hearty magazine | Katsuyo Aoki: Porcelain skulls
Katsuyo Aoki’s porcelain skulls make death a beautiful thing With Halloween on its way and so much death imagery everywhere, it’s refreshing to see Katsuyo Aoki’s take on ghoulishness. Her porcelain skull sculptures feature meticulous vanilla white curly patterned details, that look like they could be made of coral–or maybe icing. (Mmm?) And if you look closely, you can almost make out blissful grins. Bringing light to darkness, Katsuyo Aoki’s skulls reminds us that life (and death) is beautiful. See more of Katsuyo Aoki’s skulls below.
The Amazing Crayon Art Of Christian Faur
Christian Faur is an artist based in Granville, Ohio. Looking for a new technique, he experimented with painting with wax, but he didn't feel the results were satisfactory. Then, at Christmas in 2005, his young daughter opened a box of 120 Crayola crayons he'd bought her, and everything clicked into place. Faur decided he would create pictures out of the crayons themselves, packing thousands of them together so they become like the colored pixels on a TV screen. He starts each work by scanning a photo into a computer and breaking the image down into colored blocks He then draws a grid that shows him exactly where to place each crayon The finished artworks are packed tightly into wooden frames. Source
Yuki Matsueda
‘While most designers are busying adding more and more elements into their artworks, Japan-based Yuki Matsueda has, however, managed to let some elements escape from his art pieces. The result seems quite amazing… A vivid 3D image is successfully created and all the elements are believed to be more shocking than those stay still on paper.’
Cool sculptures by Stephane Halleux
Stephane Halleux was born on July 6th in Chenée (Liège), Belgium. Shortly thereafter–and very often against his will—he was taken off to museums where he was supposed to be awakened to art in all its forms. At the age of 10, while visiting the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the work of sculptor Jean Tinguely suddenly caught his attention. He discovered the magic power of strange play-like structures without any utility purpose. In 1995, during his last high study year at Saint Luc in Liege, Stéphane created the first pieces that look similar to his current works. His first exhibitions were such a success that since 2005 he has devoted all his time to his realizations. Official website You might also like Comments Michael Dachstein Inspiration junkie :)
Tiny People's Wonderful World of Food
Ready for some "miniature" stories? Using tiny model figures and food, Seattle-based artist Christopher Boffoli creates fantastic scenes that mimic everyday life! His collection, titled Disparity, is shown in galleries all across the United States. Why did the artist start down this creative path? "The hand-painted figures that I work with are made for HO scale model train sets," he tells us. "I suppose there is in some part a god-like feeling to having command of an entire world which you can rearrange at any capricious whim. Update: We got in touch with the artist to ask him more questions, including why he chose to work with food. Why do most all of your scenes involve food? Like many young boys, I built scale models of cars, planes and boats when I was a kid. In terms of this series, food was a natural choice as a backdrop because it is the most common subject for most people, readily accessible to them. For those who want to try out something similar, what tips could you give?
A Portrait of Tobias Wong Using 13,138 Dice
Canadian artist and designer Tobias Wong died last year at the young age of 35, or more specifically, 13,138 days. In tribute, his friend Frederick McSwain created this immense portrait of Wong entitled Die using 13,138 dice as part of the BrokenOff BrokenOff exhibition at Gallery R’Pure in NYC in memoriam to the artist during NY Design Week. McSwain via Core77: The idea of a die itself was appropriate—the randomness of life. The dice were first meticulously organized into individual sheets of 361 pieces and then laid to rest free on the floor without adhesive.
Rune Guneriussen
These dream-like installations are assembled, and then photographed by Norwegian artist Rune Guneriussen. Just imagine being out for a walk in Norway’s countryside, turning a corner and discovering a magical forest of lamps, a tangle of chairs, or a river of books. Sadly, once the photograph is taken, Rune removes the installation, the only proof of it’s existence being these images… sort of like waking up from an amazing dream that you could have sworn was real. As an artist, I believe strongly that art itself should be questioning and bewildering as opposed to patronising and restricting. Rune Guneriussen’s site
Choi Xooang
(click images for detail) All at once delicate and nightmarish these painted polymer clay figures by Seoul-based artist Choi Xooang are nothing short of remarkable. Try as I might it’s hard to find a definitive, trustworthy article to source information from, and even the spelling of his name seems to change from site to site. However it seems generally accepted that Xooang is attempting to draw attention to human rights abuses in Korea, and seeing these somewhat macabre, stunted figures unable to see or speak, it’s hard to dispute that. You can see much more of his work at Mu Um and Slash, though be warned it’s somewhat graphic (generally nudity). I admit the mushroom cloud sculpture is a bit of a one-off, but I saw it was just posted yesterday and couldn’t resist.
