Simple Simon

London-based illustrator Miles Johnston (previously) produces graphite drawings and oil paintings that examine the inner thoughts of his female subjects. His piece Withdraw literally presents a woman’s face retracting into her own head, her wide-eyed stare sinking deep into her skull. Another, Dualism, shows a woman crouched on top of a chasm in the earth, a similar fault line continuing through her body.

Johnston will exhibit these works and more at an upcoming solo at Last Rites Gallery, a gallery known for showcasing surreal and macabre works in New York City. His show will run from March 31 to April 21, 2018. You can see more of his drawings, paintings, and prints on his Instagram.

Aurora Borealis as seen from 70,000 feet. Do you remember the stunning photographs from U-2 Dragon Lady pilot and friend Ross Franquemont we have published here few days ago? Few days after we published those incredible shots, Ross deployed for an overseas mission. Although we don’t know anything about the purpose of the mission, we […]

Chicago-based Illustrator Diana Sudyka uses vintage stamps from Europe as the starting point for fanciful paintings created using gouache, ink, and watercolor. These miniature engravings of portraits, architecture, and ships  become fully formed figures and landscapes that merge with trees and flowers and convene with animals. Many of the artist’s paintings include phrases of hand-painted text that add an additional narrative element to the works.

Sudyka tells Colossal that she begins each new piece by selecting a stamp, but without a specific idea of the painting that will emerge from it. “I let the stamp inform the subject matter and color palette. It’s a very intuitive process. The stamp is really just a stepping off point to get my imagination going.”

Working mainly as a children’s book illustrator, Sudyka creates her stamp paintings primarily as relaxing interludes between client projects. She explains to Colossal that her background is as a fine artist, specializing in intaglio printmaking, and her history with stamps goes back to her days as an undergraduate when she was inspired by collage artist Joseph Cornell, and picked up some vintage stamps at a coin collecting shop in her college town. Sudyka offers prints of many of her paintings on her website, and she also shares her work on Instagram.

Photographer Reuben Wu creates images that reveal an alien splendor in natural and manmade landscapes across the globe. Previously he has explored the brilliant blue rivers of molten sulfur in Indonesian volcanoes, and photographed the thousands of glistening mirrors that compose Nevada’s SolarReserve. For his ongoing series Lux Noctis, the Chicago-based photographer utilizes modified drones as aerial light sources, illuminating obscure landscapes in a way that makes each appear new and unexplored.

Recently Wu has evolved his process of working with the drones to form light paths above topographical peaks in the mountainous terrain. “I see it as a kind of ‘zero trace’ version of land art where the environment remains untouched by the artist, and at the same time is presented in a sublime way which speaks to 19th century Romantic painting and science and fictional imagery,” said Wu to Colossal.

The light from his GPS-enabled drones create a halo effect around some of the presented cliffs and crests when photographed using a long exposure. An elegant circle of light traces the flight of the drone, leaving a mark only perceptible in the resulting photograph. You can see more of Wu’s landscape photography on his Instagram and Facebook. (via Faith is Torment)

Pass the lard, please.

If you have some free space at home, you might be interested in this item. A Turbo Union RB199 engine, previously used in the Tornado jet (not clear which variant), is on sale on eBay here. Listed as a Rolls Royce RB199 (actually, Turbo Union, a joint venture between three European aero-engine manufacturers: FiatAvio (now […]

Artist Paolo Del Toro uses needle felting to create massive masks and sculptures out of wool and foam. His creations depict mythical faces in expressions that range from grotesque grimaces to contemplative introspection; all of his works feature open mouths. While Del Toro’s work is not tied to any particular cultural visual heritage, the shifting personalities of his characters are reminiscent of Japanese Noh theater masks, which are designed to show different emotions from different angles. The artist tells Colossal that viewers describe his work as ugly and beautiful with equal frequency, which is exactly what he hopes for.

I try to find a place in my sculptures that unifies beauty and ugliness. That’s not to say finding somewhere in the middle, but rather finding the place where both coexist at the same time… I hope that by challenging our perspectives, we might look upon one as also the other, and, through that notion, become able to encroach further into the otherness of our dreams and imagination than we might otherwise fear to tread.

Del Toro originally hails from the UK, and began sculpting in 2011 as a hobbyist wood carver. Since settling in the United States in 2015, he has begun to explore larger and more involved work: his most recent felt sculpture is nearly seven feet tall and took four months to complete. The artist currently calls eastern Pennsylvania home, where he is an Adjunct Professor at Pennsylvania College of Art and Design. You can see more of the artist’s work, including his woodcarving, on his website, as well as on Instagram and tumblr. (via Colossal Submissions)

For more than 40 years Japanese truck drivers have been piling on lights, patterned fabrics, and other over-the-top adornments to their work trucks, creating moving masterpieces covered in LEDs. This tradition of decorated trucks or “Dekotora” originated from a 1970s Japanese movie series inspired by Smokey and the Bandit titled Torakku Yaro or “Truck Rascals.” Drivers first began decorating their vehicles in the style of the comedy-action films in hopes of being cast in upcoming films. Eventually the extravagant trucks became a way of life for many workers, with decoration costs to produce such elaborate vehicles sometimes running over $100,000.

Although the art form is now seeing a decline after it reached its peak in the ’80s and ’90s, the Utamaro-Kai Association of Dekotora drivers has begun to help raise funds for various charity initiatives, including areas of the country that have been hit by the recent Tsunami. Photographer Todd Antony‘s latest photographic series documents the men behind the association, taking a peek inside their cabs to view the personalization that goes into each piece of machinery. You can view more of Antony’s recent projects on his website and Instagram. (via Colossal Submissions)

Mr. Crumbs, I agree, this might be the dumbest, yet best thing you’ve drawn. If you agree, swoop up one of these shirts at Bicycle Crumbs.

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Lauren Ko brings mathematical precision to her baking, using elaborate intertwined patterns to form transfixing patterns to the top of her homemade pies and tarts. The Seattle-based amateur baker has been piecrafting for just a couple of years, she tells Mic, and if you’re wondering, this is her favorite pie crust recipe. Ko combines classic crusts with colorful fillings like blueberries, kumquats, purple sweet potatoes, and pluots to create her visually striking sweets. You can follow her on Instagram.

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For over a decade, photographer Jonathan Higbee has walked the streets of New York with a camera in-hand, spotting extraordinary juxtapositions and unusual moments when the world aligns for a split second in front of his lens. At times he manages to completely erase the boundaries between manufactured imagery found in billboards or signage that pollute the city streets and captures anonymous passersby who seem to live in an alternate reality.

This uncanny talent for observation has made the Missouri-born photographer a rising name in street photography where he won the World Street Photography grand prize in 2015 and a LensCulture 2016 Street Photography Award. Higbee’s work has been exhibited in group shows around the world and his photos were recently included in World Street Photography 4. You can follow more of his photography on Instagram. (via LensCulture)

That the flat Mercator projection maps we encounter in classrooms show a distorted view of our spherical planet is fairly well-known fact at this point. But the real-life application of grids on the earth takes a subtler form with the grid system of roads that defines much of the United States’ travelways. Dutch photographer and filmmaker Gerco de Ruijter created a short film called Grid Corrections that brings together dozens of aerial shots of rural roads. The film demonstrates how the grids are merged to accommodate the earth’s curvature through sharp dogleg turns every 24 miles. Grid Corrections will be screened at the Grasnapolsky music festival, which is February 2 – 4 in the town of Radio Kootwijk, The Netherlands. (via Kottke)

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Leave it to the stationery-loving Japanese to come up with a new way to enjoy writing notes. The Omoshiro Block (loosely translated as ‘fun block’) utilizes laser-cutting technology to create what is, at first, just a seemingly normal square cube of paper note cards. But as the note cards get used, an object begins to appear. And you’ll have to exhaust the entire deck of cards to fully excavate the hidden object.

Produced by Japanese company Triad, whose main line of business is producing architectural models, the Omoshiro Blocks feature various notable architectural sites in Japan like Kyoto’s Kiyomizudera Temple, Tokyo’s Asakusa Temple and Tokyo Tower. The blocks are composed of over 100 sheets of paper and each sheet is different from the next in the same way that individual moments stack up together to form a memory.

But despite the declining cost of laser-cutting technology, the Omoshiro Blocks are still quite expensive and range from around 4000 yen to 10,000 yen, depending on their size. Getting your hands on one will also be tricky for the time being as they’re currently only available at the Tokyu Hands Osaka location. But you can keep up with updates from the company by following them on Instagram. (Syndicated from Spoon & Tamago)

Artist Paco Pomet (previously) continues to channel old vintage snapshots and historical documentation in his delightfully surreal oil paintings. While all of his paintings capture his unmistakable wit, many of the works seem to straddle a fine line between humor and horror. Using a monochrome base, Pomet selectively adds color to highlight the focal point of the narrative and to heighten the vintage, hand-colored photo aesthetic, while playing with elements of scale, and contemporary technology icons.

Pomet lives and works in Grenada, Spain, and is represented by galleries in Spain, the US, and Denmark. He shares snapshots of work and life on Instagram.

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Ben Young (previously here) continues to use exquisite manual techniques to transform sheets of glass into luminous sculptures that give a glimpse into a moment in time or space. The artist envisions, hand-cuts, and carefully constructs layers of glass to evoke water, often offset with organically-shaped concrete topography, as well as metal details like a diver, lighthouse, or sailboat. Young, who is based in New Zealand, describes his latest body of work on his website:

Sentiments of the Sublime explores the nostalgic many and collective perspectives of the relationship between man and nature. In creating work, by hand, that makes reference to the myriad of perspectives and experiences of others, Young’s work is both deeply personal to the viewer and at the same time exploring subject matter that is universal, connecting Young, his work and his viewers in a moment of awe and nostalgia.

Young recently had his first solo show at REDSEA Gallery in Singapore, and currently has a piece, At The Helm, on view at Black Door Gallery in Aukland. Young also offers prints of his sculptures and shares updates on his work via Behance, Facebook, and Instagram.

Self-taught photographers Daniel Rueda and Anna Devís play out their love affair with architecture on their Instagrams @drcuerda and @anniset, posing each other amongst unique geometric elements found in buildings across Europe. The pair are both architects by trade, and met while studying at university.

“Before starting at university I used to draw everything that came into my mind,” Devís explained in a video made by Adorama. “That process was very long so I decided to change the way to express them. That’s why I came into photography. It was quicker and it also made me happy.”

Their work started off with playful photoshoots that transformed into “creativity-driven minimalistic architectural self-portraits,” which is how they classify their playful photography.

“Neither of us can hide that it is us that we both love to take pictures of the most because we appear in each others’ pictures,” Rueda told Adorama. “I think the background is sometimes even more important that the main subject in the picture, that is why buildings and architecture are so important for my photography.”

You can watch a behind-the-scenes look into the couple’s artistic process in an interview with them in this video by Adorama.

 

Juno is NASA’s project focused on bringing a deeper understanding to Jupiter and the processes that might have governed our solar system’s creation. The spacecraft was launched in 2011 to explore several facets of the planet’s composition, including its atmosphere, magnetic force field, and dense cloud coverage.

This series of close-up photographs was taken by Juno within the last year, and is a dazzling diverse display of the planet’s gaseous composition. Swirling blue and brown clouds appear like impressionist paint strokes across Jupiter’s atmospheric surface, a spectacle which is constantly shifting into new optically charged formations.

You can see more images taken with Juno’s high-tech cameras on NASA’s website, and submit your own processed images from Juno’s raw image files on Mission Juno. (via Twisted Sifter)

     

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Eighteen towers filled with more than 1,600 apartments were built by architect Emile Aillaud between 1973 and 1981. The housing complex is found in the Pablo Picasso district of Nanterre, an inner suburb of Paris. The residential towers range from 7 to 38 floors, yet each share peculiar windows shaped like futuristic portholes. French photographer Laurent Kronental has long been fascinated by these windows and their towering hosts which serve as the subject of his 2015-2017 series Les Yeux de Tours.

Kronental shoots through these windows to capture the landscape that lies far below their sky-high positions. Many of the images in the series simply focus on the exterior view, while others include  a glimpse into the lives of residents. Curtains and bed linens hint at the owners’ aesthetic preferences, while a few photographs capture more telling objects such as pianos and dishware.

“The mundane and the magic intermesh and merge through the porthole that acts as a two-way eye, the window of a flying living room, of a spaceship galley,” explains a statement about Kronental’s series. The futuristic details built into the architecture are now elements of the past, yet their inhabitants still share the dream of a bright future. The more homely elements of their lives severely contrast the flashy design elements of the buildings’ exteriors, aging wallpaper set against the sleek skyscrapers that exist right outside.

Kronental’s work from his earlier series Souvenir d’un Futur will be exhibited in the group exhibition French Landscapes, a Photographic Experience (1984-2017) at the Bibliothèque François-Mitterrand in Paris through February 4, 2018. The exhibition includes more than 1,000 photographs from 160 artists in order to provide a diverse depiction of the French landscape as seen over the last 40 years. You can see more of Kronental’s work on his website and Instagram. (via This Isn’t Happiness)

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Photographer Elsa Bleda captures hazy moments that linger on the outskirts of the cities she visits in Eastern Europe and South Africa. Bleda is drawn to nighttime scenes bathed in colored light, such as a flock of pigeons illuminated by pink neon, or a lone gas station emitting an eerie blue glow. The images she chooses to shoot also have a limited human presence, which gives a dystopian feeling to the work’s empty streets and snow-covered buildings.

Previously, Bleda has presented exhibitions showcasing images she has taken in Johannesburg and Cape Town. Her upcoming solo exhibition with Red Bull will take a look at Durban, South Africa. You can view a preview of her exhibition alongside a list of songs the photographer chose to fit the mood of each work on Redbull’s website. More of her night-based images of South Africa and Istanbul can be found on her Facebook, Instagram, and Behance. (via This Isn’t Happiness)

[life] The laws of stupidity according to economist Carlo M. Cipolla … The Five Laws of Human Stupidity seems very relevant to our times … ‘Law 3. A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or to a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses. Cipolla called this one the Golden Law of stupidity. A stupid person, according to the economist, is one who causes problems for others without any clear benefit to himself. The uncle unable to stop himself from posting fake news articles to Facebook? Stupid. The customer service representative who keeps you on the phone for an hour, hangs up on you twice, and somehow still manages to screw up your account? Stupid.’