With the belief that swans mate for life, they are a symbol of love and fidelity. So much so that in love studies, scientists dub those cute couples who have been married for decades and still seem crazy about one another “swans” to support their claims that true love does exist. I have always been fascinated with swans ever since reading The Ugly Duckling as a child, which I misinterpreted thinking that a swan was still in the duck species, but only the lucky ducks become swans. [Read more...]
To assist Netherlands feminist foundation Mama Cash with promoting and protecting women’s rights around the world, world renowned Cuban-American terrestrial artist Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada created an enormous portrait of a woman’s face in Dutch soil. He explains: “Using fertile soil to create this piece becomes a metaphor for what can come forth if the vision of these women is respected and allowed to bring about change.” With the help of 80 volunteers, Zeeburgereiland in Amsterdam, which is larger than 2 football fields was transformed to become the fierce face of a female activist in less than a week. They used almost 5 miles of rope, 7 tons of straw, 5,300 cubic feet of soil, and 1,150 wooden poles to bring Gerada’s vision to life. [Read more...]
Dollar bills, y’all. Some people spend them as soon as they get them; some like to collect as many as they can; some smear dog poop on them and watch from their porch as an unsuspecting victim picks them up, but we prefer the people who cut them up for the sake of art. We’ve seen Scott Campbell transform stacks of money into 3d carvings, Chad Person turned them into military weapons, but these incredible collages by Mark Wagner take the cake. By carefully slicing up dollar bills and rearranging them into beautiful scenes of George Washington as an everyday man, he makes a powerful statement in a culture dominated by money and greed. [Read more...]
There’s nothing quite like stepping in gum on a hot summer day, or sticking your hand in that glob of ABC gum someone left under the table as you sit down for lunch, but Jeremy Laffon has found a way to make gum surprising in a good way. The French artist uses chewing gum to engineer architectural structures, 3-dimensional artistic designs, and even floor tiling. Laffon’s complex structures are reminiscent of the classic high school physics project of making a bridge out of toothpicks on a much larger scale, yet the flexible nature of the minty sticks of gum allow for some interesting structural compromise, especially in the areas where he intentionally applies heat. [Read more...]
In a stunning series of digital illustrations called Nature, Igor Morski takes your imagination on a journey that reveals hidden human figures in “natural” settings. The Polish graphic designer creates a human facial profile shaped slice through the flora of various biomes to reveal a single tree resembling the brain with the trunk acting as the brain stem. The vibrant pictures conjure up thoughts of the inter-connectedness of humans with all forms of life on Earth. In other images, Morski creates feminine faces from branches and foliage, perhaps to represent Mother Nature or the essence of nature’s femininity. [Read more...]
After the refrigerator, a clothes dryer is the biggest energy hogging appliance out there. Consumer Energy Center estimates that it costs an average of $85 to run annually, which adds up to $1,530 for the average lifetime of a dryer on top of the cost of the dryer itself. Although East Coast winters would make it hard not to use a dryer, there are plenty of months when the sun will do all that drying for free, yet in the US there are outdated laws in some states from after World War II that make hanging clothes outside illegal (JustLiveGreener.com). Since 1995 Project Laundry List has been working to get these laws changed and has helped with the passage of “right to dry” legislation in 11 states so far. If you have a minute, sign the petition so that all Americans can have the right to use free energy to dry their clothes. To bring awareness to this issue and encourage sun-kissed laundry that won’t shrink, we searched Instagram to show you how beautiful clothes lines can be. [Read more...]
Born and raised in the peaceful city of Boulder, Colorado with amazing mountain views, Melanie Steinway developed a passion for nature, music, and animals. She moved to the East Coast to attend the Rhode Island School of Design where she got her BFA in Illustration last year and discovered the art of pyrography. Using various types of wood, a woodburning tool, wood stain, and paint she creates unique images that incorporate the knots and the swirls of the wood, retaining its integrity. She currently lives in NYC where she makes art and music for her band Howl Moonshine Howl.
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Though most of us have some experience with finger painting, it is usually a hobby left back in pre-school along with nap time, but Iris Scott has resurrected it in a beautiful way. After deciding to dramatically decrease her cost of living so that she could find time to paint every day, she moved to Taiwan and did exactly as she planned. But one day all of her brushes were dirty and she needed some yellow flowers, so rather than go outside in the excruciating heat, she used her fingertips and reached that a-ha moment that this is what she would do for the rest of her life. Wearing disposable gloves, Scott uses her fingers with oil paints on canvas to create vibrant, textured paintings with movement and depth. Her Thailand Collection was just on display at Cole Gallery in Edmonds, Washington. We hope that you will enjoy our interview with Iris Scott after the jump, then see more of her work on IrisFingerPaintings.com and Facebook. [Read more...]
Spanish graphic designer and artist Nacho Ormaechea contrasts photos in a way that gets your brain ticking. By filling the silhouette of people in urban settings with a clashing image, often from nature, he evokes the idea of memories or deeper yet, replaced energy. If it’s true that 98% of the atoms in our bodies are replaced with new ones every year, it’s interesting to think what forms they’ve taken before and Ormaechea’s photo collages offer a hypothesis. The photographer, who has lived and worked in Paris for the past decade has always been fascinated with people watching, thus preferring cities, “which [he] see(s) as perfect theaters full of inspiring yet anonymous characters.” [Read more...]
To advertise their new miniseries, 80′s the Decade That Made Us, National Geographic commissioned the talented Adhemas Batista to make these totally tubular graphic designs. The ads, which are more colorful than a Lisa Frank Trapper Keeper, appeared outside of Nat Geo’s launch party for the show at SXSW last week featuring live music by Girl Talk. The three episode miniseries, narrated by Rob Lowe, will air on Sunday, April 14th at 8pm on the Nat Geo channel and highlight the movies, music, politics, interesting fashion choices, and bulky technology that made the decade unforgettable. [Read more...]
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