Westford Holiday Bazaar 2010

My mom and I were in the Holiday craft fair in Westford this year and I think considering it was our first craft fair and we only had two weeks notice, we did alright. Will we do it again? We'll see . . . 

Who's Dying in the Iraq War, In Pixels

 By Kyle VanHemert 

This simple pixel diagram displays the human death toll of the Iraq war. Blue pixels are "friendly" deaths (U.S. and coalition forces), green ones are "host" deaths (Iraqi government), gray are "enemy" deaths (insurgents) and orange, well, those are civilians.

It's interesting to see how the distribution of the causalities changed in the diagram on the right, which shows the deaths as they occurred chronologically, but the one on the left, with the deaths grouped together by category, is even more powerful. As Kamel Makhloufi, the diagram's designer points out, "Just remember that host nation + civilian + enemies = mostly Iraqis." Of course what this diagram doesn't show is who's doing the killing—which deaths are attributed to combat, insurgent attacks, etc. And while it's easy to look at these and say "look at all the civillians getting killed in this war," it's ostensibly that type of non-combat violence that we're now trying to quell.

The data was culled from the documents recently published by WikiLeaks. [Flickr via Infosthetics]

BP: The Scream

I made this a a couple months ago when there was an explosion of online art and media relating to the BP oil spill in the Gulf.

Time Lapse Making of a Mandala

Luba Lukova

If you don't appreciate her art you can at least admire her use of metaphors. Her Health Care poster was used at the inauguration of Obama.

When illustrator and designer Luba Lukova graduated from the Academy of Fine Art in Sofia, Bulgaria, it wasn't up to her where she would practice her craft. She was a fairly outspoken and opinionated student, so the then-Communist government posted her far away from the capitol -- in Blagoevgrad, a small town in Southeast Bulgaria.


Little did government officials know that assigning artists like Lukova to Blagoevgrad meant the tiny town eventually would become fertile ground for dissident views. For nearly four years, she worked as a poster artist for small theater, forging bonds with like-minded artists. "I completely felt like I was in the right place at the right time. We did work that had double meanings because of censorship. We would say we were doing one thing, but really we'd be doing another."


A few years later, in 1989, the Iron Curtain began to come down, and the government granted Lukova an international passport to the US in 1991 to see her work at an international poster display in Colorado. She thought she would only stay a few weeks; she ended up staying ten years. And now, as an illustrator for the New York Times Opinion-Editorial section and a successful independent artist, she believes art should carry a message. "A piece has to say something -- not just leave people indifferent, but to challenge them." - During a recent visit to her New York studio, Altpick.com spoke to Lukova about her work.

Leaf Print Easter Eggs

Here are some easter eggs we experimented with. Before coloring, we blew out the egg yolk and whites by poking holes in both ends of the hard boiled eggs. You might need a toothpick or something to break the yolk. We then glued ribbon to the eggs after they dried so you could hang them up. You don't have to blow out the eggs or attach a ribbon but the eggs last longer and make cute decorations. I'm not going to lie, these eggs were kind of a pain to make. You end up with some duds but you learn as you go and I feel like if I try making them again they will come out a lot better. Despite the fact that they take some practice, they came out cool and they are a unique twist on your typical Easter egg. Everyone thought they were neat.


You can go here for instructions: Easter Egg Directions

Some extra tips:

• twist the nylon tight 
• allow egg to drain for a minute before removing the nylon
• use bright egg dye colors! Otherwise there is not enough color contrast to see your leaf pattern
• Experiment with different plants. Typically the thicker the leaves the better the print comes out. Cilantro came out best.

The Parish Center for the Arts Art Show, 2010

The Parish Art Show in Westford, 2010. Personally I think the judging is very strange at this event every year and I'm not just being biased, there are some incredible pieces that should get recognition but don't. The judges seem to appreciate technical ability over artistic ability and originality which is the opposite of my thinking I guess. Nonetheless, it's very cool to see all the work that people submit. It's a great show that has a huge turnout for a local town gallery and hors d'oeuvres as well as wine is served. I highly recommend stopping by.