Category Archives: Art

Lonely Louvre

Posted on January 14, 2014 by Brian D. Butler

I’ve visited the Musée du Louvre in Paris three times in the last two years and not surprisingly it was ass-to-elbow, chockablock, bursting at the seams, swarming with throngs of tourists each time. Between the French school groups, enormous Chinese … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Europe, Museums, Photography, Tourism | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Syrian Museum

Posted on January 12, 2014 by Brian D. Butler

Syrian artist Tammam Azzam left his home in Damascus at the start of the Syrian civil war. Losing his studio, he turned to digital art to call attention to the horrors unfolding in his homeland. Early last year, his piece … Continue reading →

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Maps from the Mind

Posted on January 9, 2014 by Brian D. Butler

I love maps—antique maps, impossible to re-fold tourist office maps, old gas station maps, even Google Maps. So it won’t be a surprise that I think that Archie Archambault’s handcrafted, minimalist letterpress maps are pure dead brilliant. Three years ago, … Continue reading →

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Adieu to all that

Posted on January 6, 2014 by Brian D. Butler

Those of us from the pre-Internet Age fondly remember the joys of a great set of encyclopedias. Before the web if you needed to know about cuneiform writing or what the capital of Namibia was, you turned to the Encyclopedia … Continue reading →

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Monkeys on a Plane

Posted on January 5, 2014 by Brian D. Butler

During the 1950s,60s and 70s, Danish painter and illustrator Otto Nielsen produced a treasury of marvelous illustrations for periodicals, books, travel guides and advertising posters. He is well known for his wonderful posters for Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, but some … Continue reading →

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Holiday Lights

Posted on December 29, 2013 by Brian D. Butler

Last month my favorite Spanish street art collective Luzinterruptus installed their Consumerist Christmas Tree in Durham, England as part of the annual Lumiere Festival. To construct the nearly 30 foot tall tree, the group asked local residents to donate plastic … Continue reading →

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Travel is for the birds

Posted on December 28, 2013 by Brian D. Butler

This year Airbnb seems to have been in the news constantly for one legal battle or another. But this wonderful Airbnb campaign called Birdbnb is all about the joy, art and serendipity of travel. Comparing travelers to birds, the project commissioned … Continue reading →

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The Books and the Bees

Posted on December 27, 2013 by Brian D. Butler

Book Hive is an amazing animatronic, art installation that celebrates the 400th anniversary of Bristol, England‘s libraries. Now on display at Bristol’s Central Library, this fantastic installation was created by the art/tech group called Rusty Squid. The mesmerizing interactive work … Continue reading →

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Merry Christmas Travelers

Posted on December 25, 2013 by Brian D. Butler

     

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Library Science

Posted on December 23, 2013 by Brian D. Butler

Here’s a little library trifecta for you: The British Library has released over one million images into the Public Domain by placing them for all to use for free on the Flickr Commons. The images are taken from digitized books … Continue reading →

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