Although I’m not so much into the glitter, I have some Venetian masks so I can appreciate the appeal of unique, hand-made masks and masking for Mardi Gras as a tradition.

However, this next tradition is one of which I was completely unaware. I guess my parents must have sheltered me while growing up in New Orleans. Actually, I do remember parade-goers shimmying up poles to catch beads but maybe this was before “greasing the poles” was started. Who knew a whole artistic performance could be created — only in New Orleans!

And this is Rita Benson-LeBlanc, owner of the New Orleans Saints, doing her rendition.

If you are interested in a new New Orleans inspired French Damask design, slip on over to Slipcovers for your Walls to preview the unveiling.

Here are few previous posts regarding Mardi Gras:

Mardi Gras Costumes get a Copyright

After da Fat

Mardi Gras Masks & Typography

My husband and I celebrated his milestone birthday recently by going back to “his glorious roots,” Panama City, Panama, where he was born. He was only a newborn when his father was stationed in the Panama Canal zone so he doesn’t have memories from this time but we had fun visiting where he and his family had connections and created some new reflections on a modernized Panama.

We started our trip in the heart of the Gamboa Rainforest at the Gamboa Resort – pretty nice and really the only place to stay on the Chagres River right at the point where it cuts into the Panama Canal. From our observatory perch from the jungle tram, we were able to see many cruise liners, tankers and various other sea-faring vessels pass through the Panama Canal. We learned what a major engineering feat it was to build and how thousands of lives were lost in the process. Panama is currently widening the canal to further increase traffic and commerce.

We passed Noriega’s new home on the way there. He was our neighbor, just down the road from where we were staying.

We had to go over the railway which had been converted into a one-way bridge by covering the tracks with tar. Gamboa is a birder haven and they were everywhere, including in the jeep in front of us, going very slowly, scouting for rare birds.

In fact, there is plenty of wildlife from tropical fish to brilliantly colored birds, even toucan, which we did see flying from this view, and capuchin & howler monkeys to agouti (large rat-like squirrels), sloth & iguana in trees and caimen (small alligator) and crocodiles, which swim freely in the river.

A capuchin monkey catches our bananas from breakfast and then proceeded to hop onto our boat.

We wandered onto a group of howler monkeys while walking in the jungle

Our fellow traveler friend in front of a fish mural - see Art Is Everywhere and in Panama

Click this link to see ways you can stay healthy with the Panamanian lifestyle and diet, with the abundance of fresh fruit and good food that we enjoyed.

My favorite nature encounter was a toss up between seeing actual blue morpho butterflies in flight and leaf cutting ants at work. I love the blue morpho; it’s my company’s logo. I have painted them and I have mounted ones to remind me how beautiful they are but nothing truly captures them in person. The list of varieties of butterflies in Panama is endless.

Then there are the leaf cutting, worker ants that we came upon while walking on a forbidden trail  — without a guide, “because it can be peligroso – dangerous.” Well, oops…good thing we didn’t venture too far on another path at night. We actually got scared to go further on that one after we saw bats and thought we hear growling. There are jaguars in the jungle here.

We did however, wander upon a two-toed sloth which was very close to us near the ground. He saw us and then he started slowly but faster than you think a sloth could go right back up the to the top of the tree. We later found out that two-toed sloths can be very dangerous and they only come down from the tree about once a week to do their business….Poor guy. I’m sure we left him in a bad fix.

Tarzan goes jungle vine climbing

I could go on and on about this trip but I just want to give you a few more highlights with pictures and suggest that the secrets that we discovered in Panama may no longer be secrets now that The Bachelor was filmed right where we were for last week’s episode.  They stayed at the Trump tower (see the last couple of posts). It was uncanny seeing  on TV the same indigenous Embera tribal village that we visited in the jungle and even the same Las Clementinas restaurant that I thought would be lovely to return to, for it reminds me of New Orleans and is also a B&B. We had the best food of our trip there and the most friendly service. Our waiter even knew Peter’s godfather in Panama. Here’s the nutshell of our remaining Panama trip (without even cracking the full nut) in pictures.

Embarking on a trip to Embera Village

Swimming hole on the way to the Embera Village

Being served lunch at the Embera village - baked fish in home-made hibiscus/ leaf cups

Getting Tattoos -- not only an art form but the dye helps to keep the mosquitoes away.

Las Clementinas Restaurant in Panama. They had their own custom wallpaper of family and historical portraits. Very cool!

On our tour back in the city we got to see where Peter was baptized as well as a day in the life of living in the San Felipe or Casco Viejo, old city of Panama.

St. Luke's Episcopal Church

Path to San Felipe - the Old City in Panama

A parrot fish is a proud catch at the fish market in Panama, where we had the best ceviche.

Panamanian Indian with beaded socks

Colorful building in the area where Operation Just Cause took place

Just one of the many lovely homes we saw in San Felipe, with a water view

It was hot while we were there — about 87 – 90+ degrees and humid in the rainforest. We were forced to cool off — many times and Balboa was our refreshment of choice.

Balboa beer is our favorite pick in Panama

You can’t beat the sunsets in Panama, particularly poolside.

Panamanian sunset, pool side at the Intercontenintal Hotel

I’ll leave off where I began with a look at Panama City — our final view before leaving — until we return for it’s a romantic spot to leave your heart in Panama.

This example in Santa Marta reminded me of the post I did on Speed Painting and the Let’s Colour the World project.

This sustainable product company in Berlin, Home of Good Deeds, caught my attention. It looks like a contemporary candy store with all that color. It just makes you kinda giddy.

The next ones remind me of those colored plastic pieces that I remember linking together and building structures when I was a child. I wish I could remember the name of them.

I recall the high rise building I saw with colored balcony glass in Panama City. It’s hard to see but look closely. It was much more vibrant in person. Photos often don’t do reality justice.

And a colored building in particular helps to enliven any neighborhood. I thought this pink was pretty and bold.

This infinity pool reminded me of the one we saw at the Trump Tower in Panama. It has some of the most unusual architecture in the city.

Trump Ocean View Tower

What a gorgeous place for cocktails and a wonderful view of the city at sunset. It’s his most prize hotel in Latin America. This view from about 16 floors up. It’s pretty cool (literally) to have drinks while dangling your feet in a pool.

Infinity pool and lounge chairs at poolside Trump Tower Rooftop

Middle Lounge area located across from the Middle Bar and separates left & right sides of rooftop

Middle Bar located between two sides of the rooftop pool

Right side of the pool deck with cabanas

On the way down we saw many artistic things, like the clever concept of portraits made of pennies and a mezzanine area that had a sculpture slatted chair that I thought could have been by David Trubridge.

Penny Portraits at the Trump Tower in Panama City

Mezzanine has a variety of art and sculpture

There were two larges scale Botero sculptures – one at the entrance of the hotel and one in the lobby. Never mind he’s a Columbian artist and the Panamanians don’t really like the Columbians.

Botero sculpture in the lobby of the Trump Towner in Panama City

These are condo units as well and downstairs there are wings on either side of the lobby with shops, mini-bars and restaurants. It was the first time I had seen a wine-on-tap bar. What  great idea. You can pour a taste, shot or glass from a spigot. What a great design concept.

This was just one day of our trip and not including the jungle adventure that came before. If you’d like to see more, head on over to Slipcovers for Your Walls, casartblog for Casart coverings, where I posted more pictures and an interesting video of worker ants that we stumbled upon while hiking in the jungle.

More to follow…..

Reverse graffiti mural by Paul "Moose" Curtis via SmartPlanet

Here’s an interesting video that explains the artist’s creative process for the “Reverse Graffiti Project” that SmartPlanet includes with their post on this subject. I like the music.

He mentions that his murals give the realization that the world is just a dirty place but then he couldn’t create his murals as he does without the dirt. Unlike the Alexandre Farto who sandblasts his murals into walls, these murals are only permanent by how clean they stay.

Thomas Williams via LA Times

Thomas Williams is the senior engineering director for Google and recent site manager of their new Venice Beach campus. While studying computer science at Villanova University he designed a software performance tool called “gnuplot” which produces graphs based on scientific data. This is still used by many universities, scientists and  businesses today including Google. Williams states what he learned, “was, to find something that was really useful and make it really simple for anyone to use.” He later went on to work for Steve Jobs and Pixar working with their unique computer graphics. From this he worked for George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic firm to help produce some of the visual effects with digital animation code for Star Wars, among other films. He discovered from his experience here when seeing how some of the original artwork was produced in a non-technical, traditional way like painting. Williams created technology to replicate the more natural rendition of traditional painting which transformed the efficiency and natural look for film production.

In addition to this “new” technology, I found his work model very inspiring. As he is a master carpenter, in building with his hands, he’s learned to solve building problems as he goes. He cites the same technique for his employees:

“It’s personal expression. People don’t think of writing a program the same way as they do writing a book or poem, but it’s a creative process….” Instead of allowing employees to get mired in jobs that become endlessly repetitive — like hamster wheels — you get them to “build their own treadmills.” That means giving people the latitude to figure out problems in new ways and to work at their own pace. “If you work with great people, everyone is setting their treadmill too high. No one’s telling you you’re not going fast enough — everyone is telling themselves that.”

Here was another article, The Creative Side of Doing Nothing Online,  that I thought was another insightful article about how those who search the Internet derive their creativity from their online experience because of their discovery they find during their leisurely online searching. This can be an everyday experience for a lot of us. How often have you been distracted while just looking up one thing.

The Web has given rise to a formidable and pervasive culture of creativity, in large part because it encourages people to experiment in the guise of having fun. And, perhaps more important is what the study found about who is not going online for fun, and who is thereby losing out on the lessons of experimentation and creativity….The Web has given rise to a formidable and pervasive culture of creativity, in large part because it encourages people to experiment in the guise of having fun. And, perhaps more important is what the study found about who is not going online for fun, and who is thereby losing out on the lessons of experimentation and creativity.

I have found so many artists through random online searches that the list seems endless — all of whom I’d like to profile. Jane Kenoyer is just one but I really like her illustrated style artwork for her pendant style paintings — very beautiful and all pertaining to the female figure as the heroine and influenced by her great-grandmother Pearl.

Birds of a Feather by Jane Kenoyer

Things we cannot untie by Jane Kenoyer

Her work reminds me or Erté and also of Giovanna Cassanelli, the artist who’s pendant I purchased within the Vatican. She paints famous Italian female portraits in miniature. She was the only painter selling their hand-painted wares within the walls of the Vatican that I noticed and she was extremely talented. She must have been in her late 60′s then (over 10 years ago) so I wonder if she is still there or around. I hope so but if not, I feel as if some of her handiwork has lived on in the small treasure that I had just happened to discover while in Rome.

Limonetta Vespuci portrait originally by Botticelli as a miniature pendant by Giovanna Cassanelli

With this in mind, I thought it was interesting to see these “x-ray murals” by Merge Invisible of the architectural footprints of razed buildings in Budapest, Hungary. This gives the viewer some frame of reference for what was there before. In the process of showing something old based on archived public records, they have created a whole new perspective that helps the viewer to appreciate what was there and even envision what the inhabitants’ interiors might look like – that’s their creative license part.

All x-ray photos via colossal art and design

Other murals that show change from dull, old exteriors to new fairytale settings use the shape of the building to dictate their pictorial transformation by Ukrainian artist Daria Marchenko. She along with other artist collaborators paint fantastical fairytale murals on the exterior of buildings to captivate attention and remind the viewer that things are not as they always appear — things can change with childhood dreams. Her group is called Night Express and they operate at night as well.

Building before painted by Night Express - photos via Oddity Central

3D art after painted by Night Express via Oddity Central

With change in mind, I decided to check in with the Mural Mosaic after I first read about it to see how the collaborative mural of more than 204 or more individual paintings was coming along to make one collective image of St. Albert and another of a Flower Bouquet.

Mural Mosiac_Flower Bouquet

Mural Mosaic_detail

Turns out that these have been completed but others have begun to take shape including one of the American Flag, entitled “E Pluribus Unum (Out of Many One)” with 50 individual paintings of major US events. You can click here to see the progress as individual paintings are completed. The mural is due to be unveiled on President’s Day, February 17, 2012. Something to look forward to.

E Pluribus Unum - American Flag by Mural Mosaic

First, Musical Lights the old way — still magical:

Second, Lights — the new way – spectacular!

And this may be the wave of the future for Ralph Lauren is using it and I’m sure others in the fashion and other industries will soon be using this technology — if they aren’t already.  All these were in Europe so may be a little slower to arrive here in the States but look to the nearest storefront near you for the next showing.

And they can even be interactive.

Happy New Year!

ItalyatChristmas2010

I first read about the start up Artaic in the Boston Globe, where artwork can be turned into mosaic tile through software and robotics in half the time to create manually. Anyone can have a custom mosaic tile mural where ever they want. How fantastic!

Artaic - Custom Mosaic Tile Art

This is a similar idea to Home Depot’s own Mosaic Loft, which I didn’t even know existed. They have partnered with Artaic to offer both concepts of stock designs as well as custom capability.  With a large, well known company backing the idea of turning mostly photographs into mosaic tiles, you would think they would do more to promote, but according to this story it hasn’t quite taken off yet. Somehow the photo loses its affect once turned into a mosaic, whereas if it was more a fluid artistic or abstract / graphic design piece, it may have more appeal — as in Artaic’s work. Custom tile of course, is three times more expensive but than typical, plain tile sold at the home improvement store. Mosaic Loft shows their creative process using robotic technology in the pictures below.

Mosaic Loft process

Either way, I like the innovative idea of using mosaic tile for more than your typical backsplash. You can see our Casart Faux Glass Mosaic Tile  here and on our Gallery page. I also like the idea of co-creating a product and making it more custom. The only problem with tile in general is that it is permanent; whereas Casart wallcoverings can be temporary or the option of being long term and remain removable and reusable. My theory is that there is so much homogeneity that pretty soon everything will have custom capability. Artaic’s owner, Ted Acworth states, “We believe that there is a $10 billion or $15 billion market of people who would want something other than plain tile on a bathroom wall, or a basic pattern.”

There are other innovative ways some other startups are bringing solutions with the artist and art in mind.

ArtVenue allows businesses to select artwork that is submitted by artists on their website and have that artwork be available for sale at their venue through a QR code that is displayed with a placard for the artwork. This is particularly appealing for restaurants and commercial properties looking to fill their walls and change out their venue’s artwork regularly while the artists get paid and exposure for the placement. 70% of the proceeds go to the artists, the venue gets 20% and ArtVenue gets 10% for the facilitation. Too bad this is only located in Boston. I can see this win-win concept spreading nation wide.

TurningArt allows you to rent or buy artwork for your home or office. Their objective is to get more art on walls. They may become the next Netflix of the Art Generation. For a $10 monthly subscription, you can rotate your art by rolling up your piece and sending it back in exchange for a new piece which fits within a standard frame that the company provides. Your subscription gives you credits that can in turn help when you want to actually purchase a painting. So far they are representing “the best new emerging artists” in these regions: Boston, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portand, Chicago, Seattle, & Philadelphia. Look for them soon in your neighboring town but you don’t have to reside there to get a subscription.

TourSphere just launched this past October and has already made strides to offer museums and other venues software to “build digital guides” that optimize viewing for their collections on mobile devices. About 20 museums are already building their collections with TourShere’s software any artistic venue can do the same at $399 a month to create and launch a web app instantly. A free app will soon be available to all of us to view them.

What I find fascinating about all of these startup companies is that they have found a way to use technology to make art more available and bridge the divide with lack of accessibility or just inability. They make all forms of creativity a reality and that’s pretty inspirational at Christmastime to know that magical dreams like these capabilities can really come true.