Bugs!

When I was searching for information for the curious Collection I found a page of the "Ten most disturbing bugs." I figured it wouldn't hurt to come full circle; I spoke about nature and how it evoked wonder in me in my first blog entry. Now it is the end of the semester and I've explored about 10 different mediums of artistic expression, but I haven't really touched on nature again. But it's never too late to change! Maybe it's strange, but I feel quite a rush of wonder when I look at creatures that have developed to fit a particular role in nature. I am impressed by interesting traits that animals and insects take on for protection and as a way to get food. I think that the creatures of the wild are just as adaptable as humans, we just adapt in different ways!
These funky bugs pictured below have all developed to suit their environment.
1. The Devil's Flower Mantis is also known as "King of all Mantids." This bug is very unique in appearance and very rare. It is one of the largest species of praying mantis that imitate flowers.

2. The Cecropia Moth is the largest moth in North America with a wingspan of six inches!

3.The Giant Camel Spider has been known to run up to ten miles an hour! Its latin name means "flee from the sun."

4. The Orchid Mantis obviously has adapted to look like the flower it is named after! This is my favorite of the strange bugs because I think it is absolutely beautiful.

Lego art?

Lego art may not be considered art in the traditional form--but it certainly is a unique form of creation. The dedication that goes into a large-scale lego sculpture is often more than goes into a traditional art form. The lego representation of Jesus Christ found on this page took one and a half YEARS to build! I am amazed by the time, planning and detail that goes into lego creations like the following.

1. These life-sized Lego models of C3PO and a Clone Wars Trooper were presented at the annual Toy Fair in 2008.
2. This piece was created by Daniel shui and Andrew Lipson, and mimics a famous M.C. Escher painting.
3. This Lego sea monster finds his home in Downtown Disney, Walt Disney World. Brickley the sea monster is made out of 170,000 LEGO bricks and is an impressive 30 feet long.
4. This sculpture is located in California’s LegoLand Representing the presidential figures from Mount Rushmore, in LEGO bricks.
5. One of the largest Lego creations ever constructed is this 16-ft-tall model of a pharaoh that looks much like King Tut. This piece of work contains more than 200,000 Lego bricks and weighs one ton.

Tree prints

Bryan Nash Gill is an artist who creates photo-like large scale prints from the cross sections of trees. Each detail is meticulously imprinted; the complete work forms a delicate map of tree rings. Gill's work is displayed in museums and galleries throughout the United States, Japan and Dubai. The above print is 52″ long x 38.5″ wide.
The final print is created through a number of steps. First the specimen must be cut and the surface sanded till it is smooth and flat. Ink is rolled out on the wood and a piece of handcrafted washi paper is placed over the print block. Pressing with his fingertips, Bryan imprints the texture of the wood on the surface of the paper section by section.


I would love to see one of these prints in person. Art that takes it's inspiration from nature is my favorite kind. The meticulous nature of this particular style is really impressive to me. It's such a delicate process, just one flaw along the way would ruin the entire feel of the print. He actually has to push his fingernails against every minuscule section of the flat of the tree in order to get the full image!

Abadoned beauty

So i thought i would explore the idea of abandoned places as something that evokes wonder. I found this page of "Abandoned Ruined Miracles" and they completely blew me away. The woodwork on these houses is AMAZING. I cannot fathom why they have been abandoned- they are so majestic and beautiful. I love the pictures they have on that site because they have such an eerie sadness to them, you can just imagine the rooms in the pictures filled with happy families--it's really fascinating to me.
I think that mystery is something that evokes wonder in me because I don't have the knowledge to put a reason to the situation. I think that, in a way, knowledge and understanding destroy wonder.
Here are some of my favorite pictures--

Reverse Graffiti

The idea of reverse graffiti is perfect for all the people out there who really feel like graffiti is a horrible, destructive thing that needs to be vanquished from our society. Unlike graffiti, reverse graffiti requires no spraypaint or sneaking around. It can be done with nothing but water and a rag. In a sense reverse graffiti is nothing more than cleaning. The process of creating a work of reverse graffiti includes finding something that is very dirty, and cleaning off the dirt in certain designs or patterns. Moose, a reverse graffiti artist, recently worked on the Reverse Graffiti Project, a San francisco project promoting a plant-based cleaner. Here are some pictures of the outcome:

Another reverse graffiti artist is Alexandre Orion. Orion uses his works as environmental messages, as ways to promote green lifestyles.
One of Alexandre Orion's works of reverse graffiti was done in a Sao Paolo tunnel. He cleaned a number of skulls onto the tunnel wall with nothing but water and cloth, with the idea of reminding those driving in the tunnel of the consequenses of their emissions.

Sand Sculptures

Again I return to the idea of art that is created to be destroyed.

Sand castles are something that most of us (living so close to the coast) have some kind of experience with; but what about sand sculptures? I recall seeing some pretty intense sand sculptures at the annual VA beach music festival a few years back (they were having a contest) but I didn't take any pictures. This article has a handful of sand-sculpture photos taken in Norfolk, VA. This foreign web page has a magnificent collection of sand sculptures.

The level of dedication that these people put into building something so temporary is amazing to me.
Here are some of my favorite pictures:

Christian Faur

Christian Faur is an artist who who
uses a number of different techniques and ideas in his work. The technique that struck me was his crayon-composite images.
His webpage states "Because of the three-dimensional nature of the crayons, the individual surface images appear to change form as one moves about the gallery space. The images completely disappear when viewed from close up, allowing one to read the horizontally sequenced crayon text and to take in the beautifully colored crayon tips"

Here are my favorite images~

Book art

I found another awesome art form, figured it wouldn't hurt to write about two things this week!
http://www.slightlywarped.com/crapfactory/curiosities/onemanstrash.htm
http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2008/09/bittersweet-art-of-cutting-up-books.html

The art of cutting up books in order to create something is not something I had ever heard of prior to discovering these web-pages. Being an English major, this idea should seem satanic to me, but I like the idea of creating something new out of something old. Artists such as Brian Dettmer, Jacqueline Rush Lee, Georgia Russell, Su Blackwell, Aaron Packer, Mike Stilkey and Jim Rosenau are just a handful of artists that have contributed ideas and creations to this odd art form.
Once again I'm extremely impressed by the tediousness that some of these artists submerge themselves in-in order to create something new.
These are some of my favorite pictures---

Peter Callesen

Peter Callesen is an artist who, lately, has been creating exhibitions, paper cuts, instillations and objects with paper. This is so amazing to me. So much work must go into each of his pieces of art--some of them are so intriquite!! I can't imagine the fustration of making one wrong cut. He sometimes uses acrylic paint--but most of his work is just paper and glue. His creations vary greatly in size-- ranging from detailed life-sized staircases to minature flowing rivers with tiny boats containing even smaller people.

On his web-page he talks about the meaning behind individual creations. For example he speaks of one of his drawings/performances; "‘The Dying Swan’ reveals different layers of identity, and often he strives at being somebody or somewhere else or tries to achieve the impossible. He is, however, always confronted with reality and failure."

I think it's wonderful that each of his creations has a story or a meaning within it. Here are some of my favorite pieces-- there are many more on the website along with additional information.

http://www.petercallesen.com/index.html

Crop circles?

"Transformers" created from cars in a parking lot--

Designs made in snow and sand with the use of rakes, then photographed with a camera attached to a kite.---

Japanese crop-art. Created by planting different colored rice in with their normal green colored rice.---

Crop circle in Wiltshire, England. It measures 200 feet in diameter.---

There are more examples of interesting and creative crop circles here

----> http://weburbanist.com/2009/02/02/aerial-art-crop-circles/

The ones I posted are my favorites.

I think these are so impressive to me because I once attempted to mow a design into my yard. I had seen a book with tons of different designs that people had created in their lawns. My attempt to create a sunshine upon my parents lawn (needless to say) failed horribly. I can not imagine the level of dedication and planning that goes into one of these creations.

This concept ties to what we were talking about in class a few weeks ago--with are tying to other sujects such as chemistry. In this case it ties to geometry. These crop circles all have to be planned on a small scale and then expanded to fit these gigantic fields. I think the japanese rice art is particularly impressive because it has to be planted in that orientation!

The wonders of sidewalk chalk

So i figured i would take my graffiti post from last week one step further with an upgrade to sidewalk chalk!
I am not referencing the hopscotch, hearts and stars that are often scrawled across sidewalks by elementary school kids or children pushed outside to play. I'm referencing artists such as Edgar Mueller, Julian Beever, Kurt Wenner and Johnnie Walker. These men take it upon themselves to exquisitely decorate sidewalks with chalk and occasionally paint.
Now, I thought graffiti on walls was pretty cool, but this is absolutely amazing. Most of these chalk-creations are done so when viewed from the right angle they are completely 3-d.
This site (which I’ve tagged on delicious) has pictures and videos of a few paintings (drawings? chalkings?) being done-- http://weburbanist.com/2007/09/21/3-amazing-3d-street-artists-urban-graffiti-from-around-the-world/
This site just focuses on one artist-- http://www.rense.com/general67/street.htm
I’ll attach my favorites here =)