Category: WOW

American fiber artist Sarah K. Benning is a self-taught embroidery expert. Though trained as a fine artist, she strayed from the studio art path and happened upon embroidery “almost by accident,” she admits. Initially a hobby, she turned the craft into a career, and is now known for her playful portrayals of potted plants.

Benning’s work features a diverse and delightful array of flora, from trendy succulents and cacti to more traditional ferns and flowers. Her sources of inspiration are equally eclectic, as she cites “interior design trends, a love for Midcentury design, antique textiles, and her own potted plant collection” as her muses. Benning combines these interests and influences to create embroidered works of art that showcase her undeniable studio skills.

With vivid, tonal colors, stylized designs, and bold lines, her leafy series is evidently inspired by illustration and highly evocative of a painting. “Each piece begins as a drawing before being meticulously hand-stitched,” she explains on her website. “In this way, the thread become more like ink or paint than traditional embroidery, which accentuates the bold shapes, patterns, and color in the compositions.” Benning foregoes the light and delicate style typically associated with embroidery and opts instead for a Matisse-meets-Morris aesthetic.

The artist documents much of her plant-y process on her Instagram. She also sells her unique plant portraits and her pretty patterns through her Etsy shop.

Sarah K. Benning: Website | Instagram | Facebook | Etsy  
via [Colossal]

All images via Sarah K. Benning.

For those of us who are still in tune with our inner child, Mexican photographer Felix Hernandez Rodriguez wants to bring you into his world. His photography—what he calls Dreamphography—emphasizes the fantastical and complex beauty of a distinct moment, which he weaves together to create imaginative worlds. “This is what I believe in,” he writes. “Dreams, thoughts, and ideas are a passport to a wonderful world of creation.”

His gallery called Troopers is “a tribute to the amazing design of the Stormtrooper character” that instills greater depth and personality into these icons. In one of his most striking photos, three Troopers stand in a blustery storm with one on the far side firing his blaster. The scene, however, is far from war-like—it’s not the raw, heart-pounding battle that we are used to seeing the Troopers engage in. Instead, this image depicts a gray and dark, yet also light and intimate, moment.

It makes you wonder: Can a Stormtrooper have playful and complex emotions? This nearly contradicts what it is to be a Stormtrooper—an almost automaton-like human cloned for a specific and brutal purpose. Yet all of Hernandez’s photos emphasize layered feelings and experiences. His photos are filled with carefully-tailored images of dream-like perfection, fading blue skies, and snow-filled worlds touched by the moon. These landscapes transport you to an alternate fantasy world where Stormtroopers explore and even play.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_njjGyjkXg&w=750&h=360]

Felix Hernandez Rodriguez: Website | Behance | Facebook | 500px | Youtube 

All images via Felix Hernandez Rodriguez.

Self-taught artist Stella Im Hultberg creates surreal sculptures and pensive portraits that expressively explore the concept of identity. Though the Korean-born, Oregon-based artist has been dazzling audiences with her imaginative works for years, she is constantly experimenting with new materials and fresh motifs. In her most recent work, Im Hultberg employs acrylic paints and colored pencils to create ethereal portraits of women cloaked in bright blooms of flowers.

Each of Im Hultberg’s dreamy portraits presents an intense yet hazy study of an unknown individual; since her subjects share a number of visual similarities with one another, like their porcelain skin tones and dark, flowing hair, one may even assume they are of the same individual—an idea that Im Hultberg hints at. “Her paintings of ethereal women subtly excavate the possibility of multiplicities in a single self,” Thinkspace Gallery explains. “By combining detailed figurative rendering with surreal imagery, Im Hultberg probes the porous boundaries between self and other. The figures in her work appear in various guises, and she mobilizes them as vehicles for affect and suggestion.”

Though the figures appear physically alike, each portrayal is still unique. In addition to changes in composition and positioning—from lounging figures to dreamlike depictions of floating busts—the subjects’ expressions and body language vary. While some intensely stare at the viewer, others look away or softly close their eyes as they deeply sleep. Still, whether strikingly similar or obviously unique, the portraits all portray a beautiful juxtaposition between somber, mysterious figure and beaming blossoms—a characteristic aesthetic of Im Hultberg that combines “the organic and the graphic [to] create compelling tensions and associations.”

Starting today, Im Hultberg’s stunning selection of floral portraits will be featured in Hollow Resonance, an exhibition at Thinkspace Gallery through December 3, 2016.

Stella Im Hultberg: Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Flickr | Saatchi Art

My Modern Met granted permission to use photos by Thinkspace Gallery.

Breaking with purpose—this is how New Zealand artist Louise McRae describes her creative act. Selecting found wood, cutting it, and painting it before it’s molded into dynamic assemblages, McRae’s work demonstrates an explosive spirit. By fitting together the broken down wood into art that is perfectly imperfect, McRae makes sense of chaos—or rather harnesses it to her advantage. “I have always broken things by accident, now I was breaking with purpose, it felt good, my response to the world of ‘perfection,’ a world that has been beyond my ability to master,” McRae explains.

The natural material is often painted, but the artist does vary her technique by occasionally charring or silver foiling the wood. The color and texture only serve to enhance the forms McCrae creates within each assemblage. Undulating waves embrace large and small squares or sharp, straight lines shoot out from a forceful radius—each piece creating a unique sensorial reading by the spectator. McCrae, whose work is available via Seed Gallery and 33 Gallery, relates her work—including her choice of recycled materials—back to the Cubist movement. “Using recycled materials harks back to the practices of the Cubists, with their characteristic distortions and attempts to represent time, space, and motion within an artwork; the resulting works swell with movement and color.”

Louise McRae: Website | Facebook | Instagram
via [Colossal]

All images via Seed Gallery.

Rivers are sources of life. Not only do they provide habitats for a myriad of flora and fauna, but they are spaces for outdoor leisure and adventure. Unfortunately, many of our global waterways are engineered to be functional at the expense of native plants and wildlife. Urban Rivers, a 501c3 organization based in Chicago, is looking to reverse these effects—starting in their own backyard. Inspired by similar projects in Berlin and Los Angeles, their goal is to install 600 feet of floating gardens in the Chicago River in May 2017, thus providing a home for fish and other animals, while creating a nature destination for people to enjoy.

The floating gardens were first piloted in the Chicago River by Urban Rivers co-founder Josh Yellin, an environmental scientist who installed 50 square feet of habitat in the river as part of his Master’s research in 2013. He was inspired during a kayaking trip on the river, when he noticed a dozen geese huddled onto a piling, seeking respite from the waterway’s boat traffic. “These geese symbolized the general lack of ecological consideration in Chicago today and throughout its history,” Yellin explains. “The Chicago River that once had a natural riverbank and plentiful vegetation, is now outlined by steel seawalls and a few wooden pilings. Can’t Chicago, with its incredible history of design and innovation, do better than this?”

With this in mind, Yellin and a group of like-minded individuals created Urban Rivers, with the aim to reclaim the riverbanks and create an urban wildlife habitat. BioMatrix will provide floating ecosystems to be filled with the native Illinois wetland and prairie plant species that will provide the habitat for mammals, birds, and amphibians. The underside of the floating gardens will provide a feeding habitat for local fish. With results from Yellin’s 2013 experiment indicating a nearly 100% increase in the fish abundance in the river immediately surrounding the floating gardens, the impact is promising.

Urban Rivers is hoping that the floating gardens will provide more than a wildlife sanctuary—community involvement and educational opportunities are equally important. The ability to learn about nature, science, and technology in urban centers is vital for the initiative’s continued success. The team’s experience in clean water initiatives and environmental remediation mean that they’ve already been able to make great strides in meeting their goal. City permits in hand, they’ve started a Kickstarter campaign to fund the 600 feet of floating gardens to be installed in 2017. And while they’ve already made their initial goal, every $50 adds an extra foot of habitat. At this rate they are well on their way to installing a half-mile river park by 2020.

Urban Rivers: Website | Instagram | Twitter | Kickstarter

All images via Urban Rivers.

Japanese artist Yukio Takano is well-versed in the whimsical art of “great mushrooming.” Inspired by the environment and intrigued by the storybook-esque charm of toadstools, Takano combines found driftwood with synthetic materials to create enchanting and impressively lifelike sculptures of luminous mushrooms.

Takano’s fairytale-like fungi are as realistic as they are beautiful. Each sculpture is composed of luminous mushrooms and a discarded driftwood base from which they sprout. The spores are handcrafted out of resin and fitted with hidden LED lights, which are controlled by a simple switch and powered by cleverly concealed batteries. Once lit, the mushrooms’ caps function as miniature lampshades, emitting a gentle glow and softly illuminating their surroundings. Additionally, the magical mushrooms range in size, from big and bulky to delicate and dainty, and they come in a rainbow range of captivating colors—from soft blues and warm yellows to beaming reds and neon greens. Takano also experiments with different caps, stems, and heights, illustrating his in-depth interest in and comprehensive knowledge of the wonderful world of fungi.

Takano has been crafting and selling his bewitching models for years. Unfortunately, given their tremendously fragile nature, he does not ship them abroad—but you can still gaze upon the mesmerizing, one-of-a-kind works below.

Yukio Takano: Website | Blog
via [Colossal]

All images via Yukio Takano.

While most people are looking to keep rust off their car, singer Austin Mahone was after the opposite effect when he commissioned MetroWrapz to customize his BMW i8. Some people want a “vintage” effect without waiting for nature to take its course, so the Florida-based company created a reversible wrap that gives the $140,700 vehicle its rusty skin. The final effect will surely have people doing a double-take on the highway, as the sleek contemporary lines of the vehicle make a sharp contrast with the oxidized finish.

The look, which costs $6,000, was achieved by innovating a custom, double-layered oxidized wrap. Taking a few days to complete, the layers were brushed with chemicals in different stages to obtain the golden orange color of rust. And just to create a higher contrast, gold Vossen rims were added, complementing the warm tones of the finish. You might ask why someone would do this to their BMW. For one, it’ll save having to hide any eventual rust patches created by Florida’s salty, ocean air. Secondly, it gives the chance to live out a post-apocalyptic fantasy on the open road. And lastly, why not?

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1V1O0YdFtjc&w=750&h=422]

MetroWrapz: Website | Facebook | Instagram
via [designboom, Automobile]

All images via MetroWrapz.

The world witnessed one of the greatest political upsets this past Tuesday as Donald Drumpf Trump was elected the 45th President of the United States. Winning less than half of the popular vote (but a majority of the electoral vote), people are in shock at the outcome—Hillary Clinton had the odds stacked in her favor prior to November 8. To convey the anger, hurt, fear, and disappointment that accompanies a Trump win, many have taken to social media. Artists and illustrators, in particular, have channeled their emotions into paintings and cartoons.

Similar to Brexit, creatives around the world have expressed their opinion on the presidential race. Some encapsulate feelings of despair by using the Statue of Liberty as a surrogate for those millions of people who never wanted Trump in office. Others imagine American symbols—like the bald eagle and Air Force One—adorned with his cornsilk combover. And one illustrator, Christopher David Ryan (aka @hellocdr), just wants to give Clinton a big hug.

Check out how others have reacted to the results of the election, below.

Above image credit: @hellocdr

Image credit: @lucille_clerc

Image credit: @yangblog

Image credit: Steve Breen

Image credit: @ygreck

Image credit: @cdrbighug

Image credit: @littleteashi

Image credit: @marceldzama

Image credit: Jeff Delgado

Image credit: @rafaelmantesso

Image credit: Mark Knight

via [Bored Panda, Design TAXI]

Achieving enormous success at a young age, 34-year-old painter Audrey Kawasaki is a leader in the lowbrow art movement. The delicate and sinuous women that pepper her oeuvre are painted with a hand that is instantly recognizable. Yet, it has been over two years since the celebrated, Los Angeles-based artist has presented her work in a solo exhibition. Judging from these preview images of her latest series, the upcoming exhibition titled Interlude will be well worth the wait.

It’s clear from these preview images that her ethereal, erotic artwork has developed in the interim. Kawasaki has always been one of our favorite artists, showing a spectacular ability to marry the natural wood supports she uses with line work that recalls Alphonse Mucha. It’s never easy for successful artists to take time out in order to experiment and push their art, but Kawasaki has done just that, achieving a remarkable outcome. Kawasaki shares that during this period, “[I] have been trying to rethink my creative process, looking back at my earlier works, and challenge my technical execution by eliminating my hatching brush strokes and solid blacks which has been a part of my style for some time.”

These changes lead to a softer touch, as the pale palette contrasts with the sinewy outlines, further enhancing Kawasaki’s trademark of integrating wood grain by leaving negative space in the work. The warm tones of blushing pinks and soft violet, created with layers of oil paint, embrace the spectator, lulling them into tranquility. The women in her work are as haunting as ever. “She chases a ghostly and forever evasive muse, always in search of the same cagey persona,” writes Thinkspace Gallery, which last exhibited Kawasaki’s work in 2011. “Reinvented endlessly through mutable guises and incarnations, Kawasaki pulls ‘her’ from beneath and within the surface of panel in what can only be described as an exorcism or a labor of love.”

With Interlude Kawasaki has succeeded in keeping her work’s core, while simultaneously pushing herself into new territory—something that should be applauded. Interlude runs from November 12 to December 3, 2016 at Thinkspace Gallery in Culver City, CA. The artist will be present at the opening.

Above image: As I Fall. 2016. Oil and graphite on wood panel. 40″ × 30″

Memento. 2016. Oil and graphite on wood panel. 13″ × 14.5″

Enchantress. 2016. Oil and graphite on wood panel. 23.5″ × 23.5″

Reverie. 2016. Oil and graphite on wood panel. 13″ × 14.5″

Left: Nocturne. 2016. Oil and graphite on wood panel. 13″ × 20.75″ / Right: Charmer. 2016. Oil and graphite on wood panel. 18″ × 24″

She’s With Me. 2016. Oil and graphite on wood panel. 20″ × 24″

Work in progress. Image via Jordana Sheara

Audrey Kawasaki: Website | Facebook | Instagram

My Modern Met granted permission to publish photos by Thinkspace Gallery.