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Ray Dennis Steckler, Low-Budget Auteur, Dies at 70 – NYTimes.com: “So urged an ad for “The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!?,” the 1964 cinematic tour de force by Ray Dennis Steckler, a director whose surrealistically impossible plots went beyond zombies to display superheroes, rockers, bikini-clad beach girls — and flourishes of what some saw as inspired moviemaking.”

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The Living Art and Sounds of Michael Alan | .Crudo: “I’m working a record deal/split album and maybe more with Vas Deferens Organization. I believe they’re the future of sound and people should really pay attention to them. It’s why I’m doing this record thing. I never had any intention of a record deal. It’s a limited edition and going to be coming out on vinyl or CD soon. I believe what they’re doing is really high art and the sounds…oh boy, I just had to join them. I don’t believe in much art today, but they are doing it!”

Lower Manhattan Cultural Council – News – Story – Michael Alans Living Installations We Are All Living Installations At Dumbo: “The soundtrack from Sound Drawing ranges from collaborations with Alan and artist Kenny Scharf, Jello Biafra from the Dead Kennedys, Vas Deferens Organization, Japanther, Jeff and Jane Hudson, Geneva Jacuzzi, Noah Becker, Renaldo from Renaldo and the Loaf and many, many more. A new way of merging art and music and bringing it into a gallery and performance space, the Living Installation asks the audience to slow down, listen to the soundtrack, watch the performers act out the music while Alan turns himself, the performers and the space into an installation.”

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Mike Kelley obituary: L.A. contemporary artist dies at 57 – latimes.com: “Mike Kelley, an influential Los Angeles artist whose physically messy and psychologically complex projects laid the groundwork for present-day installation art, has died. He was 57.

He was found dead Tuesday evening at his home in South Pasadena in what several friends described as a suicide following a serious depression. “We can’t confirm a suicide pending an autopsy or coroner’s report,” said one of the estate’s trustees, art historian John Welchman.

Paul Schimmel, the chief curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, called Kelley a “great advocate for artists as well as a great artist,” noting his role teaching at the Art Center College of Design.
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Untitled from Michael Alan on Vimeo.

The Absurd Paintings of Paco Pomet: “”

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Stanley Kubrick’s Photos of 1940s New York – mashKULTURE: “Stanley Kubrick’s Photos of 1940s New “

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Primate Watching (junky plaza) | Inside Mundoblaineo: “Yesterday I had to go over to the post office on Ebay business. The local post office around here is at the Platia Dimarchios, city hall plaza. For some reason, local junkies and other permanently bewildered types have taken up a sort of residence there. There seems to be only minimal dealing going on, furtive ingestion, not much else except for a sort of Brownian motion and social interaction. I told Maria it was like going to the monkey house to watch our distant cousins. Big time voyeur action. I watched a strange menage a trois as one belle of the balle, her left eye blackened and swollen, squeezed into jeans and boots, decorated with chains flirted openly with another candidate as her bearded oblivious companion phased in and out of existence off to one side. He lifted her up from behind, stretching her back while beardo, resplendent in plaid shirt and baseball cap had image iteration and rendering problems. Then the police came by and no one altered their behavior in any way.

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Hyper realistic sculptures – Wall to Watch: ” Hyper realistic sculptures

Ron Mueck makes these amazing sculptures..”

16 Unbelievable Urinals | KikiRiki Pics: “16 Unbelievable Urinals”

ALTERED ZONES – Vas Deferens Organization: “Defenestration At The Gravity Pit”: “In Eric Lumbleau’s recent piece for The Wire’s Collateral Damage column, the Mutant Sounds writer weighs in on the effects of file sharing on the underground music timeline. Forgetten outsider gems are gaining exposure to a new and surprisingly willing audience via torrents or mp3 blogs like Lumbleau’s own, allowing everyone to be their own curator, to write alternative musical histories based on what resonates with them in the now

Though Dallas’ Vas Deferens Organization, Lumbleau’s band, have a varied and prolific output, it’s safe to assume that their own musical timeline would give due props to veteran freaks like Captain Beefheart, The Residents, or Throbbing Gristle. In “Defenestration at the Gravity Pit,” the opening track from their latest Eye Peels And Brain Picks LP, this goofball approach to psychedelia manifests itself as a collagist, peyote-fueled soundtrack for your ritualistic mating dance. –Matt Sullivan, Altered Zones

Eye Peels And Brain Picks is sold out on Puer Gravy, but Side A is available as a free download”

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Psychedelic Art | The Suite World: “Korean surrealist artist Jung Yeon Min’s works are visually stunning, and made us curious to dig into what kind of psyche it takes to produce such artistic beauty. In our research we discovered a view into the infinite imagined world that exists outside the boundaries of our cranium. In the imaginary spaces depicted in her works, the extraordinary and the realistic merge, the micro and the macro coexist, and rules of physical space and time are manipulated.”

Posters by Kazumasa Nagai ~ Pink Tentacle: “Here is a collection of posters by graphic artist Kazumasa Nagai from the 1960s and 1970s.”

Sid & Marty Krofft Interview | The World of Sid & Marty Krofft: “Sid & Marty Krofft By Will Harris August 18, 2011

Although siblings Sid and Marty Krofft started working in show business several decades before they made inroads on the small screen, by the time the ’70s rolled around, they were the uncontested sovereigns of Saturday morning. After creating a cornucopia of classic series, including H.R. Pufnstuf, Lidsville, Sigmund And The Sea Monsters, and Land Of The Lost, the Kroffts made the jump to prime time, producing variety shows for everyone from the Brady Bunch to Barbara Mandrell And The Mandrell Sisters. In recent years, Sid and Marty have taken a step back from working on new properties, instead turning their attentions to repackaging their ’70s shows—the duo signed a deal with Vivendi Entertainment which thus far has seen the release of H.R. Pufnstuf: The Complete Seriesas well as a single-disc best-of collection, Sid & Marty Krofft’s Saturday Morning Hits—and transforming more of their past successes into feature films. With the reissue of Sigmund And The Sea Monsters: Season 1 on the horizon, the Kroffts spoke with The A.V. Club about what the future holds for H.R. Pufnstuf as well as the origins of their career, their disappointment over the Land Of The Lost movie, and the fine line between Charles Nelson Reilly and the character he played on Lidsville.”

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Wild Man Fischer, Outsider Musician, Dies at 66 – NYTimes.com: “Wild Man Fischer, a mentally ill street musician who became a darling of the pop music industry in the 1960s and as a result enjoyed four decades of strange, intermittent and often ill-fitting celebrity, died on Thursday in Los Angeles. He was 66.”

First therapeutic study of LSD in 35 years finishes treatment of last subject | The Raw Story: “Psychiatrists in Switzerland have nearly completed their study of LSD-assisted psychotherapy in the treatment of anxiety associated with life threatening illnesses.

The study is the first of its kind to be undertaken in 35 years. Although most people associate the psychedelic drug LSD with the hippie counterculture of the 1960′s, psychiatrists had been studying the use of LSD as an aid to psychological therapy before it was federally banned in the United States in 1968.

Peter Gasser, M.D., a psychiatrist and lead investigator of the study, said in a letter (PDF) to friends and colleagues that “all the 12 participants reported a benefit from the treatment.” The study was begun in 2007 after being approved by Swiss legal authorities and the final LSD-assisted psychotherapy session was completed on May 26.”

Ira Cohen, poet, filmmaker, counterculture icon – The Boston Globe: “NEW YORK — Ira Cohen made phantasmagorical films that became cult classics. He developed a way of taking photographs in mesmerizing, twisting colors, including a famous one of Jimi Hendrix. He published works by authors like William Burroughs and the poet Gregory Corso. He wrote thousands of poems himself. He wrote ‘The Hashish Cookbook’’ under the name Panama Rose. He called himself ‘the conscience of Planet Earth.’’”

Vertiginous views are one thing, but combine such dizzying prospects with the sense that the planks on which you walk might give way at a moment’s notice, and even the bravest soul would be forgiven for allowing a little fear to creep in. The urge to inhabit high up places has been with us throughout the course of human history – tied up with a desire for protection from predators and the ability to see threats coming from afar.

[From 10 Most Precariously Placed Treehouses on Earth]

Picasso: Drawing With Light – Photo Gallery – LIFE: “”

Kaleidoscopic Porno Art — ANIMAL: “Rebecca Cooper’s pornography collage art ranges in size from dirty little snowflakes of mirrored xxx mouthfuls to grand, kaleidoscopic, mutated orgies. When connected like clockwork, the body of work really reflects on the factorization of the modern porn industry! Just kidding. You don’t have to analyze this flesh-mesh to enjoy its NSFW symmetries.”

15 More Spectacular Sinks & Strange Wash Basin Designs | WebUrbanist: “Time to take your hand-washing to a higher plane? Well all aboard, the Onda Washplane is here to sink all your previous conceptions of what a sink should look like.”

Face Of The Day – The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan: “For the annual Dutch Book Week, artist Souverein crafted the faces behind famous biographies. Each bust was created using actual pages from the book about their subject.”

Buddha Pears! // Current: ” Yes, pears in the shape of Buddha. A farmer in China who spent years perfecting his technique has now perfected a process in which he attaches a plastic mold to pears growing in his orchard so that they develop into Budhha shapes. He’s produced 10,000 of them and is selling them for about $10 each.

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The Sculptures of Emil Alzamora: “”

Combination spawns from Howard Quin on Vimeo.

Hallucinogenic Video on Vimeo: “”

Body Art – Hand Animals | Optical Illusions: “These have to be some of the best examples of hand art I’ve ever seen. Great fun to look at for the kids and a real example of how to disguise your hand as an elephant, eagle or tiger. Click the main post for the full set of pictures.”

Wood Slice Walkway Inspiration : katyelliott.com: “One last photo from the Portland Flower Show. I found this walkway so interesting decorated with wood slices. Looks like the slices are just laid into sand. Maybe a cool idea for a house in Maine or just any house in the woods. You might want to use more sand. The slices shown here did look a little wobbly.”

Toilet Paper Roll Sculptures: “Junior Fritz Jacquet creates unique sculptures out of toilet paper rolls.

The faces of fictional characters are first sculpted by hand and then coated with shellac and different pigments. [photos by Matthieu Gauchet]“

greatredspot.jpg (JPEG Image, 1825×1190 pixels) – Scaled (82%): “”

stairway to heaven. | sfgirlbybay: “i love everything about this beautiful home i saw on mixr. can you imagine having a lovely staircase like this, and then having it take you along its winding steps to all of this? this 1970?s townhouse renovated by Swedish interior designer Marie Olsson Nylander, is pretty much a decor dream come true for me. i love all the white, and rustic woods with dashes of bright colors and eclectic, vintage-inspired home furnishings. yep, this is my stairway to heaven.”

Spring Equinox: Sun Boxes | Indianapolis Museum of Art: “Mark the start of spring at 100 Acres with sound artist Craig Colorusso’s Sun Boxes. Marvel at a field of 20 solar-powered speakers, each programmed with a different loop of guitar notes, for an effect of an overlapping field of sound. The sounds of Sun Boxes have been described as both soothing and energizing, as they react to the natural fluctuations of cloudiness and sun to create an ephemeral composition. All are welcome to enter the sound environment at will during the three-day installation.”

15 Unique and Creative Staircases: “15 Unique and Creative Staircases”

Top 5 Brilliant Ring Designs | Fundivision: “Today’s post showcases five brilliant ring designs which were inspired by tires, tennis balls, bricks, teeth and pistols. Enjoy”

Illustrations by Julien Pacaud |: “”

Photos: Status Factory by Ron English at Opera Gallery New York: “”

Artist, Christian Faur, uses wax crayons to create a new kind of painting | Mail Online: “At first glance these pictures look like nothing more than pixelated photographs but closer inspection reveals the images are actually created using thousands of wax crayons.

Bored with paint and pencils, inventive artist, Christian Faur, turned to the childhood favourite for inspiration after seeing his young daughter using them.

Christian, from Granville, USA, starts each piece by scanning a photograph and breaking the image down into coloured blocks.”

“One man’s old gum is another man’s canvas (18 photos)”

kobi levi: shoes: “designer kobi levi specializes in designing unusual footwear that blurs the line between fashion and art. levi graduated from bezalel academy of art & design, jerusalem and has worked as a freelance designer since. he describes his personal shoe creations as ‘artistic footwear’ making each pair in his studio by hand. ‘the shoe is my canvas. the trigger to create a new piece comes when an idea, a concept and/or an image comes to mind. the combination of the image and footwear creates a new hybrid and the design/concept comes to life. the piece is a wearable sculpture.’ “

[From space]

Amazing Art Works Based On Children’s Drawings: “The photos you are about to see are part of the ‘The Monster Engine Project‘, created by Dave DeVries. It includes a book, a demonstration, lecture and a gallery exhibition.

The Monster Engine is based on the idea of creating realistic paintings from children’s drawings. It all turned out to be a great success and an innovative concept. Sometimes artists just happen to get to one point where their imagination stops. But not children. “

Bring nature into your urban modern bathroom with a carpet that exists out of moss! When I first saw this, I thought it was a reproduction of the real thing, but it isn’t.

[From Moss carpet for your bathroom | Veerle's blog 3.0]

Secret Life of Cities (Urban Illustrations) | Golberz.Com: “Discover the work of Sandrine Estrade Boulet, an French artist greatly inspired by her urban environment while creating interresting photo manipulations. She sees the world from her own unique and quirky imagination. Great!”

One million Buddhist beers on the wall, one million Buddhist beers…. | greenopolis recycling rewards: “Came across a very cool story on Ecoscraps today. Turns out that in the 1960’s (remember the 1960’s? If you can, you weren’t really there), the head of Heineken Brewery, Alfred Heineken was vacationing in the Caribbean. He saw beaches littered with beer bottles (including some of his) and a lack of affordable housing. His solution? Make beer bottles in the shape of interlocking bricks.”

V Chairs (by @baekdal) #design: “Verikon Furniture has created 2 somewhat unique chairs – the Shelley and the Lobster. In some way it draws it inspiration from the Famous ‘?gget by Arne Jacobsen’, but it is still so different that they are unique in their own rights.

The designers are currently making a footstool and a sidetable to go with the chairs. And, they will be available in selected stores by mid-march”

Shair single or multiple chair by Jie-Jyun Lyu » Yanko Design: “There is more! But there is also one. It is like a spore. A good spore! As the designer Jie-Jyun Lyu says, those who live in a small apartment like to have few pieces of furniture. But when too many people come over, you’ve gotta have more! So you need an amazing chair device such as this, one that’s both a single chair, but a bunch of shoot-off chairs that work just as nicely as the original. But with less bumps.

Each cushion chair combines to become Voltron, which is really big awesome and comfortably powerful. But as you know, when Voltron is apart, it’s five lions instead of just one big dude. That’s what this design is!

It’s the ‘Shair.’ And as an added bonus: when the chairs are down off the frame, the frame becomes a rack for all your guests coats, hats, and whatever else they’ve decided to take off.”

Acrylic on Flesh – today and tomorrow: “Alexa Meade paints with acrylic on flesh (and clothing). So yeah, you could call them bodypaintings but they’re like nothing I’ve seen before. Stunning work!”

My friend’s art.

[From YouTube - Luis Vargas Latino Artist. Culture, Passion]

[From YouTube - Awesome milk trick!.]

HA!

making buildings in foamboard: “Emmanuel Nouaillier shows how to scratch build and age miniature structures. This is will introduce my personal approach and techniques for scratch building and ageing buildings, pertaining to the typical northern French urban landscape of the 1940s and early 50s.

I believe that a proper rendition of textures and adequate weathering of the different elements is important when making a miniature scene, where the optimal development of each small detail of a diorama becomes more a necessity to modellers who want to show, with utmost realism, models that are better detailed and weathered I will explain stage by stage in future articles how to create peculiar materials and elements and how to give the models ‘life’ while employing generic methods. “

[From YouTube - haysi fantayzee - shiny shiny]

Incredible “Psychedelic” Steve Jobs Portrait | Cult of Mac: “It took Athens, Greece-based artist Charis Tsevis about a week of 16-hour days to create this trippy mosaic portrait of Steve Jobs for Brazilian magazine ALFA.

Tsevis is an old hand at innovative Apple collages, whose work has appeared in Fortune and inspired a send-up of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

This one is something of a departure, taking us back to the colorful early days of Apple history. More on the inspiration behind it and close-ups after the jump.”

Banksy: The World’s Most Famous Graffiti Artist | Smosh: “Banksy has struggled for years to maintain anonymity and hide his identity from those who view his art. He creates works around the world that are full of pranks, hype and thoughtful messages. Those messages can range from the very silly to the emotionally deep. But his identity has remained a mystery. People are always claiming to know who Banksy really is.

His latest project, the documentary ‘Exit Through the Gift Shop,’ opened nationally and was a sensation at the Sundance Film Festival this year.

What’s all the hype about? Check out some of Banksy’s art and you decide…

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An Andalusian Dog (Un chien andalou) (1929): “Description: In a dream-like sequence, a woman’s eye is slit open–juxtaposed with a similarly shaped cloud obsucuring the moon moving in the same direction as the knife through the eye–to grab the audience’s attention. The French phrase ‘ants in the palms,’ (which means that someone is ‘itching’ to kill) is shown literally. In a dream-like sequence, a woman’s eye is slit open–juxtaposed with a similarly shaped cloud obsucuring the moon moving in the same direction as the knife through the eye–to grab the audience’s attention. The French phrase ‘ants in the palms,’ (which means that someone is ‘itching’ to kill) is shown literally. A man pulls a piano along with the tablets of the Ten Commandments and a dead donkey towards the woman he’s itching to kill. A shot of differently striped objects is repeatedly used to connect scenes. … (more) (less) “

Paper cuts – Rolls on the Behance Network: “# # Boxing (Boxe) Collage, paper cut”

Here Are Your Nominees For Consumerist’s Worst Ad In America 2010! – The Consumerist: “Readers of Consumerist: We asked you to tell us which commercials you hate the most, and oh boy, did you let us know. Finally, after sifting through thousands of your suggestions, we bring you your nominations for Consumerist’s First Annual Worst Ad In America Awards.

CLICK HERE FOR A PRINTABLE PDF BALLOT OF NOMINEES or GO DIRECTLY TO THE VOTING!

Looking through the nominees below, you’ll see there’s little overlap between the companies listed here and those involved in Consumerist’s most recent Worst Company In America tournament. There’s no Comcast, no TicketMaster, no AIG. “

Mugshots: All Celebs | The Smoking Gun: “Without the aid of fancy lighting, makeup, and wardrobe, these works of mug shot art–taken by countless clerks, cops, and sheriff’s deputies nationwide–are likely the most candid photos of celebrities that you’ll ever see.”

The art of cutting leaves by Nature’s Art :: koikoikoi.com – Visual Arts Magazine, graphic design, illustration, photography, interviews, inspiration, tutorials: “These are leaf cut out illustrations by Nature’s Art from China.

Natural leaf carving is actual manual cutting and removal of a leaf’s surface to produce an art work on a leaf.

The process of carving is performed by artists using tools to carefully remove the surface without cutting or removing the veins. The veins add detail into the subject matter of the carving. The material or most common leaf used in leaf carving is the leaf of a Chinar tree. The Chinar tree is native to India, Pakistan and China. Chinar leaves have a close resemblance to maple leaves.”

Fascinating Underground Homes | JetSetta: “We received a great response from our feature on Klima Hotel (Bella Vista), the semi-sumerged underground hote in Bozen, Italy, so we were pleased to come across 6 Fascinating Underground Homes on Inhabitat. Of course, you can’t book a stay in these places like you can a hotel, but they just might change your idea of a dream home.”

slightlywarped.com’s Curiosities: “Ten miles from the Russian border in Finland, you will find this strange collection of statues created by a farmer. At first glance, they are odd but when you get closer, you discover something truly unsettling.”

Creating Text on a Path in Illustrator : Shutterstock: “This beginner-level tutorial will show you how to put type on a path. This basic skill can lend a dynamic element to your work and is quite fun to use.

Often a designer needs to have text follow an open path or a closed path (shape) to create a design element which involves type. Text-on-a-path can be used to create stickers, emblems, and awards. In this beginner level tutorial, we’ll examine how to have text follow a path or shape using Adobe Illustrator (AI). “

Lucid Dream Guru – Master the Art of Lucid Dreaming: “Learning To Lucid Dream!

A Lucid Dream is a dream where the person sleeping becomes conscious and aware that they are dreaming. Once this consciousness is achieved, the dreamer is able to engage and even manipulate the dream as they desire. Since the dream is a re-creation from the dreamer’s own mind, the possibilities of what can be done in the dream is limited only by their own imagination.

On this site, we have included 6 proven techniques that have helped many people master the ability to become lucid in their dreams. However, before you begin these techniques, it is recommended that you read The Lucid Dream Primer to provide you with the fundamental knowledge that will increase your chances of success with these techniques.”

Creepy Ad Watch – The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan: “”

SPACEPAINTINGS.COM YOUR #1 SOURCE FOR SPRAY PAINT ART!SPRAY PAINT ART TECHNIQUES BY BRANDON MCCONNELL OUTERSPACE PAINTINGS SPACEART SPRAYPAINTING: “”

These guns can’t kill you – they are ice cream » This Blog Rules | Why go elsewhere?: “At first glance it looks like they’re putting real guns in their mouths, but in real life they are eating edible ice guns.

They all have different kinds of flavors–cola, cherry, licorice and black currant. They are an addition to the first 50 tinted ice guns that Florian Jenett and Valentin Beinroth made and placed in downtown Frankfurt a few years ago.

These edible eatables where exhibited at an art show called ‘Freeze Revisited’, and their existence certainly shocked a lot of people.”

Miniature Art on the Tip of Pencil by Dalton Ghetti: “Many artists have used pencils to create works of art – but Dalton Ghetti creates miniature masterpieces on the tips of pencils

Dalton, who works as a carpenter, has been making his tiny graphite works for about 25 years. A sculpture of Elvis Presley wearing shades, carved from a single pencil.”