the social order by either calling to action or eliciting a reaction to a specific piece or a body of work. With the modernization of art, artists have been given a larger venue to express their philosophies leaving more room for interpretation to those that interact with their work.
When I saw the Waste Not installation at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, my interpretation required a call for action and the SYR blog is my soapbox.
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Technology Gets Steamy
Now You Have An Excuse To Pet Your Mouse
Technology has tended towards sleek, streamlined design, which makes it look like, well, technology. However, there’s a movement that’s been going on for sometime, with the goal of adding a bit of romance to the almost obvious form of most technological devices that we use today. It’s called Steampunk, and it hearkens back to the days when showing an ankle was considered hot and if you were one of those gentlemen who needed to pay to see a palm-sized patch of flesh, then you would dial up the number of the nearest bawdy house on a telephone so large that it could be used to knock out an elephant.
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Let It All Hang Out
When I heard a while back that a ban was being lifted allowing people to once again let their clothes hang outside to dry, I thought “why in the world was it imposed in the first place?” Apparently, some geniuses believed that hanging clothing on your property is unsightly and brings down the value of the area . I think that associations with the slums we see so often in movies, where people hanging their unmentionables out on their balconies to dry because they were too poor to afford drying them at a buck seventy-five a load, has tainted our outlook on reality just a tad. While it may be true, not everyone can afford little luxuries like a dryer, so why the hell not? After all, you ARE paying for the place, n’est pas?
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Paint Yourself Thrifty
If there’s something that making art teaches us—it’s patience. With less money to go around these days, we have to be a bit more creative with how we spend. That might mean that you might not be able dish out for expensive digital-manipulation programs like Photoshop, but my art-hero for today, Stanley William Moore II, shows you that patience goes a long way with very little. He made this pic using only MS Paint! Yeah, you know that FREE program that comes with your PC? This is only a portion of the picture, check out the rest here. Scroll down to “Ultimate MS Paint”. Totally bananas, isn’t it? If you love Macs, here’s the Mac equivalent.
Ok, so now that I’ve pointed the way to some free stuff, guess what? Here’s more! This site has some great tips and links to free software, so that the next time you post pics to your Facebook profile, your friends don’t think you’re a talentless loser who should stick to ordering the rounds rather than taking the group photos. See Example below. (Red-eye enhanced for dramatic effect—thanks, Paint).
So what’s the lesson? Well, if you apply a sage’s patience to your budget the way that Stanley Moore does to his art, you can still make beautiful things happen. I know I’m going to try. Stay tuned for more of my recession-themed heroes. Can I call them Recessioneroes, or is that lame? I think it’s lame… I’m taking suggestions….
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