Bugging Out on the NYC Subway System

There's a lot of great public art in subway stations throughout NYC thanks to we the taxpayers and the Metropolitan Transit Authority's Arts for Transit program.

En route to the New York Botanical Gardens earlier in the week, I was pleased to find this bee walking the wall at the Bedford Park Blvd. stop on the 4 train.
The bee is a detail from a glass mosaic by Andrea Dezsö titled Community Garden, 2006. As the name suggests, these whimsical, shimmering images evoke the flora and fauna of a garden setting, with plenty of great-looking bugs lurking here and there.

Several of the subway art installations in NYC focus on natural subjects, including kinetic dinosaurs at the stop near the American Museum of Natural History, dramatic undersea creatures at Houston Street, and stately penguins at Fifth and Fifty-Ninth Street (near the Central Park Zoo).

You can take a virtual, station-by-station and line-by-line tour of this art on the MTA website by clicking any of the links above and then navigating (bottom left of the page) to the station or line you'd like to explore.

Bugging the Supermodel

I do so love the Internets!

My recent travels in OnlineLand has led me to the marvelous, intricate work of Julia Stoess, who creates "greatly enlarged, scientifically correct" insect models that shimmer with beauty.

Take, for example, her stunning rendition of the Common Grasshopper, or her exquisite Common Green Lacewing. Meditate for a moment on a May Bug. Or eavesdrop on the tete-a-tete of this pair of Black Garden Ants.

So many bugs, so little time."Common Grasshopper" by Julia Stoess

Dead/Fly/Art

You may not think you need to see this, but trust me, you do.

Flower Powder: The Art of Wolfgang Laib

First off, many thanks to Peter, who, in response to my recent post on bees in art, mentioned the work of bee-related art of Wolfgang Laib.

I'd never heard of Laib before, but today I spent some time learning more about this artist, who works in various materials, from milk and rocks, to beeswax and pollen he gathers himself (painstaking work! ask any honeybee!) in the meadows of rural Germany, where he resides.

Laib studied to be a doctor and jumped ship for art. Now he goes around collecting flower powder in fields and rearranging it on the floors of urban galleries. His beeswax sculptures make me immediately want to go and formulate earthy, totemic sculptures from the extra wax I have lying around in the shed. I like it when art makes me want to go out and make my own art!

Here are some data-nuggets I dug up on Laib, just for you.

• An essay on his work entitled "Bee-ing and Nothingness."

• Images of his work.
  

• An Art in America article on Laib.

• A slideshow and link more info and details on a retrospective monograph of Laib's creations.
  

And while you're at it, take a gander at this video walk-through of a recent gallery show of Laib's work, including his strangely moving and meditative pollen art.

Artist of the Day

Been looking at a fair amount of art lately, and was especially thrilled last week by the plum blossoms, willows, and critter-renderings of 18th c. Chinese artist Luo Ping at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. If you're in NYC, check it out, and while you're there do not miss the amazing Astor Court—a hidden treasure nestled deep in the quiet recesses of the museum's Asian galleries.

Meanwhile, a bit closer to home—on the desktop, in fact—I've been enjoying the paintings and drawings of Zane York, a Brooklyn-based artist whose wide-ranging interests include bugs, birds, and critters of the mammalian persuasion.

What I like about this work is its meticulous accuracy and intelligence, through which, in subtle ways, a sense of appreciation and fondness for the subject matter percolates through.

Some of my favorites are:

A dragonfly.

A squirrel.

A hapless bug stalked by two cats.

An oil painting of a dead blue jay that evokes a 19th century specimen study, but with heart.

A horned beetle rendered in all its talismanic glory.

An in-your-face blowfish.

Bee Photography Tips

A friend was kind enough to send this impressionistic shot of a bee in flight over a sea of pink flowers.

The photographer, Ronan Palliser , provides a detailed explanation of the techniques used to take the photo and his musings about the challenges inherent in photographing bees and butterflies. It's a nice little conversation starter.

I've actually been pleasantly surprised at little camera-power I've needed to get some pretty cool shots of my honeybees and the local population of bumblebees and other flying insects. I certainly don't aspire to greatness on this front, but my little Canon Elph has come through well much of the time.

Patience is, perhaps, the most important ingredient for successfully photographing the fast-moving insects. A macro lens, even a basic macro setting option, helps too. Learning through time and observation how different insects move about is useful as well. In any event, it's fun to go outside, find some bees working the flowers, and snap a few photos in the least intrusive way possible.

NYC Wildlife: Woodcut Prints by Lisa Studier

A friend has been making these delightful woodcut prints of wildlife found in New York City: bats, birds, butterflies, turtles, and others. Here's hoping she decides to try her hand at our urbane honeybees.

Watch.

Watch this.

And then, make yourself a cup of tea, settle in, and explore the amazing world of Isabella Kirkland—which is to say, our amazing world—in detail.

Lynda Barry Rocks My World.

She has for years, and here's the latest—a cool new workbook on making art and hot-linking to the Muse: What It Is.

A NYC Window (sea mucous)

(To see the whole thing, nice and clear, double-click the pic.)

Mossed in Thought

I'm an avid moss-lover, so I'm glad to see the small but growing movement toward replacing lawn grass with moss. Humble, sensuous, ancient, and weirdly postmodern—moss is a truly underrated pleasure (a victim of biobigotry?). It's about time it got its due.

The New York Times (whose headquarters now includes an open-air birch-and-moss garden) has an article today about moss gardening. The piece touches upon the ecological benefits of skipping the water-intensive lawn and going with the Buddhist-like serenity of the less-thirsty, no-mow bed of moss.
Gazing at moss in all its intricacy and greenitude evokes a soft, pristine mental state that even the prettiest lawn can't approach. To learn more about moss gardens, check out these resources:

Mossy Acres

Saiho-ji Zen Garden

Moss Gardening—a great book by George Schenk that I've spent many hours happily exploring.
Whatever you do, don't miss this cool how-to site on moss graffiti.
You may also like the moss art of Brooklyn-based Edina Tokodi, as featured on the wonderful Inhabitant blog.

Bjork: "Sailing into nature's laws"

Her new video, "Wanderlust." Perhaps the first time the words "law" and "spore" have been slant-rhymed in a song. View a relatively high quality version of Wanderlust on the New York Times website, or watch the YouTube job below.

Evocations of Spring

I gasped with pleasure when I saw this detail of “Wang Xizhi Watching Geese” by Qian Xuan on the New York Times website this morning. Both the image and the title of this painting felt so evocative of spring. The geese suddenly seem to be everywhere and the trees are indicating their intention to bloom and I for one am in a very good mood!

This contemplative image appears in connection with an article about a new show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art entitled “Anatomy of a Masterpiece: How to Read Chinese Paintings.” The new show runs through August 10, 2008. I can't wait to see it.

The Times has another one of its fab slide-shows up, so check out more of Qian Xuan.

You can learn more about this exhibit on the Metropolitan Museum of Art website.