Hilo Designer Spots Movie Art

When music lovers watch movies, they often obsessively catalog the songs featured in the soundtrack. When geeks watch movies, they often notice which specific gadgets and tech tools are depicted. And slaves to fashion obsess over what the stars are wearing.

When Hilo designer Liz Ambrose watches movies, she fixates on the paintings, sculptures, and other artworks that appear on screen. So she launched "Art In Films," a Ning-powered community portal dedicated to identifying works of art that appear — sometimes only fleetingly — on the big screen, as well as on TV.

Inspired in part by the "Rushes" blog by Film Art LA, Ambrose envisions a site where artists, art fans, set designers and others could post screen shots from movies and TV shows that show an artwork, and provide information on the piece and the artist.

"Nothing like it exists right now," Ambrose says, noting that it could be pretty far-reaching. For starters, though, she'd love to hear from local artists in Oahu who may have had some artwork featured on the big or small screen — perhaps in the new "Hawaii Five-0."

For now, the site has already snared one mainland contributor: Los Angeles artist Bruce Gray. He's posted a number of examples of where his work has appeared, from a chair from a Madonna music video to sculptures featured on "Friends," "Medium," and "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation."

And Ambrose thinks there might be a business model to sustain the site.

"I want this site to also incorporate an auction or sales component whereby the artists can sell the work that was in the film or TV show," she says. "And as a go between, 'Art in Films' takes a small percentage for being the broker."

Ambrose says she's looking for fellow art fans, partners, developers, investors... anyone who could help turn a simple idea into something bigger. And it's a position she finds herself in often.

"I have a ton of other ideas too, but it's just too hard to get them off the ground myself," she recently wrote at TechHui, when she shared another dream: WorkHui.com, a job site for casual workers.

Whether or not "Art in Films" makes money, it could definitely carve out a niche that needs carving. You can connect with Ambrose on TechHui or on Twitter at @inikoa.