►Alex Varanese - Urban cartography

►Alex Michael Varanese releases music as broken time machines, has released one episode so far of an animated sitcom. He is native to the bay area. Thinks John Hughes is bigger than Jesus. He is an ardent believer in hard determinism and wishes he were better friends with fate; is guilty of an overuse - but never misuse - of the word "literally"; draws upon a limitless supply of cheeky quips designed specifically for ironic, post-hipster posturing; likes red more than you do.

Alex's clients are: Nike, Google, Publicis / Chevrolet, Fortune, Playboy, Island Records, Wired UK, Money Magazine, Surface Magazine, Advanced Photoshop Magazine, Computer Arts Magazine, CBS, Sapient-Nitro / Drambuie, Rowohlt Verlag / Jack Kerouac (view work).

http://www.alexvaranese.com/  

►Santtu Mustonen - Vibrant illustrations

►Works by Santtu Mustonen are illustrations with a bit of movement that make them look 3Dimensional. Santtu is an Amsterdam based graphic designer / illustrator / trippy-gif-maker, has an all new portfolio bursting with strange shapes, wild lines, and funky color combinations that will make you poke your computer’s screen.

http://www.santtumustonen.com/

►Derek Gores - Amazing collages

►Derek Gores, born 1971, New York. Derek has gained national attention for his collage portrait series, recycling magazines, labels, and found materials to create the works on canvas. The series showcases Gores' contrasting interests in the natural beauty of the figure, the angular design aesthetics of fashion (and machinery), and a fearless sense of play.

A successful commercial designer and illustrator for 15 years, clients include ESPN, Lenny Kravitz, Lucasfilm, Kings of Leon, U2, NASCAR, Adidas, Madonna, Harley Davidson, 321 Agency, Van Halen, the National Football League, LiveNation, SEIU, Love Haight Apparel, and JCPenney.

Derek lives and works in Melbourne, Florida, surrounded by the intellect and culture of the Space Coast.

http://www.derekgores.com/

►Irma Boom - Book design

►Amsterdam-based graphic designer Irma Boom specializes in book making who has different work methods and a different view on things such as the use of unfamiliar materials and formats, colors, structures, and typography. Boom applies the sense of touch into all of her book and has established an international reputation, according to an interview in April 2001.To her, books are seen as objects that communicate ideas and stories and speak to all human senses.

Boom has worked on her 2136 page SHV Think Book as editor and designer for five years. Research for this book took place in cities like Amsterdam, Paris, London, and Vienna. This anniversary book was one of her biggest works and showed a specific view on the history of her company. It was designed to be distributed around the world. However, it's pace of distribution is very slow. Boom has calculated that it will take five hundred years to spread to all the places in the world. Four thousand copies were printed in English and five hundred in Chinese. Her think book has become an international icon of Dutch design.

Her design for ‘Weaving as Metaphor’ by the American artist Sheila Hicks was awarded 'The Most Beautiful Book in the World’ at the Leipzig Book Fair. Her books have been shown at numerous international exhibitions and are also represented in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

This Dutch designer has introduced the idea of a "fat book." When Boom was asked what would make her create a book that was two inches tall and half as thick, she replied: “The book is small because whenever I make a book, I start by making a tiny one. Usually I make five, six or seven for each book, as filters for my ideas and to help me to see the structure clearly. I have hundreds of those small books and am so fond of them. I’ve always wanted to make one for publication, but no one has ever wanted to do it. And I thought, well, this time, I can.” The book contains 704 pages and 450 images. She titles the book "Irma Boom: Biography in Books." The New York Times wrote an article called "A Small Book in a Big Career," published on August 8, 2010, based on Irma Boom. This book only ran for about two months at the University of Amsterdam Library. It was bound in a bright red cover with the word "BOOM" printed on the front in clumsy white letters.

Graphic designer Irma Boom has made over 250 books, 50 of which are in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Boom, at age 49, has designed most of her books for other people the way she has wanted and felt like they should be. Almost none of her clients have complained. A book designer normally works with texts and images selected by editors and art directors. However, Boom combines the three roles by deciding on the book's structure and choosing the themes and visual material on her own. When working on a book, she obsesses over every element. This includes not only how the book will look, but how it will feel and smell and invents ingenious ways of achieving her desired affects. This is what makes her such a great designer.

Boom designed a book titled "Beautiful Ugly" by Sarah Nuttall. Nuttall states that "the book was designed in Amsterdam by Irma Boom, and I thank her for her extraordinary eye and prodigious talent for making books beautiful."The cover to this book was an olive-green color with no pictures or text. It was simple yet elegant, just like Irma herself.

 http://www.irmaboom.nl/

 

►Ray Caesar - Beautifully movable dolls

►Ray Caesar was born in 1958 in London. At an early age, his family moved to Toronto, Canada, where he currently resides. From 1977—80 he attended Ontario College of Art, followed by 17 years from 1980—96 working in the art & photography department of the Hospital For Sick Children in Toronto, documenting disturbing cases of child abuse, surgical reconstruction, psychology, and animal research. Coupled with inspiration from surrealists Kahlo and Dali, Caesar’s experiences at the hospital continue to influence his artwork. 

His haunting imagery is created digitally using 3D modeling software called Maya, mastered while working in digital animation for television and film industries from 1998—2001. In 1999, Caesar received a Primetime Emmy Nomination for Outstanding Special Effects in a series.

Caesar works in Maya (a 3D modeling software used for digital animation effects in film and game industries), using it to create his figures as well as the virtual realms in which they exist. Through the program, he builds digital models with invisible skeletons and anatomical joints that can be bent and manipulated to assume any pose. He wraps the models in rich textures, adding hair, skin, eyelashes and fingernails. Then places them in digitally lit, impeccably detailed 3D environments built with architectural layers, windows, wallpapers, curtains and furnishings. Caesar’s meticulous process incorporates elements of drawing, painting, collage and sculpture, working countless hours to achieve every remarkably intricate tableau. Further emphasizing his sculptural technique, Caesar compares his process of 2D printmaking with imagery created in 3D as being similar to the practice of capturing stills from video and film. 

With full control over dressing, posing and lighting his figures as well as every element of their surroundings, Caesar’s craft is an advanced extension of a childhood obsession—playing with dolls. Fantasy, escapism, human cruelty and disguise are reoccurring themes explored within his dramatic narratives. Betraying the seemingly child-like innocence of the figures is their piercing, knowing gaze—exposing inner strength in contrast with their fragile physical appearance. Dark details manifest from deep within the artist’s vast imagination to define simulated realities, transporting the viewer into sanctuaries created for his lost ghost-children who emerge from shadows into safe refuge, carrying macabre secrets and hidden truths.

Artist's Statement... 

"I was born in London, England on October 26 1958, the youngest of four and much to my parent's surprise, I was born a dog. This unfortunate turn of events was soon accepted within my family and was never again mentioned in the presence of polite company. I was a rambunctious youth as was natural to my breed but showed a fine interest in the arts as I drew pictures incessantly on anything including the walls and floors of every room of our tiny house. After some trouble with intolerant neighbors, my family was convinced to move to Canada and it was not long before the burgeoning town of Toronto became our new home.

Unfortunately the drawing continued to become somewhat atypical and aberrant and it was  impressed upon me that such images might not be suitable for public viewing. In the summer of 69, there was a valiant attempt to stop me from doodling infamous contemptible fascist dictators upside down on my stomach with a ballpoint pen. I was consoled however by the encouragement to continue penciling in faces of flamboyant cowboys such as Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, The Lone Ranger and Tonto on my toenails but was expressly forbidden to talk to them at night.

It can be said that there are defining moments in a dogs life that can only be described as pivotal. Mine came when I received a gift of a flesh toned 12 inch plastic movable human doll attired in cheaply made military fatigues called "GI Joseph". I however named him "Stanley Mulver" and immediately resigned his commission from the light infantry. My Mother helped in this by sewing small business suits and leisure wear out of leftover Christmas fabric embroidered with holly and snowmen, tinfoil shoes and one tasteful Safari suit made of tight fitting powder blue rayon that proudly shone cobalt in the summer sunlight. It wasn't long before I had begun making enlarged wigs out of gray plasticine.

These wigs soon became huge pompadours for Stanley  and looked even more grand when I meticulously embedded small hairs from my daily body and face shavings. This hirsute practice along with walking upright allowed me to fit in with other children even though my father considered it a waste of time. In short, Stanley had become a visage of the Man I could never be, of that elusive self one sometimes glimpses down the tunnel of infinite reflected mirrors. Although ridiculed by my peers, I proudly wore Stanley around my neck at all times as if to say "SEE! This is the man I will be, a good man, a kind man".

I have worked in many fields over the years, attended obedience classes and art colleges, jobs designing horrible buildings in architectural studios, medical art facilities, digital service bureaus, suspicious casino computer game companies, eventually working at computer modeling, digital animation and visual effects for television and film. Some award nominations have been attained and I have been driven in long black liquor filled limousines and walked on hind legs down red carpets in Pasadena while wearing strange smelling rented tuxedos.

Things change and summer years come to an end. My change occurred one night when my Mother visited me, which was slightly unusual because she had passed away some months before, a victim to the cigarette habit she could never quite lick. Facing a wall and slowly turning I saw the right side of her face ablaze in light, her hand trying to cover the light as if she were apologetic for having it seep through. Words were said about following rabbits down holes and I was shown galleries of work which were to be my own. My Mother was not the first visitation I have had and it seems she will not be the last.
I live in a brick house with my wonderful wife Jane and a coyote called Bonnie. I like eating avocados and I don't really mind being a dog".

►Pi [π] for Paranoia

►A mental disorder characterized by systematized delusions and the projection of personal conflicts, which are ascribed to the supposed hostility of others, sometimes progressing to disturbances of consciousness and aggressive acts believed to be performed in self-defense or as a mission... Baseless, excessive suspicion of the motives of others... "There will be no order, only chaos."

Video/Graphic/Artworks | Mirjana Milosavljevic
http://www.wix.com/thedivineart/mirjana

Excerpts | Psychological thriller film Pi [π] 1998 written and directed by Darren Aronofsky.

Music | Clint Mansell - Pi r2 [πr²]
Narrator | Mark Margolis, theme 'Archimedes'

►Waves & Particles

►"The "Waves and Particle" paintings developed from an attempt to pull back and understand the bigger picture. I formerly had defined my work as integrating natural and man-made forms. Now, I see them as more similar than not. Now, I'm painting a universe of energy that occasionally articulates itself as form.
I believe that mark-making; painting, drawing, sculpting, et al, personifies both the wave and the particle. Energy and matter; the artists' loaded brush touching the canvas.
My paintings continue to evolve, but the name of the series, "Waves and Particles" still define what my work is about." - Howard Hersh

Artworks | Howard Hersh
Artwork series: 'Waves & Particles'
http://www.howardhersh.com

Video/Graphic | Mirjana Milosavljevic
http://www.wix.com/thedivineart/mirjana

Music/Composer | Vito Palumbo
Composition: Concerto Barocco - II tempo
http://vitopalumbo.com/

►Awaiting Metamorphosis

►There is considerable emphasis on and appreciation of wit, including visual metamorphosis, consisting of sequential motions, photos, graphic elements in which one thing evolves into another. Here, in a series of seemingly logical steps, a photography is transformed into a metamorphosis...

Photography | Nuccia Cammara
Photography series: 'Awaiting Metamorphosis'
http://www.nucciacammara.it/

Video/Graphic | Mirjana Milosavljevic
http://www.wix.com/thedivineart/mirjana

Music/Composer | Vito Palumbo
Composition: Quadro sinfonico concertante per pianoforte e orchestra - I tempo
http://vitopalumbo.com/

►Valentina Brostean - Wonderful grotesqueries

►Born on October 24th,1983, in the town Novi Sad, Serbia. Valentina's interest in art began at an early age. Her entire childhood was spent drawing, illustrating and painting. After finishing elementary school and high school for design she continued her education on faculty for applied arts 'Academy of Art Novi Sad" on section graphic design and from year 2008 she is a student on Master studies on same faculty with a major in "book graphic and illustration".

Heavily inspired by urban culture and the pop surrealism movement, Valentina Brostean has developed a unique and very personal style.She has an eye for the strange beauty in the grotesqueries of life. Inspired by the relationship between dreams, natural world and the emptiness of consumer culture, she creates and brings unique characters to life from her imaginary world.

Her body of work is built of melancholy interaction between man-made status symbols and frozen moments of the utopian childhood memories. Strongly focused on figurative narration her characters simply reflect us – modern society without its masks, without the fake presentations that make us acceptable to whatever group we are a part of.

Artist's statement:
"I have always had an eye for the strange beauty in the grotesqueries of life; This appreciation is now very evident in work that I am making. Inspired by the relationship between dreams, natural world and the emptiness of consumer culture, between safe childhood playing to everyday marks of reality I bring and create a new type of creatures in my imaginary world. It is a whole range of characters from the ones in darker corners of the streets of soulless cities to the safe and pure creatures from imagination in my wonderland trying through them to prove that I have never grown up, or at least have never lost touch with my innocent childhood self.

My body of work is built of this melancholy interaction between man-made status symbols and frozen moments of the utopian childhood memories. In my work I often flirt with different typefaces, superimposing pieces of print on top of my illustrations, or using them as part of the drawings. I often use draws in black ink on top of these collages, using all kind of hand written scribbles often, which pull the focus of the work back from the adult world to the realms of childhood. This experimenting with more text and new techniques led me to emerging of very personal style.

The characters i paint may seem like some creatures from another dimension, real but unreal, sometimes very closely connected with childhood, playful and inventive, sometimes abandoned and tragically sad and full of misery. But i think they are simply us, modern society without it’s masks, without the fake presentations that make us acceptable to whatever group we are a part of. Yet the only place where we are truly revealed the way we really are is one from the inside. We all share feelings of fear and loneliness. We all sometimes feel ugly and insecure.

If you examine my work closely, you might come to the realization that my creatures are really kind of self portraits, set in a fantastical landscapes of imaginary world which echoes of her own… a bitter, yet sweetly coated prescription for modern life."

Valentina has been invited to participate in collaborative art projects all around the world in diverse solo and group gallery shows. She has more than ten years of experience with several agencies doing illustration projects, print and educational work. She is now working as independent artist focusing on her personal expression through painting and collaborating with talented people on various projects – anything where she can apply her creativity. Her work has been featured in numerous magazines for visual culture.