inspirational art

Kindergarten ‘Die Katze’

(It’s the cat’s tail!  LOVE!)

Kindergarten ‘Die Katze’: via Studio Toupetit

I dare you to find me a school building which is even more original than Kindergarten ‘Die Katze’ in Germany! Designed by multi-talented children’s books author Tomi Ungerer, it is the most wonderful school building I have ever come across…

Bike Shop Concept NL Architects

Oogst 1000

Oogst 1000 Wonderland is a self-sufficient farm, restaurant, hotel and amusement park for 1,000 people per day.

Alyssa Monks

Kiss 2011, 72×48, oil on linen

Tell 30×20, oil on panel, 2011

Using filters such as glass, vinyl, water, and steam, I distort the body in shallow painted spaces. These filters allow for large areas of abstract design – islands of color with activated surfaces – while bits of the human form peak through. In a contemporary take on the traditional bathing women, my subjects are pushing against the glass “window”, distorting their own body, aware of and commanding the proverbial male gaze.

 

Kumi Yamashita

Constellation – nails on wood with a single black thread

Constellation is an ongoing series of portraits by New York artist Kumi Yamashita known most prominently for her innovative light and shadow sculptures. Each image is constructed from a single unbroken black thread wound through a dense array of galvanized nails mounted on a painted white board, meaning that the darker areas within the portrait are formed solely from the density of the string.

Craig Alan

American artist Craig Alan creates unique portraits of pop-culture icons using people as pixels. Some of his famous pieces include Marilyn Monroe, John F. Kennedy and the Statue of Liberty, but probably the most incredible one is the portrait of Audrey Hepburn from Breakfast At Tiffany’s.

 

Andre Wee

Between Creation and Destruction, 2012

Roy Nachum

Colorblind: Golden Boy 2011, Oil On Canvas, 186.69 cm Diameter (73.5″ Diameter)

Forever in your eyes. Here we are again ready to be. Deep but barely there, whispering: I shall be magnificent.

Colorblind: The Queen, 2011, oil on canvas

Seung Mo Park

wire mesh : via thisiscolossal.com

Using a process that could be the new definition of meticulous, Korean sculptor Seung Mo Park creates giant ephemeral portraits by cutting layer after layer of wire mesh. Each work begins with a photograph which is superimposed over layers of wire with a projector, then using a subtractive technique Park slowly snips away areas of mesh.

 

matt wisniewski

 Initially I take a number of portraits and textures I’d like to use and experiment with quick overlays. Once I find a combination that works I’ll expand on it. In terms of technical stuff the actual overlay is as simple as using lighten or multiply in Photoshop. Most of the work is deciding positioning and what parts of each image to show, cleaning things up and matching contrast.

Last month I posted some beautifully stunning portraits, most of which used unconventional mediums like embroidery and screw heads to create truly beautiful works of art.  These use more conventional mediums… but are anything but conventional.

Paul Cadden

After : Graphite on cartridge Paper A1 (yes, that means pencil on paper)

Although the drawings and paintings I make are based upon photographs, videos stills etc , the idea is to go beyond  the  photograph. The photo is used to create a subtler and much more complex focus on the subject depicted, The virtual image becomes the living image, an intensification of the normal.

Luke Haynes

[The-American-Context-#3]-American-Gothic
quilt base out of used and recycled clothes, linens, etc : 90″ X 90″ : 2010

I am interested in the choices we make to express ourselves to our world. The most apparent form of this is our clothes. We create an environment around ourselves to inform others how we desire to be perceived. By quilting I am initiating a dialogue between the immediate environments we create for ourselves, and the environments we inhabit. Where cloth, what we know to respond to as clothes, becomes the language of my work. The cloth becomes the medium that I use to create images and scenes rather than conceal and contain.

 

Shaka

du portrait de Lucian Freud 2.25m x1.40m Acrylics on paper 2011

Nick Gentry

Kyle Bean

Pencil shaving portraits | contributors page for Wallpaper* Handmade 2011

A late addition to the previous rock wall post… How awesome is this?

Who doesn’t love a nook?  A quiet little place where you can hide from the world and have a moment to for stillness and quiet?  A place where you can tuck your secrets away and keep them safe?  Or even just a place that’s just your sized when the rest of the world is so big.

This roundup of nooks serve all of those needs perfectly and show what you can do with an awkward or unsightly closet with just a little bit of power tool and upholstery know how.  What are you waiting for? Go forth – make nook!

Even big kids like nooks (particularly these, with their solar chargers and laxed views on posture.)

Ever since I can remember, I’ve been a sucker for a great portrait.  I’d walk through the museums and look into the faces of people long dead and wonder what route they took to get to the studio.  Did they pass markets?  What did their shoes feel like? What did the roads feel like beneath their feet?  It’s such an exciting notion – to be transported in time to when the paint was fresh and wet.

But then there are some portraits make you wonder more about the artist.  portraits like these. Can you imagine deciding that you’re going to make photorealistic embroidery portraits?  Or use naked humans as your paint?  How about composing the heads of screws to create portraits?  I think they’re all amazing and beautiful and I hope you click through to learn more about the artists.

Cayce Zavaglia

detail of Sophie – Hand Embroidery: Crewel Wool and Acrylic on Linen, 14 x 35 inches – photo © Cayce Zavaglia

detail of Aunt Lin – Hand Embroidery: Crewel Wool and Acrylic on Linen, 16.25 x 29 inches
photo © Yatzer.com

Andrew Myers – Screw Art

Portrait of John. Dimensions 48 in x 48 in x 5 in. Medium: screws, oil paint and phone book pages

Portrait of Bill. Dimensions 24 in x 24 in x 4 in. Medium: screws, oil paint and phone book pages

Chris Dorosz – Paint Drop Sculptures

stasis 13

stasis 24 (jeff and sheldon with children)

 The ‘paint drop’ sculptures develop the idea of the ‘staple paintings’ further by trapping fallen paint drops in a grid work of clear vertical rods.  Through the viewer’s movements in aligning and de-aligning these pixel-like paint drops, full body portrait forms emerge and vanish.  By placing my subjects in a form of ‘stasis’  through the medium I mean not only to protect them for a little while, but alternately to underscore the tenuous nature of human physicality  where any moment life as we know it might just collapse into a pool of droplets or drift upwards into the atmosphere.

I hate that I don’t know who this artist is.  But I couldn’t leave it out. I found this image, uncredited, on Pinterest.  I think it’s amazing though.