If you live in Los Angeles, or more specifically Koreatown or Silver Lake, you might be familiar with the discarded treasures of anonymous artist Lonesome Town. Dumped sofas, chairs, and televisions are given a transformation into sad clowns before being left on the curb again for treasure hunters to find and re-home.
Los Angeles-based Miles McGregor – aka El Mac – is a very talented guy and I’m blown away by his outdoor aerosol murals that have been commissioned around the world.
He began painting both smaller indoor works as well as public murals and graffiti in the mid ’90s, and since that time has developed his unique visual aesthetic and rendering style which utilizes repeating contour patterns. His work draws on influences from classical European art, social realism, symbolism and devotional art, as well as the Chicano and Mexican culture he grew up around. He is best known for his meticulous paintings and large-scale murals exploring feminine beauty and honoring ordinary, overlooked, or marginalized people.
“Abuelita of Presidio”- EL MAC mural on the US-México border
Posted In create, street
Photographer Ken Hermann and art director Gem Fletcher teamed up to create Smoke, explosions of color set against desolate industrial landscapes. The one constant is the stepladder at the center of each photo. There’s also something special about nature herself acting as a third contributor, deciding which way the wind would blow and distribute all that colorful magic.
During a residency in Utah Matt W. Moore took full advantage of the outdoors to develop a series that would allow him to explore the local beauty, create hands-on work, and celebrate the native color palette of the landscape. The result is his Summit Mosaics series of mandalas created entirely with foraged pieces – river pebbles and stones, shale, red rocks, dead Aspen branches, bark from evergreens, cattails, and dried wild grasses.
1/ Shower to the People, a mobile unit that provides free showers to St. Louis’ homeless
2/ Japan’s Ghostbusters-inspired marshmallow burger
3/ Beautiful tooled leather bike saddles
4/ Paris’ first floating hotel
5/ Bit Leaves: square flowers and plants by Baku Maeda
6/ The lunar cycle displayed through 15,000 colorful origami birds
7/ Vibrant, realistic frescoes painted over old building facades
8/ Charming cut paper silhouettes transform famous U.S. landmarks
9/ How to give a car a wicked paint job using gravity
10/ Sweet Dreams
11/ This musician tattoos the names of suicide survivors among his fans
12/ Greenlid compostable compost bin
1/ Alexandria Coe
2/ Print Edition: September 2016
3/ Lisa Sofield
4/ Nick Pena
5/ Oxford Pennant
6/ Thomas Mailaender’s Illustrated People
7/ 12 places to find great bedding
8/ Where to Eat Pizza
9/ The world of Whirlpool
This weekend – Labor Day here in the U.S. – is probably the last time most of us will see any fireworks for awhile. They’re one of my favorite summertime events, I always look forward to catching a show sprawled out on a blanket or sitting on the hood of a car.
Cai Guo-Qiang is a New York-based artist known for a new kind of fireworks spectacle he calls “explosion events.” His fireworks represent nature, culture, life, and death, each event a short-lived masterpiece in the sky.
Wouldn’t you just burst into a smile upon seeing Cheryl Sorg‘s street art in the wild?! Each colorful geometric piece is made from carefully cut and applied metallic tape before finding its home on the wall of a concrete underpass, a street pole, or any number of other places in the concrete jungle. (Cheryl’s Instagram is also a great spot to check out!)
Vancouver-based Mark Ollinger truly has hidden a number of street sculptures around the world as a response to street painting (aka graffiti, which he also creates). He plays with words, their meanings, and their physical appearance, breaking each one down into a metaphorical and thought out piece of art that depends on your mind to decipher it.
1/ Giant living painting with 26,500 real flowers at London’s National Gallery.
2/ Spanish street artist Pejac hangs gravity-defying shoes over city streets.
3/ Rocking chair bed.
4/ Inside the crazy world of Olympic pin trading.
5/ Aerial photos that capture the divide between rich and poor in South Africa.
6/ The creative projects inspired by the 2016 Rio Olympics.
7/ A glimpse inside a handmade amusement park 40 years in the making.
8/ Mesmerizing kinetic sculpture at the 2016 Olympics glitters like the sun.
9/ DNA-shaped suspension bridge inspired by the Olympic rings.
10/ A clever ring that let’s women point out the obvious.
1/ We’re giving away a George Nelson Bubble Lamp on Instagram!
2/ bunglo
3/ Daniel Entonado
4/ Eight new notebooks
5/ Lorraine Nam
6/ Michael Nykamp’s Mid-Century Modern Homes
7/ Ring Soap
8/ Sigrid Calon Memory Game
9/ Snapbacks are where it’s at
