Sculpters and painters approach their respective practice of the arts through opposing methods. While the painter applies oil to a canvas to build out their composition, the sculpter carves into their medium to reveal their vision. Alexandre Farto AKA “Vhils” has combined these two to develop his own unique style of urban art. Seeking out choice walls, whether they be decaying or well kept, he applies a dual touch of paint, and chips away at the wall’s surface to compose his quasi-realistic and seemingly organic portraits. [Materialicious]
The Dutch are the greatest designers on earth. A bold statement, but anyone in the world of arts will basically agree. To make great design, one must have deep understanding of the environment in which we live, and first hand knowledge of how it operates . By living on land that is literally below sea level, the Dutch have developed an intimate relationship with nature fending of torrential ocean tides, and nurturing their countrysides with innovative irrigation. Here we have an absolutely masterful homage to the Gothic cathedrals of Europe by Dutch designer Marinus Boezem. A displaced arrangement of trees, seemingly uprooted from the grove nearby, leaving a negative space that conveys the mass of the structure, and an alignment of trees depicting a floor plan of a typical Gothic cathedral. Planted 25 years ago, these trees will reach their maximum height of 15 feet in 2015, matching that of the interior ceiling height of the famous Reims cathedral.
In honor of the first snowfall of the ski season, we should all take a moment to appreciate the majestic beauty mountains give to our world’s landscape. From mountaineer Sandy Hill comes a compilation of photographs hand selected and curated by someone who knows these natural formations best. Cool Hunting has done a vivid visual and written summary of the book, giving a taste of the different types of mountains being showcased.
What may have been considered appropriate for only our childhood years, the world of temporary tattoos has been brought back to life for the rest of us by the folks over at Tattly. Catering to the style centric individual, these temporary tattoos go beyond the typical dragon or chinese lettering by taking a more modern design approach to their creations, ranging anywhere from a wristwatch to the RGB color scale.
With the Golden State’s beautiful landscape and diverse cosmopolitan society, our California state pride can easily rival any other in the Union. Based out of Los Angeles, designer 33 Stewart Avenue crafted a very fine piece of wall art cut to the shape of our state lines adorned with classic west coast colors and typeface.
Photography has the ability to morph into something that more closely resembles an illustration or painting when executed in a certain way. The photographs of Andrew B. Myers attain this style by capturing scenes in very specific light, and utilizing post processing techniques that soften the figures, textures and colors to imitate the look of a painted composition. Using this style, I am very impressed how he was able to highlight the magnificent textures of artificial turf in the photograph above. [SwissMiss]
In Los Angeles, street artists utilize all parts of our built environment as a canvas for their works. One building in particular near the corner of Santa Monica Blvd and La Brea Ave has been a prime location for street artists to put up their creations, whether they be posters, paintings or a combination of the two. This is one recently done by Mr. Brainwash, a very dynamic take on the classic Maxell Audio advertisement incorporating pop art and street art motifs.
Greg Gandy’s paintings of American cityscapes embark on a journey of the urban landscape in a hyper realistic style, akin to a photograph. Part of his motif is to visually capture cities that have preserved their “architectural personality,” like seen in the above canvas of California St. in San Francisco. Gandy’s high level of detail and precise depiction of light clearly convey the architectural style that has been so well preserved in San Francisco. [Materialicious]
When discussing mid-century modern architecture, Los Angeles is considered to be the archetype of this design movement due to the city’s vast size and potential for extensive development. Think of it as an uncrowded canvas to which architects had open borders to build their creations. One of the most prominent architectural photographers to visually capture the mid-century modern style was Julius Shulman. His ability to photograph a building exactly how the architect intended it to be seen was unmatched. Click above to see of his work, released in a new book Julius Shulman Los Angeles: The Birth of a Modern Metropolis.
The inference of a form can be just as discernible as viewing the form itself, when it is a familiar one. Lead Pencil Studios has taken this idea to a real life installation they are calling the “Non-Sign.” A web of structure has been woven together in the negative space around what would be standard road sign, leaving the positive space of where the form should be empty.
As a born and bred California kid, I’ve never known much about the South but have always been intrigued by their unique ways. The Old Try is was started by a couple of Southern ex-patriots living in Boston, expressing their admiration for their homeland through a collection of hand pressed posters. The Americana themes and individual state pride possessed in these prints invoke a powerful declaration of tradition and patriotism. [DesignSponge]
In this era where digital downloads of music and software are so prevalent, the need for CDs to obtain this media has completely diminished. The folks over at Fast Co Design recently did an article on an installation in Paris called Waste Landscape that uses these discarded CDs to create a spectacular peice of art. The spectrum of colors and textures projected from the CD’s reflective surface compose an out of this world “metallic moonscape” extruding out of the floor of this ordinary pavilion.
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