Danbusha

Here on Colossal we’ve seen an artist who collaborated with her 4-year-old daughter, transforming her random sketches and scribbles into fully realized artworks. With another take on the child/adult collaborative art genre, Dutch muralist Telmo Pieper did something similar, instead collaborating with his 4-year-old self in his series called Kiddie Arts. The artist took old childhood sketches which he then recreated as digital illustrations by applying realistic light, color, and texture to the hilariously deformed shapes he imagined in his youth.

You can see much more of Pieper’s work on his website and Tumblr. He also collaborates with artist Miel Krutzmann as part of Telmo Miel out of Rotterdam. (via Bored Panda, Laughing Squid)

Hello

The last thing

A Better Security Question

Artist Mike Stilkey uses the covers of books reclaimed from library trash heaps as a canvas for his whimsical paintings. He works with a mix of ink, colored pencil, paint and lacquer to create each artwork that can vary from anthropomorphic animals playing instruments to portraits of men and women inspired by Weimar-era German expressionism. Elements of his playful and at times emotionally exaggerated style have been compared to Edward Gorey and Egon Schiele.

The Los Angeles-based artist credits an immersion in skateboard culture during much of his youth as the beginning of his artistic career, as he simultaneously became exposed to graffiti and street art, though he received no formal training. His work has since been exhibited throughout the United States as well as internationally in galleries, museums, and libraries.

Stilkey most recently had a solo show at Gilman Contemporary in March, and had several pieces on view through BDX-LAX Faraway So Close, a cultural project that promotes contemporary art between sister cities Bordeaux and Los Angeles. You can learn more about his work in this three part video interview from Fully Booked (Part 2, Part 3), add see much more over on Facebook. (via Lustik)

Based in the old industrial town of St. Etienne, France, street artist oakoak (previously) relies on a keen sense of observation to create his humorous interventions on walls, streets, and sidewalks. Cracks and crumbling infrastructure become the backdrop for superheroes and other pop culture characters who interact with their surrounds in unexpected ways. He shares with Bulkka:

Since I come from Saint Etienne, an old industrial city which is now in reconversion, I have the need to make my city less “grey” and at the same time, funnier. Humor is really important to me. It’s definitely the most important element in what I do.

My main interest is giving importance to places and objects that people don’t notice anymore. I walk a lot every day and that’s how I get to find new attractive places with urban elements such as broken walls for example. When I see something interesting during my walks, I measure it and study it, and I come back later to make the collage. I prefer to prepare the drawings and drafts at home.

Included here are several works from the last 6 months or so, but you can see many more pieces on his Facebook page.

Vancouver-based artist Fiona Tang creates large-scale murals of animals using charcoal, chalk pastel, and acrylic on paper that at first glance appear 3D. Tang makes use of a technique called trompe l’oeil where shadows and perspective within the two dimensional drawing are used to trick the viewer into thinking the piece is three dimensional. Tang recently graduated from Emily Carr University of Art and Design, and you can see more of her work over on Facebook. (via Juxtapoz, My Modern Met)

Paul Smith's posters celebrate the Tour de France's arrival in the UK


Paul Smith's posters celebrate the Tour de France's arrival in the UK


Paul Smith's posters celebrate the Tour de France's arrival in the UK

le Tour

Modern toss

Calvin and Hobbes

Earlier today I asked my Twitter followers for recommendations for "really good" biographies about scientists. I gave Genius (James Gleick's bio of Richard Feynman) and Cleopatra, A Life (not about a scientist but was super interesting and well-written) as examples of what I was looking for. You can see the responses here and I've pulled out a few of the most interesting ones below:

- Isaac Newton by James Gleick. Gleick wrote the aforementioned Genius and Chaos, another favorite of mine. I tried to read The Information last year after many glowing recommendations from friends but couldn't get into it. Someone suggested Never at Rest is a superior Newton bio.

- The Man Who Loved Only Numbers by Paul Hoffman. I've read this biography of mathematician Paul Erdos; highly recommended.

- Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel. I've never read anything by Sobel; I'll have to rectify that.

- Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson. I enjoyed his problematic Jobs biography and I notice that he's written one on Ben Franklin as well.

- Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges.

- American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin. Bio of J. Robert Oppenheimer, leader of the Manhattan Project. See also: The Making of the Atomic Bomb, one of my favorite books ever.

- Everything and More by David Foster Wallace. I've heard Wallace was bit handwavy with the math in this one, but I still enjoyed it.

- Newton and the Counterfeiter by Thomas Levenson. Newton was a detective?

- The Philosophical Breakfast Club by Laura Snyder. Four-way bio of a group of school friends (Charles Babbage, John Herschel, William Whewell, and Richard Jones) who changed the world.

- The Reluctant Mr. Darwin by David Quammen. How Charles Darwin devised his theory of evolution and then sat on it for years is one of science's most fascinating stories.

- T. rex and the Crater of Doom by Walter Alvarez. Not a biography of a person but of a theory: that a meteor impact 65 million years ago caused the extinction of the dinosaurs.

- Walt Disney by Neal Gabler. Disney isn't a scientist, but when you ask for book recommendations and Steven Johnson tells you to read something, it goes on the list.

- The Man Who Knew Infinity by Robert Kanigel. Bio of brilliant Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan.

- Edge of Objectivity by Charles Gillispie. A biography of modern science published in 1966, all but out of print at this point unfortunately.

- Galileo at Work by Stillman Drake.

- The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes.

And many more here. Thanks to everyone who suggested books.

Update: Because this came up on Twitter, some biographies specifically about women in science: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Hedy's Folly, On a Farther Shore, Marie Curie: A Life, A Feeling for the Organism, Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA, Jane Goodall: The Woman Who Redefined Man, and Radioactive.

Tags: books   lists   science

Sext

What we’re watching

Photo © Jesse Rockwell

Photo © Jesse Rockwell

Photo © Jesse Rockwell

Photo © Jesse Rockwell

Photo © Jesse Rockwell

Photo © Jesse Rockwell

Photo © Jesse Rockwell

In most post-apocalyptic films when the camera pans down the abandoned streets of New York or Tokyo, long after people have disappeared and the buildings have fallen into disrepair, we see nature again thriving. Trees and plants take hold in the sidewalks and wild animals like deer, bears, and lions stalk the ruins left behind by humans. But after descending the staircase at a vacant shopping mall in Bangkok, professional cook and photographer Jesse Rockwell discovered a wholly different take on beasts inheriting the Earth: fish. Specifically exotic koi and catfish, teeming by the thousands in a secret subterranean aquarium. Rockwell shares via his blog:

New World shopping mall, a four storey former shopping mall. Originally constructed as an eleven storey building. It was found to be in breach of old town Bangkok’s four storey limit on building heights. The top seven floors were demolished to adhere to building codes in 1997. In 1999 the mall burned due to suspected arson committed by a competitor in the area. The disaster resulted in several casualties, and the building has remained abandoned ever since. Not having a roof, the basement floor remains under several feet of water year round.

At some point in the early 2000s an unknown person began introducing a small population of exotic Koi and Catfish species. The small population of fish began to thrive and the result is now a self-sustained, and amazingly populated urban aquarium.

What an amazing discovery. It makes you wonder what else lurks in abandoned places around the world? You can see more of Rockwell’s photography over on 500px and on his website, Taste of the Road. (via James Theophane, The Verge)

Cities at night scarves

Marsel van Oosten (Netherlands)


Tobias Bernhard (Germany)


Justin Black (United States)


Stanley Leroux (France)

Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2014

Paris and the Unknown, Yoyo the Ricecorpse

Safely endangered

1. netflixroulette.net — Find something random to watch on Netflix.2. pintsinthesun.co.uk — Find...

(via @KBAndersen)

Tags: video

Forbidden Fruit: Photos by Kyle Bean

Conceptual photos that captures the dark side of fruit. The tongue-in-cheek project was created for The Gourmand, an award-winning food and culture journal, in collaboration with photographer Aaron Tilley.

Earrings

Amalgamated is a new series of vessels by studio markunpoika constructed from assembled pencils. Taking advantage of the pencil’s unique hexagon shape, the pencils are first tightly glued together at each facet to form a solid block. The final pieces are then carved on a machine lathe to reveal the insides of each pencil. Via studio markunpoika:

“Amalgamated” is a collection which explores the relationship of a mass produced ‘tool’ and its individual purpose. The beauty of the pencil as an object seems to go unnoticed if utilised only for their primary purpose. “Amalgamated” is a visual and tactile investigation by using pencils as a raw material. This holistic principle has been the fundament for creating this set of vases; let the pencils become a thing themselves.

The vessels are part of a collaboration between Gallery FUMI and Faber-Castell and were recently on view as part of Design Miami/Basel 2014. (via designboom)

“My favorite game is the one where I go to work and wish I wasn’t there, and then go...

What is a good date?

Calvin and Hobbes

To explore the photography of French art director and concept designer Nicolas Bouvier is to become lost in strange new world, the inhabitants of which are dwarfed by the towering silhouettes of tree and mountains, or swallowed completely by eerie fog and haze. Though these landscapes are indeed real, shot in locations mostly in the Pacific Northwestern U.S., it may not be surprising that Bouvier’s day job is pure science fiction: he creates stunning concept art and illustrations for video games like Halo and Assassin’s Creed. While his concept art has gathered wide acclaim (he’s currently publishing a third book of his own illustrations), his photographic work has also flourished, garnering a significant following over on Flickr. We’ve featured his images several times right here on Colossal as part of our Flickr Finds series.

Currently based in Seattle, Bouvier first picked up a camera in the 1990s while in school, but it wasn’t until 2007 that he began shooting again in earnest. He has since amassed a collection of nearly two dozen cameras (he mentions he picked up a Lumix ZS40 just yesterday), all of which he experiments with as he explores locations around California, Washington, Oregon, Mexico, and France with his family who often appear as subjects in his surreal photos.

It was nearly impossible to make a selection of work for this post, so I strongly urge you to click this link, grab some coffee, and then press the right arrow on your keyboard about 1,100 times. You won’t regret it.

This is intense: video from one of the riders during the sprint finish of stage 5 of the Tour de Suisse.

I don't know how all of those riders are working that hard so close together without constantly crashing into each other. The number of "I've got my bike slightly in front of your bike now move the hell over" moves shown in the video reminded me of how NYC taxi drivers negotiate the streets of Manhattan. (via @polarben)

Tags: cycling   sports   video

George Carlin