This beautiful painting comes from the mind of artist Dan Lacey — who also features the famous President in a bunch of other interesting nude poses. If saving the world from nuclear annihilation isn’t your thing, perhaps you should check out the one where he battles Rush Limbaugh or instills confidence in Ugly Betty.

Either way, Neil Patrick Harris would be proud.

via Treehumper

Begley is set to attend the closing reception of a photography exhibition entitled Topography, Light and Magic, which runs from June 27th through July 31st. 

What’s so green about art?

Photographer Robert McGinley is helping Mama Earth by donating a portion of the proceeds from his exhibit to Heal The Bay —  a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting California’s Santa Monica Bay by participating in outreach and education programs. 

So make sure you stop by the Blue 7 Gallery on Friday, July 31, from 7pm to 9pm to check out some great art, help a dedicated organization and meet the greenest dude ever!

We are pleased to announce that from now until June 7th, the Sirani Gallery in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania will be displaying 180 pieces of work by iconic painter Peter Max.

If you read Ecorazzi closely, you might have noticed that I seem to spend A LOT of time at Max’s gallery. Besides being an out-of-this-world painter, Max and his wife Mary are passionately dedicated activists who freely donate their space to animal and environmental causes.

How do they have the time to be so rad? Yoga and vegetarianism, yo!

“I feel like I’m 22 years old,” Max said. “I have 100 people who work for me. I’m involved in animal rights. My wife and I are involved helping hundreds of organizations.”

Pretty frigin badass, right?

So get your butt in the car and go and support a man who so generously supports your cause. Visit the Sirani Gallery from now until June 7th and feast your eyes on some awesome art!

via: thejewishchronicle.net

My favorite part about this job (besides writing for all you wonderful people, of course) is that I get to hit up some pretty serious events. 

Last week I had the honor of heading down to the meat-packing district (ironic, I know) and seeing the work of one of my favorite vegan artists: Gretchen Ryan. 

Now you could be all like, “Dude, she’s awesome and vegan and works her butt off helping the world — you’re totally bias about her art.”  Well fine smarty pants — don’t take my word for it! 

ArtWeLove.com just wrote a lovely review about the artist and her enchanting paintings. In the piece they say: 

“Ryan often depicts little girls whom she discovers on the pageant circuit and then stays in touch with as they grow older, painting them at different stages of their ‘careers.’ Rendering her portraits in oil on canvas and expertly applied charcoal on paper, Ryan confronts the viewer with pictures that portray the girls as both empowered individuals and decorated objects.”

The good news for you is that Gretchen’s exhibit is running until May 16th, at the Fred Torres gallery here in NYC. 

To learn more and find out how you can see Ryan’s work up close and personal, visit GretchenRyan.com!

The organization recently held their 2009 Black Tie Gala and our friends at Look To The Stars were there to cover the whole event. Check out the video below and hear what stars like Elijah Wood, Alicia Witt, Sophia Bush, Eva Mendes had to say about this great organization!

With Alaska in the grip of record cold, one “moderate global warming” skeptic decided to poke a bit of fun at Al Gore with a massive 8 1/2 foot-tall ice sculpture of the former Vice-President. Local businessman Craig Compeau says that he created the statue to help lure Gore to Fairbanks and have an open discussion on climate change. From the article,

“Compeau said he hatched the idea for the carving when talking to another businessman two weeks ago, when much of Alaska was suffering from one of the coldest snaps in recent memory. By the time Dean was done with the carving, however, the temperature had warmed to record-breaking highs in the upper 40s. Thermometers had settled in-between by Monday morning, reading around 20 degrees.”

According to climate change scientists, Alaska’s average temperature has risen three degrees in the last 50 years. No word yet from the Gore camp on if he’ll decide to accept the invitation.

via newsminer | image via frozengore

Cameron Diaz — along with other celebs like Gwyneth Paltrow, Tom Colicchio and Salman Rushdie — has designed a lunch box to help benefit hunger relief. Called “The Lunchbox Auction”, all proceeds raised through sales of the creative designs will benefit the Food Bank for New York City and The Lunchbox Fund — which provides lunch to impoverished school children in South Africa.

Not surprisingly, Diaz’s creation is green-themed. One side depicts remnants of an environmental friendly lunch of whole foods and a metal fork. The other side shows a wasteful lunch: paper, plastic fork and cup, and a juice box. Actress Ellen Page, of Juno fame, took an entirely different route and created a lobster trap box, complete with stuffed lobster. Looks like a real bummer of a lunch box to me!

The auction will go until next Thursday — starting bids are at $100. Click here to learn more!

Famous artist Francesca Galeazzi recently turned heads while joining Treehugger Founder Graham Hill, and beatboxer Schlomo on a trip to the Arctic hosted by Cape Farewell — an organization bringing together leading artists, writers, scientists, educators and media for a series of expeditions into the Arctic. 

In an effort “to throw a comment on why society is so resistant to change,”  Galeazzi took a cyclinder containing 6kg of pure CO2, placed it in the most beautiful untouched place she could find and opened the valve. Naturally all the CO2 was released into the atmosphere in front of the Cape Farewell team and crew, all of whom had travelled to the Arctic in order to help in the fight against climate change. Now that takes BALLS!! 

The key part of Galeazzi’s piece, aptly named ‘Justifying Bad Behaviour,’ was the fact that the artist had offset her 6kg cylinder of CO2 before she even set out on the trip, therefore presumably justifying her bad behavior. 

“Instead of embracing change, we are inventing new mechanisms to greenwash our consciences, in a way,” Galeazzi said. “I didn’t want to say that carbon offsetting is bad because I believe it plays a role within our strategy to tackle climate change. But not as a starting point. It can come in when we’ve done all we can to reduce carbon emissions, all we can to think about the way we use resources, recycle, we produce waste. Only then we can begin to offset our carbon emissions… but not at the start.” 

What do you think about all this artistic hullabaloo? Was it worth the 6kg of pollution to prove a point, or was this a wasteful experiment? Chime in and share your thoughts! 

via: treehugger.com
photo credit: cape farewell

A source said: “Angelina hit the roof recently when Brad had another piece of art delivered to their home in Los Angeles. She wasn’t happy. Angelina wants Brad to sell his art collection and give the money to charity. She says there are so many people who don’t have the basic necessities, so collecting expensive baubles feels extravagant and selfish to her.”

The source added: “Angelina believes in supporting the arts, but she doesn’t believe that people should be living with priceless objects. She wants to scale back on their possessions and lead a simple life.”

Brad has reportedly spent millions on the collection and has decked out their Los Angeles home with rare paintings, sculptures and furniture from all over the world. Will Pitt give up his prized possessions to help raise money for charity? Stay tuned to Ecorazzi for all the latest!

via: femalefirst.co.uk
photo credit: prphoto.com

As Ecorazzi previously reported, this year we chose to spend our precious World Vegan Day sampling delicious veggie food and hanging out with a few well-known veggies at the Boston Vegetarian Food Festival . It was our first time at the festival and I’ll tell you this: we most certainly WEREN’T disappointed.

A highlight of the day was a talk by celebrated author and friend of Ecorazzi, Karen Dawn, who discussed her book Thanking The Monkey and signed autographs in the lobby after – if you don’t have a copy make sure you pick one up! We also said hello to Josh Hooten, founder of Herbivore Clothing Clothing, who will be featured in our upcoming segment Ecorazzi Home Movie: Parrish Goes To Portland.

If you’re a regular reader, you might remember that earlier this month I attended Farm Sanctuary’s Party for the Pigs and met one my all time favorite “actorvists”, Persia White. I was so impressed by Persia’s supreme awesomeness that I gave her my coveted vegan pin that I often sport at these kinds of events. While I was more than happy to share my bling, my threads have been looking a bit bare lately. Luckily for me, Snooty Jewelry owner Jeanine Taylor – a talented vegan jewelry designer – was at the festival and hooked me up with a brand new recycled VEGAN pin that is sure to impress all!

If you missed the festival this year, NO WORRIES! The Boston Vegetarian Society holds the food fest each year and you only have to wait another 363 for the next one (sigh). To find out more about what’s going on up in MASS, visit the Boston Vegetarian Society’s website! Happy eating!