The Lardner Report

Unleash your creative superpowers!

Hand dancers – you’re kidding, right?

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I dare you not to chuckle.

Since last July, over 6 million viewers got hooked on this crazy act.  Meet Suzanne Cleary and Peter Harding – two dancers who seem to have captivated a fast-growing audience hungry for their brand of quirky entertainment: hand dancing. They’ve actually appeared with Riverdance, and now have a McDonald’s commercial running, but their video, “We No Speak Americano,” has taken the more populist route on YouTube.

The pair performs a comedic series of complex choreographed contortions while seated and blank-faced. The catchy song was recorded by the Australian duo Yolanda Be Cool and producer Dcup.

You will be trying this at home.

Picasso and the iPad: Hockney says, “He would have gone mad.”

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David Hockney’s digital obsession: now showing in Paris

Obsessed with new technology, David Hockney says he’s not alone. He has made the iPad his new canvas–and now paints with his fingers.

Hockney’s masterpiece app

Hockney trades sketch pad for iPad

Hockney’s new show in Paris, “Fleurs Fraiches” (Fresh Flowers) showcases 300 of his newer digital pieces–shown on actual iPhones and iPads. Drawing with an iPhone app called BRUSHES, it’s become a daily habit for one of the best known artists of his generation.

In 2009, Hockney told the Telegraph: “I draw flowers every day on my iPhone and send them to my friends, so they get fresh flowers every morning. And my flowers last. Not only can I draw them as if in a little sketchbook, I can also then send them to 15 or 20 people who then get them that morning when they wake up. Picasso tadalafil would have gone mad with this. So would Van Gogh. I don’t know an artist who wouldn’t, actually.”

The iconic British painter/photographer has now moved on to the larger iPad. Reviews say his digital images are “luminous,” though “less detailed.” From those I’ve seen, they are classic Hockney, with simple lines and fresh color.

iPad painting: a daily habit

The app is fun for exploratory artists as well. I’ve experimented with it on my iPhone, and I like the immediacy.  Thousands of other artists are making the big switch, enjoying the freedom from bulky supplies. The big headline last year was that the cover of The New Yorker was designed by an artist using the BRUSHES app. See the process in action via this ABC news story.

View an interview with Hockney on digital art here.

David Hockney: Fleurs Fraîches – on view at the Fondation Pierre Bergé – Yves Saint Laurent in Paris through January 30.


“Let them eat cupcakes”

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The Cupcake Project: The not-so-sweet truth about hunger in L.A.

Artist Tobias: Measuring hunger in L.A - one cupcake at a time

It’s no secret that the best art is the art that engages the viewer. Elizabeth Tobias does just that, and feeds a few hundred total strangers in the process.

In a show called “Let them eat cupcakes,” one of LA’s most original performance artists measures the depth and prevalence of hunger in Los Angeles by offering the sweet , trendy treats to Angelenos – in exchange for their personal lists of “critical needs.” Part conceptual art — part social experiment –Tobias assesses 6 disparate neighborhoods, including Skid Row, Koreatown and Beverly Hills.

The messages on the handwritten index cards – filled out by struggling homeless as well as the Hollywood chic – are quite sobering.  It’s up to the viewer to imagine where each card was completed, and who was behind the sentiment.

One-liners like “need a job” or “need a prayer for my daughter – she’s in jail” are juxtaposed with revelations like “I need a new ipod.”

Tobias says klonopin while she was painfully aware of statistics on hunger (one in ten residents of LA County required food assistance last year*), the stats show “the face of American poverty is changing.” She discovered homelessness in Beverly Hills as well as downtown L.A.

Perhaps to be filed in the “only in LA” department, Tobias encountered resistance to the project in the 90210. Get this: While it took about 90 minutes to distribute her 85 homemade treats to residents of Skid Row, it wasn’t as easy across town. In Beverly Hills, distribution took over 4 hours. Why? Because, according to the artist, residents there were concerned the goods were not “gluten free.”

Now that’s art.

The cupcake project –addressing the scope of social inequity–is part of a larger show addressing scale—called “Measure for Measure,” curated by one of the world’s most influential physicists, Lisa Randall. The dramatic display of hundreds of “basic needs” cards now hang from brightly colored lanterns at Gallery 825 on North La Cienega–home of the historic L.A. Art Association celebrating its 85th birthday this year.

* Statistics provided by the LA Regional Food Bank