I forgot to mention my other favorite Nina Katchadourian piece: "Fall's Colors," a play on words with an artificially grafted fake tree limb that appeared out of season, gradually blended in during autumn, and stood starkly out in winter after all other leaves had fallen off. An ingenious look at the too-slow-to-notice change of the seasons through contrast and mimicry.

I was recently introduced to the work of Nina Katchadourian, and I got excited about an artist for the first time in a while. I loved her "Mended Spiderwebs Series," where she glued thread together to "repair" missing sections of damaged spiderwebs. Sometimes, the spider would return and summarily remove the foreign addition. The use of a more obviously visible material to accent the contrast is beautiful, and the concept of aiding or improving nature is called into question brilliantly. Her work can be seen at: http://www.ninakatchadourian.com/index.php

While biking the other day in North Oakland, I came across some very literal street art. A stencil of a man pulling a shopping cart. I haven't spontaneously broken out in laughter over an artwork in a while. This is a good one. If you've never been to California or any state that has a beverage container redemption fee, you might not fully appreciate it: because bottles and cans are valuable enough here, people travel around, gathering them (often in shopping carts) to take to the redemption center. Notice the detail of the extension handle (usually a tied plastic bag) so the user doesn't bang their ankles while pulling the cart. And of course, it's in the bike lane, because, well, that's where these carts get pulled around. It's a simple observation of fact. It's not just a bike lane, it's a bike-recycling lane.