Taken from a Visboo blog post, where celebrities are depicted with photographs from their teenage years. Amazing how some people have hardly changed, and some a lot. Alice Cooper, for obvious reasons, is in the latter category. First seen here.
Another lovely cover of days gone by for model aircraft enthousiasts - like myself when I was a teenager. Pure nostalgia, but not artistic enough for the under cover series in Art for Art's sake. First seen here.
A fascinating if somewhat macabre idea: artist David Palmer creates portraits of famous people killed by gunshots using bullets as the main material. I quite like the John Lennon portrait in this series. First seen here.
Could also have gone under cute critters. The cupcakes themselves are worthwhile, the inclusion of a real dog in the picture makes it even more fun. First seen here.
These type of photographs tend to get boring very quickly, but the linked list of pieces by French photographer Laurent Laveder includes some fun variations on the theme, such as the one shown above. First seen here.
In itself, these covers (dozens of different ones in this series) may not strike one as awful, but there is zero connection between the images selected (National Geography style portraits from around the world) and the music of Bach. The resulting covers are bewildering in their non sequitur effect. First seen here.
Taken from a list of 10 unusual exotic fruits, this is the New Zealand kiwano. I'd love to try it. By the way, I actually have tried four of the ten listed (dragon fruit, durian, passion fruit, rambutan). First seen here.
You are actually looking at a carpet. One taken from a series by German designer David Hanauer, who was inspired by the details and symmetric patterns he encountered when playing with Google Earth. First seen here.
A worthy attempt by the Milwaukee Library to lure potential customers away from the computer - in this case, obviously Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. First seen here.
Japanese artist Haroshi creates his sculptures out of a large number of old, broken, or abandoned skateboards. As usual in cases such as this, just falling on the Potpourri side of the fence rather than Art for Art's sake material. First seen here.
Although this looks like a prize winning photoshop disaster, it is actually a straightforward news shot. It shows Anna Czarniecka of Poland performing on the hoop for a London 2012 test event: rhythmic gymnastics at the North Greenwich Arena. First seen here.
Taken from an interesting pictorial list of 20 items/events/animals causing more deaths per year than that marine murderer, the shark. Some obvious, some very surprising. First seen here.
"You know, for the cover of our Beatles for Strings albums, it would be cute if we had the instruments on Abbey Road just like the original!" - "Done". Ewwwwwwww. What an awful effect. Let alone the inclusion of a horn and a clarinet on the cover of a Beatles for Strings album. Encountered on a music blog that I prefer not to link to.
The site I got this from did not list any further information or source, my best guess is that this is Thailand during recent flooding. Someone really thought outside the box here. First seen here.
Fascinating idea and execution - but just falling on the Potpourri rather than the Art for Art's Sake side of the fence. Using thousands of plastic toy soldiers as his material, artist Joe Black has made this unique portrait of a Chinese soldier. First seen here.
This Nike real world advertisement campaign is clever, but in the end perhaps it backfires... I for one would be pissed off when, while looking for a bench to sit, I would find this one. First seen here.
I have featured brilliant illustrator Steve Thomas before in my main art blog with some of his specialized retro art deco posters. In a recent post in his own blog he describes in detail the steps leading to the creation of a commissioned wall painting in the style of the pulp novel covers of the early and mid 20th century. Fascinating to see how he arrives from the first ideas to the final product. First seen here.
I have been meaning to include this beauty in the blog for a few weeks now, and when I encountered it again at the Amusing planet site, I went ahead. Washington-based painter Tyree Callahan modified a 1937 Underwood Standard typewriter by replacing the letters and keys with color pads and hue labels to create a functional painting typewriter, dubbed the Chromatic Typewriter. Most recently seen here.
Optical illusion paintings in general do not hold much interest for me, but this one really caught my eye. It was created by Ukrainian artist Oleg Shuplyak. First seen here.
I still feel flattered when my photographs are used by other sites, especially when big names like Forbes do this. Their article about the ban on social media for volunteers at the 2012 Olympic games came with my shot London 2012 as illustration. First seen here.
The lady bug, which we call in Holland (translated obviously) our Lord's animal, is the only bug that could feature under cute critters. The others should take lessons from this species' PR department. Marvelous photograph as well. First seen here.
I am clearly not alone in my appreciation of the nostalgia and aesthetics of the famous eighties' Rubik's cube. These coasters are a lovely variation on that theme. First seen here.
Truly amazing stuff, these Samurai renditions of Star Wars themes. I created this compilation myself from three of the figures included in the link - from left to right, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Chewbacca, and Obi Wan Kenobi. First seen here.
This would make an amazing gift, especially for an (amateur) astronomer. The remaining eight planets, after poor Pluto has been booted out, in chocolate editions. Great packaging as well. First seen here.
I started my main blog, Art for Art's sake, in 2006, to share my taste in photography, fine arts, architecture and music. In 2009, I started this counterpart blog, Art's Potpourri, as an outlet for other interesting matter and some chatter, which do not quite fit in the main blog.
Magic carpet
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Last December, Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011) passed away (see a previous blog
entry). She was an important figure in the American abstract expressionist ...