On the surface, it’s one of the lamest ideas in the history of television: A reality show where chefs compete in a cooking competition.

On Top Chef, which airs its season nine finale tonight on Bravo, the fundamental flaw is obvious: while the American Idol audience can join Randy Jackson in watching Scotty McCreery sing, or judge a design with Michael Kors on Project Runway (Top Chef’s predecessor from the same production company, Magical Elves), they can’t taste the King Crab with Sunchoke Chips, Lobster Broth and Lemon Snow along with Tom Colicchio.

The show’s success is an example of elevating a flawed premise through (nearly) flawless execution. The reality show’s fundamental strength is just that: reality. Unlike many of the “scripted” reality shows, or even “contest” shows like Survivor, there’s something grounded about Top Chef. At its best, the show depicts chefs doing something they do every night out of sight: making great food under extreme pressure (as Top Chef Hung Huynh demonstrates in this exclusive Forbes video.)

And it’s paid off. The franchise has been renewed for its 10^th “season” and the producers have spun off Top Chef Masters, with established chefs competing for charity, Top Chef Just Desserts, which highlights the work of pastry chefs, and Top Chef All-Stars in which runners up from previous seasons get a second chance. This season, they launched Last Chance Kitchen, in which eliminated contestants battled for a chance to get back into the competition. And a Top Chef alum (but not a champion) Carla Hall landed a plum gig as co-host of ABC’s The Chew.

Of course, by letting the prosciutto chips fall where they may, Top Chef has suffered its ups and downs. Sometimes, as in season six, the stars align, and the show discovers four chefs who are as personable as they are talented. When two of them are brothers, one’s blonde and high-strung and one of them looks like Yukon Cornelius, the result is reality television magic.

This year, the cast of characters has been somewhat less appealing. In the kitchen, Paul Qui has been the class of the field, away from the stove, he’s about as exciting as watching panna cotta set. His rival in tonight’s finals, Sarah Grueneberg is grating, but hasn’t risen to full-fledged villain status. When she needed emergency attention when cooking over a searing hot barbecue pit, plenty of fans, including me, were rooting for her to stay on the sidelines.

But even though I don’t have a strong rooting interest, I’ll still be watching tonight as Padma Lakshmi utters those magic words: You are Top Chef. There’s something captivating about watching a couple of talented individuals do what they do best. Even if I can’t taste the results.

For some of us, theres always too little time. For others, time weighs heavy; the days are long. Some of us spend our time wisely, while others seem to waste what they have. Then there are the folks who are always relaxed and never seem to hurry, yet they accomplish what they need to do and what they want to do.

Time is truly such a rare commodity; especially, perhaps, in these times as we try to pack each minute full. Multi-tasking is the norm. When we talk on the land line, we can still surf the Internet. When we drive down the road, we can make that call on our cell phone. If its time to work out at the gym, we can listen to a book on a compact disc.

I have to admit that Im no better at managing my time than anyone else, even though Ive been juggling several employers simultaneously for years now. So you might think Im practiced at doing it well. And yet I still often catch myself looking at the clock of an evening and thinking to myself, It cant be that late already. I havent done everything I planned on this evening.

Have you ever noticed that some of us like to play what I call the busy game? It involves trying to one-up others. If someone says, Oh, I have so much to do that Ill never get caught up, then you say something like, You think you have a lot going on. You dont know what busy is. I didnt get to bed this morning until 1 am, and I was up at 5:30 so I could get to the gym before I came to the office. After work I need to make 24 cupcakes for Brett to take to school tomorrow. . .

And on and on we go, like a windmill in flight, somehow convinced that we are impressing others with our importance because we have so much to do, when maybe we are just trying to fool ourselves.

As one gets older, it hopefully gets easier to understand that you dont really need that kind of recognition. And hopefully you realize, too, that time is a choice, that you can choose to spend it how you think you should-not how others think you should or in a way to impress others.

Maybe you understand better then, too, that time is a most valuable commodity that must be managed wisely. Its a sin to waste it and a risk to pack it so full that its stressful. Keeping it all in balance is the goal. As I age, I notice I am less driven to use wisely every minute of my time, or maybe it is that what I think is using it wisely has evolved. Sitting on the couch often feels like a very wise use of my time.

As William Penn put it, Time is what we want most but use worst.

Theres nothing remotely stuffy or straight-laced about the newest exhibit at the William King Museum in Abingdon, Va., where Color Me Bad: Animation, Pop, Satire will be on display March 9-Aug. 12 in the United Company Regional Art Gallery.

An opening reception for the exhibit featuring works by artists Brian Clinebell, Peter Morgan and Jessica Walker, all of whom came of age in Abingdon will be held from 6 to 8 pm, March 8 at the museum. Admission is free and open to the public.

This is going to be T-shirts and skateboards and shoes and hats and original artwork, said Katie Carrico, William Kings public relations director. Its going to be a little funkier than what we usually do, a little departure from the stuffy framed work that so many people expect to see at a museum.

By shuffling pop culture and fine art, traditional and new media, kitsch and icons of Appalachia, the artists undertake their own wayward reformulation of artistic genres.

In the 1990s, Clinebell could have been found skateboarding around familiar Abingdon institutions such as Magic Mart and the Hardware Restaurant or down Plumb Alley, and he worked at the former Starving Artist Cafe. In 1999, two weeks after he saw the Abingdon Rotary Skateboard Park opened with money he helped raise, Clinebell moved to California.

He spent a year skateboarding and snowboarding before enrolling in art classes at San Diego City College and eventually graduating from San Diego State University. His primary goal was to become a fine artist; however, he quickly learned that studying graphic design would enable him to begin creating skateboard and clothing graphics of his own.

Clinebell has designed apparel and skateboard accessories with Fallen Footwear, Pacific Drive and Mad Media. He bridges his interest in the graphic arts with his fine art practice by working with painting, printmaking and digital processes, and has exhibited his work throughout Southern California.

He is also the lead singer of the San Diego-based rock band The Kabbs.

Morgans parents first met at Abingdons Cave House, the craft shop which housed the present-day Holston Mountain Artisans. In years to come, Morgan would frequent his mothers textiles studio at the Arts Depot and spend summer days in the booth she occupied during the Virginia Highlands Festival. It wasnt until he was a student at Roanoke College, however, that he found himself gravitating toward the Art Department.

After graduation, he spent a year hiking the Appalachian Trail and working, then traveled to California to study in the place where many significant contributors of the Contemporary Craft Movement originated. Eventually receiving his master of fine arts degree in ceramics from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, Morgan subsequently journeyed to artist residences throughout the country and exhibited in a multitude of venues.

He currently is the Evelyn Shapiro Foundation Fellow at the Clay Studio in Philadelphia, where he works full-time as an artist.

Walker remembers frequenting William King in the 90s for classes taught by local legends like Pat Jessee, summer camps led by DR Mullins and as a volunteer for the Education Department. Although she was surrounded by Appalachian tradition growing up, this culture was contrasted by what she saw on television and heard on the radio. When visiting musical venues in the area, such as the Carter Family Fold, the experience seemed oddly foreign, despite its proximity and celebrated tradition she respected.

A decade later at San Francisco State University, Walker began to re-evaluate these cultures she had previously compartmentalized. During trips home to Abingdon, she would conduct research and collect materials to inform a range of new projects in the studio.

Walker adopted the role of an ethnographer and set out to render the idiosyncrasies of contemporary Appalachian life. One such project, Shades of White, is presented as a box of crayons, but rather than include an array of colors, all the crayons have been painted white. The paper wrappings on each have been digitally reconstructed to mimic the original Crayola graphics but include titles like hillbilly, moonshiner and porch honky, among others far more derogatory.

Language is also central to a recent series of drawings where alliterative phrases like Myth, Meth, Mess or Backwards, Backwoods are first handwritten, then scanned into the computer and finally arranged as interlacing patterns resembling stained glass windows.

Walker currently lives in Brooklyn and works at Parsons The New School for Design in New York.

Carrico said she hopes the artists out-of-the-box exhibit will draw a nontraditional crowd to William King.

I want people who have never been to a museum to see that we might have skateboards up on a wall and want to come check it out, she said.

For more information, visit the museums website at www.williamkingmuseum.org.

Markel International has acquired the portfolio of business of Quay Underwriting, a managing agent based in Dorset, UK.

The company provides a wide range of insurance products for fine art and collectables, including bespoke products for niche businesses and unusual risks.

The agreement builds on an existing and very successful relationship with Markel, which has underwritten QUs entire book since the inception of the company, and it will strengthen Markels UK retail business.

QU was formed in 2009 and employs three people in Bridport. Although founded recently, QU draws on the underwriting experience of its owner, Richard Norman, who has worked with leading insurance brands for many years.

Commenting, Steve Carroll, head of Markels worldwide retail operations, said: We have a detailed understanding of QUs products and have built a good rapport with the Bridport team over the last three years.

Our aim is to launch fine art and collectables as a new niche product in the UK, with coverage provided through our network of offices. Gross written premium for QU in 2011 was approximately pound;1m, a figure that has significant potential for growth through our network.

Richard Norman, commenting for QU, said: We are delighted to join Markel and to build on what is already a very successful union.

With Markels backing we will enjoy much greater penetration of the UK market and can further enhance our reputation as a specialist insurer in the fine art and collectables sector.

The gay denial is turning into quite the art form. Lets watch its progression over the years.

Exhibit 1: The Sue-Someones-Pants-Off Denial

Calling a film star gay can be risky business. Tom Cruise launched two lawsuits in the space of one month back in 2001 to squelch those pesky gay rumours. The first was after an erotic wrestler told a French magazine he was the reason for Cruises split from Nicole Kidman. Cruises lawyer told The Guardian, [Cruise] is a great respecter of homosexual rights, but hes not gay, and hes ready to prove this in court. … Tom is tired of it and it hurts his children. Its something that will be there forever. And damn it, hes going to stop it. He won a $10 million judgement there.

The second one came after Mike Davis, an LA-based publisher, said he had video evidence of another of Cruises gay affairs. Wham! Cruise sued Davis for $100 million. Davis retracted the story, saying Cruise is not, and never has been, homosexual and has never had a homosexual affair. No word on what happened to that video.

The other poster boy in this category is of course Cruises fellow Scientologist John Travolta. He threatened to sue Gawker because it published steamy details about Travoltas alleged exploits in a Los Angeles mens sauna. Even worse for poor Travolta, the interior designer who spilled the beans claimed that he was a bottom.

Exhibit 2: The Nothing-Wrong-With-Being-Gay-But-I-Am-Not Denial

Pop singer Joe Jonas has been unable to shake off those gay rumours, despite high-profile relationships with famous women like Taylor Swift, Ashley Greene, and Demi Lovato. Or perhaps the rumours swirl because of those high-profile, PR-friendly link-ups. (It sounds a little too studio-managed Rock Hudson-ish.) Theres nothing wrong with being gay, but Im not, Jonas told Details magazine.

Oprah has had to battle the lesbian rumour for years. Im not even kind of a lesbian, she told Barbra Walters. And the reason why it irritates me is because it means that somebody must think Im lying. Thats number one. Number two: why would you want to hide it?

(Note that Exhibit 1 and Exhibit 2 are not mutually exclusive. They can often be combined into a single category. For example, Hulk Hogan, big boy of wrestling, was accused by his ex-wife of bedroom romps with his singlet buddy Brutus Beefcake. Yes, Hulk Hogan and Brutus Beefcake — now thats erotic wrestling! Hogan sued his ex-wife and said, [If] I was a homosexual I would embrace it. Its just so crazy to hear, so I have a real problem with it.)

The problem with Exhibits 1 and 2 in our more politically correct times is that the more you protest that there is nothing wrong with it, the more you imply that there is something wrong with it, that being called gay is lawsuit-worthy. But now comes George Clooney with Exhibit 3. Watch and learn.

Exhibit 3: The Non-Denial Denial.

First there was a website that proclaimed that Clooney was gay, gay, gay. Clooneys response: No. Im gay, gay. The third gay — that was pushing it. Now The Advocate has asked him about it again. Im not going to let anyone make it seem like being gay is a bad thing, he told the magazine. My private life is private, and Im very happy in it. Who does it hurt if someone thinks Im gay? At no point does he come out and say he is not gay. Neither does he say he is, or that he might possibly be. Well played, sir. A master stroke indeed.

Of course, this epidemic of denials is the flip side of another trend: this epidemic of gay-spotting in showbiz, our endless fascination with the bedroom lives of our celebrities. Check the National Enquirers cover story about whos gay in Hollywood. Yes, yes, everyone is in there, from Zac Efron (too much makeup) to Hugh Jackman (he loves to sing and dance).

Whether its Hollywood or Bollywood, everyone is gay. Everyone knows someone who knows someone who is getting it on with [fill-in-the-blank] Khan. It could be another star, a director, a secretary, or a physical trainer. Ask your source how he knows all this, and he will roll his eyes and say, But darling, everyone knows.

Its gotten so bad that you dont even have to have bona fide sexual organs to have your sexual orientation questioned in the media. Tinky Winky, that purple Teletubby with a handbag and a triangular aerial on his head, came under attack for being gay. The Rev. Jerry Falwell, the astute gay-spotter that he is, saw a clear gay agenda there: He is purple — the gay-pride colour; and his antenna is shaped like a triangle — the gay-pride symbol. Gay. Gay.

Sesame Street muppets Bert and Ernie have been battling those gay rumours for years. They are roommates. They sing silly songs. One is obsessed about his rubber ducky. Gay. Gay. Gay. Back in 1993, the Childrens Television Workshop was forced to issue this press release: Bert and Ernie, whove been on Sesame Street for 25 years, do not portray a gay couple, and there are no plans for them to do so in the future. They are puppets, not humans. Too bad; they would have been great role models for the marriage equality debate: a stable, decades-long gay partnership.

Being gay was once the love that dared not speak its name. It was taboo and illicit and subversive. Now its peeping into a purple Teletubbys handbag! It makes one almost nostalgic for the golden days of the closet, when the stars were proper by day and insatiable by night, and scandals meant something. Read 88-year-old Scotty Bowers memoir about being a gigolo and sex fixer for the stars back in the Golden Age of Hollywood. He says he had sex with Spencer Tracy while procuring women for Tracys beloved Katharine Hepburn (Do you think you can find a nice, young, dark-haired girl for me? Someone thats not too heavily made up?). He claims to have done threesomes with Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. He says Edward VIII was gay and that the woman for whom he abdicated the throne was a lesbian. But no one is suing Scotty Bowers. No one is denying any of his stories, because almost everyone involved is dead. The truth cant hurt them anymore, Bowers told The New York Times.

Scotty doesnt lie — the stars sometimes do, Gore Vidal writes in a blurb for the book. In this age of gay claims and gay denials, thats a good thing to remember.

The original version of this blog post appeared on Firstpost.com.

The floor sculptures that Mel Bochner made in the early 1970s now rank as classics of conceptual art. Arrangements of stones, coins and on occasion hazelnuts on the ground, they were designed to lay bare the first principles of sculpture.

I was trying to find out what the minimum definition of a sculpture was what could be a sculpture and only a sculpture. It has to be three-dimensional, the artist said, reached by phone in New York. And I wanted it to be a useless thing. A lot of pebbles you could put in your driveway; an individual pebble has no exchange value. To complete these bare-bone sculptures, he would engage in some organizing operation, such as numbering the stones or arranging them to demonstrate a mathematical theorem.

Now, for a show at Marc Selwyn Fine Art in LA, Bochner is remaking 10 of these groundbreaking works but out of brilliantly colored glass fragments instead. Color changes everything, he said. The early work had an emphasis on aspects of thought and order. Once you add color, it takes you into another realm: the realm of perception.

The LA show, which opens March 17, re-creates a 1991 show that took place in the Sergio Casoli gallery in Milan, Italy, and that was inspired by a discovery made in that space. Painter Lucio Fontana had used the space as his studio and had before his death left a box of colored glass pieces in a back room glass typically crushed and worked into the surface of his paintings.

Bochner said he can remember the moment he lifted the lid of the box and saw the uncrushed, fist-sized pieces of glass. I had always wanted to make my early work in color, but I couldnt figure out how to do that, he said. Right then I said to Sergio [Casoli], give me some glass and Ill give you a show.

Upon learning about this work a couple of years ago, Marc Selwyn immediately asked Bochner about revisiting the show. But the artist didnt know the whereabouts of Casoli or the glass, and attempts to have similar glass manufactured in the US led nowhere. Finally, Selwyn tracked down Casoli through an Italian curator he once worked with at Sothebys.

Apart from one sculpture that had been sold, the Italian dealer had packed up my whole show in a funky little gym bag, Bochner said. Each piece of glass was wrapped in 1991 pages from the Corriere della Sera newspaper.

The new show, made with the old glass, marks the first time a group of Bochners floor sculptures has been assembled in LA It will also serve as a teaser for a show opening at the Whitechapel Gallery in London in October, focusing on Bochners use of color.

jori.finkel@latimes.com

CINCINNATI – Cowans Auctions’ Fine and Decorative Art Auction realized $925,000 in sales on Feb. 25. With nearly 1,200 bidders from 30 different countries on the telephone, online and in attendance, the salesroom was alive with competitive bidding for the 470 lots.

The highest selling lot in the sale was a coin silver Kentucky State Agricultural Society Award Pitcher, which realized $41,125. The pitcher, dated circa 1859, is a coin silver pitcher by William Adams (New York). Adams is well-known for the mace he made for the House of Representatives in 1841-42 as well as, a presentation urn he crafted for his friend, Henry Clay, a senator and representative from the state of Kentucky. The piece offered in the sale was a presentation pitcher bearing the inscription, “Presented by the Kentucky State agricultural Society and Spratt amp; Bourn Co. at their Tobacco Exhibition, May 25, 1859.” The pitcher was property of the late Caswell and Sara Lane, who were consummate Kentucky collectors, and was estimated to bring $8,000-$10,000 The Lanes specialized in silver from the Bluegrass state.

Fine art from the 19th and 20 century was also among the top-selling lots offered in the sale. A painting by well-known Cincinnati artist, Frank Duveneck, titled Venetian Interior, hammered down at $18,800. A painting by Polish artist Jan Van Chelminski, titled Polish Sleighing Party, realized $27,025. A Kentucky portrait of the Marquis de Lafayette by Asa Park sold for $21,150.

A Tonalist landscape by Antanas Zemaitis far surpassed its estimate of $500-$700 and realized $16,800 in the auction.

A number of contemporary pieces of art exceeded their original estimates and did particularly well in the sale. A painting by Robert Rauschenberg, titled Mixed Media, sold for $15,275. An abstract work by Guatemalan artist Carlos Merida realized $15,600. A lithograph by American contemporary artist Jasper Johns, signed and titled Bent Blue, hammered down at $7,200.

“The fine art portion of the sale had some very strong offerings and the response was significant in all categories of 19th and 20th century works,” Graydon Sikes, director of paintings and prints notes, “The tremendous crowd at the auction certainly played a hand in driving many of the more important pieces.”

Miniature furniture from the Caswell and Sara Lane collection also brought higher than estimated prices at the sale. A set of three American miniature blanket chests was estimated at $400-$600 and hammered down at $1,528. An Ohio miniature chest of drawers, circa 1825-1835, also estimated at $400-$600, realized $2,233. A Kentucky miniature chest of drawers from the early 19th century, with the pencil inscription “Mary Polly Howard, Spencer, Kentucky,” was estimated at $1,000-$1,500 and hammered down at $2,703.

An additional noteworthy lot in the sale was an American, early 20th century Tiffany Studios counterbalance table lamp, marked “Tiffany Studios, NY, No. 415″ on bottom. The lamp was estimated at $5,000-$7,000 and realized $7,344.

Click here to view the fully illustrated catalog for this sale, complete with prices realized.

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

I run this regular Fine Art feature on Kotaku because its an aspect of the creative process that I have a big interest in, and the utmost respect for. Indeed, there was a point in my life where I hit a fairly substantial crossroads, and if I hadnt gone down the path that led me here, Id have ended up pursuing a career in production/concept art instead.

The single biggest inspiration for that was the work of Ralph McQuarrie, who sadly passed away over the weekend, aged 82. McQuarrie designed some of the most iconic and important elements in science-fiction movie history, from the alien mothership in Close Encounters of the Third Kind to the original Battlestar Galactica TV series to some work on Jurassic Park.

He is most widely known, however, and will be most fondly remembered, for his contribution to the visual identity of the Star Wars universe.

McQuarries hands are all over the three original Star Wars films, on which he worked as a production illustrator, design consultant and concept artist. He designed Darth Vader. He designed R2-D2 and C-3PO. He designed Chewbacca. Indeed, it was McQuarries vivid concept paintings, all done on the strength of nothing but George Lucas script, which helped convince studio executives to green-light Star Wars in the first place.

McQuarrie appears briefly as a Rebel General in The Empire Strikes Back, and later won an academy award for his work on 1985s Cocoon.

If you love Star Wars, a lot of what you love is down to the work of this man. His contributions to the enduring popularity of the original trilogy simply cannot be understated.

He is survived by his wife Joan.

For perhaps the single best collection of his Star Wars work, many of which you probably havent seen, you should really check out this 1997 book. Its collated like a work of Star Wars fiction, but really, the words are a thin thread tying together an astonishing collection of concept art for the original three films.

The Arizona Fine Art EXPO love their cowgirls, listening to their stories of hard work growing up on farms and ranches as women and witnessing the brilliant historical tales they share on canvas.The Russians started International Womens Day in 1909, and they are still the premier celebrators of the March 8th holiday. Around the world, this event is a way to honor womens contributions to history.

Scottsdale, Arizona (PRWEB) March 02, 2012

The Arizona Fine Art EXPO love their cowgirls, listening to their stories of hard work growing up on farms and ranches as women and witnessing the brilliant historical tales they share on canvas.The Russians started International Womens Day in 1909, and they are still the premier celebrators of the March 8th holiday. Around the world, this event is a way to honor womens contributions to history.

These women have lived and experienced what is seen on their canvases whether it be ranching, riden, roping or rodeo in. Most historians never wrote the true facts about the women that cowboyed on ranches throughout the old West during the early 1800s. These women took on ranching chores as men and when the men felt the women were deserving of their spurs, only then were women accepted as cowboy equals. Early on, cowgirls actually wore mens clothing, because it was practical, durable and all that was available. The spectacularly embellished western wear of the 1930s-1950s came about because of the movie stars plus it made prettier photographs. Few early ranch women wore fringed suede divided skirts and embroidered shirts while working. Hollywood romanticized version of the American West is more popular than the true history of the women they represented of the Wild West.

Loretta Musgrave grew up on a country ranch and farm tucked in the foothills of South Mountain in Arizona. Musgraves primary job over many years was always caring for the sick and injured animals, a project that provided her with many quiet moments and quiet models as she began drawing. Musgrave milked cows, took care of donkeys, goats, chickens, raised the calves, put up fencing, worked alongside the tractors loading feed, irrigated, butchered beef and so much more. When it came to delivering her sixth child, she even did this by herself. Loretta Musgrave is a true hard working cowgirl. At age seven she won a state art competition which included a small amount of money. She was so delighted that this encouraged her to begin drawing for the local ranchers for spending money. They demanded perfection; hard taskmasters but perfect training for the young artist. When first meeting Musgrave last year, Judi Combs, CEO of the Arizona Fine Art EXPO, got a kick out of Musgrave when she made an innocent statement I am not too sure about this city living. After all these years Musgrave recently moved closer into the city of Phoenix, Arizona. Willi Waltrip was raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma on a farm. Waltrip found herself continually begging for a horse or being bribed with horseback riding in exchange for taking piano lessons. Waltrip didnt receive her first horse until she was out of college. Waltrips love affair began at an early age with incessantly sketching horses with crayons.

Waltrips fascination with horses led her to the rodeo scene. She began barrel racing which lead her to trick riding. Waltrip loved the independence of standing on her bareback horse as it galloped throughout the arena. The excitement of vaulting,

Chennai-based photographer Varun Gupta is busy sifting through hundreds of entries submitted by photographers for the Week in the Life of Chennai show being organised as part of the Art Chennai summit. We want people to look at photography as art and not just as a way to record events, says the documentary and fine art photographer. Selected photos will be displayed at the Tiruvanmiyur MRTS station from March 14.

A created image is like a painting, says Gupta, who has been showing his work since 2007. You conceptualise it using space and light just like you would on canvas, he says. Photography as art is catching on in the city, with one of Indias most famous photographers, Raghu Rai having his first solo show in Chennai two weeks ago.