I had an overnight in Last Vegas for work, and got to spend about 4 hours at the Meow Wolf Omega Mart installation.

It was truly one of the most amazing things I have ever seen -- awe inspiring in scope, vision, and execution.

It's an interactive art installation, but, interactive turned up to 11. If you've ever played a video game where there are bits of stray paper scattered around, and reading them progressively discloses the story, this is like that, it in real life. You start wandering through it, and you realize that, while it is trippy as hell, there is a narrative connecting it all. Another thing that amazed me is the depth of the material. Dozens of pages to read, hours of video to watch. Tasks to complete. Puzzles to solve. Circling back as I realized it was all connected.

The first part of it is an other-worldly grocery store. Equal parts bizarre and hilarious. If you've played the game Control, I think the grocery store so i'd be at home in the FBC. Then you get into the factory where things are made, then the interdimensional portals, the aliens, and the lore.

Here are some pictures I took that don't even scratch the surface of what it is, but maybe set the tone. There are also some commercials on youtube.

Anyway, if you ever get a chance to go, I highly recommend it. But give yourself a whole day if you're a completionist. And pay the three dollars for the boop card.

I wanted to share something I’ve experienced most of my adult life but never quite realized: modern abstract art makes me angry.

There is something about it that makes me unable to even tolerate it. When I go visit the modern art section of a museum, I get annoyed. No problem with the other sections, there is classical art that I like, some that I don’t, but it doesn’t make me angry the way modern abstract art does.

Thinking about it, I wonder if it’s not the fact that it feels like massive waste and absolute snobbism. Thinking that a museum spent hundreds of thousands or even millions on a bunch of material that has no depth or meaning beyond the BS the artist (scammer?) came up with, when that money could have been better spent on virtually anything else (classical art, poverty, climate change…) really gets me.

Or the ridiculous “explanations” about the piece that pretend to be way deeper and smarter than it really is. Chill, it’s just some paint splatters on a surface, it doesn’t mean anything and there is no depth or layers to it.

Or monochromes. Come on. That’s just plain lazy and disrespectful to even call this art and put it on the same level as the masters’ classical paintings.

I’m not only talking about paintings, but also sculptures or installations. I was standing in front of broken glass recently and that was “art.“

I’m sharing this here to discuss, see what others think and feel on that matter.

I’m having a problem finding landscape architects and designers who use watercolor in their plans. I’ve used several search engines and AIs. The problem seems to be twofold: the word watercolor in my search brings up results that use digital watercolor, and the word landscape brings up artists of landscapes. I’m looking for example work not just names of artists. I’m currently studying landscape design and am enjoying hand rendering plans. A friend gave me some watercolors to try after I complained about not really liking colored pencil or markers. My watercolor rendered plans look way better, but I don’t really know what I’m doing or what I’m striving for because I can’t find a lot of examples. Can anyone help me out? I thought I was good at search, but this has me rethinking that assumption :(

(Didn’t know what group to put this in)