We here at GBM have been fans of Ryan Berkley‘s prints for years. Animals in suits. You gotta love it. So when we saw these portraits over on Danger is Everywhere (which is an awesome site btw), it was kinda like seeing the grade-school versions of Ryan’s animal subjects. Watch! Just fast forward ten years, and….
Voilà! Grown up, bad ass animals in suits. Pretty cool. I just wish I knew the artist responsible for the kid versions… I even tried using Google Goggles but I can’t find the source anywhere! Anyone recognize it?
- Jessica
Nothin’ like an epic Rube Goldberg machine to kick off this holiday weekend! This chain-reaction piece named Melvin the Machine was developed by the HEYHEYHEY design team. Melvin performed for ten days during the Dutch Design Week where around 14.000 people came to see him perform.
From Melvin’s Website:
“Besides doing what Rube Goldberg’s do best – performing a simple task as inefficiently as possible, often in the form of a chain reaction – Melvin has an identity. Actually, the only purpose of this machine is promoting its own identity.
Melvin takes pictures and makes video’s of his audience which he instantly uploads to his website, facebook and twitter account. Besides that he makes his own merchandise.”
- Curt
seen on Nalden. Images from HEYHEYHEY’s flickr
I’ve been following artist Steve Kim’s work for a few years now. Steve’s a recent Claremont University MFA grad and Art Center teacher who has updated his illustration portfolio with some of his latest “hybrid” pencil+digital work.
I talked with Steve a little about his process and it’s pretty remarkable. Many of his most recent pieces started out as sketch studies. Once he’s got your typical photorealistic sketch, it’s all about subtraction and abstraction. His “Perfect” series featuring the portraits of Steve’s Tumblr followers is a prime example of this process. Steve explains it better than I can:
I was hyped up on Tumblr and had a handful of followers and said I’d draw anyone that sent me photos. I did that, but of course I could not leave well enough alone and so once the “study” was done I would go in and abstract things until they were at a point I was happy. A point where I didn’t feel the work wasn’t a waste of paper or a waste of time, which is usually how I feel after studies… but yet I feel compelled to do them! It’s totally schizo.
After Steve completes all the pencil work he moves the sketch into Illustrator/Photoshop to “figure out what it needs as an illustration—generally I am looking for something clean and emphatically digital. I’m basically double dipping but hopefully no one will skewer me for it.”
Check out the process for the image on the top right of this post.
Steve’s got quite the digital empire going so check his: Fine Art / Illustration / Blog / Facebook / Twitter
I also did an interview with Mr. Kim over on my old blog if you’re interested.
- Curt
“After a year of scavenging for reclaimed wood and stock-piling all sorts of collectibles, Wes Bruce built forts all over San Diego County. From gulleys and sewers to galleries and museums, Wes’ experiential structures moved everyone who spent a moment or the night under their patched roof. Film-maker Bryan Bangerter followed Wes for the better half of 2010, and has edited down a forty-five minute documentary primarily focusing on Wes’ giant fort installation at the California Center for the Arts in Escondido.”
– Sezio
This film premiered at the Museum of Photographic Art in Balboa Park, San Diego last week. Not only is the subject matter extremely fascinating, but it is impeccably shot. You can read more about Wes Bruce, his process, and his fort named Ms. Augustine Greane – yeah he names is forts and sounds like he may dabble in acid. But to each his own. I’m bummed I missed this installation last year. It stayed at the California Center for the Arts in Escondido for a little over 4 months. Now supposedly Ms. Augustine Greane has been broken down in to 20 smaller forts that were set up all over San Diego county.
Here’s little behind the scenes of the making of Ms. Augustine Greane.
- Curt
“Matt Taylor is an artist, illustrator and designer who lives by the sea and works in the smoke”
I think that quote pretty well sums up the tone behind much of Brighton based illustrator Matt Taylor’s work. Even though he’s across the pond, Matt is able to harness the some pretty strong American archetypes. His illustrations have a vintage feel from an era gone by shown though a postmodern lens. There’s an air of optimism and playfulness in his work that contemporary life seems to have lost. His rich colors and rough layering is just great! See more work after the jump: Continue reading…
February 17, 2011 | In
Art
It’s a well documented fact that I love me some collage and Anthony Z keeps it goin’. I think his work is successful from what he omits rather than what is kept. Sure it’s rudimentary, but did you think of it? Nufsaid. Check out more after the jump: Continue reading…
January 20, 2011 | In
Art55 year old office supply salesman Taketori is an origami master. This Japanese dude is knocking out amazingly realistic, creepy even, insects out of single pieces of paper and beer cans. My fingers already hurt.
Continue reading…
January 12, 2011 | In
Art
Now that NYC is buried in snow, I bet the Wall Street’s Charging Bull wishes he had his custom purple and pink crochet cozy by Olek to keep him and is grapes warm. In case you missed the news about this amazing piece of street art delivered to the Big Apple on Christmas Eve, here’s a video staring Olek and her magic needles.
- Curt
January 11, 2011 | In
Art
I’ve got another amazing artist to feature today. Daniaelle Simonsen is crazy talented with the needle and thread. Daniaelle creates magical yet minimalist works of art substituting ink and paper for thread and fabric while freaturing some pretty rad subjects. Bear battle! Dueling Brids! Sparring elk! C’mon. She just finished up school at Art Center in 2009 and lives in LA with her husband Trevor. Continue reading…
January 10, 2011 | In
Art
Check out the beautiful work of Lulu Wolf. I think the real challenge for successful collage is knowing how how to minimize your work, distilling it to “just enough” and I think Lulu is spot on. Continue reading…
