Sleepless in Midland

More amazing Blu wall art

It's a series of still photos as a guy paints a courtyard and surrounding walls to give an illusion of an animated motion picture. Watch Youtube video. It's amazing stuff and makes one wonder how he got that paint to dry so fast.

Perhaps you'll remember a previous one posted here early this year.

Via Laughing Squid.

Updated: Dang. I need to check friendly blogs more frequently. Fireant Gazette posted Blu's art video yesterday.  He certailny has great taste.

More amazing sidewalk art

A couple of years ago we admired the photos of Julian Beever's amazing sidewalk art work -- see previously on these pages for links.

Here's another artist using the same principle, Edgar Mueller, who painted Ice Age in Dun Laoghaire, Ireland, in August of 2008.

See more photos of it here. And watch him do it on Youtube.

Via Neatorama.

Art in the Park

The non-profit group called Arts Assembly of Midland has really given us some nice art to admire as we walk around Windlands Park. These photos were taken just after sunup the other morning.

CORRECTION (added 2/13/09): The sign for this sculpture is incorrect. It identifies a previous exhibit which this one replaced. The item you see above is Passion in a Bud Vase 2008, in stainless steel and etched pigment, 7’x 12’ by Jim LaPaso, Kyle, Texas

CORRECTION (added 2/13/09): The sign for this sculpture is incorrect. It identifies a previous exhibit which this one replaced. The item you see above is, Spy Hopping, 1996, Stainless Steel, 66" x 96" x 36" by Willie Ray Parish, El Paso , Texas. What is Spy Hopping? Here's an explanation, via PDF.

The sculpture is abstract. It is not a whale, but is about surfacing sea mammals. Parish did a number of sculptures in the '90s derived from the various shapes that appear above the water line when sea mammals surface. The idea was to try to draw attention to the environmental damages to the earth and particularly the oceans. This particular one is similar to the "spy hopping" move that some whales regularly make. They get vertical in the water, sticking their heads above the water line, presumably to see what is happening. Willie Ray Parish is the Sculpture Professor at the University of Texas at El Paso and founder and Director of the Border Art Residency.

The sculptures are rotating art pieces, and the Arts Assembly insures them and pays a fee for their use. There are two more on the way: Super Happy Chicken by Carter Ernst and Weathering the Storm by Paul Kittelson. However, their arrival has been delayed by an injury accident on the highway in route to the Midland. Here's hoping for a speedy recovery.

Rotating exhibits are an ideal way to enjoy big art like this. After they've been in place for a while we gets used to them, and just about the time we begin to ignore them, WHOA, what's that? A new one appears like magic.

Thanks to Danny Holeva, Executive Director at the Arts Assembly of Midland, for the corrections.  And thanks to everyone at Arts Assembly of Midland for bringing this fabulous art to the Tall City!