Free Republic

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.

Five suspected nail bombs put west London on major alert, before a woman walked into a police station claiming they were her "works of art". Police helicopters and bomb squad officers were scrambled to Shepherd's Bush and Hammersmith on Wednesday morning, to examine the packages. Some of the packages were cardboard boxes containing soft toys and training shoes with nails sticking out of them. A 36-year-old local woman was held on suspicion of causing a public nuisance. She has since been released on bail. The emergency services were called to the area shortly after 0800 GMT. BBC home affairs correspondent...

IT was a day for broken Harts in Broken Hill yesterday. Family members wept as they farewelled Pro Hart, the miner who swapped his jackhammer for a paintbrush and became one of Australia's best-loved artists, as well as a symbol of the dusty red plains of western New South Wales where he lived, worked and died. Hart's widow, Raylee, and his five children, all artists like himself, heard stirring tributes at a state funeral for the 77-year-old who succumbed last week to motor neurone disease. More than 1000 mourners watched as sons John, Kym and David, helped bear his casket...

A VINTAGE-car procession through the streets of Broken Hill today will help mark the state funeral for artist Pro Hart. Hart, one of Broken Hill's "Brushman of the Bush", died last week of motor neurone disease, aged 77. He loved cars almost as much as art. He turned cars into mobile works of art, including one of his own three Rolls Royces that he painted in a rainbow of colours depicting iconic Australian scenes. The car takes pride of place in the garage at his home-cum-art gallery in the far western NSW city, along with two other more sedate-looking Rolls...

OUTBACK artist Pro Hart has died at his Broken Hill home after battling motor neurone disease. The 77-year-old was diagnosed with the debilitating disease that causes muscle wastage late last year but his condition began to fail last week. His family decided to cease his medication on Friday and the legendary artist died at 2.45am (AEDT) today, Pro's family said in a statement. Pro Hart became a household name for his unconventional and diverse art works - which at one time featured in a popular carpet-cleaning advertisement. He was "a truly remarkable Australian and one that will be sadly missed",...

When wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes and hurricanes, terror plots and bird flu epidemics dominate the headlines, the paintings that hang on the walls or the music that plays on the radio or the musical that runs at the local theater can seem trivial. What does a dancer have to offer in the fight against terror? How can a fashion designer save families from rising water? Isn’t art, in fact, a leisure best reserved for periods of peace and prosperity? In perilous times, does the artist even matter?

Pablita Velarde, a leading American Indian woman artist from Santa Clara Pueblo, has died at the age of 87. A granddaughter says she died at her Albuquerque home Wednesday from pneumonia , KOB-TV reported. Velarde is best known for her paintings depicting Pueblo life, including Old Father Story Teller. A young Velarde was commissioned by the Works Progress Administration’s arts project to create scenes of traditional Pueblo culture for the museum at Bandelier National Monument, according to the National Parks Service. From 1937 to 1943, she produced over 70 paintings to help visitors understand the ancestral Pueblo sites at Bandelier...

SYDNEY: Changing colours of palette entails endless showers for an Australian artist - because she prefers to paint with her breasts. But Di Peel, a mother of two, is producing what the market wants. Unlike recent winners of prestigious Turner Prize for modern art, Peel's works can do what paintings traditionally are supposed to do and brighten up a bare wall. Her first canvas sold for $10, her second for $26 and currently she's busy with an order for 10 at a princely $89 each. Peel, from Tasmania, freely admits that her chosen method doesn't allow much detail. "They are...

Remember when Kanye West said Bush hates black people? I'm sure he's gonna get nominated for some Grammys. The only way people can hear US talking not WEST is if we boycott his music. How could we notice the Dixie Chicks statement and NOT Kanye West? Let's treat him the way we did the Dixie Chicks!

CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq (Nov. 22, 2005) -- Before he found fame as the artist who painted the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo was simply known as Michel. Michelangelo left a mark in the world of creativity that will never be imitated. Corporal Willie M. Rockward, armorer, II Marine Headquarters Group, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), strives to do the same with his lifelong passion in art. Rockward, 24, beamed with creativity and imagination, became interested in comic books for their artistic styles and drawings as he grew older. “I followed the artists,” said the Houston native. “Some people bought the whole comic...