Art Archives - Page 17 of 35 - Interesting Ideas

The-Forevertron-built-by-Tom-Every-Dr.-Evermore-south-of-Baraboo-Wisconsin

May 20, 2017 Bill Swislow

The Forevertron Forever — Genius by the Roadside

North of Madison and just south of Baraboo, Wisconsin, is one of the country’s great roadside attractions, Dr. Evermor’s Forevertron. The Forevertron is a steampunk paradise, with a Victorian look in service of science-fiction vision. Creator Tom Every, born in 1938, has experience as a farmhand, salvager, construction worker and architect’s assistant, according to Leslie Umberger’s Sublime Spaces and Visionary Worlds catalog. Every also helped to fabricate attractions at The House on the Rock, Wisconsin’s foremost tourist trap and a whole other story. He has involved explanations for the work, but the focus here is its visual impact. The site

May 13, 2017 Bill Swislow

Collection of Old School Rap/Hip Hop Vinyl

131 hip-hop/rap records, mostly mid-1980s. Singles and albums. A few of the singles are 7 inch, as indicated. The rest are 12 inch. Generally original pressings in excellent condition. Most were bought new, played a few times and then stored. All are priced based on condition — probably near mint, though as I’m not a professional trader I’m reluctant to use official categories. $700 takes them all or a la carte as priced. 1. Afrika Bambaataa & James Brown: Unity $3 2. Anquette: Ghetto Style $7 3. Audio Two: Make It Funky (second original pressing) $7 4. Audio Two: What

Bricked-in door within a bigger bricked-in door

March 30, 2017 Bill Swislow

Thomasson: The Life-Changing Hyperart

Hyperart: Thomasson, by Akasegawa Genpei. Kaya Press, 416 pages, 2010. ISBN: 978-1885030467. Paperback, $17.95. Why did it take me half a dozen years to discover this life-changing book, introducing a concept that fundamentally enriches my relationship to the built environment? The idea is the Thomasson, proposed as a form of “hyperart.”

March 17, 2017 Bill Swislow

Review: California Crazy and Beyond: Roadside Vernacular Architecture

California Crazy and Beyond: Roadside Vernacular Architecture by Jim Heimann My rating: 5 of 5 stars 1980’s California Crazy was one of the early gospels for roadside art enthusiasts, documenting dozens of the state’s wonderful theme buildings of the early 20th century, from giant donuts to miniature sphinxes. Author Jim Heimann updated the book in 2001 with California Crazy and Beyond. The old version was presented as a logbook, and in some cases the images are larger. The new volume is redesigned as a more conventional picture book, with lots of additional pictures and a great deal more writing. Both

Miamis-Bottle-Cap-Inn-before-an-addition-on-the-right-side

March 11, 2017 Bill Swislow

Bottle Cap Valhalla: The Bottle Cap Inn

Unsealed: Bottle Cap Art | The Woolseys | The Patent Drawings | How To | The Race Question| The Blockbuster The Galleries: Masterworks | Troops | Signed | Flashers | Other Shapes | Mine | Bottle Cap Inn | Two Monuments Joe Wiser’s Bottle Cap Inn in Miami was featured in Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, but more importantly it was a triumph of an obsessive personal vision. Fortunately, many interior views were preserved in a series of postcards and press photos. The bar was created in the 1930s by Joe Wiser, said to be a disabled World War I veteran. He choose to decorate with the most available ornamentation,

Woman and child with groceries from the outdoor art gallery at Las Americas Food and Liquor

March 3, 2017 Bill Swislow

Pretty Pulaski Roadside Art

There are many fine sights to see on Chicago’s Pulaski Road, which runs parallel to Western Avenue two miles west. Sculptures, paintings, architecture — the creativity stretches for miles, with a particular strength in the automotive segment. Some of this art is already documented here. Now some more, beginning with glorious grocery store imagery.: In the thanks & tip o’ the hat department, please say hello to Miss Tracy Jo Seneca. Note that this is a 2019 update of a photo gallery posted in 2017.

February 13, 2017 Bill Swislow

Amidst the Gaudís

Antoni Gaudí, perhaps more than any other architect, represents the triumph of genius. Not because his designs are better than anyone else’s (though some might argue they are), but because they are so utterly idiosyncratic yet so monumentally visible in the city of Barcelona. Gaudí’s intensely personal vision prevailed in a field that, because of its visibility, has a tendency toward conformity. Gaudí, though, is not just tolerated but celebrated — indeed, funded, in the case of Sagrada Familia’s continuing construction. Here’s a stroll through his greatness.

January 27, 2017 Bill Swislow

Don’t Get Excited

The Spanish keep calm when it comes to business names.

January 2, 2017 Bill Swislow

The Western Avenue And Vicinity Gallery: Lincoln Avenue

Anchored by the fast-food spectacular at Shelly’s Freez, Chicago’s Lincoln Avenue from Irving Park Road north is a treasure trove of fine art and architecture.

Earl Young's Half House, 1947, Mushroom Houses of Charlevoix, Michigan

December 26, 2016 Bill Swislow

The Mushroom Houses of Charlevoix

Charlevoix, Michigan, developer Earl Young’s constructions showed a personal vision almost from the first house he built, starting in 1918, but fortunately the vision had several decades in which to fully flower. Even without their wacky appearance, the “mushroom houses” he went on to plant in Charlevoix would be interesting as examples of progressive residential architecture ahead of the post-war building boom. But their oddity makes them a unique case of one man successfully expressing a highly idiosyncratic vision across a whole swath of city.