Goodbye to Andrew Wyeth

"Always believe in yourself, and believe in love."
-Andrew Wyeth

The world has lost an incredible painter and a gentle and loving soul.

Andrew Wyeth passed away on Friday. He died while he was sleeping in his home in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. He was 91 years old.

MSNBC has a nice little web-only video on Wyeth and his work:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

So far as we can tell, Andrew Zuckerman conducted the last interview and took the last portrait of Andrew Wyeth for his Wisdom Book. A remarkable man interviewing a remarkable man.

And here is Mr. Wyeth's obituary from the Times: "Andrew Wyeth, Painter, Dies at 91"

Bravo and aloha, Mr. Wyeth.

Zena Holloway: Water Babies!

“There’s always a buzz about working underwater, creatives are intrigued to see how its done, the artists are excited to be doing something different and the water gives me a unique space to put it all together. My experiences of shooting on land are very dreary by comparison and not nearly as creative. Water always adds a magical quality.”

Zena Holloway is a young photographer who blends underwater imagery with illustration and photomontage. The results are soothingly tranquil.

Beholdify!:

Lovely stuff.

Want more?
Want less?

Can has!

Here's Ms. Zena's site.

(First saw Zena on notcot)

Osamu Tezuka - Mermaid (1964)

"This is the story of a boy in a distant country who loved to daydream..."

This is the first I've heard of Osamu Tezuka, but according to his wiki, he's wicked famous.

He designed this tasty Phoenix clock:

"Kuuucccaaaawwww!!" says the clock.

The Underwater Sculptor - Jason de Caires Presents: Vissicitudes

"The materials and construction of the work are designed to encourage and promote marine life. The texture, chemical composition and design actively encourage the settlement of embryonic corals. Areas of shelter and void space provide a habitat for creatures to breed and take refuge.

As time passes and the settlement increases and series of natural events begins to enfold. Besides the development of hard and soft corals, numerous fish graze on algae that collects on the surfaces and I have documented octopus, shrimp and moray eels living under or within the structures."

Here's a longer interview with Jason from don'tpaniconline.

Here is Jason de Caires site.

And here are the Beatles singing Octopus's Garden.

Huzzah!

(via notcot, via don'tpanic, via via, viva via!)

Alex Grey's Obama

Portrait of president-elect Barack Obama by legendary psychedelic artist Alex Grey.

Heh heh heh.... Gl'Obama.

Dallas Shaw - Designer Extraordinaire!

We recently got an email from the bewitchingly named SuperForester Dallas inviting us to check out her site, which we did and that's where we found these wonderful drawings.

I think they are an utter delight. Such great feeling! Reminds me of Henry Darger meets Windsor McKay meets Coco Chanel. (And when you can combine those three things you've got some powerful mojo workin'.)






Dallas has her own Etsy store, where she sells a great variety of wonderful things.
Check her work out, you'll be glad you did.

Dallas's site.
Dallas's blog.

Dallas also designed this wicked bad Obama shirt, which I wish I'd had six months ago.

Graham Rawle - Frank Baum's "The Wizard of Oz"

Artist Graham Rawle has re-imagined the Wizard of Oz into a new book!

Check out Graham Rawle's website for a sweet behind-the-scenes video and more "making of" photos.

SuperForester Neal's Geo Chalker!

Hello All,

Just got an email from SuperForester Neal, who wonders why we haven't yet covered the art car phenom. Hmmmm. We wondered the same thing!

It seems that the wily and clever SuperForester Neal has converted his Geo Tracker into a rolling chalkboard, redubbed: the Geo Chalker!

Take it away, Neal!

"Hello SuperForest,

I recently became a Superforest fan. I like the commitment to saving the world while still keeping things cool. The art postings are great too. One thing I don't see is any mention of art cars. I'd love to see someone cover this fringe art. As an art car driver myself, let me tell you why I chose to drive an art car.

My beat up, rusty 1996 Geo Tracker was a sore sight on the road. But being an artist and an employee of a nonprofit, I can't yet afford to purchase a better car. While I dream of one day having a zero emissions car, I'm stuck with what I've got. It may be ugly but it gets me there. Plus thanks to it's lightweight and four wheel drive, I'm rarely ever stuck in the MN snowfall. (To all considering 4x4 transportation, check out an old Tracker. Their small size and small engine get great gas milage compared to other SUV type vehicles. I still get 25+ mpg.)

I decided that if I have to drive this vehicle (I do bike whenever I can) it should at least add some kind of beauty to the roadways and parking lots of the world. So I decided to turn it into an art car. More specifically, an interactive art car where the rest of the world creates the art and I drive it around. I spraypainted the entire car in chalkboard paint and attached a bag of chalk to the spare tire. Two small signs encourage passerbys to leave their mark on my car, aptly named the Geo Chalker. When I see a new chalking, I snap a photo and upload to www.GeoChalker.com.

I think you'll find that a lot of Superforesters out there would drive an art car if they had the choice and most art car artists would consider themselves a Superforester. I also encourage anyone out there to transform their car into a piece of art. The roadways of the world need a touch of beauty to them. If you do, send me a photo at blackboard(at)geochalker(dot)com. I'd love to post images of Superforester Art Cars.

Video of me painting the car: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duobxzsZbVQ



The Flickr Set can be found here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/geochalker/sets/72157603192665014/

But some of my favorites are:

People chalking it up at an art car gathering:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/geochalker/3048701176/in/set-72157603192665014/

Fire and squiggles:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/geochalker/1673779457/in/set-72157603192665014/

A random chalking:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/geochalker/2790118158/in/set-72157603192665014/

Neal, that rules in so many ways. Thank you so much for the amazing post!

ANy other SuperForesters out there drive or seen any art cars? Send them on in: superforestnyc(at)gmail(dot)com.

Nice!

Love to All,

SuperForester Jackson

Anatomical Levitating Head Experiment

Sometimes the video's title says it all.

Enjoy!

This astonishing piece is the work of artist Thomas Kuntz. Here's his site.

From The Automata / Automaton Blog, (which I found through the 100 blogs.)

Michael Salter Styrobot Creation Video! (Updated!)

We've posted about Brooklyn artist Michael Salter before (Whoops, Michael is not from Brooklyn, but from Oregon! Thanks so much for letting us know, Michael!) and now he's back with creamy new newness!

Behold the creamy newness!


michael a. salter @ rice gallery | houston from michael a. salter on Vimeo.

Emmanuel Guibert's Magic Trick.

Just got this in from SuperForester Christine!
Be sure to watch until the end.



"Emmanuel Guibert, as he creates the art for ALAN’S WAR with water and an eye dropper."

Here's a tasty boingboing article about Alan's War, if it tickles your fancy.

Special thanks to "X-tine 2 tha Norrie."

Kristoff Kintera

Kristoff Kintera is a Czech artist. His drawing are incredible, and if one goes to his site, his sculptures and videos are incredible too.

Thank to SuperForester Tina for the heads up!

Miniature Mayhem with Slinkachu - Little People and Snails

We just were reminded about Slinkachu by none other than SuperForester Steven, (he of the Off-Grid Challenge.)

Slinkachu is a British artist, who sadly I know very little about. But that don't stop me from loving the miniature scenes that he sets up, photographs and leaves in place.

People:








Snails:





Want more little people? Little people blog.
Want more snails? Inner city snail blog.

Thank you to Steven for the grand intel!

Yayyy!

Chainsawed Wooden Carseat Rocking Chair

Yeah, you read that right.

"Christopher Chiappa worked with a chainsaw artist to create this 1:1 reproduction of a Honda Accord seat with brass-plated rockers. It's totally amazing, and called the Chainsaw Rocker. More images and more of his work over at Cool Hunting. It's on display at Moss Los Angeles."

(via craftzine via Cool Hunting)

Michael Salter's Styrobots!!!

Few times have we seen such a good re-use of styrofoam packaging as Michael Salter's Styrobots.