James Whíte

James White has been drawing since the age of 4, scribbling down his favorite characters such as Superman, Batman, the Dukes of Hazzard, etc. Being from a military family, he made 3 big moves through childhood but never strayed from his colored-pencils.

After going through school constantly being yelled at for drawing in class (by teachers, not parents) he applied and was accepted in 1995 to the Graphic Design course at a community college in Truro, Nova Scotia. Graduating with honors he proceeded schooling by taking Interactive Technology.

Upon graduation in 1998 he landed a job immediately in the website/graphic design field, all the while keeping up on his traditional drawing, painting and digital creation.

James allowed both sides of corporate design and personal art to feed each other, and on his own time he has created logos, flyers, posters, CD covers and websites for various local music and entertainment companies. Today, James works on personal posters and art prints while still working fulltime in the graphic design industry for a company called Raised Media in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Found Here:

http://blog.signalnoise.com/

TOTALLY RAD! Errol

Something Secret is a bunch of people who make things all day and all night. Limited edition zines, records, shirts, prints and one of a kind items will be posted here upon availabilty. We accept cash, cheques, Paypal and we especially like trades. If you'd like to get multiple items, we suggest emailing us first, and we can work out a deal.

Something Secret is about making friends and perpetuating creative endeavors.

Totally Rad is a brand new collaborative zine curated by Greg Durrell and Errol Richardson. It features the work of Scott Barry, Siggi Eggertson, Jon Vermilyea, Michael Perry, Jessica Williams, Mario Hugo, Andreas Banderas, Matthew Boyd & River Jukes-Hudson, Damien Correll, Melvin Galapon, Marcus Oakley and many many more!

Specs: 8x8 Inches, 76 Pages, 32 Artists, Hand-Numbered, Limited Edition of 200 copies, 2008.

Found Here: http://www.somethingsecret.ca/

Chen Zhun for FHM China

Photographer Chen Zhun for FHM China. More visual pleasure inside!

Via etoday.

Found Here:

http://www.etoday.ru/

Solid Gold Sculpture of Kate Moss by Marc Quinn

Siren is the work of artist Marc Quinn whose most famous sculpture was Alison Lapper Pregnant which appeared on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square.
His sculpture of Moss said to be the largest gold statue to be made in the world since the time of Ancient Egypt.
Speaking about choosing the supermodel as a subject, Quinn said: “I thought the next thing to do would be to make a sculpture of the person who’s the ideal beauty of the moment.”
The 50kg statue will be displayed in the Nereid Gallery of the British Museum, alongside other statues such as Crouching Venus, a Hellenistic model of Venus surprised while bathing.
Quinn’s latest work, which shows Moss in a yoga pose, is part of a collection, entitled Statuephilia, by contemporary artists going on display at the British Museum.
It is the second time the London-born artist has used the model as his muse. He previously created Sphinx, a white-painted bronze sculpture of the fashion icon.
Quinn is also known for Self, a bust of his head made from eight pints of his own frozen blood.
Other artists exhibiting include Damien Hirst and Angel of the North creator Anthony Gormley.
Gormley said: “The British Museum is a laboratory of possibility for any creative mind. It is filled with objects that reach across time and touch us intimately.
“Seeing as a child the great head of Rameses and the Assyrian winged bulls at the British Museum was what made me become a sculptor.”
The exhibition will run from October 4 to January 25.

Found Here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

British artist Marc Quinn stands with his solid gold sculpture of British supermodel Kate Moss at the British Museum in London, Britain, 02 October 2008. Quinn's 50kg solid gold statue of Moss in yogic pose was unveiled to the public for the first time 02 October. Siren, a GBP1.5 million (1.9 million Euros) solid gold sculpture, is one of several contemporary sculptures in the exhibition Statuephilia. EPA/ANDY RAIN

Found Here: http://www.monstersandcritics.com/people/features/article_1434471.php/In_photos_Solid_Gold_Sculpture_of_Kate_Moss?page=7

Ernesto Neto

ernesto neto is considered one of the absolute
leaders of brazil’s contemporary art scene.
his inspiration comes partly from brazilian
neo-concretism. at the end of the 1950s and
beginning of the 60s the movement’s best-known
proponents, lygia clarc and hélio oiticica,
rejected modernism’s ideas of autonomous
geometric abstraction. instead, they wanted to
equate art with living organisms in a kind of
organic architecture, and invite the viewer to be
an active participant.

ernesto neto works with abstract installations
which often take up the entire exhibition space.
his materials are gossamer-thin, light,
stretchable fabrics in nylon or cotton. like fine
membranes fixed to the ceiling by long,
stretched threads his works hang down into
the room and create shapes that are almost
organic. sometimes they are filled with scented
spices and hang in tear-shaped forms like
gigantic mushrooms or huge stockings,
sometimes he creates peculiar soft sculptures
which the visitor is allowed to feel through
small openings in the surface. he also creates
spatial labyrinths which the visitor can enter
and thereby experience the work and interact
with it.

neto’s art is an experience which creates
associations with the body and with something
organic. he describes his works as an
exploration and a representation of the body’s
landscape from within. it is important to neto
that the viewer should actively interact with
and physically experience his work by feeling,
smelling, and touching it.

for malmö konsthall neto will create a
completely new work which he is calling
'the malmö experience'. the exhibition in
malmö will provide an overview and synopsis
of neto’s previous works and contain a number
of important works which will be presented in
a new way. in a huge 'organic labyrinth' of
fabrics and shapes, which takes up the entire
exhibition space, the visitor can experience
the work from both inside and outside.
the exhibition is based on the colours of the
rainbow and the body labyrinth/organism
consists of a number of smaller spaces which
together constitute the whole.

Found Here: http://www.designboom.com/contemporary/neto.html

Ernesto Neto began exhibiting in Brazil in 1988 and has had solo exhibitions abroad since 1995. He represented with Vik Muniz their country in 2001 Venice Biennale, his installations were featured in Brazil's national pavilion and in the international group exhibition at the Arsenale.

Neto's work has been described as "beyond abstract minimalism". His installations are large, soft, biomorphic sculptures that fill an exhibition space with viewrs can touch, poke, and even sometimes walk on or through. These are made of white, stretchy, stockinglike material, which he stuffs- to fill out and solidify the amorphous forms- with Styrofoam pellets or, occasionally, aromatic spices: in some installations, he has also used this material to create translucent scrims that transform the space's walls and floor. His sculptures can be regarded as expression of traditional abstract form, but in their interaction with the viewer they work on another level as well.

• 1994, 1997 Escola de Artes Visuais Pargua Lage, Rio de Janeiro
• 1994-96 Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro

One of his most acclaimed installation is the one at the Panthéon in Paris called Léviathan Thot.

Neto has been awarded chevalier de L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Found Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernesto_Neto

The Amero - Currency of the North American Union

Amero

The North American currency union is a controversial proposal in which the three principal countries of North America, namely Canada, the United States and Mexico, would share a common currency. Implementation would probably involve the three countries giving up current currency units (Canadian dollar, US dollar and Mexican peso) and adopting a new one, created specifically for this purpose. The hypothetical currency for the union is sometimes referred to as the amero. The concept is modeled on the common European Union currency (the euro) and it is argued to be a natural extension of NAFTA. Conspiracy theorists contend that the governments of the US, Canada, and Mexico are already taking steps to implement such a currency.



The idea for a North American currency union was first proposed in 1999 by Canadian economist Herbert G. Grubel. A senior fellow of the Fraser Institute think-tank, he published a book entitled The Case for the Amero in September 1999, the year that the euro became a virtual currency. Another Canadian think-tank, the conservative C.D. Howe Institute, advocates the creation of a shared currency between Canada and the United States.

After the report came out, centre-left nationalist groups in Canada expressed their opposition to any currency union because they view it as an attempt by American businesses to gain access to Canada's extensive natural resources while dismantling the nation's social services. The 100,000 member strong Council of Canadians, a progressive advocacy group, has declared one of its central issues to be the threat of "deep integration."

The idea envisioned a currency union of the amero would mix the two dollars, and the peso, or it could also simply be dollarization of the American currency.

Some assert that having a single North American currency would be unconstitutional under the current U.S. constitution under Article 1, Section 8; which states that the United States Congress has the right to “coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures;”.

This concern rests on the contention that the Federal Reserve, created in 1913, is unconstitutionally issuing and regulating American currency as it is a quasi-government entity and not part of the legislative branch of the United States government. While physical U.S. Dollars are issued by the Department of the Treasury (in paper form by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, in coin form by the U.S. Mint), most dollars in existence are not in physical form, and the value of the dollar is largely controlled by the actions of the Federal Reserve in lending and purchasing government securities.

Found Here: http://lifeoverdeath.org/amero.htm

Banksy To New York: 'Let Them Eat Crack'

(Photo: Brian 'Money' Ries)

The Colossal Media painted Banksy ad featuring a massive rat with an umbrella on Howard and Broadway will soon read "Let Them Eat Crack." An eagle-eyed street scout noticed the traced out letters and snapped this photo of the work currently in progress. Well that's certainly one way to promote your new gallery Mr. Lazarides. UPDATE: Completed ad below.

by ANIMAL on October 2, 2008

Found Here: http://animalnewyork.com/news/2008/10/banksy-to-new-york-let-them-ea.php


Although many successful gallery artists do employ assistants to execute their ideas or concepts, Banksy is not generally one to relegate work to others, except when it comes to NYC. In what must be a huge disappointment for street art fans, the infamous stenciler's imagery has been popping around the city up but he didn't paint any of them himself, instead relying on outdoor advertising company Colossal Media. Now that's just weak. At least Nick Walker painted his own shit while in the city this past summer even if it was all legal walls. UPDATE: Jump for the almost completed rodent. |Gawker|

Found Here: http://animalnewyork.com/news/2008/10/more-banksy-ads-going-up-in-ne.php

Paolo Soleri

Born in Turin, Italy on June 21, 1919, Paolo Soleri was awarded his Ph.D. with highest honors in architecture from the Torino Polytechnico in 1946. He came to the United States in 1947 and spent a year-and-a-half in fellowship with Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin West in Arizona, and at Taliesin East in Wisconsin. During this time, he gained international recognition for a bridge design displayed at the Museum of Modern Art and published in The Architecture of Bridges by Elizabeth Mock.

He returned to Italy in 1950 where he was commissioned to build a large ceramics factory, "Ceramica Artistica Solimene." The processes he became familiar with in the ceramics industry led to his award-winning designs of ceramic and bronze windbells and siltcast architectural structures. For over 30 years, the proceeds from the windbells have provided funds for construction to test his theoretical work.

In 1956 he settled in Scottsdale, Arizona, with his late wife, Colly, and their two daughters. Dr. and Mrs. Soleri made a life-long commitment to research and experimentation in urban planning, establishing the Cosanti Foundation, a not-for-profit educational foundation.

The Foundation's major project is Arcosanti, a prototype town for 5,000 people designed by Soleri, under construction since 1970. Located at Cordes Junction, in central Arizona, the project is based on Soleri's concept of "Arcology," architecture coherent with ecology. Arcology advocates cities designed to maximize the interaction and accessibility associated with an urban environment; minimize the use of energy, raw materials and land, reducing waste and environmental pollution; and allow interaction with the surrounding natural environment.

A landmark exhibition, "The Architectural Visions of Paolo Soleri," organized in 1970 by the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, traveled extensively in the U.S. and Canada, breaking records for attendance. "Two Suns Arcology, A Concept for Future Cities" opened at the Xerox Square Center in Rochester, New York, in 1976. In 1989 "Paolo Soleri Habitats: Ecologic Minutiae," and exhibition of arcologies, space habitats and bridges, was presented at the New York Academy of Sciences. Most recently, "Soleri's Cities, Architecture for the Planet Earth and Beyond" was featured at the Scottsdale Center for the Arts in Scottsdale, AZ. His work has been exhibited worldwide.

Soleri has received one fellowship from the Graham Foundation and two from the Guggenheim Foundation. He has been awarded three honorary doctorates, the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal for Craftmanship in 1963, the Gold Medal from the World Biennieal of Architecture in Sofia, Bulgaria, in 1981, and the SIlver Medal of the Academied' Architecture in Paris, 1984. Soleri is a distinguished lecturer in the College of Architecture at Arizona State University.

He has written six books and numerous essays and monographs. When he is not traveling on the international lecture circuit, Soleri divides his time between Cosanti, the original site for his research located in Scottsdale, and Arcosanti.

Archology Theory

Arcology is Paolo Soleri's concept of cities which embody the fusion of architecture with ecology. The arcology concept proposes a highly integrated and compact three-dimensional urban form that is the opposite of urban sprawl with its inherently wasteful consumption of land, energy and time, tending to isolate people from each other and the community. The complexification and miniaturization of the city enables radical conservation of land, energy and resources.

An arcology would need about two percent as much land as a typical city of similar population. Today’s typical city devotes more than sixty percent of its land to roads and automobile services. Arcology eliminates the automobile from within the city. The multi-use nature of arcology design would put living, working and public spaces within easy reach of each other and walking would be the main form of transportation within the city.

An arcology’s direct proximity to uninhabited wilderness would provide the city dweller with constant immediate and low-impact access to rural space as well as allowing agriculture to be situated near the city, maximizing the logistical efficiency of food distribution systems. Arcology would use passive solar architectural techniques such as the apse effect, greenhouse architecture and garment architecture to reduce the energy usage of the city, especially in terms of heating, lighting and cooling. Overall, arcology seeks to embody a “Lean Alternative” to hyper consumption and wastefulness through more frugal, efficient and intelligent city design.

Arcology theory holds that this leanness is obtainable only via the miniaturization intrinsic to the Urban Effect, the complex interaction between diverse entities and organisms which mark healthy systems both in the natural world and in every successful and culturally significant city in history.

Found Here: http://www.arcosanti.org/project/background/soleri/main.html

The Maitreya Buddha Project, Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh, India:

The focal point of Indian architecture, like its culture, has always been religious in nature. Just as the Indian economic boom is bringing incredible economic and architectural growth in the secular area, so has Indian religious architecture once again become manifest in the creation of some of the worlds largest, massive, and most intricate religious architecture the world has seen.

Maitreya Buddha Project

Now, another great religious project has officially been given the go-ahead in one of the poorest parts of India. The Maitreya Project is a tribute to Buddhism for and from the land of the Buddha and is as a multi-faith cooperative designed by Tibetans who call India their home as as a lasting gift to India and Buddhism.

In this era of veritable skyscraper-hedonism (*cough*Dubai*coughh* j/k), this project is unique in that it is designed to fulfill a completely selfless goal, namely "to benefit as many people as possible."

A monumental sustainable work of art that will serve as a constant source of inspiration and a symbol of loving-kindness, work will soon begin on the 152 meter-tall Maitreya Buddha Statue that is the centerpiece of a large temple complex. An engineering marvel that at will not only be -- at three times the size of the Statue of Liberty -- the world's tallest statue and world's tallest temple but will also be the world's largest (first?) statue-skyscraper, designed to for a lifespan surpassing a 1,000 years.

^ A cutaway view of the 152 meter Maitreya statue and throne building showing the spaces and levels within. Note that the throne itself will be a 17 storey fully functional temple, with 15 additional shrine rooms in the the body of the Maitreya statue.

The statue is a temple that will contain 17 individual shrine rooms. The highest room at 140 meters high -- the equviliant of the 40th storey of a standard building -- making the statue a veritable temple-skyscraper as well. This statue and complex will be a fusion of Indian and Tibetan architectural styles that will adhere to ancient Vaastu Shastra design code and will also hold the world's largest collection of Lord Buddha's relics.

Apart from the statue/skyscraper, the Maitreya Project organizers will also build free hospitals and schools servicing tens of thousands of poor, and also be a huge catalyst for infrastructure and tourism development efforts in one of the most economically backwards parts of India.

The project is a joint religious collaboration by organizations representing the various sects and faiths that revere the Buddha: from Hinduism to Mahayana to Vajrayana to Hinayana to Jaina to Christian and Muslim. Under guidance of the overall project conceptualizer, Nepalese-Tibetan spiritual leader Lama Zopa Rinpoche, the Project was funded by Buddhist and Hindu temples, social organizations, religious groups and by individuals in India, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Tibet, China, Japan, Korea, the UK and America.

Through this project, India once again shows that the ancient arts of massive devotional architecture continues to undergo a veritable renaissance.


Found Here: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=133517

Ilya Repin

Ilya Yefimovich Repin (Russian: Илья́ Ефи́мович Ре́пин,Ukrainian: Ілля Юхимович Рєпін, (5 August [O.S. 24 July] 1844, Chuhuiv, Russian Empire (now in Ukraine) – September 29, 1930, Kuokkala, Finland) was a leading Russian^[1] painter and sculptor of the Peredvizhniki artistic school. An important part of his work is dedicated to his native country, Ukraine.^[2] His realistic works often expressed great psychological depth and exposed the tensions within the existing social order. Beginning in the late 1920s, detailed works on him were published in the USSR, where a Repin cult developed about a decade later, and where he was held up as a model "progressive" and "realist" to be imitated by "Socialist Realist" artists in the Soviet Union.

LucyandBart

LucyandBart is a collaboration between Lucy McRae and Bart Hess described as an instinctual stalking of fashion, architecture, performance and the body. They share a fascination with genetic manipulation and beauty expression. Unconsciously their work touches upon these themes, however it is not their intention to communicate this. They work in a primitive and limitless way creating future human shapes, blindly discovering low – tech prosthetic ways for human enhancement.

Found Here: http://www.lucyandbart.blogspot.com/

Frank Frazetta

Frank Frazetta (born February 9, 1928) is an American fantasy and science fiction artist, noted for his Buck Rogers comic book covers for Famous Funnies and paperback book cover paintings on series' such as Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs and Conan the Barbarian by Robert E. Howard. His paintings gained added popularity in the 1970's, appearing in books, posters, prints, record covers, and various other merchandise. He is the subject of the 2003 nationally televised American film documentary Frank Frazetta, Painting with Fire.<sup>[1]

Found Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Frazetta</sup>