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!

~Carly

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!

~Carly

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:

~Carly

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.

~Jay

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!

~Carly

Tilt-shift effects have definitely risen in popularity in the past year or so.  Often used to make things seem miniature, tilt-shift can be accomplished either through using the right lens on your camera or by some careful tweaking on Photoshop.  There’s even (at least) one website that will do it for you.  I think my favorite use of this technique however, is the collection of altered Van Gogh’s on Artcyclopedia:

The deep focus makes them seem a little more real, but you also get a sort of miniature feel.  Some people are mad that images of these paintings have been altered; personally I think it’s pretty cool.   What do you think?

~Carly

How lucky I was to come across the photostream of Tony Katai!  Katai is a photographer from Detroit with some really great sets.  He gives us a good message (not to mention some awesome images) in his series: Stay Weird, which I think we could all learn from.  We should all do away with conformity and embrace the not-so-normal.  Make strange faces, and wear weird things!  Long live originality and the uniqueness of you!  For a little inspirations, here are some of my favorites from Stay Weird:

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