My neighbors' house

Offcite.org is the blog of Cite Magazine, dedicated to Houston architecture. They do a regular feature where someone narrates an audio walking tour through a Houston neighborhood. And the most recent tour begins at...my next door neighbors' house. Literally. The giant pecan tree in the background of the top photo? That's in my back yard, and it's the reason we always evacuate for hurricanes (it could take out the whole house if it fell). The bench on the corner you see in the fourth picture? They used to have a concrete bench there, and Maia and her nanny would sit there in the afternoons and tell stories. And when someone stole the bench (huh?) Maia begged them to get another one.

The guy narrating the tour doesn't mention that the original builders of the house--my neighbor's grandfather--was a homebuilder who built a lot of the Woodland Heights bungalows in the 20s and 30s.

Which Van Gogh is it?

Imagine getting mistaken for your brother. Even after death.

Experts are now thinking that a Vincent Van Gogh self-portrait is actually a portrait of his brother Theo. This will make it the only known Vincent painting of Theo. For now, at least. Another hundred years and the conspiracies will begin popping up that the two brothers were actually the same man.

(Not as exciting: the lark in another painting is actually a partridge. Probably.)

But he can he do dogs playing poker?

Interesting video of a man painting on water. It's cool to watch, but the range of things you can do seems a little limited. At least it's easier to transfer to paper and make permanent than sand painting.

I love Magritte

Don't take my word for it. Here eight people talk about why they love Magritte. It's connected to a big show at the Tate Liverpool, but our own Menil has a good collection of Magritte paintings.

Don't attack art. Eat it.

This funny video is a tribute to Jackson Pollock, who isn't really a favorite of mine. But the lead-up to the drip painting is fantastic. And delicious.

Dripped, by Leo Verrier.

Marcel Duchamp, meet James Franco

Duchamp changed everything with his readymades and their emphatic declaration that art is about the idea more than the object.

Minimalists and conceptual artists have been working for decades on distilling the ideas to the most simple and pure forms. Franco has taken that a step further. Now you can invest in the Museum of Non-Visible Art.

Want to watch artists at work?

I just came across the Giant Robot series Artist Friends.

It's got four- to five-minute videos featuring young artists at work. It seems to be centered on the West Coast, as Giant Robot is in LA. Daniel at The Fox is Black (the design blog you should be reading daily) says that Giant Robot is good at finding young artists who Go On To Big Things.

Check it out.

But what if a four-year-old can do that?

So the study shows that we can usually tell the difference between a child's painting and a professional painting. However, this four-year-old is a professional. That's got to confuse things a little bit.

It takes a special something to write a negative review of a kid's painting. Thankfully, some people have that special something.

Names

It's always at the beginning of the year, when we look at "Venus of Willendorf," that I talk about names and nicknames for works. I don't know much about the history of naming art works, but this article will help me be more knowledgable next fall.