Hrag Vartanian

Kellogg Co. today become the first major company to drop Michael Phelps over the photo that appeared of him smoking marijuana. Time to boycott!

Among the victims is Barbara Gladstone (listed 3 times because presumably she had 3 accounts) and the Gladstone Gallery…yikes.

Street artist Imminent Disaster is not happy with a Bushwick developer who used her work without permission to market condos. The emails between the artist & developer is up on her Flickrstream.

Sharon takes on the mammoth (or seemingly mammoth) topic of ObamArt…and does a good job of getting at the issues at the core of this love fest between art & politics.

The Daily News reports that NY painter/critic Maureen Mullarkey, known for her colorful canvases of drag queens and gay pride parades, gave $1,000 to help pass California’s ban on same-sex marriage…un-friggin’-believable!

The goal is to collect 500,000 signatures to tell the Cali Supreme Court not to invalidate the 18,000 same-sex marriages that have already taken place in that state.

The blog looks at the Banksy heavy auction (22 of 78 lots) and shares some thoughts.

“Del*te Me Uncensored” is a Flickr group that invited critique that is “unfettered, unrestrained, and may seem unforgivable.”

Group members are invited to show “those striking, unique, incredible images that represent your idea of photographic greatness.” And then the group will critique the shot, voting for it to be saved or deleted. Ten ‘delete’ votes and your image is dropped from the pool. Ten ‘save’ votes and your image is eligible for transportation to an afterlife reserved for only the most deserving photographs: The Folio.