Street Art Animation by Blu

How have I never seen this animation by street artist Blu before? Mesmerizing: 

[via Flavorwire]

Francois Maumont Calendar

[via Drawn]

Vincent Kohler's Turnaround

The Turnaround project by Vincent Kohler uses baseball bats as canvases.

[via Design Milk]

Kelsey Oseid

[A Beast Every Week]

Ray Villafane's Pumpkins

I know Halloween is over, but we're still in gourd season, right? These carvings are amazing:

[via Flavorwire]

You've got a face for radio?

Comic book artist Harvey James has begun a series of before and after drawings for podcast hosts. Here's the first:

Even though my "before" image of Marc Maron was not anything like James', I love this project. I'm an avid podcast-listener, and with the exception of Ira Glass, Mo Rocca, and Paula Poundstone, who I knew before I started listening, my ideas are generally way off. 

As for Marc Maron, I initially pictured him as Jeff Bridges-esque, but that came from WTF's black-and-white iTunes art, so I don't think it truly counts as a "before seen".

I also recently watched all of Explosion Bus (DO IT), and subsequently realized that people who lend their voices to animation have even less chance of being pictured as they are IRL.

[via Splitsider]

Science Tattoos

I've had a fascination with tattoos for awhile; although I'd never get one, I get a kind of voyeuristic pleasure out of seeing other people's and hearing their stories. So I was happy to see a slideshow of science-themed tattoos on the Science Times today, from Carl Zimmer's new book, "Science Ink". These tattoos are also of an impressive design and quality, and many of their owners are (bad-ass) scientists themselves:

Jellyfish

Neural network

Ammonite fossil

The Golden Ratio

[Photos culled from Flavorwire, since the Times wouldn't let me copy theirs]

Stacey Rozich

[via A Beast Every Week]

Linger a Little Longer

Wish List: I'm mesmerized by Jay Watson's Linger a Little Longer table and bench. It has a thermochromatic finish, which means it responds to heat (be it from your body, a mug, or anything), and a mark remains until the area returns to room temperature.

I'm reminded of those smooth black stone tables we used to have in science labs at school. I enjoyed seeing marks from the humidity of my hands, and watching them fade.

[via Design Milk]

Bucky Magazines

Inspired by Buckminster Fuller, Paperlux created this foldable cover for an issue of the German design magazine Novum. So many triangles.

It might not make stuffing a magazine into your bag any easier, but it sure would be more colorful. 

[via Design Milk]

AMNH Diorama Restoration

The New York Times ran an interesting article on the American Museum of Natural History's $2.5 million project of restoring the dioramas in the Hall of North American Mammals. Even though the dioramas are a favorite of many, I think most people don't realize how much care and talent went into all of the aspects--the taxidermy, landscape paintings, and foreground creation. Since the Hall opened in 1942, things have started to look a little faded (although to be honest, I noticed the wear on taxidermy specimens more at the Natural History Museum in London). It's to be expected, and (many endangered) animals aren't exactly being hunted and killed for museums now. Better to restore than replace, right?

Before and after restoration of the mountain goat

Coyote

"The larger animals, like the bears, are often left in place, with the artists perching on cantilevered platforms to avoid damaging the dioramas’ delicate interiors.  But sometimes even large animals have to come out.  A trio of Dall sheep, for example, will have to be removed and put in a giant freezer off and on for several weeks to kill off an insect infestation in their horns.

Natural history dioramas were developed in the late 19th century as museums began to move away from the practice of presenting taxidermy specimens alone in display cases, like objects of art. At the New York museum, the earliest dioramas were called “habitat groups,” four-sided glass cases of mounted birds with a background painting of their habitat. Under the influence of Carl Akeley, a naturalist, sculptor and taxidermist who came to the museum in 1909, the more modern form of diorama evolved.

That form contains three elements — the animals, the background painting and the vegetation, rocks, soil and other foreground objects. Different artists and specialists were responsible for each, traveling to a location — almost all the dioramas recreate specific locales, often in national parks — to draw sketches, collect the animals and gather foreground material."

I loved being scared by the dioramas as a kid (and still do). I find the largest animals literally breath-taking.

[via Gothamist]

The Power of Doodling

This TED talk by Sunni Brown makes me feel validated for my inability not to doodle. In third grade, I got a note back on my homework that read something like, "Good job, but try not to draw all over stuff you're going to hand in." Whoops.

[via Drawn]

Beautiful and Creepy Comics

Outfoxed by Dylan Meconis is a good one. The limited color palate lends itself well to a folkloric feel. You can read the whole thing here.

[via Drawn]

I love it when illustrators put thought into the way their work is going to be consumed on the web. Outfoxed does a good job of using page click-throughs to maintain a sequential feel, and Emily Carroll often makes one scroll down a long page length to build suspense. I think not knowing how many pages there are in an online comic keeps excitement high.

While I'm new to Dylan Meconis, I cannot recommend Emily Carroll enough. Gorgeous illustrations, and since Halloween is coming up, I recommend the chilling His Face All Red. All of her comics are great; when I read them I feel like I'm making sharp turns around corners, unsure of what's going to be on the other side of the wall. 

Blik Wall Decals

Living Social is offering $40 credit to Blik for $20 today and tomorrow. They have a huge variety of stuff for your walls, and give you a heads up as to how difficult each installation is. Plenty are reusable, and all are safe to remove. They also have a line of Threadless decals. 

Imaginary Castle

Muhler Skull

Untitled Face by Keith Haring

Jowlin'

Great photos of dogs shaking from Carli Davidson:

Head over to Flavorwire for more.

Gumby!

Have you seen today's interactive Google doodle for Art Clokey's 90th birthday? Check it out.

FACT: I know all the words to the Gumby theme song
FACT: I used to be afraid of the Blockheads to an embarrassing extent.

Try saying "pony pal Pokey" five times fast. 

Gwendal Le Bec

I love Gwendal Le Bec's illustrations [via Drawn]:

Whimsical while still realistic and not too twee. Perfect.

Jonny Q

Animator Roger D. Evans has created a perfect stop-motion replica of the Jonny Quest opening. I have vague memories of occasionally watching this as a kid, but I didn't realize that it only had one season. A lot of those shows from my childhood lasted for way less time than I thought (this explains why I've seen every episode of Saved by the Bell multiple times). Check it:

[via Flavorwire]

Evans had to make all of the action figures, because they never made any Jonny Quest toys? I find that hard to believe.

The Creators Project 2011

The New York Creators Project is officially happening 10.15-10.16 in DUMBO. My Free Concert has really been hyping it up, and while I didn't attend last year, it sounds epic.

A bunch of art installations and films are on the bill, along with a lot of live music (e.g., Florence + the Machine, Atlas Sound, Four Tet, etc.). There may be free food and booze. This also includes Karen O.'s theatre/music project at St. Ann's Warehouse (a great space that may not be around next season). Except for that one, all the events are free. YOU MUST RSVP. Do it now. Keep in mind, you can only RSVP for one of the two days, but it looks like most of the music will be happening on the 15th. 

The Creator's Project website has more information; they'll be updating with schedules soon (and might be giving away Stop the Virgens tickets).

The Clock

This is exciting news: MoMA has announced that it is buying "The Clock," Christian Marclay's 24-hour film using hundreds of shots and scenes from different movies to count down every minute of the day. I had never had to wait on line to get into an art gallery before, but when "The Clock" was on view at Paula Cooper Gallery this past winter, I waited for at least 45 minutes. Totally worth it. I was there from the 2:30-4:30p block, so I got to see a bunch of "getting out of school scenes." It's really a marvel of visual and sound editing, and spans so many different kinds of movies (I recognized about 1/3 of the ones I saw). I hope MoMA keeps the museum open to run 24-hour screenings every once in a while.