Museum of Bad Art, Art Too Bad to be Ignored

I need to tell you about The Museum of Bad Art, or MOBA, if you haven't heard of it before.  It started as a picture found i a thrift store and was bought for the frame.  Fortunately it was grabbed for the painting and became the base for an amazing collection of Bad Art.  At this point, they are very fussy as to what comprises Bad Art, and not any old thing will qualify. It's quite a feather in your cap to get a letter saying that they can't accept a particular donation because it's not bad enough.  How's that for a REJECTION LETTER!  It would be worth that letter to try to donate!  They are currently housed in three locations around Boston, the basements of the Dedham and Somerville Theaters as well as in the Public Access offices of Brookline TV.  Worth the trips!

Here is the NYTs article about bad art.  And you can Buy The Book that was just published to have on your coffee table.

Yup, this is of their Masterworks!

See examples of their collection, by categories, here, and a talk given by their Permanent Acting Interim Executive Director at the Gel Conference last spring:


Louise Sacco at Gel 2010 (Museum Of Bad Art - MOBA) from Gel Conference on Vimeo.

But I'm sorry, they are very fussy about acquisitions.  Bummer.  But WAIT!  I have more!

To molify yourselves, I found a cool pass-time called Zentangle, a method of creating images from repetitive designs.  The idea is that it is worked from all sides and is nonrepresentational.  The creators have a Zentangle blog now too, as well as offer workshops where you can develop designs for all sorts of things-  work, amusement, long telephone calls, even art.  Looks like what we used to call doodling and did with abandon trying out that new fangled ball point pen...  Oh well.

And amazingly, a friend just now sent me this link to an article in 'Wired' that ties together my little messages above about bad art and repeat design!  The article is about how ugly carpets keep people in the casinos gambling!  Here is one of the examples-  gag.  Paula Nadelstrom, if you're out there, don't you wonder who designed these? I can't look at a commercial carpet without thinking of what you went through.   At least we can be pretty sure they weren't quilts this time.

So, kids, Happy Labor Day.  We have battened down our hatches waiting for Earl to visit this afternoon.  Not a problem~ I have a rack of ribs in the oven and some fig ice cream base chilling in the refrigerator waiting to be put in the machine.  And we have just about given up on being able to use the Red Sox tickets sitting here on the table by the door...  just looked out and it has started to rain, going downhill fast.  Hope your hamburgers are extra big.