Sculptor Fred Eerdekens created aluminum and copper works that look like abstract squiggles until lit from the right angle. When lit just right, each spells out a word. Read the rest
Nicolas Damiens and Julien Sans thought it would be cool to offer inspiring fonts based on the scrawl of some of their favorite recording artists like Bowie, Lennon, and Cobain, whose handwriting appears on the cool cover of his published journals (above). IP lawyers put the kibosh on their SongwritersFonts project real quick-like. Read the rest
Animation visionary Isao Takahata of Studio Ghibli fame died on April 5, and Smithsonian magazine published a great written overview that complements the video essay above. Read the rest
Fifty years ago, Véra Molnar decided to experiment with computers for generating art printed on continuous plotter paper with the pin strips on the edge. To honor that anniversary, a number of galleries are showing her early work (protip: slow the video playback to 0.25 for longer looks at the work). Read the rest
Stephanie Kilgast makes lovely sculpted work with environmental and nature themes, like this old can she painstakingly covered with brightly-colored sea creatures, flowers, and mushrooms. Read the rest
Rolly Crump (previously) was one of the weirdest, most bohemian of the original group of Imagineers; when he was tasked with developing concepts for the oft-stalled and perennially beleaguered Disneyland Haunted Mansion, he came up with the Museum of the Weird, a guided walkthrough spook house filled with mystical illusions, and psychedelic, daemonic imagery. Read the rest
I sketched a little cartoon pirate and it did OK, but seems to have some trouble distinguishing "objects" to colorize
Here's what it made of a cut-through sketch of a hollow tree:
I like it! It turned it into a weird blob of living flesh.
This abstract landscape sketch of mine came out like a psychedelic watercolor:
When Prince died in 2016, California artist Christine Stein painted a piece of plywood in the likeness of the late artist under a shrub outside her Citrus Heights home.
It originally looked like this:
Two years later, the shrub is in full bloom and Prince fans are now making the pilgrimage to visit it, according to KTVU:
The bush – specifically, a Red-Tip Photinia – appears perfectly around Prince’s head, and looks like a flowery halo of hair. Her husband is supposed to trim the bush, but hasn’t in a year, which is why the bush has grown so large.Read the restStein... thought the image was so stunning that she posted in on Facebook on Easter. The post went viral... and the news trucks – and the Prince pilgrims – have been flocking to her home ever since.
“I’ve had people from LA, Minnesota, and Georgia come to my house and lay down in the driveway,” Stein said. “They leave their own art. Someone from Anchorage just called me to say they’re coming to visit.”
On the one hand, she said she finds it “kind of creepy” to find people “worshipping” Prince on her property.
But on the other hand, she also wants to conjure up the altruistic spirit of Prince, who had supported many charities and acted with kindness and generosity throughout his life, much of which had remained private until his death in 2016.
Elin Thomas uses real petri dishes and fills them with beautiful crocheted felt and wool spores, mold, and fungi. Read the rest
There are so many incredibly ridiculous pool floats out there now. I recently spotted one that looks like a whoopee cushion. And also one that looks like a baby bottle (why?!). But the one that really caught my eye is by British artist David Shrigley.
It's called the Ridiculous Inflatable Swan-Thing and it's kind of like a swan but with a meh face. I think it's glorious!
It's available from Australian retailer Third Drawer Down for A$55 (approx. $42.33).
Are you sure you want to buy this rubbish? Read the rest
For over 20 years, Santa Monica-based inventor Aaron Kramer has taken trash and turned it into art. His latest creation is a "Selfie Machine" which draws his portrait when he hand-cranks a knob. Should you want a "Selfie Machine" for yourself, Kramer sells custom ones starting at $10,000.
If you've been paying attention, you might already know that Molly Ringwald is a brilliant writer with smart things to say about the movies that made her famous. Read the rest
William Blake 1460, $150
The summer after I graduated high school, I went to London with a friend. We visited the Tate and I became smitten with William Blake's art. I didn't have a lot of money to spend on that trip but I did buy a bunch of postcards of his art as souvenirs.
About five years later, when I landed in California from the East Coast, I got into a heated discussion with a friend's husband. He mentioned that he was a fan of Blake's poems. I said that I was a fan of Blake's art. He said I must be mistaken, that Blake didn't make art. I insisted that he did. (Now, keep in mind, this was the mid-1990s and there wasn't an instant way to verify who was right.) We tabled that discussion, and our relationship, indefinitely.
Now I see that the Tate has collaborated with Dr. Martens, bringing William Blake shoes to market. Shoes covered in his art.
The first one is the 1460 boot which is printed with Blake's "Satan Smiting Job with Sore Boils" and the second is the three-eyed 1461 shoe which is covered in "The House of Death." William Blake 1461, $130
It took 23 years but I feel tremendously vindicated.
Splendidly grotesque work by cover artist Joe Darrow for a batch of articles in this month's New York Magazine about Trump corruption. Here it is without the layout: Read the rest
A mural quoting a sexual assault comment made by the President of the United States led to a threat of jail time from the city of New Orleans. Neal Morris, owner of the property and commissioner of the work, got the ACLU involved. Read the rest
Robbie Barrat is generating warped, surreal paintings using artificial intelligence and the results are really something.
Usually the machine just paints people as blobs of flesh with tendrils and limbs randomly growing out - I think it's really surreal. I wonder if that's how machines see us...
Here's Bonnie Burton in CNET:
The results are surreal. Barrat posted many of the final pieces of artwork -- which can only be described as surreal, blobby, swirly naked women -- on Twitter. It's almost like a very intoxicated Salvador Dali and a dizzy Picasso joined forces to make art. ...Barrat's AI-assisted artwork isn't exactly sensual. In fact, most of the nudes look like they are melting on a very hot day.
"The way that it paints faces makes me uncomfortable. It always paints them as like, purple and yellow globs -- that isn't in the training set so I'm actually still not sure why it does that.
I don't like looking at those heads, I really don't.
Tokyo designer Hiroto Ikeuchi creates amazing wearable cyberpunk assemblages out of scrap electronics and other odds and sods. Read the rest
