Well, this is what Frederick McSwain did in tribute of his late friend Tobias Wong.
Click here for more information about the artist’s work.
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~Jorge |
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Skin Writing
In the past we’ve shown you tons of artists who use human skin as their canvas: Bart Hess, Alexa Meade, Emma Hack, Liu Bolin, and Fred Lebain to name a few. Ariana Russell takes it to a whole new level, however; her skin is not only the canvas, but the medium as well. I’ll let her explain:
“I have dermatographia, a condition in which one’s immune system releases excessive amounts of histamine, causing capillaries to dilate and welts to appear (lasting about thirty minutes) when the hypersensitive skin’s surface is lightly scratched. This allows me to painlessly draw on my skin with just enough time to photograph the results. Even though I can direct this ephemeral response by drawing on it, the reaction is involuntary, much like the uncontrollable nature of a blush.”
Pretty cool, right? Not to mention she doesn’t have to pay for supplies (very economical). Check out some more of her work on her portfolio site!
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~Carly |
Skulls and well More Skulls
Maybe the title is a bit on the simplistic side, but you cannot deny the fact that David Gough has a bit of a fixation on ossified craniums. Yes, I could have said skulls but I wanted to sound more scholarly so sue me.
This one is especially interesting. His work seems to explore the very nature of the subject matter we all tend to shun the most as humans, our own mortality. He is making it implicit that you discuss death when you talk about his work, thereby making the inevitability so much more real.
This is definitely heavy subject matter, and it gives his work a more transcendental quality to it.The paintings extend into the real world seamlessly through conversation. Seriousness aside, I just can’t shake the image of this guy having a closet full of Ed Hardy T-shirts for some reason, who knows?
See! The skeleton wants you to check out more of Davids work at his website. And thanks again for reading.
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~Jay |
A Mechanical Dissection
Todd McLellan must have been the kind of kid to take things apart just to see how they work. In this collection of photographs he experiments with the mechanics of some house hold items, and the result is pretty cool. Phones, clocks and a couple things I can’t really distinguish are seemingly blown to bits, exposing the gears and bolts within:
Check out more items in this series, along with more of McLellan’s work on his website!
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~Carly |
The Sliced Pixel Project
If you remember, a while ago we showed you the pixelated animal sculptures of Nathan Sawaya. Victor van Gaasbeek takes a different approach by splitting the familiar square-shaped pixel in half, creating triangular building blocks for a virtual menagerie. Even though the triangle pieces are pretty large in proportion to the image, it’s still very clear what animal he’s trying to respresent:
Looking at these, I can’t help but think what they would look like represented on a quilt. Maybe that’s the textile student in me, but I think that would be pretty awesome.
Check out more of Victor van Gaasbeek’s work on his website.
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~Carly |
Kirsten Hassenfeld Knows Paper
That’s right: paper. That is all paper. The work of Kirsten Hassenfeld is intricate to a point that makes me a little bit afraid. Folding, cutting and otherwise manipulating paper to create sculptures like these must take crazy patience, not to mention a level of dexterity most of us will never possess. While looking through her work on the Bellwether Gallery I couldn’t decide which images to share with you, so be sure to check them all out for yourself. Absolutely freaking amazing. Here are a few more of my favorites, including some mind-blowing detail shots:
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~Carly |
Niels Post Makes the Garbage of the Internet into Art
Obnoxious, misspelled, automated crap: that’s how most of us view spam. Whether it’s popping up in our mailbox, or creating pages upon pages of comments on message boards and blogs; it has never seemed to be more than pollution. While the rest of us ignore and delete it however, Niels Post has turned it into something a little more elegant. By hand carving and painting wooden letters, Post has recreated all kinds of unwanted, computer-generated text.
Check out more of Post’s work on his website!
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~Carly |
Anatomical Rejects
Looking at Bart Hess’ collection, you begin to wonder what his inspiration was in making these ; was he trying to merge patient,victim, and subject? Or does pseudo medical photography just spark his interest?Personally, I would say a huge inspiration was definitely Joseph Merrick.
Bart sees human flesh as many of us saw play-do, morphing our fragile bodies into mutant monstrosities that would make David Lynch look twice.
The figures are not all bulbous in fact some of the more eerie subjects often take on highly geometric forms. Such as this poor fragmented soul below, who seems be suffering from an identity crisis. Then again maybe she is breaking away from her former self. It’s really up to the viewer to figure out what is going on in the photos.
The photography is highly minimalistic as the central point of focus is placed on the sideshow inspired subjects. This is my personal favorite, I can’t figure out why either. It may be the intense expression on the face of the subject, or the seemingly painful coils sticking out of his face.
Fans of the artistic macabre are sure to enjoy the spectacle,as Bart and Lucy bring surrealism to life in fantastic and eerie ways. There is a part of me that says that this is how many of us see ourselves on the inside. Thus, in many way the photography becomes symbolic and revelatory to the inner torture that those with a poor self image/esteem suffer through. Food for thought.
Well thanks for checking out the weirdness, until next time I bid you all adieu.
More Lucy Mcrae and Bart Hess photography here.
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~Jay |
The Fruits of Robert Bernardi’s Labor: Hyperrealism
Hyperrealism - sound familiar? You may have read about it in our previous post, The Hyperrealism Stylings of Denis Peterson. To refresh your memory, hyperrealism is a genre of painting and sculpture resembling high resolution photographs but not necessarily direct interpretations of such pictures. Instead, they utilize additional, often subtle, pictorial elements to create the illusion of reality.
The hyper-realist paintings above were done by Roberto Bernardi, born in central Italy in 1974. As a student in the mid-eighties, he studied Renaissance painting and pictorial technique, which later played a part in the development of his own creativity. He moved to Rome in 1933 and worked as a restorer in the church of San Fransesco a Ripa. Afterwards, he began to paint hyper-realist works full time.
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~Sarah |
Home Interiors by Michael Elmgreen & Ingar Dragset
I’m always looking for photos of homes; I love using them for decorating inspiration. Upon first glance I thought I had found some fabulous pics in this set of images by Michael Elmgreen & Ingar Dragset. Don’t get me wrong, they’re still fabulous – just a little darker than I realized. I can’t quite figure out what’s going on in the last one though, …thoughts?
As creepy as these are, I gotta say I dig their style. Is it bad that I might still add them to my mental inspiration board? I’ll just have to leave out the corpse in the pool. Check out more of their work here!
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~Carly |
