25-year-old sketch artist Jason Polan has an unachievable goal: to draw every person in New York. He moved here from Michigan, and was seized by the desire to capture all of us—you, me, Graydon Carter—in quick, vague line drawings. So far he has "a couple hundred sketches," which means that, assuming a static city population of 8 million and a generous rate of 50 sketches per day, fives days a week, Jason will be finishing his project up in a little more than 615 years. If you like, you can email him and tell him where you're going to be at a certain time and he'll show up and sketch you. Cute, but not really doing wonders for your time efficiency, Jason. After the jump, a few samples of his work. At least he's quick!

Someone's taking children's scribbling and gussying them up with some kind of magical computure special effects. It think it's pretty nifty. However, I'm having tech woes and can't seem to publish more than one image in a post, so enjoy the gallery here. Stupid tech trouble.

Just in time for Mother's Day, a collection of paintings by pop-art psychopants Michael Pucciarelli is available for your viewing pleasure. What's it have to do with Mother's Day? I dunno, ask my shrink. Oh, wait, I don't have one! Some faves after the jump.

Taavo Somer, the weirdo artist/designer/"method" architect (when designing the new nautical-themed bar Rusty Knot, he took to dressing like a drunken sailor) was profiled in New York this week. "In the profile he talks about the house he just bought upstate and how his parents were horrified at the price," whispers a tipster. "I don't know what he ended up paying exactly but the asking price was $1.295 million. It's on 38 acres just outside of High Falls in Ulster County." Oooh. Upstate-house porn! Click to see what designing hip Manhattan bars the Rusty Knot and Freemans will buy you... and what the profile says inspired Somer to maybe start, like, a farm-themed bar in Brooklyn...

Animal NY street chronicler Bucky Turco took the bait of our sighting this morning of the elusive British stencil artist Banksy. Bucky traipsed over to Thunder Jacksons in the West Village and captured THE FIRST PICTURES of this new Banksy piece, which have just increased the value of the building 25-fold [UPDATE: Or have they? Gothamist says this work is by Nick Walker, not Banksy. We're investigating. More to come.]. Click through for some larger pics of the three-part work, and then go over to Animal NY to read some more clues that Bucky gleaned about the artist . Journalism in action:

This painting of Heath Ledger, by Vincent Fantauzzo, was done weeks before the actor's death, at his family home in Australia. It just won the "People's Choice" award at the Archibald Prize Exhibition. [UPI]

Artist and designer of the now-iconic Vuitton handbags, Takashi Murakami, is auctioning off several pieces in Sotheby's upcoming spring auctions. The most valuable, estimated between $3-4 million, is a sculpture of a manga dude, um, "ejaculating in lasso-like form," titled "My Lonesome Cowboy." Hey, it's not NSFW if it's art.

Graphic designer, street artist, and OBEY empire kingpin Shepard Fairey tells Bucky Turco that he's not going to go blind this year, as earlier reported, although he says he has had several eye surgeries. He recently "got the bleeds in both eyes." The bleeds! Obey your eye doctor, homeboy. [Animal NY]

Optimum Online commercials: they are now their own genre. A specific category at the Grammy Awards, a spot in the Olympic Games, and a bust on Mount Rushmore are reserved specifically for the psychedelic, grating ads that this strange company produces. The original "Reggaeton-Jet Ski-Lifeguard" spot was an over-the-top classic after only 17,000 exposures per person in the Tristate area; the follow up spot, all shiny, kinetic, and Hype Williams-esque, expanded the motif. Now there's a new one in circulation, and it shifts the setting to suburbia, with a sort of knockoff Gwen Stefani character whirling through a household with backup dancers, and the odd appearance of an old lady who is also a race car driver. Philosophers, break out your thinking caps. The full ad is after the jump.

Shepard Fairey, a.k.a. OBEY, the artist and graphic designer who plastered the world with "Andre The Giant Has A Posse" posters and is perhaps the biggest thing ever to happen to wheatpaste, is reportedly going blind. Fast. One source says he could lose his vision by the end of the year. Bucky Turco at Animal NY has the scoop. Sad news.

No matter how you feel about the British stencil artist Banksy, you have to admit one thing: his stuff sells for a lot of money. His works have been going for over half a million dollars lately. A homeowner in the UK with a Banksy mural on the side of her house decided to simply sell the mural through an art gallery, and throw in the home for free. But one NYC store owner lucky enough to have a Banksy piece on his building (pictured) was either too ignorant, or too stubborn to take advantage of it. Yes: he painted over it. I hope he loved his momentarily whitewashed wall, because it cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars. The kind of funny, and kind of painful pictures [via SuperTouch] of the man in the revenue-destroying act, after the jump. Ouch.

Last week we showed you the supremely artistic "Darth Vader Meets Murakami" work of the anonymous vandal whose canvas is poster advertisements in the New York subways. But as impressed as we were by that, new photos—purportedly by the same vandal—have surfaced that, conceptually, make the earlier work look like a quickie plaything. This anonymous person has messages. All with only the ad posters themselves to work with. We're told these are all genuine, and not Photoshopped. Well, anonymous vandal: You are really fucking good. The six new photos [via And I Am Not Lying], after the jump.

The street art of water-blue pixels flowing out of a pump in the East Village that we showed you last week was an assignment for an NYU student's Intro to Sculpture class, Animal reports. The artist is Kelly Goeller from Long Island. We hope she got an A!

The girl on the left is not real. She has, however, been manufactured exclusively for your pleasure (or some weirdo that lives with his mom!) Lynn Hershman Leeson has a photo/installation exhibit at the bitforms gallery that is about sex dolls, and their "projected fantasies and the mythology of artificial women." After jump: another totally creepy photo from the exhibition!

Trend: predicting doom and bust in the art market, as the auction season is nigh. Slate asks why the art press seems to be "rooting for" disaster: "You don't usually see writers who cover, say, the price of wheat rooting for its decline. Are [they] trying to will the art market into failure? Probably not: They're more concerned with competitive pressures. Everyone wants to be the first to identify the next crash." [Slate]

From 1962 to 1972 adman George Lois created some of the most iconic magazine cover art of his era. Thirty-one of them are part of a new exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, and the New York Times is offering a handy preview. My faves after the jump.

Like Koko the gorilla before him, musician and voodoo zombie Pete Doherty has manipulated his hands in such a way, across a piece of canvas or paper, that something resembling "art" has been created. An exhibit of his work launched in Montmartre yesterday, though sadly he missed his debut because he's, well, in jail for drugs. The work, though, really speaks for itself. Unlike Koko's seminal masterpiece "Pink Pink Stink Nice Drink," in which abstract paint smears represented deep and mysterious gorilla emotions, Mr. Doherty's work consists of clear and distinctive symbology and motifs. Notably, the use of his own image and his own blood. My favorite piece is the one in which he signed his name with blood (his own) found inside an old needle. Just lovely. Some images after the jump.

This clever sidewalk art piece, on 9th Street in the East Village, has been removed. But not before Annamarie grabbed a photo (via Nick Gray).

Famous artperson Damien Hirst may sell the jeans he makes for $80,000, but he has some t-shirts that are much more affordable. They're 30 pounds, which is slightly less than $80,000. The catch is that all the money goes to support the ominous RED (Global Fund), the celebrity-infused charity that is either saving the world, or plotting to take it over on the low. The shirts feature works of art that the diamond skull craftsman auctioned off earlier to support that charity. Overall, I'm pretty afraid of them. But if you like butterflies, or pills, or balloon animals, you might like the ones after the jump. Cause hey, celebrity artist on your shirt, right?

This ad for Head & Shoulders dandruff shampoo [via Adrants] is purportedly a riff on "The Head & Shoulders point of view." But it's plain as day for anyone to see that it's actually an excuse for the pervert ad agency to get a look at the Mona Lisa's boobs. Is nothing sacred? Click through for a close-up shot. We're just glad Da Vinci's not around to see this.