Andreas Smetana has that WOW factor.  Taking the less ordinary, adding that pop, and in turn creating photographs that make you want to look away but continue staring at the same time.  It’s almost like watching a puppy on the titter of being dropped into a vat of pudding.  You know you’re staring but, should you be?The answer, in case you were really wondering, is yes.  Yes you should.  Smetana is one of the most sought out photographers and  his work is one that you shouldn’t turn your head from.  Clients include Pepsi, X-box, Target, and Jim Beam.  All names that should ring a little bell.  Ding dong.

Andreas formed his own studio at the age of  23, and since then he has been steamrolling the industry with his unexpected  thought processes.  Not too many people can make an ad for Eukanuba dog food look like a still life portrait one would hang over a fireplace.   Did I neglect to mention that Mr. Smetana is also on his way to becoming a full-time sailboat captain?  That is, once and if, his camera decides to take a breather.

Cyrill Clunev is a Russian artist who sees the world through a trapper keeper from 1996. That’s an obscure image, to be sure, but Clunev’s abstract works are reminiscent of the same kind of computer-generated commercial post-post-modernism you want accessorizing your homework as an 11-year-old on the go. Or maybe that was just me.

I can’t stay on topic here, though I may try. It seems impossible to maintain a singular train of thought looking at Clunev’s work, because abstract art is inherently that, and this is a situation where rationale simply isn’t rational. The point is these are beautiful, pristine images of color and light, only occasionally stopping to create form before jumbling back up again. Now I have to wonder what Clunev might do with motion; I’ve never been a big fan of experimental film, but if he made one, I’d watch it.

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Audrey Nep, short for Nepomnyaschev, has created a demo reel representing his work in broadcast design and in motion graphics design.  See the awesomeness after the continuation…

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The idea of me joining this blog has “failure” calligraphy’d all over it but I do hope to make it work. Perhaps even, it might be worth both our whiles.

mostly yours,

ae

Oh, I had to jump on this.

I’ve never heard of Gigantor, but apparently it was a Japanese cartoon from the ’60’s whose popularity brought it state-side. The series focused on the hijinks of a twelve-year-old boy who controls an enormous robot named Gigantor, despite having a human character named Dick Strong, which is inherently more interesting. Since I’m unfamiliar with both the show and the character, I have to guess neither made a very large impact on American pop culture. Japan, of course, decided it would be prudent to celebrate the character by building a life-sized statue of him.

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It’s probably ignorant to look at this enormous statue and immediately have the urge to make a Godzilla joke, and frankly half the people reading this are probably thinking of their own anyway, so I won’t attempt it. I will say, however, that while this is a very cool statue in it’s own right, I don’t know if it’s necessary to build a 60-foot tribute to a TV show from 1963. It’s kind of like making a second Mount Rushmore, but instead of faces of influential presidents, you carve the cast of M*A*S*H into the mountainside. This still seemed interesting as a feat done for the sake of itself until I realized Korea built  364-foot Taekwan V for a theme park. Oh, well. Good effort, Japan.

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SEMA, which for those of you not in the know is a car convention aimed at tuners and customizers, recently unveiled the Ghepardo, a kind of amber Frankenstein with the body of a 2002 Camaro and the brain of a 2002 Corvette. It’s a beautiful little vehicle, like something Optimus Prime would keep around as an under-qualified, underdressed secretary, until you open it up and climb inside, at which point the interior is revealed as an aesthetic nightmare and the Transformers simile becomes astoundingly dirty.

This is obviously a concept car, so we shouldn’t expect them to start popping up in our neighbor’s driveway. It’s just as well that they couldn’t sell it commercially, I guess. Any car you can only get by smashing two similar cars together belongs to someone who deserves to own it. Then again, I’m against any car that necessitates a fire extinguisher and looks like it’s seats were covered with real Muppet skin, so maybe I’m biased here. In any case, the exterior still looks nice; while I can’t speak to its performance on the road, it certainly wouldn’t be the worst-looking car I’ve had pass me on the right.