Photo Realism MAIN

Photo Realism

".. on another level."

Robin Eleys ability to imagine and then create 'polaroid perfect' is simply breathtaking.  Enjoy.

 

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Categories Art Tags Design

By Sammy on 9/5/11

Ori Main

An Art Of The Samurai

"Yours with a piece of A4 at the back of the classroom today!"

Origami, from ori meaning "folding", and kami meaning "paper" is the traditional Japanese folk art of paper folding.  It started started in the 17th century AD and was popularized in the mid-1900s. Today it has become a modern art form that leaves my efforts at paper planes look, well, pathetic.  To be clear the goal of this art is to transform a flat sheet of material into a finished sculpture through folding and sculpting techniques.  The use of cuts or glue are not considered to be origami.

Take a look at some of these amazing creations from the brilliant minds of some of the world's leading masters of origami here (Sipho Mabona, Satoshi Kamiya, Fumiaki Kawahata, Brian Chan, Eric Joisel, Phillip West, Shuki Kato, Romain Diaz, Seth Friedman, Hoang Trung Thanh, and Robert Lang to name but a few). 

One of our personal faves is of the master himself ...

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Categories Art Tags Art Design culture

By Sammy on 11/1/11

GP MAin

King Of The Swingers

"... Banksy's buddy, looking at £80,000 at auction"

Back in 2001 Banksy was commissioned by Greenpeace to highlight the plight of deforestation.  His creative idea - part of the 'Save or Delete' campaign' - was to paint a picture of the lovable characters of The Jungle Book lined up in front of their executioner awaiting their inevitable fate. 

The visual had been intended for use on posters, billboards and postcards to bring the world's attention to the devastating impact of cutting down trees. But alas, because of copyright issues with the the Disney Corporation over the use of its characters, Greenpeace decided not to use it.

Banksy held onto the sizeable work, which measures 66X90 inches, and later gave it to a friend who is now to sell it at auction where it is expected to fetch £80,000!

The previously unseen work shows a masked axe-man preparing to execute Shere Khan, Mowgli, Baloo the Bear, King Louie and baby elephant Hathi Junior, all of whom are blindfolded with their arms tied.  What we love however is the extent to which King Louie, just seems more concerned about undoing a banana with his feet. Genius.

Krushed & Sorted ... this crew sound pretty fine aswell...

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By Sammy on 15/12/10

AW MAIN2

A Warhol For Xmas?

"Could be worth $35.3m one day ... more if it features a slimline alumimium can of course!"

Last month, at Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Sale in New York, the 7ft 1962 Warhol painting of a Coca Cola bottle sold for a tidy some of cash.  Try $35.3m. This against the presale estimate of $25m!

For those of you not necessarily dialed in to the whole Warhol phenomena - from the 1960's to 1980's, portraits by this New York artist were de rigeur for the rich and famous. Anybody who was anybody wanted one, and owning an original was an undisputed mark of fashionable, social and career achievement - indeed, only the very wealthy could afford one. The commissioning price could reach $40,000.

The Warhol technique was all about colouring-in silk-screened and monstrously enlarged photographs with deliberately clumsy blocks of psychedelic and pastel colour on canvas. 

There will neer be any more genuine Warhol pictures because the artist died in 1987. However unsurprisingly there are today some talented Warhol inspired artists around looking to make new portraits in his style so that new generations might still own something like the real thing, but at an affordable price. 

Modern digital techniques combined with today's printing technology make this more commercial than ever but if you're looking for your own Warholesque one off, the trick is to find and commision the more superior creative talents around in this field. Those who have genuinely studied the original master's work in detail, and thus are capable of delivering an unmatched authenticity and reverent spirit of homage in their work. If you're looking for a special Xmas present this year try these guys out for size.  Only remember ... slimline alumimium is so the way forward if you're looking to cream a few million! 

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Categories Art Tags Design

By Sammy on 3/12/10

CB MAIN3

Circuit Board Beauty

"Sea Turtle Searches For Deep Data"

Born in Havana Cuba in 1963 Steven Rodrig is what they call an environmentally conscious artist.  Over the course of a career fixing computers and other electronical equipment he has come to realise just how bad for the environment it is to dispose of circuit boards by ordinary means.

Today Steven reycles circuit boards by turning them into innovative creative art sculptures, or PCB (Printed Circuit Board) Mixed Media s as he calls them. He tells us "My goal is to manipulate each PCB into an organic life form where the PCB characteristics become part of the living fabric helping to shape its meaning."  Sound too much? Well check out these creations out and then you decide if they were better off as landfill.

(visit www.pcbcreations.com to see more of Steven's highly imaginative and creative work)

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Categories Art Tags Design

By Sammy on 15/9/10

Ray MAIN

Shadow Master Indeed

"We've all grown up trying to do this but mastery has to be earned."

Shadow Master Raymond Crowe takes shadow puppetry to a whole new level. 26 years of honing his skills have made him simply the best in this most exclusive of the arts. 

To call his lyrical, touching routines simply shadow puppetry doesn't really do them justice. Images depicting a singing Louis Armstrong morphing into a horse, a preening swan, a hopping rabbit, a baby's hand clutching an adult's finger and an elderly man are illustrative of a creative genuis at work.

These days Crowe regularly receives standing ovations for his performances but is quick to highlight that it has not always been thus - "I did do a show in Port Lincoln once and when the rabbit came out they yelled out 'Shoot it! Shoot it!"'

If you haven't seen this clip before prepare to be amazed. The perfect demonstration of imagination, creativity and determination.

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Categories Art Tags suso Fun

By Juan on 14/7/10

Vent MAIN

A Forgotten Art?

"... explored with a level of controversial humour..."

Jeff Dunham is the only person ever to win the "Ventriloquist of the Year" Award twice and he has drawn praise the world over for his comic technique and timing.

However, some have accused Dunham's characters of being racist caricatures, sexist, and homophobic and on occasions he has fallen foul of the Adveristing Standards Authorities. To which Dunham responds "I've skewered whites, blacks, Hispanics, Christians, Jews, Muslims, gays, straights, rednecks, addicts, the elderly, and my wife. As a standup comic, it is my job to make the majority of people laugh, and I believe that comedy is the last true form of free speech."

It has been said that Dunham's act is not funny on its own merits, and that his material gets a greater reaction because of the puppet characters that it would otherwise not garner by itself. I leave it to you to decide....

Introducing Achmed, the dead terrorist.....

 

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Categories Art Tags culture

By Juan on 3/4/10

Cwalk MAIN

The C-walk ...

"Gangland imagination..."

You can trace the origins of the The Crip Walk (aka the C-Walk) back to the 1970s and the Crip Gang from Compton, a suburb of Los Angeles.  From here it was adopted as something of a gang dance by leading rap music artists on the West Coast, who gave it its name, the Crip Walk.

The Crip Walk is all about rotation through the heels and balls of the feet with a side to side motion commonly known as 'The V'.  This, along with another move known as 'The Shuffle', form the basis of Crip Walking. Gang members work their feet to spell out 'CRIP'.

Given its gang orgins leading broadcasters such as MTV declined to showcase any music videos that contained the Crip Walk and as a result the web as become the spiritual home of the C-Walk.  With over 18 million views check this piece out for a showcase of this very cool and creative dance art...

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Categories Art Tags

By Juan on 19/3/10

Foodfight MAIN

Food Fight !!!

'..or US history since WWII?... or both?..."

This creative stop motion masterpeice by Stefan Nadelman has clearly been out there for a while (... but we only came across it when surfing the web looking for some lunch time inspiration!)

An abridged history of American-centric warfare, from WWII to present day, told through the foods of the countries in conflict.   Check out the burgers, pretzels, sausages, sushi, skewers, matza, dumplings, and a whole lot of goulash taking each other on to rule the world. Unsurprisingly the the Germans are invading everywhere, with Pearl Harbour, Hiroshima, the Cold War, the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, September 11th, and the war in Iraq all to the fore.

The creator assures us that  "The food in this film was consumed either by myself or my dog after shooting. None of the cast went to waste.  It took  3 months to do."

At least he had the odd snack to keep him going.

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Categories Art Tags

By Juan on 6/3/10

JB MAIN

A Brief History ...

... Of Everything."

Congratulations to 17 year-old called Jamie Bell for his highly creative piece of work published on his YouTube channel 'Displeased Eskimo'... (and now registering over 1.3m viewings!)

According to Jamie "This is the final piece for my AS art course, a flipbook made entirely out of biro pens. It's something like 2100 pages long, and about 50 jotter books. I'd say I worked on and off it for roughly 3 weeks."

... that determination and the imagination therein makes this pretty NO CAN'T DO in our book.

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Categories Art Tags

By Juan on 18/2/10

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