Visual Arts

The Stories Behind Five Famous Advertising Characters

Inspired by the Sriracha Flamethrower Grizzly, a look back at some of the great icons of food branding

April 10, 2012

Before the Jetsons, Arthur Radebaugh Illustrated the Future

In the 1950s and ‘60s, the newspaper cartoonist dreamed up a madcap American utopia, filled with flying cars and fantastical skyscrapers

April 2012

Turning the Hirshhorn Into the Ultimate Movie Screen

Artist Doug Aitken’s “SONG1” will transform the Smithsonian art museum, projecting a series of fantastic moving images onto its concrete exterior

April 2012

S-O-F-T Double E, Mister Softee

A one-man band of an adman recorded an infectious three-minute earworm that will disrupt your sanity this summer

March 26, 2012

Meet Food “Information Artist” Douglas Gayeton

The images convey invisible or purposely obfuscated ideas related to food, explained by the experts themselves

March 22, 2012

Food and Video Games

Video games may be the art medium of the 21st century, but they’re also an advertising medium. Here are five notable games that promoted foods

March 13, 2012

The Art of Video Games

For decades, video games have enthralled and inspired, and now they are the subject of a new exhibit that views them as serious works of art

March 2012

Fruits and Vegetables Like You’ve Never Seen Them Before

Microscopy artist Robert Rock Belliveau says, “I couldn’t believe the things I found on the things we eat every day”

February 22, 2012

Bedtime Reading From Beatrix Potter: Amateur Mycologist

Would Flopsy, Mopsy and Peter Cottontail have been conceived had it not been for the biases of Victorian era science?

February 6, 2012

The Curious Case of a Gigantic Sham Clam

Geoducks are a staple of Chinese New Year. But did one grow to the size of a wheelbarrow?

January 23, 2012

A Closer Look at What You Eat

A photographer uses a scanning electron microscope to zoom in on everyday foods—and makes art

January 13, 2012

How to Plan a Party Based on Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating Party

I’m putting on my event planner hat to offer up the following ideas for a party inspired by an Impressionist painting

January 10, 2012

Finding the Humor in History

The irreverent take on the giants of literature, science and politics could only have come from the brain of cartoonist Kate Beaton

January 3, 2012

Q and A with Cake Wrecks Blogger Jen Yates

“I’m not out to vilify bakers; I’m just trying to find a little funny in unexpected places”

December 23, 2011

Last Minute Food-Themed Gift Ideas

Food, jewelry, toys and books for those hard-to-shop-for people on your gift list

December 15, 2011

The Gingerbread Man and Other Runaway Foods

The tale of the gingerbread man is part of a genre of folklore about goodies gone wild, specifically “The Fleeing Pancake” stories

December 8, 2011

Thanksgiving in Literature

Holiday readings from Louisa May Alcott, Mark Twain, Philip Roth and contemporary novels that use Thanksgiving as the backdrop for family dysfunction

November 23, 2011

Where’s the Lunch? Looking at Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating Party

“It’s like a painting about the most perfect meal that ever was—but you can’t tell what most of it was,” says a Phillips Collection curator

November 10, 2011

How to Install a 340-ton Work of Art

Michael Heizer waited decades to find the perfect rock for his Levitated Mass, and now he awaits its slow journey from the quarry to an L.A. art museum

November 9, 2011

Simple Pleasures

November 2011