When I was growing up we would often play in the open expanse of vacant lots (in Detroit) and lush tree-filled lots that would act as “filler” between the houses in the neighborhoods (in Philly). In the cut of these unclaimed urban areas would often be the final resting place for all sorts of wild and domestic critter. As kids we would stumble upon these often half-decayed carcasses, with skin erosion exposing weathered bone yet still clinging firm to patches of fur and stench. Each kid would deal with these …

The great Lenny Bruce once said, “Miami Beach is where neon goes to die.” If this is in fact true, where do the dead neon cadavers specimens of the sea go to live? Silly question. They go to the same place pregnant pig computer hackers go to get famous. The interweb! This “New World Transparent Specimen” project has me transfixed and reinforces my belief that there is no end to what shinanigans human beings are up to across the globe. While I was out assistant coaching my daughters t-ball …

Contemporary Art is typically digested in two ways by the common populace. Either, 1. “My kid could do that. It ain’t art” or 2. “What the fuck is that? It ain’t art”.  Both expressions of the same negative, belittling attitude attempt to neuter creative expression that difficult to categorize or quantify. As the years pass I find myself more and more attracted to the odd and contemporary. I rolled through the Philadelphia Art Museum last weekend and found myself  giddy and giggly standing next to some Warhol “Brillo Boxes” and …

Yarn is out of control!! I haven’t seen such an unexpected explosion of creative material since the Oregon Highway Department decided to get into the business of detonating dead sperm whales on the beach. For realz. Check out Etsy vendor and needlework veterinarian Emily Stoneking and her lovable “aKNITomy” line of dissected crafty critters. Not only are they the most adorably eviscerated plush varmints you ever laid eyes on but they are also made to order. I gotta get mine, you gotta get yours!

Art imitates life. And your face is going to imitate a Jackson Pollock if you step to me the wrong way when I am up to my chin in Yeungling. Now I’m a peace-loving chap for the most part but there is never a time when I am not ready and willing to break out the Bud-Chucks and reprimand a party-foul!! These cement-filled 12oz cans of Bud created by Brooklyn based industrial designer Chen Chen and Kai Tsien Williams kicks ass as fast as Tango and Cash. The only thing …

If Toy Story were non-fiction I imagine the social and cultural interactions between toys would be far less like ours and much more like a warped, pseudo-society of chaos, acid-inducing violence and desperate awkwardness based on the perverted observations of our own disfunctional behavior. Enter the assemblage and photography of Diana Thorneycroft. (Awesome name for an artist for what it’s worth.) I have a sample here but you should check out her site and submerge yourself into a world where bald eagles snatch up chained moneys, lonely voyeuristic lumberjacks gaze …

Life is all about the journey, right? I talk a lot about the “path”. Finding the path, uncovering the path, looking back on the path, baby got path, pathamatics… Unfortunately the path we take is one that can only be traced back with the help from our fleeting memory. We don’t leave a tactile trail and even if we did our paths would be crissed and crossed by the millions of other paths that are left behind as people grind on making it virtually impossible to rediscover the trail. We …

Wayne White is dirt nasty with it! The artist, art director, illustrator, puppeteer was also a jaw-droppingly awesome set designer for Pee Wee’s Playhouse. Damn. The resume is gold but completely unnecessary when filing through his incredible set of word paintings. The colorful three dimensional block letter-forms that seems to playfully integrate into the conservative landscape painting is super-duper fresh. Take a few and check out his site. Legend level livelihood.

While upper-class society is obsessed with body and facial modification artist Hyung Ko Lee has found a shortcut that can reduce the wrinkles around your eyes and enlarge your lips puffier than diddy dirty money. Social commentary art that looks this weird is so damn fresh to me. There is a lot of work that goes into making a crazy ass helmet like this. Respect due my man.

I try to ride the line when curating content for my blog balancing the intriguing with the digestible. Every now and then I uncover a project that runs a bit unsettling. This is one of them. Artist collective Dorothy created a project speaking on the devastating psychological effects that war has on soldiers returning from the horrors of the battlefield. Quoting from their site: “The hell of war comes home. In July 2009 Colorado Springs Gazettea published a two-part series entitled “Casualties of War”. The articles focused on …

What’s the time?!?! It’s time to disassemble expensive watches and meticulously reassemble the pieces into surprisingly detailed and accurate motorcycle sculptures! Either that or it’s time to get ill. Whatever. When it comes to recycling watch parts and banging out mini-choppers, artist Dmitriy Khristenko knows what time it is. Aint that right Flav? Yea Boooyyyy!

For generations, potholes in the skid row streets of Paris have sat solemnly empty and alone only grabbing the fleeting attention of a slam-bam-thank you-ma’am confident & cocky Good Year or an over-bloated braggadocios Bridgetone. Well no longer. Thanks to artist Juliana Santacruz Herrera these physical and emotional voids in the streets of Paris will now be filled with color, creativity and fabric art. That’s right I said it. You know why? Cus’ it’s as true as the nephew of a tattooed gnu from the bayou chewing a see-through kazoo. …

New Jersey based, Koren born artist So Yoon Lym has put together an absolutely gorgeous body of acrylic on paper paintings that detail the intricately bound and tightly woven braid styles of her fellow Paterson New Jersey residents. These highly detailed paintings reflect the complex social, cultural and ethnic paths and experiences the subjects exemplify. Check out her site and make sure and read her description of the project. I’m loving her work.

Whether you like it or not, we as creative people are a community and when one of our soldiers falls in the line of battle we have an obligation to band together and take particular observation and show remembrance for someone who gave his life to the honest art of telling the genuine story.

One of the many things that amazes me about New York City is that the people occupy it vertically. I know it is only logical but when you allow yourself to conceptualize how strange it is that we stack up so high and dig down so deep to maximize the footprint of our occupancy, it’s odd. Similar to the many layers of our Earths crust, NYC has uniquely distinct layers in of itself buzzing with ant-like anxiety, pumping harder than the heart of Pig Pun eating all-you-can-eat brunch buffet at …

We are intrinsically connected to every living creature on this planet. Artist Kate Clark is bent on making us feel uneasy while observing her literal interpretation of this philosophy. Crossing humans and animals will finally allow me to ask and get answers to the questions I have been dying to inquire upon. For instance, I would ask Mr. Bear-face, “Hello Mr. Bear-face. I have always wondered what the habitual dietary differences are between large brown bears and grizzly bears?” At which point he would claw out my juggler, devour my …

This is the kind of dollhouse that would inspire a young Jame Gumb to keep guests in a hole in the basement and take up lampshade sewing. Fantastically detailed and hauntingly manicured, these “miniatures” created by French artist Marc Giai-Miniet are hardly pint sized and demand super-sized respect. I’m pretty sure this is where Polly Pocket goes if she disobeys the commandments of her God. In a somewhat related note, I’m pretty sure I signed a lease in the mid 90′s to rent a room in one of these joints …

I never understood why hotel rooms have notoriously bad artwork hung in their rooms. I mean, they have to pay for the art either way and there isn’t really a market for people who like shitty art anyway. It is aesthetic half-steppin’ at its worst. Enter the “Secret Wall Tattoo” movement reportedly started by Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme. The concept is as simple as it is crushing.

Artist Kate MccGwire takes air and makes water. In aesthetic experience, it is just that simple. By pairing two polarizing elements (air and water) and frankensteining their respective iconic symbols of method (feathers and flow) she makes quite an engaging tactile experience. It is amazing how captivating a polarizing pairing can be.

For every ten cute little kitties we’ve had the luxury of petting over the years there has been one that had a little of the devil in her. Relax ladies, I am far from obscurely referring to your sexuality. I’m referring to candles. Yep, check this cute little devil candle out! Created by Royal College of Art graduate Thorunn Arnadottir, this petite polygon persian purrs perversity. Pussycat please!

Creative collective Creative Democracy adds just the right touch of paint that turns the urban mundane into playful terrain. Good work good people.

With the sharp rise in digitally influenced installation and video game art there has been a few gems that have reached out and fragged me in my digital grill-piece. One in particular is the fabricated 80’s style stand-up arcade game, “Jeff Koons Must Die“. For a mere 25 cents you are armed with a rocket launcher and can traverse a gallery featuring the work of the polarizing Koons with the choice of pleasantly enjoying the work or sending it to Timbuktu. Pretty cool until some psychopath goes postal in a …

Stacks of money got you bored? Call up Scott Campbell and he’ll take care of that problem dumb quick. Stacking up your greenbacks, cutting them down and revealing their true complexion. Scott leverages tattoo art and smashes it with a contemporary vision creating these laser cut stacks of Washingtons.  I am all about this “subtraction” art lately.(here and here) Retraction for creative expansion. Scott Campbell is pure nasty with it.

Every now and then I cross paths with an artist who had refined a process so intense that it blow the cap off my skull. Check out the absolutely incredible sculpted book-work of Brian Dettmer. It may take you a few moments to orient yourself but once you do you will see one of the most implausibly crafted works of art created from existing material you have ever seen. The process is described quite simply. A book is chosen, nothing is added and only chunks of pages are removed. Once …

Prior to being detained, Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei speaks on the role artists play in a country strangled by censorship.

For more information on his detainment click here.

What is cooler than handcrafting a highly detailed replica Hasselblad pinhole camera from cardboard? Sharing the comprehensive instructions on how you did it with the rest of us. Hell yea. Check this thing out! It was created by artist Kelly Angood who has since created a website for others to share the fruits from their collaborative labor. She comes up with a killer concept, skillfully executes, open sources the process(instructions available for  download) and provides a forum (dedicated site) for participants to share their photos as well! Damn. I wish …

For the Grandma who likes to knit after a long crack smoking session.

I’ve seen a lot of startling work created with a lot of outrageous materials but from time to time even I get rattled. I’ve sat on this story for a few days unable to clearly classify my feelings about this project so understand that this one is particularly unsettling.

When government censorship reigns supreme and art studios are reduced to rubble it seems only logical that the creative community would form a retreat and prioritize their safety over their freedom of expression. In an act of artistic brilliance Chinese artist Liu Bolin has managed to take cover through an act of harmonious aesthetic execution. A truly creative act of social resistance by painting yourself invisible. Wow. With the help from a few assistants Mr. Bolin is painted to seamlessly blend in to the setting in which he stands motionless. …

Brilliant. We miss you Bill Watterson.

The countless cultures of our planet produce equally immeasurable expressions of the unique creative paths our ancestry has socially negotiated. Sometimes the by-products of these ethnological paths criss-cross and beautiful things happen. Check out the cultural merger of impeccable Indian wood carving with the urban Western aesthetic of the skateboard. This is the goods right here. German curator Tobias Megerle collected twelve Mahim woodcarvers and let them loose on a skateboard, the worldwide symbol of urban expression that stands fairly unknown in Mumbai. What is known in Mumbai? Woodworking. …

The bills are stacked high. The collection agency is calling. You are totally tapped out. What the hell are your going to do? Well, if you are as brilliant as my man Bruno, all you have to do is run around the crib knocking your fist headlong into some home-made Mario-blocks. Cha-ching!

Canadian photographer Todd McLellan takes a photographic scalpel to the cultural icons of our contemporary history opening us up to inspect the peculiar products of our past. There is something penetratingly cold yet unusually engaging about these meticulously crafted autopsy-style photographs. I forgot how much I missed you Ms. Rotary Phone with your patient clickity-roll of the dial when dialing anybody with a number higher than 6. And you Mr. Old-School Typewriter… oh the times we had with your pre-command-Z white-out key that wouldn’t really work that well. I …

These sculptures created by Japanese artist Takeshi Kawano are either creative symbolism based on the impending doom and catastrophic effects of global warming or these four wild animals are feeling about as good as I did the day after my buddy’s wedding last weekend. It was incredible. I pulled a 14 hour bender complete with tux-busting dance moves packed with toe-curling testosterone terror leaving a trail of empty cans and bottles across Philly like I was worried I wouldn’t be able to find my way home. The incredible part? No …

You ever wonder who the guy is that spritzes beads of hydration onto the slice of tomato and carefully arranges each piece of lettuce and onion on the Whopper in the print and tv advertisements? Meet Nir Adar. Ever wonder what he does with his downtime? …Giant shrimp balls. You see, when your official title is “Food Stylist” you know there are probably a few screws loose and certainly a few balls of compacted lamb shank laying around the crib.

We’re lucky as hell that bugs are small. Especially bees and ants. They would tear our collective asses up if they were three to four times the size they are now. Exoskeletons, organized labor, predatory instincts, veracious loyalty, natural flight, industrious will to build and grow colonies….. damn we would be in it something nasty. Evolution seemed to work in our favor so who’s complaining?…. besides the bugs, that is.

I hope I make a speech one day that Jacob Gilbreath will illustrate then animate. Maybe I can stand tall and speak about the time I snuck two 40′s into a movie theater and watched “The Green Mile” while crying my eyes out for the 189 minute duration of the film…. opening credits included.

With a life that can generously be described as “focused turbulence”, I have a special place for artwork that immediately transports me into a stylized serenity. I am heavily attracted to well-mannered, elegant line-work but when the line is communicated in the three dimensions of sculpture?…. swoon. Join me in sweating the incredible work of Yoshimasa Tsuchiya. As you sift through these absolutely opulent images you may assume that these delicately graceful critters are small in size but check it out…. they’re almost life size. Changes the experience once you …

We are what we eat….and we eat planets. Wait, is that right? Doesn’t matter.  Check out these photos of frying pans from photographer Christopher Jonassen. Cosmically flipping our perception of the bottom of a frying pan quicker than I can stack up Sunday flapjacks. So the next time you are getting ready to set a searing flame under that frying pan remember to listen closely. If it happened to Horton, it can happen to you. While your frying your chicken, you might be frying a who.

Check out his book detailing …

Check out these gorgeous photos skillfully crafted at the Toyota plant in Valenciennes, France by renowned photographer Stéphane Couturier. They are an incredible photo-set exemplifying engaging composition, playful color and dynamic movement within the confines of a cold, mechanical environment. Revealing and spiritedly declaring the life of something quite lifeless. Very cool.