Featured Blog Posts – January 2012 Archive (236)

An uprooted tree typically has roots at the bottom, but sculptor Yoan Capote's bronze renditions change that convention. Instead of roots, there are boots in the Havana-based artist's large-scale sculptures. The long metallic trees lay beside each other, extending human legs and feet in the work entitled Migrant. The installation is a metaphoric representation of migrating one's…

Photographer and expert light painter Trevor Williams blows our minds with his three-dimensional light graffiti. Williams, who is originally from Canada, founded the group Fiz-iks, which is based in Japan. The group explores fascinating locations throughout the architecturally rich country, redefining its surroundings. Equipped with various LED and xenon flashlights, the…

Maggi Hambling bring forth the energy and power of waves through her beautiful oil paintings. The sea has become an obsession for Hambling who starts each day with a ritual. "Early each morning I go down to the sea and try to capture its mood by drawing, and each day is different. Back in the studio, these drawings become paintings. Whether they are tiny or cover the studio wall, I try to…

Data manager Bill Taylor has found new ways of using everyday office supplies to reconnect with art and to jazz up his North Carolina cubicle. “Some people put up pictures and newspaper articles. Maybe calendars or stuffed animals. Perhaps I will get around to those things. For now, I just draw on the whiteboard.” He spends about 2-5 minutes a day sketching with his personal…

The Simpsons - Moe's Tavern

If you've ever wanted to see an artist's interpretation of famous TV locations, look no further than Tim Doyle's new works for Spoke Art Gallery. Called "Unreal Estate," it's places that we all know and love, even though they only exist in our pop culture memory. As Doyle says, "'Some of us have been going to these places for decades -…

It covers over 70% of our Earth's surface and it's the most essential element to life. Water is so important…

L.A.-based visual artist Alex Gross has taken cabinet cards to a whole new level. In the late 1800s, cabinet cards were a stylish, high-brow way to present portraiture. The cards were about 4 ¼" x 6 ½" and included information and advertisements on the back to promote the photographer. Due to the large size, a card could be displayed on a cabinet and easily viewed from across a…

For painter David Agenjo, a palette and a canvas are interchangeable. While he works on an older canvas, already covered in splotches of layered paints, the Madrid-based artist uses new canvases as palettes. His artistic cycle continues in this pattern of creating a new painting on a used canvas, while simultaneously preparing the next used canvas.

By…

Long Island-based photographer Laina Briedis' seasonal images emanate a naturally Earthy beauty. A common tactic in her work is to isolate limbs or hide the subject's face within a frame and incorporate an element of nature (leaves or flowers) against an open backdrop. It's difficult to tell whether the female form or the natural environment is the main subject. It actually seems like they are…

Levi van Veluw is a multidisciplinary artist based in the Netherlands. His work often consists of illogical “combinations of materials, patterns, colors, and forms.” His earlier work, The Origin of the Beginning, involved a large amount of material and patterns to…

It's quite easy to get swept up in the fast pace of today's modern world. Urban growth is rapid and, in the next twenty years, nearly 60 percent of the world will be city dwellers. Photographer Martin Roemers believes that “even with their bustle and chaos, megacities retain…

Using trash bags, unused grocery bags and plastic sheets, Pakistani artist Khalil Chishtee creates life-sized figures wracked with emotion. He uses these materials as a metaphor for "recycling our identities" or braving the problems of life.

“For the first time I have used trash or recycled bags as my medium because no matter how many times I recycle plastic, it will…

Based in Montreuil, France, Nathalie Boutté takes what others may see as paper garbage—tissue paper, old pages from a novel, tracing paper—and transforms it into remarkable artwork by carefully layering paper strips. From up close the images appear pixilated. But if you take a few steps back, similar to some pointillism paintings, the image becomes clear.

Her process is…

French street artist C215 (aka Christian Guémy) made this beautifully moving mother and child piece at Vitry-sur-Seine, a suburb of Paris, France. Called Peace, it's juxtaposed against on old, decaying backdrop. Love how parts of the image are made up of the word "peace," in different…

We dare to try not to laugh as you look through these illustrations by Matthieu Barrère. Called "Aweful Drawings," they're a fun way to start off your week.

I really enjoyed reading Matthieu's thoughts on finding inspiration, via Nonsense Society.

"Everything I see, hear,…

Loving this beautiful typographic poster of the words "Sweat the Small Stuff" by Brooklyn-based graphic designer, letterer and illustrator Alonzo Feliz. "A stylish reminder that details matter, this one goes out to anyone in any line of work that cares about attention to details, craft, and putting in the time to make things just right," he says on his website. "It's a great addition to…

George Clooney



Photographer Gavin Bond recently shot these gorgeous black and white photos for Newsweek magazine's Oscar Roundtable. Taken in Smashbox Studios in West Hollywood, these minimalist portraits really bring out the different personalities of each actor. Love how he even captured the scene-stealing 9-year-old Jack Russell from The…

Photographer Alexander Semenov has a degree in Zoology with a specialization in invertebrate animals, particularly squid brains. Rather than fear the uncomfortable sting of jellyfish, like most of us do, Semenov seeks them out, discovering the natural beauty and magnificence of these creatures in their own environment through underwater photography.

After four…

Some people go to the beach to enjoy a beautiful sunset, to search for dolphins, or to watch surfers riding the waves. That's why Montauk, New Yorkers could have never expected to come face-to-face with a 12' long 5' high life-sized rhino, made of mixed media resin, roaming their shores. At least not until today. Davis Murphy, a multidisciplinary artist, sculpted a variety of…

Filmmaker Danny Cooke has just released a beautifully shot documentary about the art of letterpress. Called Upside Down, Left To Right: A Letterpress Film, it gives us an inside look at one of the few remaining movable-type printing workshops in the UK, at Plymouth University.

When we asked Cooke why he created it, he told us this. "I sat outside the letterpress workshop on…