Red: The History of a Color
The first human handprints pressed in ochre across stone walls are more than decoration: they are signals across tens of millennia that red was the first color with which people tried to…
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Our growing archive of info about art, design, and culture.
Transforming Parking Lots Into Public Art Spaces
Parking lots are everywhere — often overlooked, hot, dull, and sprawling stretches of asphalt. Yet across the world, people are finding creative ways to transform these utilitarian spaces into beautiful, functional, and…
Talent Is a Lie: How Anyone Can Become an Artist
The idea of “talent” often gets thrown around as if it’s some mystical force granted at birth. In reality, when people talk about talent, what they often mean is a combination of…
Hashima Island: Japan’s Ghost Island in Art
In the postwar decades, Hashima Island—known in Japan as Gunkanjima or “Battleship Island”—caught the attention of local painters drawn to its dense industrial silhouette and stark isolation. As early as the 1950s,…
Teach Perspective Drawing to Kids at Home
Teaching children to draw in perspective helps them understand space, depth, and proportion—skills that translate into both artistic confidence and academic thinking. For homeschoolers, especially, learning perspective can bring structure and long-term…
Keukenhof Gardens: Masterpiece of Floral Artistry
Keukenhof Gardens, now one of the most famous flower gardens in the world, sits on land with centuries of artistic and horticultural legacy. The site began in the 15th century as the…
Museum Guide: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art are not just a place to sit—they’re a moment. For many, they offer a strange kind of pause before entering a world that resists…
Hansel and Gretel and Famine and Art: The Dark Historical Roots
The fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel, published in 1812 by the Brothers Grimm, has become one of the most widely illustrated stories in the Western world. Children may remember it for…
Skulls and Status: The Art of Cranial Deformation
Throughout human history, cultures across the world have shaped the body to fit ideals of beauty, power, and identity. Among the most visually dramatic and mysterious of these traditions is cranial deformation—the…
Croatia: The History of its Art
The first traces of artistic expression on the land we now call Croatia are not painted on walls but embedded in stone, clay, and metal—objects meant to endure far longer than their…
Why Your Design Software Is Holding You Back
Modern design moves fast. But if you’re still relying on tools built for workflows from a decade ago, you’re likely operating at a major disadvantage. Design software is supposed to make your…
Artists Can’t Work Together—But When They Do, It’s Magic
For centuries, the image of the artist has often been that of the solitary genius—someone toiling away in private, guarding their vision from outside influence. This idea became especially popular during the…
