I visit literally hundreds of web sites each week, looking for the best to show you. If you have some favorites that you'd like me to share with others, be sure to let me know

email: giraffe@giraffe.com

How would you like to print out a 200-page book in roughly ten minutes? The New York Public Library now has a machine called "Expresso Book Machine" with access to 200,000 books that don't have copyright protection. The machine weighs 1660 pounds, is eight feet long, and is made by New York's On Demand Books. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&refer=home&sid=aPGScEvJyRxw

Two of our most talented artists sit down for a conversation about their work, individually and together. This dialogue between Sydney Pollack, who directed such hits as "Tootsie" and "Out of Africa", and Frank Gehry, whose architectural escapades have radically altered our landscapes worldwide, will take you into the creative spaces that both men inhabit. Pollack and Gehry have been friends for thirty years. Pollack is currently filming a study of Gehry and his works. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/06/22/nosplit/bfgehry122.xml

"SwarmSketch" invites you to participate in a collective drawing experience. Every week they randomly select a search term which becomes the basis for a collaborative sketch. Each visitor to the site can add a few lines to the drawing and then can judge the contributions of others. The concept was created as part of an honors program at the University of Canberra in Australia. http://swarmsketch.com/

From YouTube comes this beautifully executed excursion into fantasy entitled "Space Intruder". http://youtube.com/watch?v=im5JO8GaG7c

The Bob Rauschenberg Gallery at Edison College is presenting a Shoebox Sculpture exhibition. Literally, each item selected must fit into a shoebox. This video of the show will give you an opportunity to see a number of the pieces up close. http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070612/VIDEO02/70612066/1075

Aligrator is a website that features striking images from artists and photographers. "The French Maid" by David Alan Wolters was one of their recent selections: http://aligratorcom.setupmyblog.com/?p=671

The Asian Art Museum in San Francisco is featuring an exhibit titled "Yoshitoshi's Strange Tales: Woodblock Prints from Edo to Meiji". At this site you can see a slide show of some of the prints: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2007/06/07/DDGS5Q9HDC1.DTL&o=0

She called herself Gego, although she was named Gertrud Goldschmidt when she was born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1912. Gego spent most of her life in Venezuela, where she produced a body of images that are both complex and extraordinarily simple. A show of her work was presented at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas and in a smaller form traveled to the Drawing Center in SoHo, New York City. Resisting the designation of "sculpture", Gego called these pieces "drawing without paper". http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/27/arts/design/27gego.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5070&en=e86171f4d9a42d1e&ex=1182916800 (requires free registration).

Craft in America gives an excellent overview of what is happening in the world of crafts, with sections on clay, fiber, metal, glass, and wood, plus an area called New Artists. 130 examples are shown on this site, for those who cannot get to one of their exhibitions: http://www.craftinamerica.org/exhibition/story_38.php?PHPSESSID=88f683ce1e6d15921ad245df9eb7ab59 You can also go from here to some of the individual artist's websites.

Aaron Wiesenfeld presents a body of work that is haunting and elegaic. In a cacophonous world of egotism and greed, his is a gentle and elegant voice that deserves attention. These charcoal drawings and paintings remind me of the vision of Andrew Wyeth. http://www.aronwiesenfeld.com/

c.Corinne Whitaker 2007