Norman Rockwell’s images of Christmas

Is there any artist today who is as well-beloved as Norman Rockwell?

Is there any mass-circulation publication that would showcase an artist’s works as the Saturday Evening Post did Rockwell’s?

The art of the Japanese manhole cover

Divergent thinking and educational paradigms

My friend Bill Elwell found this interesting.

So do I.  On the other hand, consider Weiler’s Law

The art of the pencil

Dalton Ghetti is an artist who creates art not with pencils, but from pencils.

Click on Miniature Art to see what I mean.

Fortune 500 rejected cover

The May issue of Fortune magazine is its annual issue on the Fortune 500 list of the largest U.S. corporations.

This year the magazine commissioned Chicago illustrator and graphic novelist Chris Ware to draw the cover for the special issue, then rejected his submission.

Click on this and then click to enlarge to see his submission.

It was a great illustration. While Fortune’s reason for rejecting it was obvious, I hope it is made available as a poster.

Click on this to see the unimaginative cover Fortune did run.
Click on this for a retrospective on Fortune 500 covers.

Click on this for background on Chris Ware.

P.S. (7/23/10)

Click on this for a slide show.

Wendell Castle’s 10 Adopted Rules of Thumb

1. If you’re in love with an idea, you are no judge of its beauty or value.

2. It is difficult to see the whole picture when you are inside the
frame.

3. After learning the tricks of the trade, don’t think you know the
trade.

4. We hear and apprehend what we already know.

5. The dog that stays on the porch will find no bones.

6. Never state a problem to yourself in the same terms it was brought to you.

7. If it’s offbeat or surprising, it’s probably useful.

8. If you do not expect the unexpected, you will not find it.

9. Don’t get too serious.

10. If you hit the bull’s eye every time, the target is too close.

Wendell Castle

Wendell Castle is an American furniture artist and a leading figure in American craft.  I copied his Rules of Thumb off a poster years ago.  He taught at Rochester Institute of Technology’s School for American Craftsmen, and has a studio in Scottsville, N.Y.

In an earlier version of this, I conflated Wendell Castle with the metal sculptor Albert Paley