Good Art Should Feed Your Soul...

...but bad art can be pretty cool too.

I know it's weenie to write an "entry" that consists primarily of links to other websites, but I was greatly cheered today to be directed to:

The Monet Cook Online Gallery, in which you can revel in impressionistic paintings set in the 19th-century French countryside of haystacks and sunsets, but also populated by beautifully rendered Sleestaks (yes, those rubbery green lizard-creatures from Sid & Marty Krofft's Land of the Lost). No point in trying to describe further: in this case, a picture really is worth a thousand words. ("Sleestaks at Giverny" is my new wallpaper.)

The Carved Egg Gallery, where you can commission a work of art engraved on an emu egg. Caveat!!!!! "Unfortunately, there are limits to what you are about to see. Browsers, monitors and other hardware used to view images on the internet vary, the color range and resolution are restricted according to the computer system used to access the internet. What does this mean to you? Just that these photos will probably not do full justice to the depth and perception of the different shades reached in the carving or sculpting of these eggs." Browse at your own risk.

Wes Clark's Avocado Memories, a sort of online journal/scrapbook dealing with the author's childhood home. His parents were very hands-on about implementing their own home version of pop culture trends, such as a Polynesian patio. There is something very charming to me about the idea of these folks simply constructing for themselves the design ideas they admired...and inevitably painting them avocado, or for a bit of stylish contrast, harvest gold. I like the fact that they didn't wait around for things to come to them, but stepped boldly forward to grab the gusto! This site is more of a loving essay than another coffee-table celebration of kitsch, warmly endowed with discussions of real people trying to live the life that drew them.

Enjoy!