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Michael Jackson, the Artist

1Most people know Michael the singer, but don't know Michael as an artist. View the gallery of Michael's art work
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Using Facebook for Good Art Room PR

Mrs. BrownSome teachers are coming up with creative ways to use social websites to their advantage. Mrs. Brown, Hemenway Elementary Art Teacher, has an excellent example of this.
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Michelangelo's Secret Message

2Michelangelo left secret messages on the Sistine Chapel ceiling in the form of human organs. God has an image of the human brain on His neck.
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Ned Kahn, Kinetic Artist

You can comment on any article on this page at the bottom!

The video above highlights the work of Ned Kahn, kinetic artist. Kahn graduated from college with an environmental studies degree, and from 1982 to 1996 he designed educational exhibits at the Exploratorium in San Francisco. He apprenticed there to Frank Oppenheimer, the center's founder and brother of atomic physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer.

"Dedicated to hands-on involvement, this landmark facility promotes ways to combine scientific knowledge and educational aims with technological expertise. Kahn, who flourished in this research-anddevelopment setting, began developing his ideas independently in the late 1980s – with substantial success. Kahn has received prestigious awards, including a 2003 MacArthur Fellowship and Cooper-Hewitt's 2004 National Design Award for Environmental Design. His background within a laboratory setting reinforced a methodology of collaboration and experimentation, as well as an empirical aesthetic of direct experience. 'Part of my philosophy,' Kahn says, 'is that in our culture, with its increased interest in computers and television and media – with the bombardment of mediated experiences - people have fewer and fewer opportunities to nurture their ability to observe and look closely. So my underlying goal is to create objects or places designed to encourage and nurture observation.' His faith in observation tends to conceal the mediation – the technical finesse and the high-tech materials – needed create illusions of direct experience. However, by emphasising observation, Kahn affirms the practice common to both science and art: a reliance on experience as a vital component of knowledge." [1]

World's Largest Ceramic Sculpture

The Spanish group OHL has been commissioned to create the largest ceramic sculpture in the world at the Oran Convention Center in Algeria. The sculpture will be 19,685 x 11,614 ft. in size and includes ceramic tiles of various sizes.

laying tile

Lola and Héctor spread out a section of tiles on the floor.

convention centerSays Pedro Bastidas, one of the artists: "OHL, an international building company, proposed us the challenge. We entered into competition with other workshops, but our proposal was chosen by the constructor. Of course, we had to manufacture a sample (a huge one) to be approved by the algerian prime minister. So he did and we started to work in november. I cant tell you about the cost of the work. I know you will understand this. It's a huge work with a huge price. This is not only the largest ceramic tile mural in the World, it will be the quicker too as long as we have only 2,5 months to finish it. This is our first international project for building. We have a good prestige in decorative pieces, but this is our first incursion in big dimensions work. Here is a link to a Home Accents Decor report, by Susan Dickenson, who visited us recently and wrote the story some days ago."

In the photo above right, you can see the center and a simulation of what the mural will look like when completed.

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