Dark Dreamscapes - Jel Ena

Jel Ena - “Red” - color pencil on Moleskine paper - 2012 (click photo for larger image)

“Jel Ena is a Serbian born multi-media artist based in LA. Her darkly erotic visualizations are enchanting, projecting characters with feminine mystique of epic proportions. Jel Ena's illustrations capture complex emotions and the mythology of desire and color.”

Visit her website to learn more about this fascinating contemporary artist

How the Power of Superstorm Sandy Is Painted Into a Nation

Not waving ... A detail from Watson and the Shark by John Singleton Copley. Photograph: Burstein Collection/Corbis (click photo for larger image)

“Amid scenes of natural devastation, the National Gallery of Art in Washington reminds us how east coast artists have long been fascinated by the menace and mysteries of the wild...” 

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A Look at Some Top Art Heists Over the Decades

A reproduction of the Edgar Degas painting "Ludovic Lepic and his Daughter", one of four paintings by major artists which were stolen from the private E.G. Buehrle Collection, in Zurich, Switzerland. (click photo for larger image)A recent Rotterdam museum art heist “netted paintings by Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet, Henri Matisse and others — but it's not the first time that money-conscious thieves with an eye for beauty have targeted famous multimillion-dollar canvasses.”

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Get Interactive on the Art of Restoration: iBook Uncovers Art's Dirtiest Secret

Joseph-Siffred Duplessis (attributed), “La Jeune Artiste” (detail), c. 1760, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (click photo for larger image)

“NEW YORK, NY.- Art historian and former Travel Channel Host Lee Sandstead partnered with Apple Design Award winning app studio, Tapity, to release an innovative reading experience on the iPad. Built on top of Apple’s new iBooks Author platform, Cleaning Mona Lisa interweaves videos and gorgeous interactive paintings with the narrative to take readers on a journey to discover why classical art work such as Mona Lisa is not nearly as impressive as it used to be and what can be done to restore it”

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“Cleaning Mona Lisa” by Lee Sandstead not only teaches the neglected lessons of art restoration, but allows the reader to clean some of the most famous paintings from around the world with the swipe of a finger! It’s available for only $2.99 at the Apple iBookstore. Click here for a look--and info on how to buy it.

Looms with a View

Raphael - Miraculous Draught of Fishes - c. 1519 - Tapestry in silk and wool, with silver-gilt threads, 490 x 441 cm - Musei Vaticani, Vatican (click photo for larger image)

Dana Schutz - Tapestry - 2005 - dyed wool - 212.5 x 1 x 245 cm (click photo for larger image)

“Tapestries were at one time among the most highly prized of art mediums. Raphael was paid about five times more for the tapestries he designed to adorn the walls of the Sistine Chapel than Michelangelo was for his fresco contribution to the ceiling.”

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Contemporary artists such as Dana Schultz have rediscovered this art form--and are wholly embracing it for its artistic potential.