patrickharris:

Autistic artist Stephen Wiltshire draws spellbinding 18ft picture of New York from memory… after a 20-minute helicopter ride over city

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(via tokyodarling)

lauriejuspeczyk:

Ivan the Terrible and his Son Ivan, 1885

Ugh, I love this painting so much.

Just some background stuff, Ivan the Terrible was the Tsar of Russia for most of the 16th Century. In I think 1581, he caught his daughter-in-law wearing ‘immodest clothing in front of everyone’ and struck her. She was apparently pregnant and she may or may not have had a miscarriage because of it.

Ivan’s son and the girl’s husband, also named Ivan after his father, hears about it and gets into a really heated argument with his father that ends with Ivan the Terrible taking a swing at his son with his pointed staff. It’s said that he immediately fell down and kissed his son’s face, pressing his hands against his left temple to try to stop the bleeding. He famously screamed “May I be damned! I’ve killed my son! I’ve killed my son!” His son briefly regained consciousness and his last words were “I die as a devoted son and most humble servant.”

I love all the details. I love the pointed staff lying on the ground and the signs of a fight with the tossed over chair, disturbed carpet, and the door wide open. I love the single tear on Ivan’s face and their position on the floor. This is a really gorgeous but raw depiction of one of the darkest moments in an incredible man’s life. I wish there were more historical paintings like this.

(via warningdontreadthis)

ssdmmfr:

Artist:

Melissa Cooke

Part of the “SURFACED” Series

2012

“Surfaced” acknowledges the relationship between photography, painting and drawing in portraiture.  I take photographs as I paint and pour liquids onto myself, using my face as a canvas.  The photo shoot references the practice of drawing and painting; then the final graphite drawing references photography.  The boundaries between the mediums are broken down and the processes are interwoven. “

“The images depart from the framing of traditional portraiture.  The viewer is not given an entire bust of the subject, rather the frame zooms into up-close sections of the face.  The cropping pushes the face to the surface of the paper, making the figure more ambiguous.  Flesh becomes abstracted: obliterated by paint on the skin,  distorted by the eye of the camera lens, or smeared by the glass of a Xerox machine.”

(via tracingpapers)

magnolius:

Disturbingly beautiful clay/porcelain sculptures by Israeli artist Ronit Baranga

The use of fingers and mouths in my work is full of intent and meaning. The fingers and the mouth are very sensual organs in the human body and are therefore very powerful as separated items from it. The “seamless” combination of these organs in plates or cups, appearing as one, creates, in my opinion, new items that “feel” their environment and respond to it - Ronit (interview with Empty Kingdom)