Airigami: The Fine Art of Balloon Sculpture by Larry Moss.

above: James Abbot McNeil's Whistler's Mother recreated in balloons by Larry Moss.

Balloon sculptor Larry Moss has many installations, fashions, and designs crafted of colored latex balloons to his credit.


above: The balloon Spinosaurus, designed and created by Mark Verge, a talented member of Larry Moss' team

Amongst his many unusual balloon sculptures, which he has termed Airigami*, is a series of famous pieces of fine art recreated with latex balloons.

Boticelli's Birth Of Venus, recreated in balloons by Larry Moss:

Birth of Venus in balloons (details):


Grant Wood's American Gothic recreated in balloons by Larry Moss:

Cezanne still life, recreated in balloons by Larry Moss:

Leonardo DaVinci's Mona Lisa recreated in balloons by Larry Moss:

Andy Warhol's Campbell Soup Can recreated in balloons by Larry Moss:

Jackson Pollock painting recreated in balloons by Larry Moss:

MC Escher's Self Portrait in Reflecting Sphere recreated in ballons by Larry Moss:

Leonardo DaVinci's Vitruvian Man recreated in balloons by Larry Moss:


A video which shows some of the original paintings morphing into Larry's balloon versions:


You can purchase these images and more as cards, posters, t-shirts, limited edition prints and more here at the Airigami gift shop.

*Airi•gam•i (\’er-?-’gä-m?\ n : the fine art of folding air) stands at the crossroads of three ancient art forms: sculpture, puppetry and origami.

About Larry Moss:


Larry Moss began his career 25 years ago as a NYC street performer, but has gone on to display his amazing air-filled art in 12 countries on four continents. His achievements have been recognized by The Wall Street Journal, the Associated Press, CNN Headline, PBS, Smithsonian Magazine, American Profile and Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Moss has appeared on The Martha Stewart Show, NBC’s “Today” and at the White House, and has held the Guinness World Record for the largest non-round balloon sculpture since 2000. The author of many published ballooning books, Larry also has a degree in applied math and computer science, as well as a master’s in elementary education. Building community through his large-scale art creations is of particular interest to Larry, and was the focus of his 2009 TEDx talk in Rochester, NY.

Kelly Cheatle, Designer and New Media Marketing Director for Airigami:



Kelly Cheatle loves creating in any medium. She received her design degree from the Rochester Institute of Technology with a minor in Illustration, and a major interest in every studio elective she could find. She utilizes her diverse knowledge of traditional materials and image-making techniques daily in her work as a graphic designer/illustrator. She became Larry’s design partner upon informing him that she was going to help whether he wanted her to or not. While Kelly initially focused on non-balloon aspects of Airigami projects, the opportunity to work in a new medium was simply too much for her to resist.

Shoot, That's Fun. The Bullet Hole Art Of Walt Creel.

above image courtesy of The Birmingham News

Walt Creel of Birmingham, Alabama uses a deadly weapon, ironically, to create images of sweet Southern wildlife. Brandishing a rifle, he fires .22 caliber bullets through 4' x 6' white painted aluminum panels to form images of a deer, an owl, a rabbit, a possum, a squirrel and bird in his project, De-Weaponizing The Gun.


detail of Rabbit:


The pointillist-like art is as interesting to admire up close as it is from afar, and is the artist's attempt at taking away the destructive power of the gun.

Squirrel:

The finished image of Squirrel [above] and creating the piece [below].

Deer:

Close -up of deer:

Bird:

Possum:

Rabbit:

Owl:


DEWEAPONIZING THE GUN by Walton Creel

In the artist's own words:
The terms gun and weapon are practically interchangeable. From hunting to war, self defense to target practice, the gun has been a symbol of power and destruction. Art and entertainment have both taken the same approach to he gun. Traveling Wild West shows had gunslingers that shot crude silhouettes and names, but this was done to illustrate the shooters prowess. Some artists have used high speed film to capture a bullet slicing through its target, while other artists have melted guns into sculptures.



When I decided I wanted to make art using a gun, I was not sure what direction I would have to take. I knew I did not want to use it simply as an accent to work I was doing, but as the focus. My main goal was to take the destructive power away from the gun. To manipulate the gun into a tool of creation and use it in a way that removed it from its original purpose, to deweaponize it.



During my first experiment I came across the concept of creating an image hole by hole on a surface. I also figured out that canvas would be too stressed by the process of a rifle firing many bullets into it.

A test firing of the bullets into canvas:


I moved on to aluminum and, with further experimentation, I figured out exactly how far apart my shots needed to be and that moving beyond .22 caliber was simply too destructive. When the aluminum was painted beforehand, the blast of the gun knocked off a tiny amount of paint around each hole, which helped fuse the image together.

images courtesy of the artist and the Coleman Center For The Arts,

Deweaponizing the Gun is an ongoing series presented in installments.

Olivier Kosta-Théfaine (Stak) Fires Up Some Cool Ceiling Art

Artist Olivier Kosta-Théfaine (aka Olivier Stak) of France has an unusual way to add decor to the ceiling. And all it takes is a lighter, a ladder and a load of talent.




The following images of Olivier's burnt ceiling art are from various gallery installations as well as private homes:








About the artist (his bio from his site):
Born in 1972, Olivier Kosta-Théfaine lives and works in Paris, France. In each of his interventions, Olivier Kosta-Théfaine plays with the codes and clichés of popular culture. He uses the languages and codes of the city and its suburbs, changing or modifying their original meaning so it can be understood by a broader public. His reflection is essentially based in rehabilitating the, often deconsidered, elements that belong to the city. His fascination for the suburbs has switched to a passion that is essential to his everyday work. The city is his muse, the drive for his artistic inspiration. He tries to decipher a discredited world through simple and ironic little mechanisms which he then transposes into galleries. By introducing the language of popular culture into the white cube, Olivier Kosta-Théfaine uses the suburb’s many clichés, plays with the truth and distorts the elements of pop culture. Olivier Kosta-Théfaine makes fun of himself ... While others wear a tie and work on improving their table manners, he’s proud of being “38% chav” and claims it loud and clear. His work is more ironic than fundamentally serious. He asserts his pride of belonging to the concrete universe of suburbs, on the edge between glam and pop.

See his website and more work of his here.

Below is a video of an interview with the artist filmed at the Alice Gallery, Brussels.



You can read an interview with the artist and see some of his earlier works here.

Aspiral Clocks From London. Telling Time With A Twist.

Custom made in London, these unusual wall clocks slowly rotate so that the ball sits on the ledge of the spiral. As the clock reaches 12:00, the ball drops into the hole, only to reappear and start again.

The clocks are available in various colors and patterns and can be shipped worldwide.




Some of the available colors and patterns:

Price is £350 or $540.00 USD buy them here.

Artist Eric Daigh Sticks It To Us With His Pushpin Portraits

Born in California and now residing in Northern Michigan, 33 year old husband, father and artist Eric Daigh creates portraits by putting ordinary pushpins in posterboard. Daigh uses blue, red, white, yellow and black push pins (he sprays green pushpins black since there are no black pushpins) to create his masterpieces. Each portrait requires about 11,000 pushpins which Daigh applies by one at a time.


above: Eric and his wife Meghan, whose portrait he's created with pushpins four times.

His work took third place (and $50,000) in the Grand Rapids, Michigan 2009 ArtPrize Exhibition, has been featured on CBS this morning, was in the 2009 Communication Arts Illustration Annual and he holds the Guinness World Record for the largest pushpin mural.

Chloe and Casey:

Austin II and Cory:

Harper:

Jaia and Kimberly:

Neyla:


Potraits of Meghan, the artists' wife


Now, close-ups of each of the above portraits of Meghan.

Meghan I:

Meghan II:

Meghan III:

Meghan IV:

Self Portrait I and Self-portrait II:


The work as it appeared at Art Prize, 2009:




above: the artist in front of his work (photo by T.J. Hamilton)

A special thanks to the following folks on flickr for additional images:
Rich Evenhouse
Nancy Rae
Numstead
Pairadocs

Other artwork made with unusual mediums:

Frederico Uribe's shoelace, pencil and kicks art


The assemblage work of Bernard Pras


Portraits made of diamonds, sapphires and other gemstones:


The crayon and paper art of Christian Faur: