Touching Wood

I accidentally stumbled upon the website of the Italian sculptor Bruno Walpoth and fell in love with his work. His sculptures all of which look quite pensive and deep in thought, seem to invite the viewer to touch them.

Although these are life-sized human figures, you know they are not real. Some of these sculptures are simply too pale and they are often coated with semi-translucent paint so the wood grain remains partly visible and looking closer, you can see rougher parts where his chisel has worked the wood. But God, how stunningly beautiful they are!!

Obscure Art

Camera obscura basically means 'dark room', but in this case it refers to a simple device; a box with a simple tiny opening (a pinhole) with which photos can be taken, therefore also known as a 'pinhole camera'.
This device is far from a modern invention. Apart from Leonardo Da Vinci who describes it in his notebooks, even Aristotle understood the optical principle of the camera obscura.

In the 17th century it was a fairly popular aid for painters to help them to project an image. It was only from the first half of the 19th century that people began to use them in combination with photosensitive materials to take photographs. Nowadays it is mainly used in art projects or to entertain, either by building or by using one.

I've always wanted to build one myself. It took a while, but I think it was worth it.

@niquikommerkamp

The Embroidered portraits of Cayce Zavaglia

Although most of us think of embroidery as a somewhat boring pastime, Cayce Zavaglia has taken this hobby to a higher level; a (reinvented) art form.
Cayce, originally trained as a painter, now makes the most stunning visual art with cotton and silk or wool.

Illusion of paint strokes
She sews threads of different sizes and colors into a complex layering of stitches, which cross in the direction of each other. This not only creates an illusion of depth and volume, but also mimics the brush strokes and tones of classic oil paintings.

And if you think that's amazing, you should take a look at the back of her portraits, where the complexity of stiches with all the loose ends and knots gives you the impression that the soul of her subject is exposed.


Verso from Jesse Brass on Vimeo.