BEYOND the EDGE – NTM 006 from Teun van der Zalm on Vimeo.
In the second quarter of 2015, I began to research an new project; “What lies beyond the edge of the Observable Universe?”. I began an experiment to visualize this through our universal language: Mathematics. In this series I continue my search for new nebula forms, using particles controlled by physics and noise. They are fully designed to work in a 3d engine.
Directed and Designed by Teun van der Zalm
SEASONS of NORWAY – A Time-Lapse Adventure from Turbin Film on Vimeo.
The best kind of heartache, from a heart almost bursting in awe over the magnificence of our planet, and a reminder of just how much we need to be caretakers of our planet, not abusers.
“Art is the purest form of expression,” Kramer continues. “Each artist will have their own way of bringing a message to life, and that’s what I’m looking for: A wall of diversity, that represents [how] immigrants in the US do beautiful things every day. This wall should be a testimony of every single immigrant who feels they’d much rather have a country with freedom to express themselves than a symbol of divisiveness. […] Diversity is a beautiful thing and no one should get in the way of it.”
Right now The Most Beautiful Wall is accepting entries for its digital wall. Submit yours at themostbeautifulwall@gmail.com. Learn more about the project by visiting Maddy Kramer’s website, here.
The Most Beautiful Wall. Go and have a scroll (sideways!) of the beautiful art already up on the most beautiful wall.
Via The Creators Project.
The Creators Project has an interesting story about a textile artist, who embroiders portraits with her sewing machine, and likes to do this in rather out of the way places, so the sewing machine is powered by bicycle, often by the sitter!
I’ll admit to being conflicted here. I think it’s a grand idea, but I also get more than a hint of colonial arrogance, too. I’ll think on it some more.
That’s a tiny bit of a wooden altar, revealing the layers, types, and colours of paint used. Art restoration is a fascinating business, and there’s art under the art, in the science of restoration.
Stratigraphic studies is one of the standard examination methods that provides very precise information about the complexity of paint layers that make up a painting or decorative finish. It is the key method to assess the extent and condition of different painting layers. Stratigraphic studies can reveal the way the paint layers are applied and consequently, they tell us how the artist worked. Tiny samples of paint are taken from discrete and representative areas and mounted in clear resin. Such prepared samples are observed under a binocular microscope at high magnification between 50x and 200x depending on the thickness of the examined layer.Thorough observation of the various layers enables the conservator to determine the history of the object and whether interventions have occurred by inspecting layers of dirt, varnish and paint. Additionally the media analysis can be carried out on the cross-sections which provide important information about an artist’s technique, and helps to determine the most appropriate conservation treatments to use. A technique of staining of cross-sections can detect the presence of certain materials in the various painting layers such as lipids (suggesting an oil-containing medium), or proteins (signifying a gum-, casein- or animal glue-based medium).
The information revealed using the stratigraphic analysis can be recorded using microphotography and then compared with UV, IR and X-ray examination, consequently providing reliable information on the object’s history and artist’s technique.
Then there are the amazing microphotographs of wood. This is a bit of Norway Fir:
When identifying wood, it may only be necessary to determine if the wood is a hardwood or a softwood. In other cases, determining the individual species is necessary. Thin sections are prepared from small wood samples. Light microscopy is employed to distinguish anatomical characteristics of wood using features such as their cells and tissues visible only under high magnification. Technical literature and the collection of samples of numerous wood species are used during the identification.
Go have a wander over to visit Damian Lizun at Fine Art Conservation!
Screengrab.
Enter SlayTV.
Slay was founded by Sean Torrington, a former Goldman Sachs project manager, and his husband Terry; after Torrington lost his job in 2010 , he decided to follow his passion for filmmaking by creating some YouTube web series based on the lives of black and brown LGBTQ people. They then created an app to curate content from Youtube and the web onto one platform. And Slay has been growing ever since.
SlayTV officially launches on May 15 online, on iOS and Android devices, as well as on Roku, Apple AirPlay, Google Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV, and other services.
Torrington hopes to empower content creators to become “sustainable entrepreneurs” who generate their own revenue. “Slay is not only digital TV, it is a production company and an ad agency,” he tells Out. “We will build campaigns around content on our network to get it branded.”
That content includes a wide variety of programs in various formats, for and by queer people of color, such as: the docu-series Other Boys NYC, a 50-part series exploring narratives of queer and transgender men of color; No Shade, inspired by Torrington’s coming-of-age in New York; and the romantic sitcom Love @ First Night, based loosely on Sean and Terry’s relationship.
Out has a nice introduction video. SlayTV. SlayTV on youtube. Great content, wonderful people, go explore!
The Mad Artist has been in her lab all night, and may or may not be around, depending on whether or not she can manage to drag her arse out of bed sometime today. Remember that The Endless Thread is always open!
© C. Ford.
I really, really don’t want to spoil the surprise here. I’ll just say I was laughing myself silly, and this is someone who is delightfully familiar with the flat rat phenomenon. Go see!
One of my most favourite authors, Jim C. Hines, came out of model retirement for a good cause:
Click for full size!
And, from The Creators Project, Vintage Posters can now be yours, for free!
If the posters of today still had the look of those of yesteryear, would they still get tagged and trolled as often? Much work today, it seems, lacks the graphic audacity of yore, opting instead for forms and formats we’ve become accustomed to. That’s why, when you find vintage posters in flea markets, you find prices that might suggest they were just printed.
Many of these posters are available online, but it’s often difficult to find high enough quality to print them beyond standard A4 printer paper sizing. Finally, our savior: FreeVintagePosters.Com. The name explains the concept rather well. From Soviet propaganda posters and advertisements for airlines of the 60s, it’s up to you—there are several categories ranging from “Sport” to “Film” to “Nature” and everywhere in between. At Creators in France, we’ve been redecorating. Check out a few of our favorites below:
Head on over to see their picks, or go straight to FreeVintagePosters.com.
an apple, also carved with a variety of Japanese patterns (wagara).
a pattern that resembles the traditional Japanese asanoha floral pattern, carved into broccoli.
Oh, how I wish I was talented in the carving/sculpture department. If I had sprogs though, I’d think this might be fun family time, let’s have fun carving up our veg before we cook it and eat it!
Japan has a rich tradition of food carving called mukimono. If you’ve ever eaten at a fancy restaurant in Japan you might have found a carrot carved into a bunny, garnishing your plate. But in the hands of Japanese artist Gaku, the art of fruit and vegetable carving is elevated to a new realm of edible creations.
One constraint to carving fruits and vegetables is that sometimes you must work fast. The moment a peel is removed, oxidization will start to discolor your artwork. So, depending on the variety, Gaku’s carvings are probably created within several minutes. Armed with a tool similar to an x-acto knife and a fruit or vegetable from the grocery store, Gaku carves intricate patterns that are often inspired by traditional Japanese motifs.
Gaku points out that the banana is great fruit to practice with because it’s cheap and easy to carve. When asked what he does with all his creations after he’s done, his reply is simple: he eats them. “Except for the banana peel.”
You can see more of Gaku’s creations on his instagram account.
Via Spoon & Tamago.
Spirited Away is one of my long standing comfort movies, and who doesn’t love Kaonashi (No Face)? I absolutely must have this.
OMG guys — Studio Ghibli is releasing a Kaonashi coin bank!
The official name of this why-hasn’t-this-been-done-sooner contraption is Spirited Away Kaonashi Musha-Musha Coin Bank. And it’s a coin bank (we can stop calling them ‘piggy’ banks, right?) modeled after the Kaonashi character, also known as No Face, from the beloved 2001 film Spirited Away.
Similar to the way that great Itazura Kitty Coin Bank worked, it’s activated when you place coins on the sake saucer. Kaonashi’s arms then raise that saucer to its mouth and your coins fall into the depths of its stomach. It even makes that “ah” sound when it’s activated, and then burps once the movement is complete.
It’s set to go on sale online and at Donguri Kyowakoku shops, the official retailer for Studio Ghibli goods, on May 20, 2017 and will retail for 4800 yen.
Eeeeeeeeeeee. Must. Have. Via Spoon & Tamago.
I have a backlog of submissions I’m slowly getting posted, but serendipity strikes, and I have two horse submissions, very different from one another. We start with the amazing and beautiful art of painting resin horse models, thanks to Kestrel. This is time consuming and difficult work. This isn’t a type of art where the artist gets to simply go with flights of fancy, the object here is intense realism. One such artist, Mindy Berg, has her latest up for auction, and it is a beauty!
I am so very proud to formally introduce to you my newly completed Lucius resin, sculpted by Emilia Kurila. Lucius needs no introduction.. but in case you have not seen him before he is one of the most coveted resins in the hobby (for good reason!). Made from a small edition, he is one hard resin to find, either painted or unpainted. This particular copy has been with me since the start of the edition, and it has taken me since then to complete his coat. Now we all know that time doesn’t necessarily equate to quality, but, I do want accentuate the fact that I have taken my time on this piece with no holds barred, and allowed myself to boldly go where I have not gone before…
Introducing Skywalker. Destined for great things, in this horse I aimed for the stars. He is by far the most detailed and complicated pattern I have ever attempted. Skywalker was painstakingly hand painted in oils, with each tiny hair a stroke of a minuscule brush, and there are thousands upon thousands of tiny hairs. There is a great reason that this technique is not commonly employed! Although a beautifully effective way to create realistic coat patterns, it is an incredibly slow process. Acrylics and pastels, and some pencil, were also sparingly used in his creation as well. He is an example of what I can create without time constraints, my painting “magnum opus” to date.
Then we have some photos from rq, of an interesting place visited for a work event, which also had a horse. I think it would make a cool cabin. They should have made the tarse large enough to slide down! Click for full size.
© rq, all rights reserved.
Oh, if I had young sprogs, I’d get these books in a heartbeat, which puts a whole new spin on interactive books.
The Big Book is precisely that – a children’s story that unfolds into a gigantic single sheet, revealing a beautiful illustration of something central to the story. The redesigned children’s fairytale adds another dimension of interactivity to storytelling, allowing kids read a story with their eyes, ears and whole body.
It was originally designed by Japanese illustrator Mao Fujimoto in 2011 as a school project (we actually covered it back then, so we’re super happy it’s finally been turned into a product). Fujimoto came up with the idea by following a keen fascination about what it would be like to ride on the turtle, which carries the young fisherman to a sub-sea palace in Urashima Taro, one of Japan’s most beloved stories.
Now, Urashima Taro and The Giant Turnip have been turned into real books thanks to Seigensha Art Publishing. Each features Fujimoto’s beautiful illustrations accompanied by story text in both Japanese and English. So not only is it great for storytelling, it’s also useful for learning another language!
Because it’s designed to be spread out on the floor and walked/crawled on, the books are made from water-resistant, highly durable paper so it holds up to toddler abuse.
You can see, and read much more at Spoon & Tamago.
An animated self-portrait exploring the line of human evolution and a projection of a possible future.
As our evolution turns from biological to technological, are we now the bridge between the born and the made.
I painted this stop frame animation on myself using face paint, a mirror and a camera.Copyright Emma Allen.
Story, animation, performance -Emma Allen – emmaallen.org
Post Production – Huxley Studios – thisishuxley.com/
Sound Design – Edapollo – soundcloud.com/edapolloEmma Allen
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Wonderful! I like the beginning best. Santiago on Vimeo. Santiago at The Creators Project.
