Patrik Bundeli is saving the balls!
The humorous name is not simply an attempt at something vulgar. Save the balls! is a project created by Patrik Bundeli with a very interesting concept. It seems that these creative pieces developed out of a determination to quit smoking. Each ball representing one instance in which he had the urge to pick up a cigarette. It actually sounds like a really smart way to quit smoking. And of course this developed into a project of saving those poor overly abused ping pong balls:
Initiated by 2much for the first time in 2008 the project “save the balls” is meant to provide a violence free and safe shelter for abused ping pong balls. Month after month, millions and millions of those poor balls are cruely abused by hard beatings from the ping pong-racket and some balls have to endure gruesome smash-beats with up to 170 km/h, which deforms the ball up to 25% percent of its original size.
2much is dedicated to stop this unnecessary violence and begs you not to look the other way! Every ball bought from 2much is one more ball in safety.
~Project description from Patrik Bundeli on Behance
These images and more are available from Patrik Bundeli’s portfolio on Behance: http://www.behance.net/2much
Yes Master: Igor-ian Personalities by Jake Waldron
These strange and rather lonely looking creatures are the creations of artist Jake Waldron. The mixed media sculptures are a fun addition to the world of art, each a embodying a personality and story that is more mystical than expected from contemporary sculpture. The different materials used by Waldron include resin, sculpey, upholstery foam, polyester batting, and oil paints, along with hand dyed and hand sewn fabrics.
What seems interesting in the aesthetic is the combination of elements from fantasy or horror in both film and animation, and visual styles that have appeared in the genres. Similar to a merge of Igor and Nightmare Before Christmas or other Tim Burton styles. The characters can easily be seen as being an element of their own adventures that are waiting to be told. With many of the pieces, the figures stand silent, or occasionally appear to have stopped in very slight movement creating a moment with the viewer that allows them to observe, wonder, and develop an idea of what this character is like.
More of Jake Waldron’s work and more information can be found on his website at http://jakewaldron.com/ and via his photostream on flickr.
[Sources: http://jakewaldron.com/, http://www.flickr.com/photos/jakewaldron/ ]
Chris Natrop: Cut Out Paper Never Looked So Awesome
Yet another creative individual from the backlogs of archives collected by our resident blogger Katherine(@fiametta137). I decided to slap my name next to the box that says (which CF staff member is going to review this artist) because Chris’s work seemed particulary..pardon the simplicity of my verbose…awesome. As a child I remember cutting out long streamers of basic shapes and thinking it was the coolest thing on the planet; I had no idea that a person could make a successful living out of it, let alone a fantastic installation and artpiece.
Before taking a look at more of his work lets take a look at Natrop’s background. Natrop recieved his BFA in Painting at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a merit scholarship. Since then he’s been featured at a multitude of galleries and has been invited as a guest lecturer to the School of Art and the University of Tennessee. Not to mention the Vincent Prince Art Museum. Natrop’s work features installations of fibrious paper cut outs that immediatly give the feeling of soft fabrics and spiderwebs.
Not of all his work consists of these paper cut out installations. His work encompasses a multitude of forms and the paper cutouts can easily become static, wall-mounted pieces of art.
If you want to see more of his work make sure to check him out at http://www.chrisnatrop.com/ Creative Fluff definitely reccomends him.
Sustainable Design, Going Green the Old Fashioned Way
Recently I have been in the mood to buy a bike, not anything fancy mind you, but a good plain old fashioned bicycle. However, knowing myself, I would use it for the first few days, and if the bike gets lucky maybe even a week before I forget about it or just consider it too much trouble. (Living on campus with a bicycle just doesn’t really make sense in the end.) Yet it is good to know, that if i do decide to give into my impulsive nature and buy a bike, it will have a good home. Not with me of course but with a bit of luck at this little place I discovered.
Amazing I thought to myself, what a great idea to turn something from junk to Design Motif. Although their website and their ordering information may be a little hard to use and somewhat inconvienent, for any lover of Modern Art and/or Bikes be it motorcycle or bicycle, these pieces are a must have. The look turns out to be so modern and edgy.
A really great aspect of this business is the fact that they recycle the materials instead of throwing them on the scrap heap. It is a great way to really rethink and reuse our everyday items. It definitely makes me wonder about other material goods I may throw away and what other uses I could just have for them.
So in conclusion, if you want to turn your bike into a rocking chair, check out Bikefurniture.com.
The Reincarnation of Words
There are many different mediums in the art world. Usually what comes to mind are things like oil paint, watercolors, acrylic, charcoal, clay. Sometimes, like with the work of Jen Stark, the medium is paper, but what about sculpting words? I’m not talking about writers. In this case, I’m talking about giving words new life as sculpture as exemplified in these pieces by Su Blackwell: book sculptures.
Blackwell’s sculptures consist of characters, buildings, ships, or landscapes. The subjects take physical form and rise from the very story they came from. In the words of the artist: “It is the delicacy, the slight feeling of claustrophobia, as if these characters, the landscape have been trapped inside the book all this time and are now suddenly released.”
Find more book sculptures as well as Su Blackwell’s installations at: http://www.sublackwell.co.uk/
Color Portals: Paper Sculptures by Jen Stark
These explosions of color are paper sculptures by the extremely talented Jen Stark. Since graduating in 2005, Stark has exhibited around the United States as well as in the UK and France. Both her sculptures and illustrations are extremely vibrant, and while her drawings seem to be abstract in nature, Stark’s paper sculptures are structured and geometric.
The layers of colored paper draw one’s eye gradually into the center of the sculpture making each individual sculpture like portals into different psychedelic dimensions.
To see more of Jen Stark’s paper sculptures, go to the artist’s website: http://jenstark.com/index.html
