Perfect imperfection. Oxymoron? You decide, but first consider something we like to call the Bob Dylan factor.

Dylan has been booed off stage more time then he (or probably anyone for that matter) cares to remember. Who cannot remember his infamous apperance on the acadamy awards some years ago. It kind of left everyone, well, kind of numb for lack of better descritive term.

Yet, is that not why Bob is so much loved? The fact is, we love inconsistency. That’s the way great art should be. Inconsistant. The Velvet Underground would sometimes play a song for 2 minutes or 30 minutes depending on how they felt that night. When Bob is “on” he leaves the audience in a state of awe that only a handful of artists can only dream off. When he is “off” he really is “off”. No apologies.

Art cannot always be great, for artists themselves are imperfect. Yet, it’s that imperfection that creates inconsistant perfection. But that kind of sounds pretenious, so lets just call it the Bob Bylan factor. So the next time you listen to Bob, celebrate the beutiful and perfect inconsistancy of art. Stay original… it’s beutifully inconsistant.

Commercialism has won yet again. Hundreds of years of knowledge, tradition and craftsmanship has been replaced by economic sensibility. Originality, uniqueness and integrity have been pushed aside by bean counters and their bottom lines. They are all betting that YOU can’t tell the difference, and are laughing all the way to the bank.
Sadly, they are [...]

Few things in life can be so rejuvenating as when one throws all common sense aside and surrenders to natures way of cleansing and starting fresh. (Ok, before this gets any sappier and starts to sound like Readers Digest babble, we will get to the (a) point.) You see there is a connection between walks [...]

Trends. Fashion trends, music trends, movie trends, art trends, car trends… etcetera, etcetera. Are they so bad? Are they really evil? Yes, in fact they are. They are like theme parks. They seem fun and innocent for a while, until you get home and wonder what on earth motivated you to pay $7 for [...]

While no one was looking, under the cover of darkness, the magnificent Italian hand built La Marzocco machines were replaced one by one with fully automatic computerized press-a-button versions. (This took place in thousands of Starbucks across the land.) This is the day when the romance and theater of Starbucks died.

This disturbing trend is taking [...]

Mark Sandman wrote: “I am like a mirror, I am nothing till you look at me.” Words for deep thought at 2 a.m. when you can’t sleep.
Lets apply this to art. Does art have value if it is never appreciated? I suppose that is why we have museums of art. Art is also one the [...]

“If one was too wise, one would never had left England,” replied Miss Honeychurch when questioned on if it was wise for a single female tourist to walk the streets of Florence alone. This is a quote from E.M. Forester’s classic novel, on which the wonderfully romantic film, A Room with a View, is based.

The [...]

Bob Geldof wrote in the song Room 19: “When I woke up I was freezing… I was stuck up on a shelf with the other guys in room 19. Tchaikovsky played the music, Pasternak wrote the poetry, Lenin never shut up talking, and every talk became a speech.”

The idea that all the brains of these [...]

If you are what you eat, then is it such a stretch to say that you are what you buy. You can be sure I am not the first to make this connection. As you read this article, the marketing gurus are busily working, analyzing your purchases, movements, clicks and downloads. Armed with highly advanced [...]

Some self-proclaimed business guru once said if you are successful, it is time to change. The idea of course is that you have to be permanently dissatisfied in order to get better. Sounds good, right?
Or does it?

The example he gave was Toyota and something about their rising sun or sun rising or whatever. (These business [...]

Substance. There is a serious lack of it in modern day popular culture. The commercial powers that be, have almost banished artistic integrity from our vocabulary. Wonder bread art rules. It feeds the mouths of the majority but sadly it lacks substance.

The over commercialization of mainstream media, music, film and literature is ruining the artistic [...]

First, Apple’s Get a Mac ads were voted among the best ads for 2006 according to The Wall Street Journal, and then Steve Jobs stole the show from CES (Consumer Electronic Show) with the iphone and Apple TV, holding in his hand the future of electronic convergence while Bill Gates just stood there at CES [...]

Andy Warhol reportedly once said: “It hurts when you go to school too long.” Now, obviously, if you are a heart surgeon or nuclear engineer, you may want to take Andy’s comment with a grain of salt. The point stands however that too much school becomes counter productive and can hurt or even crush creativity. [...]

Terroir (no, not terror, try to stop thinking about terrorism for at least a day) is a term used in wine that explains how wine speaks of the earth is comes from. What a wonderful and romantic way travel to the earth. The next time you visit your favorite wine market, pick up a bottle [...]

For a long time we have had the suspicion that there is a link between India Pale Ale and artistic creativity. Before you think we are a little loopy, let’s first look at a brief history of this fine beverage.
The British troops who were sent to India more then a century ago, brought with [...]

Mature waiters in white tuxedos, gleaming brass machines and professional baristas pouring double espressos in handmade white porcelain cups. It is a time to reflect, take stock of the day and enjoy the moment. This is the daily ritual for the people of Buenos Aires.

No line-ups at the counter, no 16-year-old servers and no fully [...]

One of the first things you notice in the charming old neighborhoods of Buenos Aires (such as the antique and tango district of San Telmo) is that even the doors are unique, each one having a personality of its own. Many of these doors have inspired paintings here at the Underground Art Project such as [...]

The other day someone asked Eva (the greater half of the Underground Art Project) where she gets the inspiration to keep painting. My thoughts immediately turned to the often repeated remark attributed to Brian Eno, that while the Velvet Underground’s first album in 1967 sold only a few thousand copies, every person who bought it [...]

What is art? How do you define it? These are difficult questions to answer and probably better left unanswered. Of course you know we are not going to let that stop us. Right? So, here is our take and hopefully it will get you thinking about YOUR OWN answers.

Andy Warhol showed us that art was [...]

Something is terribly wrong. Are we the only ones that can see it? Are we the only ones who care? Is anyone going to do something? Let us explain.
When we came back to Canada after a several year hiatus in South America, we made a brief visit to our favorite brew pub with a [...]

Wow, for minimalists we sure make a lot of noise. Search the web and you find all kind of minimalists spouting off about the virtues of “less is more” and how “form follows function.” Why even big corporations are putting out minimalist adds in the big glossy rags.

So why, do you ask, do we need [...]

Hey, here is a great business idea: Let’s make 10,000 posters of a picture, get the artist to sign them, put on an expensive frame, then sell them for $1000 a piece. We’ll be rich! Oops, too late, someone beat us to it.
They call it limited edition posters, err… I mean prints. It’s bad for [...]

Mark Eitzel from the venerable American Music Club (whose CD jackets by the way contain brilliant art and who many believe is one of the best songwriters of all time) once said he writes “pretentious little songs of quiet self-loathing.” If only all artists could be as honest about their work.
You may have noticed that [...]