public art - The Art of the Prank

July 17, 2026

Collecting Rain Water for the Reflecting Pool

If it was gold, he would have taken it.

Giant Iran War ‘Participation Trophy’ For Trump Appears On National Mall, by Jennifer Bendery, Huffpost, July 13, 2026.

Anonymous artists installed a 10-foot monument satirically honoring Trump for starting a war with no “military strategy, diplomacy, or measurable outcomes.”

WASHINGTON — A 10-foot “participation trophy” magically appeared on the National Mall early Monday to satirically honor President Donald Trump for unilaterally starting a war in Iran with no strategy, no stated goals and no plan on how to get the United States out of it.

“We hereby award President Donald J. Trump this participation trophy for his enthusiastic involvement in the Iran War,” reads a plaque on the faux monument, which was installed in the wee hours near the MLK Memorial Bookstore. “While some concern themselves with military strategy, diplomacy, or measurable outcomes, President Trump demonstrated the courage to participate regardless of the final score.” Read the whole article here.

March 18, 2025March 18, 2025

Creative Places to Get Run Over

Don’t dilly-dally in the crosswalk!

North Adams seeks artists to transform city crosswalks into public art, by John Budenas, WWLP, March 17, 2025.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. (WWLP) – The city of North Adams is calling on local artists to bring creativity to the streets.

A new public initiative will transform eight downtown crosswalks into vibrant works of art and aims to continue beautifying the city while enhancing the downtown experience for both residents and visitors.

Hyperallergic Revisits Joey Skaggs “Vietnamese Christmas Nativity Burning” (1968)

Peace on Earth? Not everywhere. 56 years later, and there’s still no merry Christmas in war.

Emma Cieslik covers artists’ renditions of the Nativity throughout history for Hyperallergic in “Nativity Scenes Have Never Been Neutral,” including Joey Skaggs’ “Vietnamese Christmas Nativity Burning” in 1968.

December 4, 2024

One Man’s Trash is Another Man’s Troll

Thomas Dambo’s is trolling…

He makes giant trolls out of trash, hides them in woods for people to find, by Cathy Free, Washington Post, July 9, 2024

“My ultimate goal is to have trolls surprising people in every state,” said Thomas Dambo, whose latest project is in Detroit Lakes, Minn.

Thomas Dambo was rummaging through a city dump in Minnesota when he stumbled on perfection: large yellow plastic bins that had been tossed by a tool manufacturing company.

“They were perfect for the rabbit,” said Dambo, a Danish artist, who reached out to the company to request the rest of their discarded bins.

Dambo gathered the trash and hauled in about 25 tons of scrap wood, then brought together 300 volunteers in Detroit Lakes, Minn., to make gargantuan outdoor public art.

Working together, they built five enormous trolls and a looming golden rabbit that was accented with salvaged wiper-blade whiskers and motorcycle helmets for eyes. The supersize artworks — ranging in height from 16 to 42 feet — were then hidden in forested parks around the city. Read more here.

March 15, 2021December 15, 2023

Banksy’s Prison Escape

A new bold and evocative public work of art from Banksy

Banksy Scaled the Prison That Once Jailed Oscar Wilde to Paint His Latest Mural, by Sarah Rose Sharp, Hyperalleric.com, March 5, 2021

Banksy confirmed the artwork in a clever video stitched together with a Bob Ross tutorial.

Blockbuster street artist Banksy has laid claim to his latest work of public art — an olde tyme prison escape stenciled on the wall of the defunct HM Reading Prison in Reading, Berkshire, England. The prison, also known as Reading Gaol, was built in 1844 and operated until early 2014. Until this week, it was perhaps most famous for housing writer Oscar Wilde during a two-year imprisonment (1895-1897) after a conviction for “gross indecency.” Following his release, Wilde published The Ballad of Reading Gaol, a poem that narrates the 1896 hanging of Charles Thomas Woodridge, convicted of murdering his wife.

The Banksy mural features a figure in prison stripes and a cap. He appears to be climbing down the exterior brick wall on a rope ladder instead of a ream of paper, anchored by a typewriter. The image is likely an allusion to Wilde as Reading’s famous inmate and his subsequent poetic work that both documents Woodridge’s hanging while also identifying with him as a fellow prisoner.

Watch the Instagram video:

The artist left his work open to speculation for a few days before taking to Instagram with a video documenting the mural’s clandestine application, with narration supplemented by overlay from Bob Ross’s famous public access painting program, The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross. The audio selections first seem to merely narrate the creation of the mural, details of which are captured in the tight halo of the artist’s headlamp, but once we cut to shots of the mural in full view the following day, the audio clips telegraph the artist’s statement on the work. Read the whole article here.