Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Lego Guys with Tats

Well lookie there... these little Lego guys, and gal, are all tatted up using Pilot extra-fine pens with 0.25mm tips. Supposedly, you can write on a grain of rice with these pens... fun fun







(source)

Skateboard Sculptures by Haroshi

Artist, Haroshi, transforms and recycles layers of stacked, wooden skateboard decks into 3D sculptures... take a look...


 





 



 

 




 (source)

Beautiful Lamps by Calabarte

These lamps created by polish artist, Calabarte, are absolutely fabulous. They aren't just beautiful to look at when unlit, but turn them on and... wow... instant, stunningly beautiful wall art. One-of-a-kind pieces, they are made from dried gourds which are hollowed out and then intricately carved to allow light to pass through.






 

 






http://calabarte.com

http://facebook.com/calabarte

(source article and images)

Optical Illusions in Paint

I thought these optical illusions, painted by artist Oleg Shuplyak, quite entertaining to decipher... 
















Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Cheaper by the Dozen


Over the past month, I've been saving up. My two cents worth is now a dime a dozen... a baker's dozen.

1) Cursive is a dying art.

2) A coin toss is sacred.

3) I've noticed more and more people spending a lot of time snapping pix and videoing experiences, which makes me wonder if we are missing out on experiencing the experience.

4) I like equal opportunity slang. Take "bastiches" for instance.

5) No wonder productivity is down and our economy is in the pooper. I do believe there is at least in small part, a direct correlation between our economic woes and the amount of people who spend time on facebook during normal working hours. I find the huge number of posts from 8 to 5 fascinating, and quite telling.

6) No one should have more than 1 indoor cat... N-O-one.

7) Concerns about health, the environment, and ethical eating do not require giving up meat. What they do require is a new ethics of eating animals: one rooted in moderation, mindfulness, and respect. Rather than urging people to consume only plants, doesn't it make more sense to encourage them to eat an omnivorous diet that is healthy, ethical, and ecologically sound?

8) It's quite a different experience when a well-spoken intellectual peppers their language with f-bombs, than when a not-so-well-spoken person does the same. The former comes across as fascinating and expressive, while the later comes off as a complete idiot.

9) I now know what to call these musical loops in my head... Earworms ~ an inability to dislodge a song and prevent it from repeating itself in one's head. Also known as, brain worms, sticky music, cognitive itch and stuck song syndrome. 

10) We are so privately wealthy and publicly poor.

11) We just don't make smart people like we used to.


12) The widespread corruption in politics is more than citizens are willing to acknowledge and address. Apathy is a cancer in our society.


13) "The Cheese stands alone." ~ Omar

Artist Spotlight: Kseniya Simonova

Her body moving in sync with the accompanying music, an expressionless Kseniya Simonova brings her stories to life using a few handfuls of volcanic sand, a light-box and a projector.

Behavior Gap

Financial planner, Carl Richards shares his own personal financial experiences to help us make more thoughtful and informed financial decisions in our lives. In his newly released book, Behavior Gap: Simple Ways to Stop Doing Dumb Things With Money he uses simple sketches to get his point across. Richards discovered a phenomenon he termed “Behavior Gap” after following his clients portfolios. He noticed that individuals have dramatically lower returns on their investments than the average mutual fund. He recognized a conundrum we seem to have when it comes to weighing our needs against our wants, leading many of us to live beyond our means. Richards recommends not focusing on things we cannot control, and to even take a break from media to focus on the important things in our lives.

More of Carl Richards’ insightful and easy to understand sketches can be found at BehaviorGap.com