by Tony Cenicola for the New York Times

Educational posters grace a golden wall, with Scherer’s collection of  mid-Century ceramics—many by Gunnar Nylund. Notice how their colors and shapes are reflected in the pulley diagram.

by Tony Cenicola for the New York Times

Pages from a guide book identifying the birds of New York state paper the walls, surrounding a birdcage sculpture by the Brazilian artist Vik Muniz.

by Tony Cenicola for the New York Times

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Photograph by The Selby, courtesy of New York Magazine

He calls this room the Lincoln Room—several of the portraits are of Abe, and Slonem painted them. The chair also came from the hotel where Lincoln was taken after he was shot. Again, the canvases creep across the wall—there isn’t just one solitary piece over the sofa. And look at the collection of green glassware on the sidetable, which matches the gorgeous wall paint so beautifully. The vibrant orange curtains set off any danger of matchy matchy.

courtesy of huntslonum.com

And the Rabbit Room! Apparently Mr. Slonem loves to paint rabbits as much as they like to, well, you know. The placement of many rabbit paintings certainly suggests that trait. He paints them quite beautifully.

Photograph by The Shelby, courtesy of New York magazine	courtesy of art-interview.com
courtesy of huntslonem.com

You can see in this gorgeous, riotous painting of orchids how the colors of the surroundings Hunt Slonem has created for himself inspires his artwork. What’s on your wall that inspires you?

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"The ugliest thing I ever saw." -Lyndon B. Johnson

Official White House portrait of Lyndon B. Johnson by Peter Hurd

And then there’s the type of portrait that may not be well-liked in the end due to circumstances entirely beyond the artist’s control. This sculpture portrays the former leggy lady of Victoria’s Secret, Stephanie Seymour. Her husband, Peter Brant, owns it. Soon it may be all he has left of her, as they are getting divorced (messily).

The mounted (simulated) torso of Peter Brant's soon-to-be ex-wife Stephanie Seymour, by Maurizio Cattelan (1 of 3)

Artists creating self-portraits have a better time of it generally (no, we’re not going to get into Van Gogh and his poor old ear, here). Andy Warhol made hundreds of self-portraits during his lifetime. Here’s the last one he made, a few months before his death:

Last Self-Portrait, 1986 Andy Warhol

Frida Kahlo portrayed herself after her divorce from Diego Rivera as two starkly and painfully separate women (that’s a portrait of Diego in the hand of the colorfully dressed Frida):

Painting Title: The Two Fridas 1939 Collection of the Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City

The artist Kehinde Wiley has taken classic, famous pieces of European portraiture and replaced the original subject (in this case Napoleon) with young unknown African-American men:

Napoleon Leading the Army over the Alps, 2005, by Kehinde Wiley (9' x 9')

Bonaparte Crossing the Alps at Grand-Saint-Bernard by Jacques-Louis David 1801 (8.5' x 7.25')

Portraits don’t have to be limited to human beings. Here, one of Zatista’s artists, Sam Dolman, captures a cow pausing between chews of cud:

Suspicious by Sam Dolman

Ben 1, by Rob MacInnis

The photographer Rob MacInnis created a series of images using farm animals:

Cameron, by Rob MacInnis

Keira, by Rob MacInnis

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New Orleans, LA, by Fred Doyle — Digital on Canvas, 24.0 ” x 36.0 ”

Some artwork based on maps uses novel media. This map by Aaron Koblin shows the contours of the United States through commercial airline traffic:

Aaron Koblin’s “Flight Patterns” shows a real-time image of the aircraft flight paths over the United States. Courtesy of the Victoria & Albert museum

Or this artwork by Simon Elvins, which used blind embossing to depict the quietest parts of  London, using data from a British government agency that maps noise levels in order to adhere to European Union noise regulations:

SILENT LONDON by Simon Elvins Blind embossed etching - 735x500mm - Edition of 10

Others show places reimagined in very personal ways:

SIMON EVANS Home Country, 2008-9 Paper weaving 58 5/8 X 42 1/8 inches courtesy of James Cohan Gallery

Or produce accurate renditions of actual places in novel ways. Here, a rolling stamp of Santa Monica that produces a map of the city on the sand:

Santa Monica Art Tool by Carl Cheng-photo courtesy of jdlasica via Flickr

You can see more examples in The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography by Katharine Harmon (Princeton Architectural Press; 2009)

Courtesy of the Princeton Architectural Press

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NPR’s “The Picture Show” featured some extremely beautiful microscopic images assembled by scientists at the University of Wisconsin for an exhibit called “Tiny: Art From Microscopes at UW-Madison.” Who knew fruit fly embryos and mouse lungs could be so gorgeous?

A series of images from the blog Pink Tentacle shows paintings of tiny insects made with the aid of a microscope by the Japanese artist Kenbikyō Mushi No Zu during the mid-nineteenth century. Below is one example of the paintings from the scroll.

from Kenbikyō Mushi No Zu's (”Illustrations of Microscopic Insects”), published in 1860

Tilt-shift photography, on the other hand, portrays full-scale images in a way that makes them appear to be miniature godzilla sets. While digital cameras create this effect via software, film cameras produce it with a special lens. Unlike a standard lens which have a fixed focal plane, a tilt-shift lens has a focal plane that can shift and concentrate the focus onto one point. The image below is a full-scale image of an airport.

Vincent Laforet for Smashing magazine

The tilt-shift effect on video is even more disorienting. The people in them look like tiny claymation sculptures moved in increments from frame to frame. They’re not! Keith Loutit’s video, Beached, is an awesome example that’s really worth watching. Enjoy!

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"Public Good" by David Opdyke 12" x 12" x 6"

Some smaller pieces of art were never meant to hang on a wall. In fact, many have been created for the eyes of a loved one only. This velvet-lined self-portrait is pocket-sized. It was painted on ivory in 1828 by Sarah Goodridge, for her the man in her life—the famous American statesman Daniel Webster.

Beauty Revealed, Sarah Goodridge, Watercolor on ivory, 2 5/8" x 3 1/8"

Daniel Webster, looking cranky despite the pretty picture in his pocket. Stock Montage/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Other less intimate but equally diminutive pieces work quite nicely on a bookshelf. This one—a 4″-square landscape from New Zealand—graces mine:

4"-square landscape painting by New Zealand artist Lianne Adams-Tull on bookshelf

Some smaller pieces of art really need to be seen on the wall to get their full effect. Look at this close-cropped portrait of Robert De Niro on Zatista’s virtual room to see the great impact even the most diminutive portrait can have:

Heat 2, by Michael Davis, Acrylic, 9.8 ” x 7.9 ”

(Coincidentally, De Niro’s father, Robert De Niro, Sr. was a famous abstract expressionist painter.)

If you like the idea of famous people in small packages, there’s a show of Polaroids shot by Andy Warhol from the 70’s and 80’s of legendary athletes (Pelé, Dorothy Hamill, and Muhammad Ali, to name a few) at Danziger Projects in New York City through December 12.

What tiny works of art appeal to you?

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Granted, in Medieval Europe the idea was that you were to think of your impending judgment in the afterlife. But thankfully, this is art. It’s beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and this beholder chooses to see the depiction of death in art as very life affirming—to remind me that life will end, and to make something of it while it lasts.

This painting follows the Dutch still-life style called vanitas, which would often include skulls as symbols of impermanence:

But often the still life would include subtler symbolism. This one employs a bouquet of flowers with a few stems beginning to wilt and wither:

Of course, Europeans aren’t the only ones to depict death beautifully. Here’s a Japanese nineteenth century wood block print that just might be my favorite:

And of course there are the many contributions of modern-day popular culture. Here are some from the punk and heavy-metal music scenes:

The list wouldn’t be complete without Eddie, Iron Maiden’s poster boy, drawn by the illustrator Derick Riggs:

Do you have any favorite images to help remind you that the clock is ticking?

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Here’s a young man taking a very unpigeon-like approach to art appreciation:

He’s not looking at the Mona Lisa, perhaps the most famous painting in the world. Instead, he’s having his picture taken in front of it. Clearly he knows he should appreciate it. It’s important to him that his friends and family see him next to that woman and her mysterious smile. It shows he has Good Taste—that he can embrace the subtle genius of Leonardo da Vinci. But does he really? Or is it just that he knows he’s supposed to like it?

If you’re thinking of throwing some art up on the wall, forget about what you’re supposed to like. Don’t think about what it says about you. Instead, channel your inner pigeon. If your frontal lobe takes over and starts chattering about how impressed the neighbors will be, well forget it. Instead, does the image make your mind sing? Do you fall into a mini trance? Then you’re on the right path. Here are a few examples of pieces of art that work for me:

Liza2 by Francois Chartier

Nobscusset Light by Shawn Nelson

What art works for you? Not sure? Well, channel your inner bird brain and you’ll start to find out.

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