Murals are now in progress at Emergency Arts for the Life is Beautiful Festival, Fafi images of French sass are beginning to appear on Fremont. Shepard Fairey takes over the wall one shared by a collaboration by Sush Machida and Tim Bavington along 6th Street. Knowing his preferred color scheme Fairey's piece will be framed well by Jerry Misko's black mural on the lower wall.  It all makes for an artistic way to note September 22, the first day of fall.

​Here are some links from the week.

"If I get this [silent] film saved I've earned my wings," said Jeffery Crouse at a Nevada State College summer screening of his documentary on “Little Mickey Grogan."  The Review Journal has more on the project. 

The National Medal of Arts recipients are Mel Brooks, Sandra Cisneros, Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, Morgan Freeman,  Philip Glass, Berry Gordy, Santiago Jiménez, Jr. , Moises Kaufman,  Ralph Lemon, Audra McDonald,  Luis Valdez and Jack Whitten I  ArtsGov

British architect Thomas Heatherwick unveiled “Vessel" Hyperallergic I NYTimes story on "Vessel" uses the headline: "A $150 Million Stairway to Nowhere on the Far West Side" I Artsy was also terse"  'New York’s $150 Million Staircase Misses the Point of Public Art'

One of Haring's lesser-known murals in New York is threatened I NPR  

"A second video installation by Bill Viola has gone on display at St Paul’s Cathedral in London, featuring a modern retelling of the life of the Virgin Mary" I ArtInfo  

 "The heads are a perfect illustration of the dual mission Mr. Marshall has been pursuing with a kind of holy fervor for almost 40 years now: building a sturdy bridge for figurative painting from the 15th century to ours, over treacherous spans of recent history that declared both figuration and painting to be finished — and at the same time trying to rewrite history itself." That's Randy Kennedy on Kerry James Marshall, whose retrospective opened in Chicago, will soon be in New York, then land in Los Angeles I NYTImes   

FOUND OBJECTS: Holland Cotter on “Mierle Laderman Ukeles: Maintenance Art."  "Ms. Ukeles is probably most familiar for her nearly four-decade stint as official, though unsalaried, artist-in-residence with New York’s Department of Sanitation. " NYTimes I More on "Maintenance Art" at Art in America I​ Even more from Randy Kennedy at NYTimes.

'Public Art by Björk, JR, and Yoko Ono Comes to Moscow' I Creators Project

ABOUT TIME: "101-year-old artist Carmen Herrera is finally getting the show the art world should have given her 40 or 50 years ago: a solo exhibition at a major museum in New York."  NYTimes

'MoMA Will Make Thousands of Exhibition Images Available Online' I NYTimes

Street artists, from Turkey, use anonymity to accentuate the message I Index on Censorship

'Paris Is Getting Its First Museum Dedicated to Street Art' I Conde Nast Traveler

Anyone covering murals has to note Judy Baca, who just celebrated her 70th birthday. Theater scholar Luis Alfaro shares his eloquence. In part he writes:  "Judy has a hilarious sense of humor. Her enthusiasm for community empowerment is unmatched. Her support of artists and community is inspiring. I will always be grateful for the many projects she has supported me with personally, from hosting fundraisers to lending space to sharing her wisdom. "

FIELD NOTES: Life is Beautiful. This version of The Donald? Not so much.  Making a surprise Las Vegas debut this morning is the pop-up sculpture, "Naked Trump." It sits in a Downtown Las Vegas parking lot behind black velvet ropes, next to 112 S. 6th Street, near Fremont . . . It was first commissioned by Indecline for clandestine installations in Los Angles,  New York, Cleveland, Seattle,  and San Francisco this past August . . .  In a recent interview, local artist Joshua Monroe, aka Ginger, who made the statues, said he kept the mold and it was possible a few more Trumps may appear. “There’s more to come,” Monroe, said to the Review Journal.  “I own the mold.” . . . This Donald in the buff may have been made in time for LiB, though no one from the festival is taking credit for the TrumpRump standing across the street from the ticket booths.

ADD SEPTEMBER 23 'Trump Down':  The Las Vegas Sun reports 'Naked Trump' statue vandalized. Snapped at the shin it seems. The carnage is posted in a gallery.