Art Students Transform Ugly Electrical Towers Into Colorful Lighthouses | Bored Panda

July 10, 2014 Beth Kelley

Why has nobody thought of this before?

Three art students in Germany have come up with a novel way to beautify ordinarily ugly urban environments. They turned a common electric tower into a makeshift stained glass lighthouse.The change was simple but effective. Ail Hwang, Hae-Ryaan Jeon and Ghung Ki Park, students at Klasse Löbbert in Münster, Germany, filled the gaps in the tower’s struts with panels of colored acrylic plastic, turning it into a dazzlingly colorful structure. It’s not quite as detailed and beautiful as true stained glass, but it is nonetheless a great approach for decorating an otherwise ugly structure. The resulting work is called Leuchtturm, or “lighthouse” in German.

more, including the original source, via Bored Panda.

It would also alert birds and other migratory animals that they might not want to hang out there. The only problem I can see with this is if the plastic acted as a prism for the grass and started a fire, but I’m sure there are ways you could engineer around that. Right?

architecture · creativity · design · environment · Nature · play

Giant Living Sculptures At Atlanta Botanical Gardens’ Exhibition | Bored Panda

June 4, 2014 Beth Kelley

Beautiful sculptures, and a great way of being playful with gardening and making gardens more engaging for everyone.

Mosaiculture is an excellent art form for those among us with the green thumbs and the space to do it. An excellent example of this complex but beautiful artistic process would be the “Imaginary Worlds” mosaiculture exhibition at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens – these elaborate and massive green structures create mystical and fantastic worlds that are lush with living foliage.There is more to these amazing works of living art than meets the eye. Most of them begin with a steel frame of some sort, which is covered with steel mesh. This mesh is then covered with sphagnum moss and soil, which is seeded with all sorts of plants. Underneath the mesh, a network of irrigation channels supply water to the plants on the surface, helping them grow.

more via Giant Living Sculptures At Atlanta Botanical Gardens’ Exhibition | Bored Panda.

community · design · play · Social

MMXIV: EXPANSIONS — DYLAN NEUWIRTH

May 22, 2014 Beth Kelley

Public, collaborative art happening in Seattle. Go be a part of it!

Just Be Your Selfie Dylan Neuwirth — Just Be Your Selfie in Occidental Park, Seattle by Dylan Neuwirth

I am pleased to announce a new large-scale public work coming to Seattle in late May and on display in Occidental Park from June to September, 2014 as a part of ArtSparks.

“JUST BE YOUR SELFIE” is a monumental neon status update rendered in cursive.

Designed to initiate personal and shared, web-based experiences; this social sculpture is an iconic contemporary work of real-time internet art embedded into an urban environment. Not necessarily a solid structure, or a pure concept; this slippery expression bridges the gap between existing in both the analog and digital realities we now accept as inseparable.

The work will have its own Instagram account, associated hashtags, and is intended to take on a life of its own.

more via MMXIV: EXPANSIONS — DYLAN NEUWIRTH.

behavior · community · creativity · culture · environment · happiness · play

An Artist’s Quest: To Force Strangers In Cities To Talk To One Another | Co.Exist

March 11, 2014 Beth Kelley

Sometimes all it takes is one person to start a neighborhood to start talking and engaging with one another. Someone moves in and throws an open house. Or even a garage sale. So how can art, or an artist, inject “love and play” into a community, particularly when the younger generations trust each other less than ever before?

San Francisco-based artist Hunter Franks is on a three-week mission across several different cities to explore just that, and hopefully get some “creative intervention” going in these urban areas.

One Franks’s planned activities is something called “Vacant Love,” which aims to transform abandoned or neglected buildings with messages of affection. Another, called the “Free Portrait Project” asks residents to sit for a Polaroid photo taken by Franks, and during the 120 seconds it takes for the picture to develop, entertain a brief interview about their lives. Other interventions include two-way advice booths, for citizens to both give and take advice from one another, as well as an activity that asks people to write sticky notes about their loves and fears on a public wall. Franks will also be expanding his SF Postcard Project, in which he gathered postcards written from low-income San Francisco neighborhoods and mailed them to homes in ritzier ZIP codes.

more via An Artist’s Quest: To Force Strangers In Cities To Talk To One Another | Co.Exist | ideas + impact.

What activities have you seen, or even been engaged in, that got a neighborhood members involved and communicating? For some, even a Little Free Library can get the ball rolling. Tell us your experiences in the comments below.

creativity · design · mental health · play

antistressforfree: Street Art by Fra Biancoshock

September 5, 2013September 5, 2013 Beth Kelley

What a thoughtful, and playful, piece of public street art.

antistressforfree – fra.biancoshock.

community · creativity · environment · play

Introducing Park-A-Park: Vancouver’s Recently Launched Mobile Parklet | Spacing Vancouver

August 20, 2013 Beth Kelley

Have you ever wandered into a neighborhood or parking lot and thought, “Wow, this space could use a nice mini-park, or even a bench.” Well, here you go!

A colorful banner pasted alongside the bin’s rough exterior cheerfully announces ‘Park-A-Park’, the mobile parklet that launched on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive at the tail end of July. The bin reaches just over three feet high, its inner walls are ringed with wooden bench seating, and planters and tables mingle inside to offer a charming, yet functional environment. The unit is capped by a shade-providing umbrella, and one end of the bin lies open, like a drawbridge, coyly beckoning passersby to enter.

A partnership between Emily Carr University of Art + Design and local Urban Interventionist Julien Thomas, Park-A-Park has been designed to transform an industrial disposal bin into an aesthetic mobile park that can be transported, parked, and enjoyed throughout the city. The unit is a component of Emily Carr’s chART project and aims to support public art and community engagement through creativity and innovation.

more via Introducing Park-A-Park: Vancouver’s Recently Launched Mobile Parklet | Spacing Vancouver.

For more information, you can also visit: www.parkapark.com.

This is reminiscent of PARK(ing) Days in the U.S. where people take over parking spaces in cities and turn them into mini-parks.

Where have you seen mini-parks, or think there should be one? Leave your ideas in the comments below.

Defenseless parklet defaced by taggers (sfbay.ca)
San Francisco to See Boom in Parklets (theepochtimes.com)
North Vancouver signmaker retires after 14 years of making us look twice (vancouversun.com)
Seattle Department of Transportation takes up parklets (blogs.seattletimes.com)

community · culture · design · happiness

Ear Sculpture Listens To Citizen Complaints

August 20, 2013August 19, 2013 Beth Kelley

Making space for listening and being heard…

The normal procedure for submitting a complaint to the government is to write a letter, send an email, or make a long drawn-out phone call. In Seoul, South Korea, there’s an alternative – yelling into a giant sculpture shaped like an ear.

Designed by artist Yang Soo-in, and backed by the organization, Lifethings, the sculpture sits outside City Hall in Seoul. It symbolizes the fact that Mayor Park Won-soon and his administration are willing to listen to the people.Since it’s installation, Koreans have lined up to speak their woes or ideas for civic improvement into the impressively sized artificial ear.

more via Ear Sculpture Listens To Citizen Complaints [Pics] – PSFK.

Got a Complaint With the Government? Yell It Into This 8-Foot Ear (theatlanticcities.com)

architecture · children · community · creativity · design · health

Energy drink maker Red Bull proposes skate-able art investment for Myrtle Edwards Park

May 30, 2013May 30, 2013 Beth Kelley1 Comment

The Seattle City Government Parks & Recreation site recently hosted a public meeting to gather input on a proposed public art piece in Myrtle Edwards Park that will be used for skateboarding.

Energy drink maker Red Bull has approached Seattle Parks and Recreation about making a community investment that would include commissioning an artist to design and fabricate a unique piece of skate-able art. At the meeting, Seattle Parks presented the history of the proposed project, followed by an opportunity for the public to weigh in on the idea.

Myrtle Edwards Park is located at 3130 Alaskan Way on the shoreline of Elliott Bay, north of the Olympic Sculpture Park.

The Citywide Skatepark Plan, developed in 2006 and 2007 with extensive public process, designated Myrtle Edwards as a recommended site for a skatedot [editor: which is apparently smaller than a skatepark]. Since 2007, Seattle Parks and Recreation has constructed eight new skate parks and skatedots. Two more are in construction and design.

4Culture is administering the Call for Artists associated with this project. The artist will coordinate the design with Seattle Parks and Recreation.

A second follow-up meeting is planned in June.

I love the idea of creating public art that is actually usable, whether it’s by skaters, kids, or even animals. I understand that some art is best appreciated by not messing with it, but especially in a public space sometimes it’s hard to not want to interact with sculptures or murals. I also appreciate Red Bull’s focus on supporting play in all its forms, although private sponsorship of public spaces is always a touchy, tricky gray area.

Is there a public art piece, or artistic skatedot, fountain, whatever, that you really enjoy sitting on, playing on, or just watching others play? Let me know about it in the comments below.

Public Art: Red Bull Skateable Artwork and More/ Calls for Artists (artistmarketingresources.com)

architecture · community · creativity · disease

Adding art to Belltown, Seattle

April 29, 2013April 29, 2013 Beth Kelley

This is an ongoing project in Seattle of sprucing up vacant office or retail space with art. It’s a plus for the artists, the building managers since it brings attention to their space, and the passersby who are charging to and from work or tourists who stop and linger a little bit longer to view. Always love seeing updates on new projects by this group.

Storefronts

Storefronts Seattle is proud to announce the first two of three projects in the Belltown neighborhood!

Ingrid Lahti
One Pacific Tower, 2006 First Avenue, Belltown
Through June 2013

Ingrid Lahti traditionally works in neon, but has branched out into illuminated lighting gels in her new installation at First and Virginia. Inspired by the saturated color in Matisse paintings and Chinese artwork, Ingrid views the illuminated window pieces as a study on the emotional effects of color and light, fitting seamlessly into the vibrant neighborhood in Belltown.

These installations glow brightly at night, adding to the street-level nightlife of Belltown and kicking off a summer in Seattle with a burst of color.

Chris Papa
2505 Second Avenue
Through June 2013

Chris Papa, a local printmaker and sculptor, has installed 5 sculptures at Second and Wall, featuring playful sewn wood sculptures conflating art, craft, and architecture. Interested in the…

View original post 86 more words

architecture · community · creativity · culture

In Gritty Sao Paulo, Artists Take To The Streets : NPR

April 23, 2013 Beth Kelley

A great example of actively adding art in urban settings in order to create enrichment for its inhabitants:

Urban landscapes have always inspired art, and Brazil is no exception. A new crop of artists like Matos not only is taking inspiration from Sao Paulo‘s streets but also is trying to give something back.

Matos covers trees and street poles with woolen sleeves and small, colorful pompoms. Her works look like whimsical webs of rainbow yarn; the effect is surprising and oddly comforting.

“I want people to have something familiar in the city. Here in Brazil we teach knitting from mother to daughter,” Matos says. “When they see my art, they suddenly feel comfortable walking these cold streets. And you can feel better.”

The newest and the biggest urban art project here is called , and it has an impressive list of corporate sponsors. The idea is to connect graffiti artists with individuals or business owners who have a wall they want covered with original art.

Artist Guilherme Matsumoto says he saw the website and signed up to say he was available to paint a space. Walter Orsati, owner of the Purple House Hostel, responded.

It was that easy, they say.