Cat Landscapes - Illustrations from Lim Heng Swee that Playfully Insert Cats into Stylish Landscapes

Kuala Lumpur-based artist Lim Heng Swee’s Cat Landscape series of minimal illustrations that insert cat images into the greats of Japanese painting like the great Hokusai. 

Also available as art print's from his Etsy Store.

Chisel Murals in Rio, Paris and Lisbon

Alexandre Farto’s continues to add his stunning murals chipped into the exterior walls of buildings in Rio, Lisbon and Paris

via FeelDesain

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Cartoons Invade Classical Paintings

When famous cartoon characters invade the great works of art we all hold so dear, it results in this excellent mashup series of images from users of Designcrowd. 

Pop Russian General Portrait Project

We've seen these before, but there are a ton new portraits.

Artist, Steve Payne's statement from his blog replaceface.tumblr.com: 

"George Dawe was an English portrait artist who painted 329 portraits of Russian generals active during Napoleon's invasion of Russia for the Military Gallery of the Winter Palace, Saint Petersburg, Russia. I'm using digital copies of these paintings as a basis for my own work which involves incorporating celebrities into the paintings using photoshop."

via Artskills

The Hater Box — Artwork by Parse/Error

Parse Error uses the old analog flip display to generate 45 different phrases in his project The Hater Box

By mixing many concepts, from the most serious to the lightest, The Hater Box triggers an avalanche of thoughts in the observer, chaining laugh, anger, indignation or assertion of his own ideas, leaving little room for a real reflection on the meaning of these words or on his own opinion.

Witty & Wild Animated Gifs from Nicolas Monterrat

Paris-based animator and illustrator Nicolas Monterrat has this series of wild and witty animated gifs. 

New Media Chinese Art from Yang Yongliang

How do you update an ancient art tradition? With Photoshop, of course. New media artist Yang Yongliang was classically trained in Chinese painting and calligraphy from a very young age but uses digital tools to capture that time-tested aesthetic. View the amazing results in the video above.

Shanghai-based artist Yang Yongliang has taken the eyes and heart of the more traditional Chinese landscape and calligraphy, and invested it with the expressive ability of the newest technology and techniques, including digital manipulation, video and photography.

"As long as the characteristics don't change, the media you use to express the art doesn't matter."

​I think these landscapes in Chinese Porcelain are pretty amazing, and I am absolutely in love with the video landscapes. 

View fullsize

View fullsize

Here is a sample of the video referenced in the Creator's Project piece:​

Uploaded by Brian Peter Tan on 2012-11-25.

And a more recent one:​

Uploaded by Brian Peter Tan on 2012-11-25.

via My Modern Met

Bee Made 3D Printed Bust and Bottle

The sweetness of honey. The bite of 80,000 bees. Watch the making of the video where Dewar's Highlander Honey bees build real sculptures out of natural honeycomb.

Master beekeeper, Robin Theron, and The Ebeling Group assembled as many as 80.000bees to create a bottle and a bust of honey, made by bees. 

The project was Dewar’s latest promotion of their new Highlander Honey whiskey.

Bees build their honeycomb inwards, and given an inverse scaffolding on which they could build,  several colonies finished building after about 6 weeks.

via IGnant

Welded Bicycle Chain Sculptures

We've seen Young-Deok Seo's welded chain sculptures before, but with a new set of stunning pieces, we are happy to check in with him again.

via Colossal

Strandbeests - Wind-powered Animal-Machines from Theo Jansen

Strandbeest is Dutch for Sand Animal, and these kinetic sculptures that capture the winds along the Dutch beaches and turn them into the fuel for the leg movement of these animal-like machines seem very much like they are alive.

They are the creation of Dutch artist Theo Jansen.

He says he hopes to get them to the point of self-sufficiency that they will continue to 'live' in the sand dunes of the Netherlands coast even after he is gone. 

The mechanism used both for capturing and storing wind energy and turning that stored energy into leg movements are truly ingenious. You can even buy a little Strandbeest Kit to make your own miniature versions.

Wisedeal Wind-powered Animaris Ordis Parvus Strandbeest Model Robot (Beige) Buy on Amazon

From the project page:

Self-propelling beach animals like Animaris Percipiere have a stomach . This consists of recycled plastic bottles containing air that can be pumped up to a high pressure by the wind. This is done using a variety of bicycle pump, needless to say of plastic tubing. Several of these little pumps are driven by wings up at the front of the animal that flap in the breeze. It takes a few hours, but then the bottles are full. They contain a supply of potential wind. Take off the cap and the wind will emerge from the bottle at high speed. The trick is to get that untamed wind under control and use it to move the animal. For this, muscles are required. Beach animals have pushing muscles which get longer when told to do so. These consist of a tube containing another that is able to move in and out. There is a rubber ring on the end of the inner tube so that this acts as a piston. When the air runs from the bottles through a small pipe in the tube it pushes the piston outwards and the muscle lengthens. The beach animal's muscle can best be likened to a bone that gets longer. Muscles can open taps to activate other muscles that open other taps, and so on. This creates control centres that can be compared to brains.

Salt Bride — After 2 Years in the Sea this Bridal Dress is Coated with Salt Crystals

Israeli artist Sigalit Landau left this black gown in the Dead Sea for two years, checking in on it periodically.

You can see the final result, a thick coating of salt crystals in the photos that came out of the project or at London’s Marlborough Contemporary, where they’ll be on display until September 3rd.

Unbelievable Papercraft Birds

Netherlands-based artist Johan Scherft  discovered papercrafting at 14 quite by accident when he started making hand-colored paper bird models. "It appealed to me because it combines so many different techniques like working in three dimensions combined with drawing and painting."

​"Of course, it is impossible to capture every curve of the bird's body in paper, compromises have to be made, or the model would have too many gluing tabs, making it too difficult to make. A lot of the realism is suggested with the paintwork. For this part, I take the most time. With very fine brushes, I try to achieve the most realistic effect in color and detail. I use watercolors or gouache paint. It's always an exciting moment once the template has been painted to assemble the bird and see what the result is."

via My Modern Met

The Soothing Art of Rock Balancing

The Boulder Colorado artist Michael Grab works through mental and physical noise to reach a balanced and still place:

“The most fundamental element of balancing in a physical sense is finding some kind of ‘tripod’ for the rock to stand on. Every rock is covered in a variety of tiny to large indentations that can act as a tripod for the rock to stand upright, or in most orientations you can think of with other rocks. By paying close attention to the feeling of the rocks, you will start to feel even the smallest clicks as the notches of the rocks in contact are moving over one another. In the finer point balances, these clicks can be felt on a scale smaller than millimeters. Some point balances will give the illusion of weightlessness as the rocks look to be barely touching.
Parallel to the physical element of finding tripods, the most fundamental non-physical element is harder to explain through words. In a nutshell, i am referring to meditation, or finding a zero point or silence within yourself. Some balances can apply significant pressure on your mind and your patience. The challenge is overcoming any doubt that may arise. “Try not, there is no try…only DO.” – Yoda (Star Wars)”
 

Visit his website www.gravityglue.com

Lego Album Covers

Oh so much fun, these http://legoalbums.tumblr.com

via MashKulture http://5thin.gs/1ev1asy

Mesmerizing Calligraphy Pen by King Blotto III

 King Blotto III has an instragram account filled with these mesmerizing little videos of calligraphy pens and ink. SO satisfying to watch.

A video posted by King Blotto III (@kingblottothethird) on Dec 20, 2015 at 10:18am PST

A video posted by King Blotto III (@kingblottothethird) on Jan 7, 2016 at 7:12pm PST

A video posted by King Blotto III (@kingblottothethird) on Jan 5, 2016 at 6:41am PST

A video posted by King Blotto III (@kingblottothethird) on Dec 9, 2015 at 10:34pm PST

A video posted by King Blotto III (@kingblottothethird) on Oct 29, 2015 at 1:07pm PDT

A video posted by King Blotto III (@kingblottothethird) on Feb 25, 2016 at 11:37am PST

A video posted by King Blotto III (@kingblottothethird) on Feb 29, 2016 at 6:11am PST

A video posted by King Blotto III (@kingblottothethird) on Feb 22, 2016 at 11:34am PST

Loving Vincent — Full-length Oil Painting Animated Movie

More than 100 painters worked together to create the 12 oil paintings per-second animation for this full-length movie on the last days of Vincent Van Gogh directed by Poland-based Dorota Kobiela.

“Loving Vincent is an investigation delving into the life and controversial death of Vincent Van Gogh, one of the world’s most beloved painters, as told through his paintings and by the characters that inhabit them. The intrigue unfolds through interviews with the characters closest to Vincent and through dramatic reconstructions of the events leading up to his death.”

lovingvincent.com

Edo Japan With Computers — Imaginative Animated GIFs

Atsushi Segawa had been making animated GIFs out of ukiyo-e for a while when he was commissioned by Japanese computer maker NEC to mix computers and computer use into Edo-era Japan.

Logos And Paintings Undercutting Each Other — Graphic Designs from Eisen Bernard Bernardo

Eisen Bernard Bernardo, Philippines-based graphic designer, brings together modern logos with well-known paintings, making each a little suspect, and the whole pretty awesome.

Autonomous Machines - Clever Generative Art by Echo Yang

Everyday objects become the artists in this generative art project from Eindhoven artist Echo Yang titled Autonomous Machines.

Lifesized Nude Candy Sculptures by Joseph Marr

Artist Joseph Marr has created this series of preserved sugar sculptures called Laura, each one flavored with cherry, apple, Fanta, or licorice.

Marr says:

"Any desire at all is the reason why our soul is trapped in the karmic lessons of our Ego. Sexual desire is the most accessible concept for people in general to understand 'desire.' Candy is a wonderful medium to show two things...how we are trapped in the sticky situation and how attractive the tasty desire really is."

After developing his skills with painting and video, Marr began exploring unusual mediums like food. Many of his works include liquids like cola as well as flavorings like apple, lemon, and raspberry. The series here includes four versions of Laura, each one flavored with cherry, apple, Fanta, or licorice.

via My Modern Met