Pencil vs. Camera

Ben Heine owns warring creative tools. The Belgian artist writes he’s been taking photos and drawing for almost 10 years; it wasn’t until he was watching TV and writing a letter at the same time that these skills collided. “Reading my letter before putting it in the envelope, I saw…

Big Brain Update: Marcelino Quiñonez

In preparation for this year’s Big Brain awards, we’re checking up with a few of last year’s winners. Know an emerging creative who could use $1000? Nominate ’em right here before March 14. Our Big Brain today: Marcelino Quiñonez. It’s officially March, and Marcelino Quiñonez is gearing up his classroom…

Shepard Fairey Pastes in Tempe

Shepard Fairey’s wheat pastes may be scattered around Tempe, but don’t expect to find him downing a toddy at Cartel or grabbing a few extra supplies at Wet Paint. Fairey and his street art brand/movement OBEY will be featured in the upcoming Sticker Phiends show, thrown annually by local artist…

INSIDE OUT: A Global Art Project

One new idea for every day in 2011. We’re talking big, small, local, international, in action and on the drawing board. Here’s today’s — what’s yours? French artist JR began photographing shortly after finding his first camera in a Paris metro when he was 17 years old. He started taking…

Swimming Cities: Creating Community (and a Boat)

One new idea for every day in 2011. We’re talking big, small, local, international, in action and on the drawing board. Here’s today’s — what’s yours? Right now, thousands of miles away, a ragtag group of artists, performers, and engineers are piecing together a boat that will float down the…

Exquisite Corpse Adventure: Read, Write, Pass It On

One new idea for every day in 2011. We’re talking big, small, local, international, in action and on the drawing board. Here’s today’s — what’s yours? Rest assured, we’re not talking about dead people. Jon Scieszka, the first National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, wrote the first episode of a…

Downtown’s First Friday (March 4)

Art walks are more often about people watching and shenanigans and less about the actual art. We’re here to guide you through both. Presenting our very own Field Guide — an evolving guide to art walks around town. From time to time, we’ll introduce some of our favorite spots and…

Love Meets Linguini: In This Week’s Dinner and A Movie

Nothing goes better with a movie than dinner (and perhaps vise versa), which Chow Bella has all figured out.Dinner and a Movie pairs all sorts of films with themed recipes each week. And today, they picked I Am Love, starring Tilda Swinton, who falls in love with a chef through,…

David Quan on the Chocolate Factory

It’s about time Phoenix sees some serious mural love. In the interest of giving credit to their artists and because we’re losing track of the times we’ve said, “Woah, when did that go up?”, we bring you Mural City, a series on the murals springing up around town — their…

phICA: A Community for Contemporary Art in Phoenix

One new idea for every day in 2011. We’re talking big, small, local, international, in action and on the drawing board. Here’s today’s — what’s yours? Some ideas take years to gel.Such is the case with the Phoenix Institute of Contemporary Art (phICA), a nonprofit organization which aims to “complement…

Update: Scottsdale’s Theodore Will Not Be an Ace Hotel

Our dreams of an Ace Hotel in Scottsdale, as reported yesterday, went down the drain today after an exchange with Valentine Freeman, a representative of Ace Hotels. “Our capitol partners work on a variety of unique hotels and this is one of their projects,” Freeman writes. “Ace Hotel is not…

A Bong Hit Ring Tone … I’m Lovin’ It

New Times staff writer Ray Stern wrote in February that Arizona’s medical marijuana pioneers are still unsure of the official rules and regulations of the potential business. And the buzz buzz grows as the DEA announced an emergency spice ban and official medical marijuana universities continue to offer classes in…

Sheen Family Circus

Because it was only a matter of time before local comic Bil Keane’s Family Circus (already spoofed with Dysfunction, Nietzsche, and Jersey Shore) met some Charlie Sheen crazy. If you haven’t been following the Charlie Sheen spiral, you live under a rock … and have some catching up to do…

Spotted: QuickPHX, Collector’s Edition

Bonus alert:This week’s edition of New Times has a little something extra. The little red-orange book that you can find inserted in the central Phoenix editions of the paper and throughout Phoenix businesses and galleries is the fourth volume of QuickPHX, a helpful guide to hot visuals, restaurants, shopping spots,…

Don’t Get a Car Wash

One new idea for every day in 2011. We’re talking big, small, local, international, in action and on the drawing board. Here’s today’s — what’s yours? Scott Wade’s a Texan artist surrounded by dirt. He lives at the end of a mile and a half dirt road that’s heavy in…

Gatsby, Gamed

One new idea for every day in 2011. We’re talking big, small, local, international, in action and on the drawing board. Here’s today’s — what’s yours? While The Great Gatsby’s in pre-production for the (3D) silver screen, you can officially get your literary cocktail fix via 8-bit. Charlie Hoey and…