Free Republic

Staten Island Tea Party honors artist Scott LoBaido Published: Sunday, April 15, 2012, 5:02 PM Updated: Sunday, April 15, 2012, 5:06 PM By Jillian Jorgensen STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The Staten Island Tea Party celebrated three years of influencing politics in the borough and beyond this afternoon, and honored artist Scott LoBaido with its Great Patriot Award. "Three years ago today we stood in the rain on New Dorp Lane," Staten Island Tea Party founder Frank Santarpia recalled. About 350 people showed up that day, he said. Now, the group has about 2,000 members on its mailing lists. While the...

Artist Shepard Fairey, who created the iconic "Hope" campaign poster featuring then-Sen. Barack Obama for the 2008 presidential campaign, pleaded guilty in Manhattan Federal Court on Friday to one count of criminal contempt for destroying documents, manufacturing evidence and other misconduct.See the story here. I know it's not spelled the same way, but it looks like Mr. Fairey may get a chance to live out his name behind the slammer (that's a lot of innuendo for one sentence!). I whipped up a couple of parting gifts for him... This one is from me to liberals

"Some Japanese fans have taken their love of the Pokémon character Pikachu too far. Members of a performance art collective called Chim Pom have re-created multiple, true-life versions of the character using (wait for it)—dead rats!"

Moses J. Ezekiel was born on October 28, 1844, in Richmond, Va. He was one of fourteen children born to Jacob and Catherine de Castro Ezekiel.

Burning Man, the arts festival and experimental community that blooms once a year for a week on a dry desert lakebed outside Gerlach, Nev., starts Monday.

Northern Nevada will host one of the largest and most innovative art and cultural events in the nation this week, yet most local residents have never experienced the weeklong Burning Man Festival. Western Nevada College offers a fascinating glimpse into the Burning Man culture of self-expression and self-reliance through a photography exhibit that portrays the art, costumes and energy of the event. “The Culture of Burning Man,” showing through Oct. 15, is made possible by the Black Rock Arts Foundation, and is curated by local artist Maria Partridge.

It’s easy to dismiss Burning Man as nothing more than a bizarre hippie love-fest that takes place deep in the Nevada desert every year the week before Labor Day. But doing so misses the fact that it’s an amazingly successful enterprise--and, as such, has a thing or two to teach about how to inspire creative people and create a great product. Since it first began 25 years ago, Burning Man has grown larger every year (if you ignore the slight dip in recession-scarred 2009). It’s grown so much that this year, for the first time ever, the organization had to...

Posted by Jim Hoft on Tuesday, August 16, 2011, 5:44 AM HOPE Obama HOPE artist Shepard Fairey was beaten bloody in Copenhagen by anarchists who told him to, “Go back to America.” The Guardian reported: When graffiti artist Shepard Fairey turned his talents to US politics, his reward was international acclaim and a letter of thanks from Barack Obama. When he employed a similar tactic in Denmark, however, the response proved altogether less edifying. Last weekend, Fairey – creator of the famous “Hope” poster that came to encapsulate Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign – was beaten up after the opening of...

A friend and I are starting up a grass-roots movement to replace House Speaker John Boehner with someone who has a spine to stand up to the RATS. We need someone who has some graphic arts abilities to help us. If you are interested please send me a FReepmail and I will respond to you this afternoon.

For the first time in the event's 25-year history, tickets to Burning Man have sold out. With more than a month left to go before the gates to Black Rock City open at midnight on Aug. 28, burners have already started a mad scramble for spare tickets through various message boards and online networks.

*57-year-old accused of 'creating a public disturbance' *Show caused 'public disorder and chaos' *Artist wished to beautify love-making, lawyer claims A Chinese artist has been ordered to serve a year's re-education after he performed live sex as part of an exhibition, Chinese sources report. Cheng Li was detained and sentenced after his lewd public show in Songzhuang in eastern Beijing - and will now endure 11 months labour for his prurient act. The 57-year-old's actions - which are akin to those you might see in an Amsterdam peep show - apparently led to 'public disorder and chaos' in the capital...

Calle has designed more than 30 stamps in as many years. Among this noted artist’s many distinctions is the First Man on the Moon series of stamps that he designed which sold more than 150 billion. Other Calle stamps include those honoring Franklin D. Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, Jesse Owens, Helen Keller, Robert Frost, Douglas MacArthur, Pearl Buck and Frederic Remington, in addition to stamps depicting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the International Year of the Child in 1979 and promoting causes such as volunteerism and encouraging early cancer detection. Calle also designed the U.S. Postal Service’s first twin stamp to commemorate...

More than 200 protesters hit Fifth Avenue yesterday with fire in their bellies over the Smithsonian's yanking of a controversial work by famed gay artist David Wojnarowicz. The chanting demonstrators clogged the avenue between 81st and 82nd streets to demand that the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, restore the Wojnarowicz piece, a video called "A Fire in My Belly," which showed ants crawling over a crucified Jesus, angering Christian groups.

--snip-- "The Tea Party for me is a nonprofit, contemporary art project, it is a social sculpture that is community based and works with a lot of different artists. Since I am interested in the human meeting rituals the WTP serves a sense of coming together for shared exchanges of ideas and experiences," says the artist who expresses his dissatisfaction with the current Tea Party movement in the US. "The WTP sees the commonalities of cultures and communities rather than their differences. The current Tea Party movement in America is very right wing and is trying to promote white picket...

A Muslim artist has sparked outrage with his depiction of the ripped-apart bus destroyed in the 7/7 terror attacks. The artwork shows four angels flying above the bombed bus - the same number of Al Qaeda terrorists who took part in the atrocity which left 52 commuters dead and maimed hundreds more on London's transport network. Also seen are scores of ghostly souls shooting from the number 30 bus, which was travelling through Tavistock Square when it was devastated by suicide bomber Hasib Hussain. Sickeningly, the £3,500 artwork, called Age of Shiva, is on display just one mile from where...

Shepard Fairey, the artist who created the image of Obama that became an icon of Obama forces during the 2008 campaign, admits that Obama isn't the great vehicle of Change and Hope they were counting on: he says he understands why so many people have lost faith in the false messiah, his own disappointment is a common feeling that has affected many Democrats who had placed great expectations in the Obama. Fairey explained the poster was a single image that was meant to convey the issues that he considered important health care, helping labor, and curtailing lobbyists. The lobbyists'...

Moses J. Ezekiel was born on October 28, 1844, in Richmond, Va

Here is Nancy Pelosi a few months ago telling a group of musicians and artists that because of ObamaCare they can now leech off of the rest of us saps who have to work for a living: [VIDEO AT SITE] We see it as an entrepreneurial bill, a bill that says to someone, if you want to be creative and be a musician or whatever, you can leave your work, focus on your talent, your skill, your passion, your aspirations because you will have health care. I'm thinking a lot of doctors will want to escape the grind and become...

Via Michael Moynihan at Reason. Remember Lars Vilks? A few years ago he decided to draw Mohammed as a pooch and has been dodging killers ever since, from garden variety Islamist nuts like “Jihad Jane” all the way up to the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq. Funny thing, though: Not only wasn’t he intimidated, he practically dared the mujahedeen to come and get him, letting CNN cameras film his home and even booby-trapping the place in case the soldiers of Allah paid him an unexpected visit. Quote: Vilks has faced numerous death threats over the controversial cartoon, but said...

NEW ORLEANS, April 7, 2010 – Between weekend drills, overseas deployments, the work in communities during peacekeeping and natural disaster missions, full-time jobs and school, National Guardsmen often find themselves too busy making a difference to find time for their hobbies. Army 1st Lt. Heather S. Englehart of the Louisiana National Guard paints a scene from her military experiences at her home in New Orleans, March 31, 2010. Courtesy photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. One soldier has found a way to combine the two. For 31-year-old Army 1st Lt. Heather S. Englehart of the Louisiana National Guard, her...

The National Space Society is greatly saddened by the news that renowned space artist and long time advocate for human space exploration and settlement, Robert McCall, passed away February 26 at Scottsdale Memorial Hospital Osborne in his home town of Scottsdale, Arizona. He was 90 years old.

OK. So which male artists NOT associated with duo, group etc would make your top 10. Here's mine..in no particular order..Non opera please!

Danish police say they have shot an al Qaeda-linked man armed with an axe who broke into the home of a controversial cartoonist. Police say the 28-year-old Somali man was trying to kill Kurt Westergaard, who triggered worldwide protests after drawing cartoons of Islam's Prophet Mohammed. The intruder was linked to Somali terror organisation al Shabaab and al Qaeda leaders in east Africa, police said. The intruder was shot twice and is being held in custody. Lotte Mejlhede, of TV2, told Sky News Mr Westergaard, 74, fled to a safe room at his Aarhus home after spotting the would-be attacker.

Danish authorities say a Somali man has been charged with two counts of attempted murder for an attack on an artist whose cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad ignited riots and outrage across the Muslim world. Jakob Scharf, head of Denmark's intelligence agency, said the 28-year-old Somali man with ties to al-Qaida broke into Kurt Westergaard's home in Aarhus on Friday night. The 75-year-old artist pressed an alarm and fled with his 5-year-old granddaughter to a special safe room. Police say they then shot the attacker in the hand and knee when he threatened them. The suspect was charged at a...

Artist Peter Callesen proves he is a cut above the rest with these dainty models made using glue, a scalpel - and just one sheet of A4 paper. Peter, 41, cuts intricate patterns from a white sheet of paper and uses the cutout to fold breathtaking designs such as skeletons, insects and buildings. The precision work transforms a piece of paper worth only a few pence into a piece of art that sells for £2,800. Each model takes up to two weeks to sketch, cut and fold. If Peter makes a wrong cut or realises he is unable to achieve...

A Seattle police officer was shot to death and another officer was wounded late Saturday night while conducting a traffic stop in the city's Central District neighborhood. The officer who died was a veteran of the department, and the woman who was wounded is a student officer in training, Assistant Chief Jim Pugel said

GREED RUINS LIVES

Paper art can be traced back to Japan, where it originated over a thousand years ago. From complex paper cutting to book carving, this is an ever expanding area of design that is hardly talked about. These intricate paper designs grace museums and exhibitions throughout the world and is becoming yet another exciting medium of expression for many designers. Some of the artists featured here use simple materials, such as A4 printing paper, while others resort to unexpected materials, such as actual books, as their prime materials. In this article, we’ll take a look at 13 remarkable artists and showcase...

These are pretty amazing.

Draw The Prophet: A Rewarding Career Awaits You... In Hell!The Centre Academy for Arts, Music, Literature and Satire (CAAMLS) announced today that it's creating a "Draw The Prophet" contest.Contestants will be asked to draw a likeness of the prophet Muhammad and submit it for review. The winner will receive entry into the prestigious art school, as well as body armor and round-the-clock bodyguard protection. Pablo Survivale, dean of the school, said the contest allows average people with above-average inflammatory talent the chance to not only express those talents, but pursue their passions and perhaps become a freedom of speech darling--and...

A street artist famous for his red, white and blue "Hope" posters of President Obama has been arrested on warrants accusing him of tagging property with graffiti, police said Saturday. Shepard Fairey was arrested Friday night on his way to the Institute of Contemporary Art for a kickoff event for his first solo exhibition, called "Supply and Demand." Two warrants were issued for Fairey on Jan. 24 after police determined he'd tagged property in two locations with graffiti based on the Andre the Giant street art campaign from his early career, Officer James Kenneally said. One of the locations was...

Mark Bangerter: Finding His Vision after Tragedy By Mary Dickson, Salt Lake City, Utah In a case of mistaken identity, a stranger, consumed by an irrational hatred, found his target on an April evening in 1998 in a Boise, Idaho club. Mark Bangerter – an artist on his way to becoming one of America’s finest modern painters -- hugged a friend goodbye as he left the Boise club. It was a simple gesture of friendship that enraged the stranger. A decade after the attack and a series of reconstructive surgeries, Bangerter is finding his artistic voice again with a series...

Here's the catch: People can join the 'photo-op' by donning a vest and gun. The artist admits in the video link that many of the visitors shoot Sarah Palin. But that's okay. She's just a she, not the first black man to run for President. That makes it all okay.

Spectators giggle as prosecutor points out dangers of operating fake BuickThe prosecutor's case began to unravel when he turned his attack to the tea light-candle headlights. Up until that point, Daniel Lerner had argued that the car in question was unsafe because of its dangerous braking system. Granted, classifying the hollowed-out Buick a car is a bit of a stretch. It's actually a piece of art made to look like a car by Montreal artist Michel de Broin. More than anything, it's a four-seater bicycle, propelled entirely by pedalling. At top speed, the Buick can hit 15 km/h. It has...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 12, 2007 – Johnny Ondrasik turns 8 years old this Christmas Eve, but he isn’t asking for any presents on his birthday -- at least not for himself. John Ondrasik, a singer-songwriter who performs under the stage name Five for Fighting, has spearheaded a special CD for the nation’s servicemembers. The CD features 13 of today’s top artists and songs. He was in Washington, D.C., this week singing on Capitol Hill and promoting the CD. Photo by Fred W. Baker III  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. “Daddy, can I have my friends donate money … for...

TORONTO -- Condemnation, and applause, for Thorarinn Jonsson's fake bomb art project continued to mount Friday, as the student was released from jail on $33,000 bail. The Ontario College of Art and Design student turned himself in to police Thursday night and was charged with common nuisance and mischief that interferes with property after a device, which was made to look like a pipe bomb, was left in a bag at the Royal Ontario Museum on Wednesday. The museum had to be evacuated and a major fundraiser for AIDS research canceled, as police investigated the suspicious package, that turned out...

Performance artists are known for pushing the bounderies, but one Australian has astonished his contemporaries by having a third ear implanted onto his arm. The Cypriot-born eccentric Stelios Arcadious spent 10 years searching for a surgeon willing to perform the controversial operation.

In Memorium: Mike Wieringo, 1963-2007 Posted: 2007-08-16 Updated: 2007-08-21 10:23:49 Ringo! From the bouncy signature to the remarkable art that it brands, the world lost one of the greats this week, and what is truly a loss for all of us is that we lost him way too early. On Sunday, August 12, Mike Wieringo passed away in his home in North Carolina, the victim of heart failure at the ridiculously young age of 44. As one would expect, so much has been said about Mike over these last few days. Yes, he was an amazing guy, a fantastic artist...

Tributes have been pouring in for Ingmar Bergman, one of the most influential film directors of the 20th century, who died on Monday at his home on the Swedish island of Fårö. He was 89. Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt hailed Bergman as "one of the great dramatists in this world," and French President Nicolas Sarkozy paid tribute to "one of the geniuses of our time." "The dream ended, the music went quiet that night on the island of Fårö, where Ingmar Bergman died," Sarkozy said. "France, a land of the cultural exception that was dear to Ingmar Bergman, honours...

US artist Spencer Tunick will fill Mexico City's Zocalo square - the centre of the ancient Aztec empire and the heart of modern Mexico - with thousands of naked Mexicans next week for his latest mass nude photo shoot. Tunick, who was refused permission to stage his nude photo shoot at Mexico's famed Teotihuacan pyramids outside the capital, has been granted permission to use the Zocalo for his shoot next Sunday (local time), local media reported. The Mexico City Government was not available for comment. One of the world's biggest and most imposing squares, the Zocalo is framed by the...

Michael Fay is an official US marine war artist, one of only three in the service. His mission - "Go do art" - has taken him to Iraq and Afghanistan.

New Yorkers got to kick President George W. Bush's butt on Thursday, sort of. Performance artist Mark McGowan kicked off his bid to crawl for 72 hours across Manhattan dressed as the president, offering the opportunity to kick his backside. The controversial artist from London began his odyssey from New York's Lincoln Centre wearing a rubber George Bush mask, a business suit, knee pads, work gloves and a sign stuck to his cushioned posterior reading simply: "Kick My Ass".

A high school art teacher has hired the ACLU to challenge his firing after a video of him moonlighting as a "butt-printing artist" was widely circulated among his high school students. The executive director of the Virginia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said a public employee such as former teacher Stephen Murmer has a right to free expression outside the workplace as long as it does not interfere with his job. "Once he became fired, then it became a potential legal issue," said Kent Willis. "First Amendment issues always have a high priority ranking for us." Murmer can...

Las Vegas artist Melissa Henry dreams of a new community that lives in harmony with Mother Nature, a place where the world's greatest thinkers can ponder the world's greatest problems, a model for the city of future. Henry unveiled her dream, and a plea for the money necessary to realize it, Thursday at a fundraising event for Nova Town and Sage Era Resort and Community, a 24-acre community envisioned for the middle of the desert near Jean, about 30 miles south of Las Vegas. About 50 people attended the dinner at the Stirling Club at Turnberry Place to see the...

"“The new pope is even more conservative than the old one. He has compared homosexuality to mental illness,” she said. Last weekend she travelled to Italy and hooked up with some friends, who agreed to pose for a photograph. “I have a lot of friends in Italy and decided that it felt right to do the photo shoot in Rome. For this exhibition I have been very inspired by baroque paintings. They are scary to see. Also it is interesting to play with the lighting and add in extra details,” said Ohlson Wallin. She found a nice calm square for...

Dear Mr. Moderator: Please don't remove this post from Breaking News. This post should stand as a repository of every one of Chris Matthews's acts of crass, intellectually dishonest, boorish, and/or distemperate behavior of this election cycle. I start this post with my impressions of Chris Matthews, his recent instances of belligerance, and all his fawning obsequiousness to his own self-image. I find it amazing that he is associated with the same network that once employed David Brinkley. After watching Matthews this campaign cycle, he has thrown away any pretense of fairness or anything approaching such. It is one thing...

A biography of late Alice In Chains frontman Layne Staley might be turned into a movie, reports Blabbermouth.net. A press release from Arts Publications indicated that Argentinean journalist Adriana Rubio has been contacted by Philadelphia-based filmmaker Eric Moyer about making a film version of her book, Layne Staley: Get Born Again. Moyer said in a statement, "I am determined to make this film about Layne Staley, not only to celebrate his life and talent, but to warn others through his compelling story that heroin will kill you...no matter who you are." Staley died in April of 2002 after struggling with...

Sept. 8, 2006 — When New York City artist Scott Lobaido looks at a roof, what he sees is a canvas, a canvas he fills with his unabashed affection for the American flag and the veterans who have served under it. "I'm a crazy New York City artist living in America, and I pretty much have more freedom than most people do in the entire world," Lobaido says. "It's a big, fat greeting card saying, Thank you!" And as thanks, he paints the flags for free. "It's not pro-war, anti-war. It's about these men and women who step up to...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The FBI is investigating "Painter of Light" Thomas Kinkade and company executives over allegations that they fraudulently induced investors to open galleries, then ruined them financially. Relying on information from former Kinkade dealers contacted by federal agents, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday that the FBI is focusing on issues raised in civil litigation by at least six former Thomas Kinkade Signature Gallery owners. At least 10 former dealers in Michigan, Virginia and other states have alleged in arbitration claims that Kinkade - a California native beloved by some but reviled by the art establishment -...

A Brighton homeowner is in trouble with the city because an alleged break-in artist fell to his death early yesterday from a set of rickety exterior stairs attached to the man’s two-story house.