LS Lowry may not be familiar to you, but his works were collected by a British businessman named Tony Thompson and recently auctioned following Thompson's death. Lowry's paintings have a fresh child-like presence. He was born Laurence Stephen Lowry in 1987. Once denied admission to the Manchester Municipal College of Art, he went on to become an "official artist" when Queen Elizabeth II was crowned. He subsequently rejected five honors that were offered to him. The Lowry Collection online shows you more of his work.

Jackson Pollock was commissioned by Peggy Guggenheim to create a mural for her apartment in New York City. Now owned by the University of Iowa, the mural is being shown, after extensive reparations, at the Getty Center in Los Angeles. Twenty feet long and nine feet tall, the mural is discussed by a Getty Curator and is accompanied by excerpts from an interview with Pollock in 1950. A fine educational offering to us all by the Getty.

The Getty is also showing "Heaven and Earth", subtitled "Byzantine Illumination at the Cultural Crossroads". Included are six illuminated manuscripts on loan from Greece as well as works from the Getty's own collection. Look carefully at a detail of St. John: the implications for contemporary abstraction and dimensional rendering are remarkable.

If I were younger I would enroll in one of the graduate programs offered by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, truly at the forefront of advanced conceptual thinking as well as the marriage of technology and art. Here is a vimeo of violinist Janine Jansen using digital sound and light to trace her movements as she plays Bach's Violin Concerto in A Minor. Music lovers might also want to compare Isaac Stern's playing of the same piece, and then David Oistrakh's. This is the Internet at its best.

Having trouble hearing these Master violinists? Or seeing in the dark? Or even listening to conversations at a restaurant? Some of you will soon have relief with brain implants, known as neuroprosthetics. Such surgeries are not for everyone, but they offer hope for the more severely impaired among us.

Veronese masterpieces, including the Martyrdom of Saint George, are on display for the first time at the National Gallery's "Magnificence in Renaissance Venice" exhibition. Fifty of Veronese's brilliant canvases are being shown, to great critical acclaim. Born Paolo Calliari, Veronese is an acknowledged leader of 16th century Venetian painting, along with Titian and Tintoretto.

If you are a science fiction fan, you will want to look at Scott Robertson's concepts for space vehicles. Robertson is a designer who has worked for companies like Mattel, Nike and Fiat. Ten years ago he founded Design Studio Press, a company that produces DVDs, videos and books on concept designs and tutorials.

Who says that trains have to be gray and boring? Take a look at the Metro System in Dubai that is on its way to becoming an art gallery. Four Metro stations have been chosen for the initial experiments, one with a collection of Islamic art and calligraphy. The driverless trains themselves will also be brightly decorated both inside and out. Reports out of the Gulf say that 500,000 people use the trains every day.

Another futuristic transportation design is created by Oscar Vinals. Called the Sky Whale, it features environmentally friendly adaptations that reduce drag, weight, fuel consumption, and nitrogen oxide emissions. The Sky Whale has been described as a "three-story gargantuan green aircraft".

Need a chuckle? An artist called Saint Hoax shows you political leaders dressed up in drag. The artist comments on the work: "like drag queens, political/religious leaders are expected to entertain, perform and occasionally lip-sync a public speech. but unlike drag queens, the fame-hungry leaders don't know when to take their costumes off." On his web page, Saint Hoax is described as an artist from the Middle East who has cast a jaundiced eye on people in power who drag the rest of us into war.

Tove Jansson is a Finnish artist who created delightful creatures called the Moomins. Moominmama and Moominpappa are joined by Hattifatteners and Mymbles in Moominvalley. Jansson's books have been translated into 44 languages and have sold millions of copies. Ostensibly written for children, the Moomins have appealed to adults as well. The Walt Disney company wanted exclusive rights to the word "Moomin" but was turned down by the artist. Jansson's lifelong partner, Tooti, inspired many of the episodes and resulted in a character called Too-Ticky.

Photographer Ken Keever has produced some elegaic, billowing photographs by dropping different color pigments into a tank of water. Think of JMW Turner and Salvadore Dali on steroids, in technicolor, and stoned, to get an idea of the beauty of these images.

Do you want to live in an unusual and artistic house? Here are some discovered by Alissa Walker. There is quite a variety to choose from, with clean lines and uncluttered design one unifying feature.