By Linda

Published: November 11th, 2006

For those who think that ignorance is bliss, the group at Dropping Knowledge has something to say—when you question in order to understand, when you answer in order to share, when you act in order to trigger social change, you are dropping knowledge. Yet if you drop something, you should pick it up. Dropping Knowledge's website is a discussion-based forum that invites dialogue for positive social change, and makes knowledge bliss instead of ignorance. It's a young website, but has a large number of forum posters who are serious about their topics, which range from democracy and freedom to aesthetics and religion. Sharing ideas with an eye towards a more progressive humanity led dropping knowledge to organize an event on September ...

By Linda

Published: September 28th, 2006

The 1974 death of architect Louis I. Kahn in New York’s Pennsylvania Station remains an irony and a puzzle. Supporters of urban renewal and architectural preservationists had battled over it. The building’s defenders lost. Kahn died of a heart attack in the men’s restroom of a lesser Penn Station after a returning from his trip to India where he visited one of his nearly finished masterpieces. He was also heavily in debt and left behind three families. “Architecture is the reaching out for the truth.” Kahn was born in 1901 (possibly 1902) on Ösel, an island off Estonia, and the family settled in Philadelphia in 1906. Over the years, Kahn distinguished himself as an artist and pianist, and he helped support his family ...

By Linda

Published: September 19th, 2006

But you'll live, and you might even be happier for it all. Although We Kill You sounds like a temp agency for assassins, it’s anything but violent. In fact, their work springs from a combination of concern for the environment and a desire to make people's lives a little more exciting. According to the WKY website, “The name comes from the expression ‘You Kill Me!’ used when something is really funny.” The project has gone from the pasting of whimsical paper monsters in assorted places in Toronto to merchandise that is making worldwide journeys. WKY monsters have been sighted on everything from walls and chairs to people and discarded computer monitors in downtown Toronto, and merchandise has been shipped as far ...

By Linda

Published: August 17th, 2006

“If there's one word to describe my work I'd say 'honest' or 'theraputic.' Haha, that's two words!” That's okay, Mike—they work together, so we'll count them as one. The reason those two words go hand in hand in this case? Bertino's art is largely focused on the contrast between inner and outer experience, and he often holds his own life’s upheavals to the light as his subject. He says that wounds are a recurring theme in his work, but so is first aid. His creations are often composed of opposites in image, line, and color, as well as in poetic statements found in some pieces. These elements debate with each other the same way we debate with ourselves as we try ...

By Linda

Published: July 22nd, 2006

Remember when your mom yelled at you to stop drawing on your sneakers? All that hard work you put into the portraits of your favorite cartoon and comic book characters, curlicues, graffiti, and multicolored checks got slurped down the drain of the washing machine. Eventually, you stopped “wasting your time.” You should have kept it up and gone on to art school to learn to paint on fabric. Today custom shoe artists are painting, inking, sewing, patching, and embroidering on new shoes. Some shoe manufacturers have jumped on the customization train, and are offering customized shoes from their banks of patterns and colors. Companies like Vans and Etnies provide an interactive ordering system—you can design your shoes right on your computer ...