Great artists can create great art on almost any canvas. Consider Renaissance masterpieces such as Michaelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling, or modern-day “wearable art” such as Alexander McQueen’s lobster-claw, stiletto-heel shoes.

Now, add pumpkin flesh to the list of unlikely canvases, thanks to scary sculptor Ray Villafane. Try smashing these pumpkins and they’ll smash you back!

Mr. Villafane even offers a tutorial for those who are feeling insanely ambitious, or merely insane. In truth, it’s slightly reminiscent of those frustrating, step-by-step HOW TO DRAW books that present a circle as Step 1, a shaded circle as Step 2, and, all of the sudden, a highly detailed, impossible-to-draw human face as the final step.

26-10-2010 2:12 pm by Joshua Gee

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What to make of THE SIMPSONS’ controversial opening credits this week? For the first time in the show’s history, the producers handed storyboarding duties to an outsider. They happened to pick Banksy, a graffiti artist who long ago dedicated his life to keepin’ it punkrock.

In Banksy’s SIMPSONS intro, the eerie, artful imagery portrays a fantastically grim environment for the workers who toil behind the scenes of the popular cartoon.

Is Banksy raging against the corporations that bring us our beloved SIMPSONS shows and merchandise? Or is he raging against those who rage against machines? Possibly both.

12-10-2010 12:02 am by Joshua Gee

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Today, BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM debuts on xBox 360, PS3, and PC. Even if you are not a gamer, there is much to be feared and admired in the game’s presentation and storytelling. It’s an extraordinarily well-crafted tribute to Arkham Asylum, the decaying repository for Gotham City’s fiercest foes.

Two key influences seem to be 1.) Batman’s 3D graphic user interface during the climactic sonar scene in last year’s THE DARK KNIGHT, and 2.) more interestingly, ARKHAM ASYLUM: A SERIOUS HOUSE ON SERIOUS EARTH.

AA: ASHOSE is a hugely unsettling 1989 graphic novel written by Grant Morrison and illustrated by Dave McKean, who is most famous for CORALINE, THE GRAVEYARD BOOK, SANDMAN, and other ghastly collaborations with Neil Gaiman. In AA:ASHOSE, Mr. McKean brings the haunted hospital to life by combining his stylized sketches and paintings with old & eerie found objects (a dissected stopwatch here, a piece of string there). HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Meanwhile, the place itself seems to take its name from Arkham, Massachusetts, which happens to not exist in real life. Rather, it’s a town created by famed horror author H. P. Lovecraft.

25-08-2009 11:34 am by Joshua Gee

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Scholars have discovered a 15th-century painting that might have been created by Michaelangelo when he was as young as 12 years old.

Well, obviously. Then, as now, what 12yo dude DOESN’T love monsters? It’s too bad the great master isn’t around today. Judging by the below, he’d surely adore RESIDENT EVIL.

Kimbell Museum Buys a Work That May Be by the Young Michelangelo – NYTimes.com.

15-05-2009 9:00 am by Joshua Gee

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On May 20, a major Francis Bacon retrospective will debut at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. This is almost intolerably thrilling, and terrifying.

Really, adjectives fail. Looking at the below, one realizes that the keyboard is a blunt weapon compared to the paintbrush.

Study after Velazquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X

02-03-2009 10:17 am by Joshua Gee

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