Dirty Cars And Trucks Turn Into Great Artwork In Moscow

A Moscow illustrator scratched at dirt on the back of
this truck to create some cool artwork. 

In northern climes, early spring is Mud Season. It's that gloomy, ugly time of year when most of the snow has melted and nothing has really greened up yet.

The frost is melting out of the ground. It's raining. The result: Everything is filthy dirty. '

Such was the case in Moscow, Russia, recently, as they went through their mud season.

As Bored Panda reports, an illustrator named Nikita Golubev has been "vandalizing" filthy dirty cars in Moscow with drawings etched into the filth and mud on the vehicles.

The results are gorgeous

On one dirty box truck, a crocodile rests in the mud on the side panel. A dark colored dusty sedan has a giant shark. Some sort of feline stares at motorists following a delivery truck.  Surfers catch waves on the side of an 18-wheeler.

Of course, the artwork never lasts. There's car washes, rain storms, and more mud to cover the artwork. But Golubev's work does bring some glory to drab, brown mud season.

Check out this link to Bored Panda for more examples.

Chutzpah: Old Woman Alters Artwork, Now Wants Copywright On It For "Improvments"

An elderly woman "improve" a piece of artwork'
depicting a crossword puzzle and now shes'
claiming copywright control over it.  

The Nuremberg, Germany Neuse Museum recently had on loan a piece of artwork by 20th century artist Arthur Kopcke that depicts a crossword puzzle.

A 90-year old woman, identified only as Hannelore K. visited the gallery and started filling in the crossword puzzle on the artpiece becuase it bore the phrases "insert words" and "so it suits."

OK, I get it that a 90 year old woman might get confused a bit and not realize she's not supposed to touch the artwork in a museum.

So far, she hasn't gotten in trouble, though police are investigating her. The museum went to work restoring the artwork to its original condition. The piece had an estimated value of $90,000

However, according to Ars Technica, Hannelore lawyered up and, in a demonstration of pretty huge chutzpah, is now claiming copywright control over Kopcke's piece.

Hannelore's lawyer said she increased the value of the work by bringing the relatively unknown Kopcke to the attention of the public. And her "invigorating re-working," as the lawyer put it, of the exhibit increased its worth.

With that, the lawyer summed up, Hannelore now owns the copywright to the work, since she "improved" it.

Hannelor could technically, in theory,  have the backing, sort of, of the original artist. Ars Technica says that Kopcke was part of an art movement called Fluxus, which stated that museums really didn't have the authority to determine the value of art, and Fluxus art involved the viewer.

Hannelor certainly involved herself in the artwork.

Should I start going to musuems and "improving" artwork? Put a mustache on Mona Lisa? Make the subject of "The Scream" seem happier?

I could make a lot of money doing this, huh?

Awesome Public Art in Frederick, Maryland

I've been visiting relatives and friends the past few days in Frederick, Maryland, a really nice small city west of Baltimore.

A centerpiece of downtown Frederick is Carroll Creek Park.  It's basically a canal that runs through the city center of historic old buildings, very good restaurants, funky shops, art galleries, and antique stores.

Not so distorted mural image

And a distorted version, from
different angle

Carroll Creek Park is basically a flood control project so that high water never ruins this nice town. But why does flood control have to be ugly?  So the park, a prominade of pathways, grass, and especially wonderful public artwork goes through the center of town.

In this post you see two photos of what seems to be part of a mural depicting a young girl. One photo looks pretty good, the other is badly distorted.

I've made no mistakes or done no funny business with either of these photos. They are raw photos. No photoshopping, no touching up. Just two photos taken on my Canon rebel, shot in full auto mode.

The only difference was I took the photos from two vantage points. The one that doesn't seem too distorted was taken looking diagonally at the wall. The one that's very distorted was taken straight on.

I have no idea how the artist did this, but depending upon where you stand, the mural image of the girl is badly distorted, or not.

There's other cool stuff in Carroll Creek Park. My husband Jeff has been here before. As we approached a small bridge in the park, we stopped about 50 feet from it and  he asked me what I saw ahead of me.

"Well, there's some nice ivy hanging on to some of the stone work on the bridge. I love the detail they carved into the stones on the side of the bridge. Is that a little fountain on the side of it." I replied.

This is all painted ivy and
stonewor, not the real thing

"We'll keep walking," Jeff said.

As we got closer I saw that everything I thought I saw from a distance wasn't what I thought. Everything was painted on the bridge. But it looked totally real. Again amazing.

There was other artwork as well, including some beautifully rendered ironwork shaped into trees, leaves, dragon flies and other items.

I'm not sure who decided to create this beautiful, interesting artwork in Frederick, but it was a beautiful investment.  Check it out if you're ever in that area