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admin — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 19:57:54 +0000

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The Pixel Pad

devigner — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 02:03:24 +0000

You can’t pick your family, but you can pixel furniture! Ok, so maybe that joke wasn’t the best. However, these great pieces of furniture for your home are! Some of them are simple and colorful, others are intense and complicated, but all of them are inspired by one thing: the pixel.

A pixel, for those who don’t know, a pixel is the smallest addressable screen element. For example, look at the screen you’re viewing right now really close up. You will see that your screen is actually composed of tiny, tiny squares. One of those squares is a pixel. The etymology is not precisely known, other than it is a shortened word for “picture element”. These pixels are a consequence of technology and we see them in our everyday life. So it’s no surprise when these little points of color influence our lives. Take a look at some of these examples and enjoy!

Captcha-ing Attention

devigner — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 06:26:34 +0000

What do you get when you take a spam capturing system and take it out of context? No, not a lame joke but some great Captchart! What’s captchart, you ask? Well, if you haven’t had a chance to run across these wonderfully playful pieces, these “artworks” take the words from a captcha (those images on the internet that you have to decipher to show that you are, indeed, a real live human being and not some bot or alien) that are turned into translations with stories and pictures. Great things come out of this, full of humor and intelligence for something so mundane and computerized. Check out some examples below, taken from the great collection at CaptchArt.

Quick Shot: Yummy Yummy Ink

devigner — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 23:01:20 +0000

Russian designer and illustrator Ugur Derinogullu would agree that art and design should go hand in hand. These illustrations and designs for K BB Covers are an amazing example of said combination of design and art. The brush strokes are natural and yet precise, dirty and yet clean. They create intriguing forms on their own, but they become even more refined but into the designs for the covers. Once there, the illustrations get balanced and confined, taking them to another level of brilliance. Amazing work, definitely check out some of Derinogullu’s art and design.

In the Garden of Good and Evil

devigner — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 05:11:24 +0000

That’s right! Yours truly has a show this Friday in Fort Collins, Colorado! If you are in the area and want to check it out, the details are above! Some art you have seen on this site, but some of it has never been shown here, so look forward to that! This is my first show ever and I am very excited to take part. I love doing art and have never had a chance to show it to the world and I am interested in what people think. See you there!

The Micro of the Macro: Tilt-shift

devigner — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 22:29:30 +0000

Tilt-shift is a style in photography in which the rotation of the lens plane is relative to the image plane, called tilt, and movement of the lens is parallel to the image plane, called shift. What this does it focus only on one line in the picture, while everything else is out of focus. What this does for the photograph, especially when done well, is to create the illusion of looking at something that is really small, even though you’re looking at something that is quite large. Confused yet? Yeah, I had to read it like eight times to figure it out. Whether you get it or not, take a look at some great examples and stop straining your brain:

Even Disney got in on the trend and created this great video that really makes me want to head to Disney World! It makes everything look precious and fragile and small.

Tilt-shift photography can be done with specific camera lenses but they can also be done with the right photo and some Photoshop skills (to see how, look at the tilt-shift tutorial). But no matter how it’s achieved or what it is showing, it’s great to see these images and take at a look in our world and our place in it. Check out some more and enjoy!

Past Present: 1950s Posters

devigner — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 04:56:00 +0000

Sometimes you have to see where you came from to learn where to go. Recently I have been influenced greatly by the grace and simplicity of retro ads to fuel my creative fire. The posters, below, come from the 1950s and exemplify what a useful inspiration and resource retro posters, ads and designs can be. The artistry of the human hand, the greatest of all creators, has been lost in the advertised world around us. I really think we need to encourage the hand-drawn, artistic ad because they invoke such interest and emotion. Simply wonderful!

Rubikubism – Mixed Up Art

devigner — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 00:14:00 +0000

The Rubik’s Cube, that wonderful 3-D mechanical puzzle invented in 1974 by Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Ernő Rubik, is one of the more current appropriations from pop culture that have caught my eye (see all about Lego Art). Originally called the “Magic Cube”, the artwork created from these intriguing blocks of 6 colors and seemingly thousands of possible color combinations when mixed up is something to behold.

Having already sold over 350 million cubes have worldwide, making it the world’s top-selling puzzle game (of which I own two), the Rubik’s Cube finds it’s place in the art world by emulating not only Cubism, but also the pixel by pixel nature of our electronic age. Art pieces were created off and on since the mid 1990s by Rubik’s Cube aficionados, but in recent years, there has been a resurgence of this kind of art, with some even being seen side by side with Warhol.

This comparison is valid. The work of Rubik’s Cubism artists (like Robbert Mackinnon, street artist Invader, and Josh Chalom) perennial question posed by Warhol’s works and ‘the Factory’; “Who is the artist?” and “What is Art?” So check out this gallery, and I hope you enjoy the enduring legacy of Rubik’s Cubes as much as I do.

Melissa Haslam and Delicate Art

devigner — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 04:05:33 +0000

The surrealistic, beautiful and crazy images by Aussie artist Melissa Haslam are at once haunting and amazing, fantastic and engaging. They show something delicately haunted by feeling. The inclusion of well drawn nature only reinforce this. Melissa is one of those artists who, like myself, was influenced greatly by the comics and cartoons she saw as a child. Haslam explains, “I have always been interested in art and drawing and loved doing it at school, but it took a while to work out what kinda of art I wanted to do for myself. It wasn’t until I was in Borders book store one day flicking through magazines that I discovered the book Curvy, and illustration style art. I immediately knew thats what I wanted to do. It was beautiful, imaginative, and like an adult version of the books and cartoons I used to watch as a child.”

Lego: Building Art

devigner — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 05:15:08 +0000

There is something so common, so charming, so simple that it has transformed the world around it…literally. That thing is the building block known as lego. In recent months I’ve seen an increasing number of lego uses that are now art in themselves. These blocks aren’t just for kids anymore (although I don’t unlike it’s use by them so far). So take a look at some of these examples, including the most recent video of England’s tie to the US in the World Cup due to a goalie mistake. Not that I’m complaining!