So I’ve been talking about this for a little while, and now it’s for reals.

The Collage Scrap Exchange on Brown Paper Bag is now happening!

Sign up here if you are a collage artist and interested in trading your scraps with other artists! Deadline to do this is next Friday, October 21!

Below are the beautiful, lively, and the type of murals that swallow-you-up-whole by Alexey Luka. Shape and color driven, I feel that Alexey probably uses these tools to create work that is many different things all at once. Sometimes I see a face, while other times I view a rooster. Either way, he is engaging the viewer on a number of levels.

All images via Flickr. Check out his website as well.

JR’s TED wish has taken the form of the Inside Out Project, a large-scale participatory art project. If you’d like the participate, you simply need to log on to the website, upload a personal statement and portrait. Then, paste them on the streets! Document yourself!

Director Alastair Siddons has began to make a series of short films based on the actions of the project (all to available on the YouTube Channel), with the first one just being released. So good and so inspiring. Below:

It will look like a house, but it will function like a musical instrument. A growing group of local and national sound artists are working towards interactive instruments that can be built into its walls and floorboards so that visitors can bring the house to life through their touch. Ultimately, musicians will be invited to play the house, performing orchestrated works at block parties for their friends and neighbors. This project is for the love of New Orleans — its architecture, music, culture and its people.

Over the past year (as the five year anniversary of Katrina was last year), I’ve heard a lot of interesting new stories and comments from residents about New Orleans, the primary idea being to rebuild the city creatively. There is potential in what’s been destroyed, and Swoon’s idea for the abandoned spaces turns them into a place that can not only reach out to the community, but to a larger greater audience.

Watch the video, see her talk about the model and project. Donate if you feel so inclined!

Check out the events. If I were going, I would love to see the TOY Roundtable or Lizzy Stewart’s talk!

Some of the featured artists:

Chris Gray


David Sparshott


Jez Burrows


Jon Boam


Lizzy Stewart


Matt Hodson


Nicholas Saunders


Nous Vous

A lot of the festival takes place near or in the Current Gallery and H&H building. It also takes place OUTSIDE as it livens up the alleyways of downtown Baltimore. Last night’s opening reception included the Howard Street Murals, eight new murals are going up on the 400 block of Howard Street:

Artists include Caitlin Cunningham, Gary Kachadourian, Josh Van-Horne, Emily CD, Shana Palmer, and Jordan Bernier.

Check out the schedule for this event.

The following process shots were taken by Larry Cohen:

The following pictures are all from Gaia’s photostream:

Gaia writes that the rooster cradling the head of St. John is as depicted by Guido Reni. Another location:

Some of my favorite pieces. Out of all of them, I think I was most into the pieces by Liz Craft.

Thomas Lawson:



Shannon Finley:



Patricia Fernandez:





Matt Leines:





Michael Decker:





Liz Craft:





Jane Moseley:



Andrew Schoultz:





Me, for scale:




Alexander Wolff:

Brown Paper Bag has started a “link back” program — a way of connecting with other blogs, artists, and friends. It’s simple — link Brown Paper Bag on your website and I will gladly link you back! You can find out more here.

If you have a graphic, we can also trade:

The Sketchbook Project is like “a concert tour but with sketchbooks”, and available to everyone. Participants sign up and choose a theme to their book and use it as a basis for imagery. From there, each individual fills the book with drawings, collages, painting, writing, etc. until the project deadline. After it’s been sent it to the good folks at the Art House Co-op, all of the sketchbooks tour the United States until they are put in permanent collection of the Brooklyn Art Library. If you are interested, you have until October 31st of this year to sign up and choose your theme!

From top to bottom, in order: Andrea Posada // Jesse Draxler // Lizzy Stewart // Lili Scratchy // Tyler Parker