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.

~Jorge

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

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.

~Jay

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

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.

~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

Okay confession time, as a child my all time favorite book was,”Where the Wild Things Are”. Now fast forward 16 years later and Spike Jonze manages to do an awesome albeit slightly “emo” interpretation of said book. Two years later as I am rummaging the endless corridors of madness, irrelevance and sometimes intelligence known as the internet, I stumble upon Andy Kehoe.

Or shall I say His work stumbled upon me.Totemic, folk,comic and definitely old time Japanese are a few of the seemingly endless arrays of inspiration that have manged to find their way into Andy’ art. And the subjects are definitely of a “Wild” variety.

Each painting has an almost staggering amount of detail. Look at the trees in the second painting, the clouds in the first painting, and the leaves in this one. Each painting has an evocative and a liberating feel. And you can check out more of his work at his website.

~Jay

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!

~Carly

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First of all let me address the collective “what the hell” coming from quite a few of you. Jazzcore is definitely what one might call a fusion subgenre .Its like if you took grindcore  and combined it with John Coltrane and Miles Davis, throw in  a little bit of Math Rock of course and voila!! It is definitely my pleasure to present to you a band that was pretty prolific during their relatively short career, “The Number 12 Looks Like You”. Yeah the name is ridiculous but the music is greater than or equal to their name in terms of insanity. Take the best parts of Circle Takes the Square and The Dillinger Escape Plan and occasionally throw in some Antonio Francis Jobim. This is another case of case of gone to soon as they disbanded last year after the lead singer sighted depression and anxiety issues. They released four full lengths and three EPs.  The two best albums of the bunch are “Mongrel” and ” Worse Than Alone”.  “Mongrel” is more consistent whereas “Worse Than Alone” is a bit more experimental. Enjoy!

~Jay

Recently on one of the forums I browse, someone put up a video from a BBC Radio One session of this band called Yuck. If you enjoy the Pixies, Dinosaur Jr, or any of those “shoegaze” bands, definitely check out this band Yuck. They hail from all over the world with members from New Jersey, the UK, and even Japan. Check it out, i’ve been spinning their song Get Away a ton this week. Also they just released an album titled “Yuck” so pick that up if you enjoy the tunes.

Get Away – Yuck

Georgia – Yuck

Rose Gives A Lilly – Yuck

~Greg