Apr
10

Turkish artist Hasan Kale creates awesome micro paintings on a variety of unexpected surfaces such as the delicate wings of butterfies, beetles, and cicadas, strips of pasta, tiny snail shells, seeds, and coffee beans. While Kale’s canvases differ greatly from each other, they all share one thing in common: each is painted with a miniature landscape of the artist’s beloved hometown, the city of Istanbul.

“Kale uses his finger as a palette to blend paints and to create his desired color palettes. With great patience and a well-trained, steady hand, the artist uses a very fine-tipped paint brush to achieve amazing details. Viewers have to look very closely in order to see and to appreciate the landscapes, which blend very naturally into his chosen, and unusual, backgrounds.”

Click here to watch a brief video of Hasan Kale at work, painting a pumpking seed.

Visit My Modern Metropolis to view more of Hasan’s miniature landscapes.

Apr
04

From the Department of Awesome Optical Illusions comes this fantastic photo entitled Oko, which means “eye” in Croatian. It was taken by Marko Popadic, a photographer based in Merzenich, Germany. The markings on the wing of a butterfly perched on the zygomatic bone of a human skull hauntingly serve as the piercing gaze of the skull’s missing eye. [via Neatorama]

From the Department of Awesome Optical Illusions comes this fantastic photo entitled Oko, which means “eye” in Croatian. It was taken by Marko Popadic, a photographer based in Merzenich, Germany. The markings on the wing of a butterfly perched on the zygomatic bone of a human skull hauntingly serve as the piercing gaze of the skull’s missing eye.

[via Neatorama]

Mar
11

Sean and Steph Mayo (aka “Siercon and Coral“) used LEGO pieces to create an awesome collection of insect specimens.

Here you see the Praying Mantis (Mantidae) Purple Flora Butterfly (Nymphalidae) Black Wolf Spider (Lycosidae), and the Black Millipede (Diplopoda).

Click here to view the entire collection.

[via Laughing Squid]

Mar
04

Amit Drori and Tel Aviv-based designer Noam Dover created an awesome menagerie of robotic animal sculptures, which are powered by servo motors and remote-controlled by puppeteers, for theatrical production entitled Savanna, A Possible Landscape, which premiered in 2011.

Head over to Laughing Squid to watch a couple short videos of the production.

Photos by Noam Dover and Michal Cederbaum

Apr
11

Jan
07

Nov
13

Monarch by David Herbert

Little did we know that H.R. Giger and Ridley Scott’s infamous Alien had a lackadaisical silver cousin who prefers relaxing in a rocking chair and thinking its thoughts whilst a monarch butterfly perches on its wrist. What would Bishop make of this?

The 8ft sculpture is made of chicken wire, spray foam, plaster, chrome paint, colored paper, plywood and steel. 

[via My Modern Metropolis]

Jul
01